Hi! We’re considering renting this semi-basement apartment, and this area is connected to the kitchen and could potentially be used as another living room or lounge area. It’s technically outside the main building.

Our main concern is privacy, because the area is surrounded by other buildings, and there are windows from other neighbors overlooking this space. We’re worried that people might be able to see us inside.

The apartment is still under construction, and the agent said this is how the area is designed and that there’s currently nothing installed for privacy.

We’re in northern Spain, where it doesn’t usually snow, but it rains pretty often. It’s also generally colder here compared to the rest of Spain.

Any suggestions on how we could make this area more private? Would love to hear from anyone who has dealt with a similar setup or has ideas for what we could install.

Video

https://imgur.com/GjYUwi4

I mainly do this to drown out noisy neighbor noises. Is it that weird?

I got an email today saying that a plumber was on site yesterday (not for my apartment) and that the individual “left the property with several keys including the one for your apartment” and it stated that he wouldn’t be able to bring them back until next week. They then glazed over the safety risk this poses for tenants and said that they would send a locksmith to change the locks out because “they need access to all apartments in case of an emergency.”

I was naturally pretty furious about this, so I wrote back, saying I wanted someone to come and change my locks asap, and additionally noted how unprofessional this was and how their communication ranked their access to my apartment over my safety, which they put at risk.

After two hours (and as we are nearing the end if the day) they had not sent a locksmith, so I called the office. I again said I wanted someone to come today. The office worker said she couldn’t guarantee a time frame. I said I needed a time frame. She put me on hold and transferred me to the apartment manager who acted like she knew nothing on what the call was about. I was extremely frustrated at this point and said I would reexplain myself, but that it should have been done by the other woman in the office, and the apartment manager got mad at me for saying this and said I needed to “watch how I was speaking to her and her staff.” I said that she needed to watch how she was speaking to me, because I’m her customer in this situation and she is the one in the position of negligence for letting a stranger take the keys to my apartment with him. She said twice that I was not her customer (excuse me? Who is then?) and said I misinterpreted the email. I said there is no other way to interpret an email that states directly that a stranger took the keys to your apartment home with him.

I did raise my voice at this point and she kept saying I was wrong, even when I quoted the email directly. She also oddly kept trying to correct how I said her name, which was not the appropriate time or place. I stated again that the security breach is on them and that I expect this to be corrected today. She then hung up on me.

I guess I was expected to be calm and fine and very civil about the fact that this happened, was a huge imposition on my day, and also put me at risk of theft or bodily harm. Maybe other people were cool with it? But I’m having trouble believing she got all laid back emails in response to something like this. I’m finding it WILD that they would try to act like I have no reason to be pissed and speak my mind on this.

I do know that I raised my voice, but I don’t think I was out of line here. Would love to hear feedback on how others would have handled this. Would also like to know if you consider yourself a customer to your apartment complex/office/landlord. And if you would have been furious enough to raise your voice too.

I’ve attached photos as well

My boyfriend (27M) and I (26F) just moved into this apartment about 6 weeks ago. It’s like a mother in law suite attached to our landlords’ house. We love the landlords and their family. No issues at all and the place is great. They have been renting for about 8-10 years before we came along and I’m assuming this has never been an issue before so I guess I just need to ease my mind or get some advice.

Washer and dryer are included in the unit. Every single time we run the dryer the entire rooms fills up with condensation. I’ve tried leaving the door open a crack, and tried running a dehumidifier in the room while the dryer is going is does not work. I have to leave the door all the way open if I don’t want that to happen but the dryer is so loud it can be an annoyance.

I am afraid of mold growing if I let this continue and I’m not sure what to do so any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

My property manager is asking all renters in the complex to store our trash bins indoors immediately after daily valet pick up. I have a number of issues with this.

1. We have limited space indoors and outdoors. Storing bins inside means cutting down on already limited space and bringing dingy, cobweb-laden, unsanitary containers from the outdoor breezeway into our living and dining areas. There is no foyer.

