The title says it all.
I haven’t slept a full night in weeks.
I own my house and for years, I’ve been fine. There’s an apartment building behind my house (mansion-style). It’s two floors and for the most part, the people living there have been beyond awesome. However, they moved out and *she* moved in…
A middle aged woman now lives in the apartment about 3 meters from my bedroom window. She spends her days sleeping and relaxing, and her nights screaming like a banshee, yelling at people, smashing things, hitting everything in and outside of her apartment. The door is always open.
The police have been called by everyone in the neighborhood 9 times in the past seven days. No e of us have slept a full night. The police do nothing, we’ve contacted the property management company and the city and are waiting for a reply.
What can we do? She’s well-known to the police, but other than show up and do a welfare check, nothing is happening.
What can I do that won’t get me into any trouble? I was thinking of putting up some incredibly bright lights on my house to shine that way and maybe putting up some speakers to play some tunes from my metal playlist. Most of my neighbors laughed at that last idea but didn’t say I shouldn’t 😂
Anyway, what legal rights do I have? This is affecting my family and I.
28 comments
I suggest you and your neighbors make as much noise as possible during the day so she can’t sleep.
Isn’t there anything the landlord can do
From what I read online, recently there have been some lawsuits that have ended up in a win for the accuser in cases of excessive noise. You could try going the lawsuit route, either individually or teaming up with your neighbors.
Although it may relieve you of some stress, I would avoid any direct or indirect confrontation, it is clear that that individual is not entirely sane and any further conflict will not bring any results. It would be funny though!
Do you have a neighbourhood union?
If so, perhaps you can *all* go to the police station at once.
In the meantime, record several evenings, and make the cops watch it all.
^(Shit would likely move very quickly if this looney was a strange foreigner man, I wager.)
Have a bit more of patience and start recording everyday what happens… After 2 weeks of recordings and gathering proofs, contact a lawyer. Don’t lose time with police.
Edit: also tell the owner of the mansion that you’re gone to sue them too for negligence
By any chance, is her name Kawahara Miyoko?
Disturb her sleep in the morning so she sleeps at night??
騒音おばさん`s back?
But for real, it seems you’ve already taken the appropriate initial actions. Let’s hope the property management takes some action, otherwise, one option would be to sue her/the property management?! But honestly, gl, this may take years!
Oh man, I feel for you.
Calling the police is one thing, but filing a formal complaint with the police with a paper trail is another. Record the amount of decibels and find out if it over 50. Take turns with other people filing police complaints every day until the police gets annoyed enough to shoot into action. It is possible to prosecute this and it has happened with the famous case in Osaka.
Start a livestream and monetize it I guess.
People here love to brigade meiwaku causers.
I had a neighbor screaming at 3 am, nearly every night, making death threats to us, would not stop even confronting him many times. Police did nothing. Landlord did nothing. His mother he lived with did nothing (he was in his 30s). Eventually i moved, it sucked.
Make a list of whenever the noise occurs, document everything, and take videos or audio recordings. Do not stop calling the police even if they do nothing. Go to the main police station of your city, preferably with other people who are bothered, file reports, and demand written proof of those reports.
Eventually, you can try to get some of the other neighbors on board and sue her.
Your best bet is to collectively put pressure on the management company/ landlord of her building.
Neighbors like this pop up all the time. I’ve seen tv specials about them as well. I believe one such story lasted years.
It sounds very much like the infamous ***Kawahara Miyoko, AKA “Mrs. Noisy” / 騒音おばさん***
* https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/miyoco-mrs-noisy
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Black ski mask …😂😂
Can you record it and send it to some of those morning news-y shows? They sometimes have 15-29 minute segments on famous ゴミ屋敷 or other extreme nuisances. They play drive recorder footage and such. It could be worth a shot?
Cops in Japan are worse than useless, so you’ll probably have to take matters into your own hands.
Also, your outcome in this situation is going to depend entirely on whether or not she’s nuts, regardless of whether or not you go the legal route or take on some less-than-legal tactics. If she’s bat-shit; I doubt there’s anything you could do that would shut her up. However….. if she isn’t, well……. she fucked around, maybe its time she found out. How you go about doing that is entirely up to you; just make sure you use the appropriate tactics for the situation.
Party it up! Invite the neighbors!
I had a next-door neighbor who was an aging hostess who would get drunk and get loud and emotional about “papa.” A large sign affixed to her door that read simply “うるさい” solved the problem completely.
Sounds like sundowning. It can be attributed to a few things such as dementia. Action is typically only taken when the individual is a harm to themselves or others. It doesn’t appear to have escalated to that so the authorities won’t likely act until then. Landlord is a possible option like you said.
With that said, it also may not be sundowning and it’s more behavioural in nature. Either way, bad situation.
Did you say you and your neighbors witnessed her committing a crime or property damage that would breach her contract? I think that’s what you said.
Oh man.. I had similar guy in my neighborhood who used to talk to himself loudly, scream and bang the doors around 11 pm. His wife would let him out for an hour each night and if I was going back home at that time I would take the longer path.. If she didn’t he would bang on and scratch the apartment door like a feral cat. They lived very close to the koban by the way and this went on for years. He disappeared sometime during the pandemic, not sure what happened.
Reminds me of the infamous noisy old lady of Nara back in the mid-2000s. She accused her neighbor of talking shit about her so she decided to make her life miserable but screaming at the top of her lungs daily at the neighbors house and pounding pots and pans. She was eventually sued by the neighbor for causing insomnia among other conditions. She went to prison too. Suing might be an option for those who have money to do so.
Call NHK and tell them she has a TV.
> She spends her days sleeping and relaxing,
this is your time to be loud
We had a neighbor like this. He had dementia so he would sleep all day and really get cranked up at night, “sundowning.” He lived with his son and they would argue in the parking lot every night. I believe the son would kick him out just to get some peace and he would stand outside screaming to get back in. The police were frequent visitors but they didn’t do anything.
Unfortunately nobody can do anything about this. The landlord can’t kick them out for being ill. They can’t be forced into a hospital if they haven’t hurt anyone. I’m guessing there’s someone paying her bills who doesn’t want her living with them, but as long as they are being paid, she’s probably not going anywhere.
Our landlord bought everyone on our side of the building some sound-proofing curtains, which did help quite a bit. I don’t know if it will help in your case since she’s so close, but it’s something you could try.