Woman says neighbour’s ‘disgusting’ balcony habit is ruining her life

Many people often find they have to deal with annoying issues when it comes to their neighbours. However one woman has claimed that her life has become “unbearable” owing to a troublesome neighbour.

The woman took to Reddit to describe how her nightmare neighbour has essentially taken to “living” on his balcony, which is having a significant impact on her daily life.

In her post, she explained: “I moved to the upper floor of an old two-story apartment building two months ago. At first, everything seemed fine, but then a man in his 50s moved into the unit below me. He lives alone. From the very first day, he started making noise, but I tolerated it, thinking it was just the usual moving-in chaos.”

Matters worsened once he furnished his balcony and began spending the majority of his time outdoors. “A few days later, he bought new furniture for his balcony and basically started living out there,” she said.

“He sits on the balcony in his underwear only, chain smoking, watches reels with the speaker on, and making long video calls. Sometimes these video calls even happen after midnight.”

She believes that because he speaks a Slavic language, he feels no need to lower his voice, assuming those around him cannot understand him. “I think he speaks a Slavic language, so he probably assumes no one around understands him and feels no need to lower his voice,” she wrote.

“But his endless noisy balcony lifestyle is completely disrupting my daily life and causing me stress. Both my living room and bedroom are directly above his balcony, and even with the windows closed, it sounds like he’s literally inside my apartment when he talks. I tried to tolerate it by using headphones or turning on the TV, but recently, things got worse.”

Elaborating further, she explained: “For the past few days around 4am, he has started smoking on the balcony while constantly clearing his throat and spitting loudly non-stop. He does this during the day as well, but at night, the sound is unbearable and wakes me up. He really spits every 5 seconds. It’s disturbing noise wakes me up each time and also it’s also very disgusting.”

The woman admitted she ‘doesn’t want to confront’ her neighbour, describing him as someone who ‘doesn’t seem like a very considerate person’. She also revealed she had not approached the apartment manager, expecting they ‘probably won’t care’.

Rather than pursuing either option, she is contemplating leaving a note on his door.

She added: “If that doesn’t work I have nothing to do I guess. I am feeling exhausted and have to go to work with only 3 hours sleep due to him. How adults can be that much unconsidered and self centred?!”

The post struck a chord with Reddit users, amassing over 1,000 upvotes and hundreds of responses.

One user offered a creative solution, asking: “Would it disrupt his video calls if you played loud music on your balcony every time he started one?”

To which another individual added: “It works…I had a neighbour outside my first floor condo that would pace back and forth smoking and chatting on their phone every night, but it was exponentially worse when the weather was nice and of course everyone’s window was open.

“Then I decided to put my 150w tower speaker to the open window and serenade them with ZEPPELIN’S Immigrant Song at full volume until they went back inside their unit across the common green space.

“They ceased their phone calls for good after the second time I employed this tactic, before Plant finished his opening viking war cries and ‘We come from the land of ice and snow…'”

A further respondent offered a contrasting approach, writing: “Even better, record the noise. Then, play it for him on a loop, loudly. Especially the loud phone calls post midnight. And all the spitting. Keep playing it, and play it for the landlord. Ask landlord if he is allowed to smoke on premises.”

An additional suggestion came from somebody who proposed: “Hang some bird feeders outside your windows,” a notion that was endorsed by another commenter, who wrote: “I was thinking birds were the solution.”

Joining the discussion, a third contributor remarked: “They have feeders that will clip to balcony railing. And squirrels just love bird food and make quite a mess below!”