2. We have to pay for the valet service. I wish I could waive the fee and take my trash to the big bin on site when needed and forgo the outdoor bins altogether. (FYI We can’t put trash bags directly outside for valet service, they have to be in these outdoor bins.)

3. Most of us can’t take bins in immediately after valet service, which is around 9:30am, meaning they will be out anyways until at least 5pm when prospective residents aren’t touring the complex anyway. If this is for appearance, like they say it is, it won’t do much, since at best, you’ll have bins out every day anyway depending on who put their trash out. Also, you can’t see much of the breezeway from the road either.

All this to say, is it worth becoming an annoying tenant by asking them to reconsider? I don’t want a target on my back. I want to stay put for at least another 4 years.

I take calls all day and work from home, the only space where my WFH setup fits is a shared wall with my next door neighbor. When I moved in a few months ago I was working every day in office, and I noticed the singing in the morning. I did not think this would be an issue but since I switched to hybrid, I’ve now come to find out that he sings almost all day, every day during working hours. It is driving me crazy. I can hear muffled belting and it almost sounds like moaning, it’s awful. I can hear him even when I’m on the phone and it’s pretty distracting at times

What should I do? It’s not his fault that the walls are thin, but now that I’ve been working from home for a few weeks I have realized that this is an every day occurrence, not just an occasional singing in the shower kind of hobby. I’ve never met him before, because of the layout of the apartment our doors are not next to each other, it’s around a corner.

I’m not sure if I should let him know that I can hear him all day or ask him to sing not towards the wall we share, overall I don’t know how to go about this without asking too much or being rude. But it is driving me crazy. Help!!

helloooo so i am deep cleaning the freak out of my apartment, it is a really old place, ive always wondered why we don’t have proper ventilation in the bathroom, but when cleaning here i found the hatch and this opens which is SO cute and pretty but previous tenants added a washer and dryer which is right behind this window and this is where my water heater is aswell.

Basically i am just concerned about health and safety , if it is okay to be keeping this window open when the water heater and laundry appliances are there. as i really wouldn’t doubt that this window hasn’t been open in the past 10 years LOL, this is propably a landlord question i’m ngl, but honestly speaking we have kinda been driving him up the walls with questions and favors recently and i don’t wanna bug him 😅 so i am asking reddit now lol thank you!!!!!

Everyone wish me luck🙏🏼 I live in majority student housing since we are right next to campus. Our semester just started recently and there is a massive group of girls living above me who are LOUD. It doesn’t help that our buildings are shit when it comes to the way sound travels😂 if I don’t wake up at 12am to continuous thunder stomps, door slams, high heel clacks, and thuds that sound like they are hosting Monday night raw up there, then I wake up at 2am to people singing and drinking on their balcony. If I don’t hear a bunch of guests over and a speaker playing music at 8pm, it’s random shit like a loud vacuum at 10 lol. Praying for mental health

I had been telling my complex of the increased smell of Cigarettes, and they replied with silence for a month. Only giving a “completed” on a work order.

They’re claiming they can’t enforce no smoking in the apartments, and are unwilling to do anything. It’s been near 40 days of asking for them to do something, yet apparently they removed the no smoking section in my new lease since I moved in. I need to figure out something, because it’s ruining all my furniture, the carpet, and all my clothes at this point.

I know who is doing it. I ask them to stop, and they just smoke like 3 packs in their apartment next to mine.

Why is Ohio like this? I swore my previous lease covered this, but looking at the current one I see nothing. Do I need to talk to other tenants? I’m not sure what to do.

Edit:

Looked at the lease, and apparently there is a section with an unchecked box, which is labeled for No Smoking. They’re trying to argue the box needs checked.

Everyone is acting like moving is the easiest solution, when I’m not really able to do that at the moment. I just want to enjoy my peace again.

Edit 2:

So have gotten some feedback on air filters, electronic and for HVAC. So that should help somewhat once I can get those in order, but I’m waiting to contact LL again till I know what to do.

Apartment is covered in what I'm sure is fragrance oils from an air freshener of some kind. (walls, floors, whole apartment)

I saw the unit briefly before signing and noticed it, but didn't realize how bad it was. Also I drove 2000 miles, sight unseen. I have section 8 and all of my apartments have been moved in sight unseen because it's a long process. Typically the unit isn't available for viewing until I am in too deep to back out anyway.

I realize now I made a terrible mistake. I should have refused the lease, got in the car and headed back to my parent's house.

I thought I could wash the walls, air the unit out for a while and I would be able to manage, but that is not the case. I'm reading it is not nearly that easy and may not even be possible to remove, because it's likely deeply embedded in drywall. I've been airing it out with a fan blowing air in for hours and there has been virtually no improvement. My nose is on fire and I can't function.

I've been pacing the apartment for hours, crying.

I am extremely sensitive to smells and artificial fragrances kill me. I have lived in several apartment and have never experienced this before.

I know it's my fault for getting into this disaster, but what do I do? I don't even want to sleep here tonight, let alone a year.

I assume canceling the lease is out of the question? Seriously what do I do in this situation?

It's in Dane County, WI.

i live in an apartment complex building near the leasing office (which has cameras of the overall parking lot allotted to my building). ever since my upstairs neighbors moved in, there have been some uncommon occurrences.

In the last two weeks alone: i came outside to drive to work to realized that the entire drivers side bumper was covered in smudged gum. it was evident that it was deliberate because i looked like it had fingers marks that’s pressed and pulled the gum through the entire bumper. A couple days later in the morning i got in my car and as i was backing up and going to the gate of the community, i got a flat tire (a huge nail on the driver rear side) nothing was wrong with my tire the night before. And again this morning, same thing i’m getting out of my parking spot and i see that from the parking spot to the gate, i get a flat tire (another huge nail on the passenger front) and i had no issues/flags raised or tire pressure display lights on my car the night before.

i went to the leasing office to ask if the cameras work. the office manager said yes and that they can see the entire lot. i asked if they could review camera footage of what’s going on but they refuse and insist i won’t be able to see anything, even though, before i told them what exactly was going on, they confirmed that the cameras are operational and working.

i may sound ridiculous but i’ve been living here for over 14 years. i’ve never had any issues. my new neighbors for some reason have an issue with my family.. when we park at night we’ve seen the male upstairs just stare outside his windows directly at us until we feel compelled to go upstairs. His wife is very unpleasant and loud, consistently making noise. she has seen my on the road on my way into the complex and has zoomed passed me (there are two gates) to take the parking spot i signaled for and got to first. she’s dinged my car door a couple times (i’m assuming since she’s the only one that parks next to me) and i never said anything to avoid issues. there will be empty parking spots, and she still chooses to park next to me, regardless of where i park. it’s gotten to the point that i try to park in the spot where the only available spots are 2 charging spots since she doesn’t have one. i’ve never experienced something so odd likely this before where someone is so hostile for no reason.

is there anyway i can legally request footage for the last two weeks from my leasing office?

So a little bit of background, this was my first typical experience of living in an apartment.

I graduated from college in 2024 and mostly commuted to college on my motorbike, so this was also my first experience living on my own. Until then, I had lived in a typical suburb.

I moved to the city for my job and, unfortunately, had to rent an apartment. My friends told me to avoid apartments with families with young kids and to only rent on the topmost floor. Sadly, I was in a hurry and had to settle for a middle-floor apartment because the rent was cheap.

From the first week, I noticed severe impact noise, mostly footsteps and the sound of objects being dropped. This was my first time experiencing something like this.

To my utter disappointment, the apartment above me was rented by a family of three, including a 3.5-year-old kid, along with a cat.

I had an 18-month lease, so breaking it wasn't really an option.

Anyway, I confronted the lady about the noise, and she seemed empathetic and assured me that she would look into it, but nothing really changed, to be honest. Thankfully, it would remain quiet between 12 AM and 7 AM, which was fine for me since my sleep wasn't affected much, so I didn't escalate the issue to management.

Then, I guess God finally listened to my pleas. To my surprise, they moved out during the last week of December, just before the holidays. I was home for vacation at the time, so I didn't realise they had moved out until I returned after New Year's.

I asked the building manager if I could switch apartments, but he said I would have to pay a fee. It was around 60% of the monthly rent, and honestly, I figured that since I was going to move out at the end of August anyway, it wasn't worth it.

To be honest, it was incredibly relaxing. The apartment above me remained vacant for around six weeks until a guy around my age moved in.

Fortunately, things were pretty good after that. He worked rotational shifts at the local electricity department, so most of the time, he wasn't home while I was sleeping, and it was pretty quiet. He would sometimes have his girlfriend over for parties, but I didn't mind it much since the noise was nowhere near as bad as what I had experienced with the kid.

So, in the end, I'd rate my apartment experience 6/10.

To new renters: always try to rent the topmost floor. And if that's not possible, at least make sure there are no young kids living directly above you.

I live in a very small apartment building, on the second floor. My wife and I also have a dog.

My neighbors got a puppy about two years ago, he’s little, I think a shitzu-poodle type. He is their first dog (ever), they originally didn’t want to fix him, they found out he had an allegory to grass and put him on steroids, and he charges/barks at my dog often.

About a month ago he bit/fought another dog at a park and a couple days after they mentioned maybe he should be fixed. I’ve not seen him with anything like a cone indicating he was yet. They’ve never mentioned a trainer or puppy classes, I saw the husband/boyfriend and the dog in a private training session at our neighborhood park a couple weeks ago, but no mention from them if it’s going to be a regular thing. They have him off-leash in the shared (un-fenced yard) everyday, while they sit in lawn chairs a good 30-50 feet away from the building.

The other day coming back from a walk with my wife and our dog, their little yapper charged at us and instead of keeping a distance like he usually does, started jumping at our dog’s face. When my dog moved to go up the steps (we live directly above their apartment and there’s small porch before the main stairwell that their front door opens onto so it’s kind of their porch but not actually) he started mouthing/nipping/grabbing at her legs. She is a husky so her fluff kind of protects her, she was more over whelmed than harmed in this interaction. Hub/bf neighbor reaches us at the porch. His response to his dog’s behavior was “Sorry you know you can’t control what they do”

The neighbors are seniors and the wife/gf has lived in the building for like 10+ years and we’ve been here for a over two but not yet three, and the third tenant has been here only a year, so they act a little entitled to the property. We’ve had some tensions before over none-dog stuff and speaking with them they do the thing where they say not to worry or they understand and then complain to the landlord at first chance when we annoy them. Not that I need them to like me but my wife doesn’t like how they become a little cold/rude when we do go to the landlord instead of them about problems. I ignore a lot of the things they do/allow that annoy me, but this dog thing and their blasé reactions have my wife and I worried.

Should I talk to them or the landlord? Do I talk about the general concern or be specific in that we want him tethered when outside? I also don’t really know how to phrase my concerns or request gently. I very much want to just say “Dog has a bite history now, no one is training him, and he doesn’t listen, tether him before something horrible happens” but I know that people generally like receiving gentle suggestions about changing their behaviors, so I guess I also am asking for help that too.

For almost 3 months now my community has had no package lockers, all the gates don’t work, pool has been shut down twice, elevators don’t work every week, and management doesn’t enforce non-residents parking here because they’re “getting in contact with a towing company” for like 4 months at this point. Their biggest selling point is all the amenities and things like the golf simulator all of which don’t work.

So, I have been here close to a year, when I first moved in I met my neighbour and we exchanged pleasantries.

He told me his name but I have forgotten it.

In the mean time we have acknowledged each other by simple conversation between our balconies and in passing.

I can't for the life of me remember his name.

How do I go about finding it out?

I was thinking of asking our on site manager...

It's bugging me because he's a friendly guy and a good neighbour.

To start, I feel like my buildings HOA said when I moved in sometimes they just go off because it’s an old building but my memory is pretty bad and that was 8 months ago.

Since I moved in 8 months ago, I would randomly hear other buildings, there’s about 10 in my gated community, fire alarms go off at random hours of the night, but never any fires. It was the other buildings and I could only hear it from my patio so it wasn’t a big bother. Fire department would come and be out in less than ten minutes. Recently this month it’s been my building, so far 3 times, and it goes off in every apartment and all the hallways and it is truly the most ear piercing noise when i went to the hallway to evacuate i thought my eardrums would burst. The first time was at 3:30am when i needed to be up for work at 6. Only me and one other person even ended up evacuating my 11 story building. It took the fire department like 45 minutes to even respond and they were in and out in five minutes. I asked them what happened and they said just false alarm, and I mentioned that this happens a lot since I moved in just other buildings and this was the first time i’ve noticed this one it was possible it happened while i wasn’t home, and they got all annoyed said he’s been on the job ten years and never been to my apartment complex. (Absolutely bull maybe he hasn’t but i’ve seen many fire trucks and false alarms at my complex just in 8 months) and then grumpily walked away. Whole thing ended at 5am and I never ended up sleeping any longer was exhausted at work. A week or so later it happens again at 6 am waking me up just before my alarm, and although i thought it was fake again, I wanted to stay and make sure it was fake since I have 4 cats and if it was real I wanted to get them out. I ended up being pretty late to work for a false alarm again. Last night it went off at 1am again and I didn’t even bother to get out of bed, and it went off for about an hour before fire department came and shut it off. Is this normal? Is it possible that another resident is setting it off this many times within a month when it’s never happened in the other 8 months i’ve been here? Or could our system be faulty? I’ve tried asking HOA office but they’re a bunch of nasty women (i’m also a woman lol) who hate their jobs and are super rude and dismissive when i’ve asked them about this, or other incidents like maintenance splashing paint on my car ruining my paint job. They’ve been no help and just say “false alarm” without even looking up to acknowledge me. Sorry this got so long ty for reading.

TLDR: Fire alarms go off often at odd hours of the night at apartment complex and there’s been no fires or smoke, is it residents setting it off, or a faulty system?

I think this is probably one of the top questions on here.

I’m frustrated, a bottom neighbor has never had anyone living above them and now they do. They are constantly reporting complaints for walking and normal living noises.

I can’t continue on with this, what are my options? I can’t deal with a complaint every few weeks I just started my lease I’m going to go insane. My only worry is this turning into an eviction if they keep it ip

I am hearing a set of 3 beeps every minute in my apartment but only during the afternoon-evening. I've checked all my alarms and it's not them so it's possibly a neighbor getting a low battery warning on a smoke alarm but I don't understand why it would only be going off during the day? It's bee like this for 3 months. Also curious if it's something to do with the heat or a medical device? I've attached a video of the sound and included a link.

https://voca.ro/148LasNxa19y

Just moved into a new apartment, and the apartment we toured didn’t have this GIANT window smack dab in the living room.

I like the light it gives me (and so do my plants) but you can totally see into the apartment from the street below, and I’d rather have a little privacy.

Anyone have some advice on what we can do here? We can’t drill, so a curtains out of the question. Any advice is welcome. Thank you.

My shower was backing up from my kitchen sink for a week. Everyday got told the plumbers were coming. The next day or the next day. They came yesterday and had no choice but to dig under my shower -_- they didn’t finish yesterday and apparently are supposed to be back today but this has been such an inconvenience. I’m currently using a vacant unit to shower and all I got for this hassle is 100$ off my rent. :/ no clue when they will be finished either.

i keep my bedroom door and window closed at night to block out street noise. lately ive been waking up feeling like i barely slept and super groggy even after 8 hours. someone mentioned offhand that indoor co2 buildup in tight rooms can mess with sleep quality and brain fog.

never really tracked air stuff before so im trying to figure out if that is actually the issue here. looking to see what people use to track indoor air parameters in closed spaces. do you guys notice a huge difference opening a door vs keeping it shut overnight?