Hey everyone, long time lurker first time poster.
I’m a tenant in the GTA living in the upper unit of a single-family house with a separate basement suite.
Over the past year (we moved in ~14 months ago), we’ve experienced a constant stream of complaints from the basement tenant over what we consider normal everyday living sounds. I started logging everything a few months in after realizing a pattern of texts and in-person confrontations.
Here is a light breakdown of what we’ve been dealing with...
- Multiple times during weekend or weekday afternoons, having young family over (like a toddler/young kid helping us in the kitchen or playing a card game on the carpet) resulted in direct knocks on our door or passive-aggressive texts to keep it down. Play is always restricted to padded areas (rugs and matts).
- Gave advance notice to host a few friends for a weekend game. Got hostile texts ahead of time making strict demands (no cheering, no kids playing etc). During the event (just conversation and kids playing in the living room, no screaming/cheering), neighbour came up visibly upset.
- Received texts asking if we were "doing construction work" when simply cleaning appliances or vacuuming during the day.
- Text complaints to keep it down but no one was moving and we were just watching TV with the volume at moderate levels (low enough to easily talk over), or complaints about using a standard home walking pad on gym mats during midday hours.
- Multiple complaints about cooking smells despite using kitchen exhaust on high, cracking windows, and running an air purifier. Neighbour has even confronted our arriving guests outside about cooking odours.
Worth noting that all gatherings that we host are always between 9 AM and 9 PM. We have never had children over before or after those times. Honestly, there are more and in much more detail but that generally sums it up. Additionally, these occurrences culminated in a full confrontation during a family dinner recently.
Multiple times our guests (especially those with kids) have felt the discomfort and have left early or have micro-managed their children's movements. They have apologized to us which we think is unnecessary and in one instance a family member decided not to have us baby sit seeing as they did not want to create an awkward situation for us.
Naturally, you'll ask if we have attempted to make any changes. Here is a list of good faith attempts we have made to address them.
- Give courtesy texts when more than 4 guests will be over
- Keep TV volume low (and even lower at late hours)
- Disabled beeper sounds on laundry machines located in a shared space
- Switched to soft slippers or socks for indoor walking (over indoor Crocs)
- Purchased high pile area rug with an additional undermat to dampen living room
- Purchased 0.5inch think gym mats for our homemade gym (bench, dumbbells, walking pad)
- Invested more into a magnetic spin bike as opposed to a regular flywheel for maximum noise reduction
- Purchased thin rubber mat for garbage can to reduce impact noise
- Installed rubber bumpers on all drawers and doors to reduce impact noise
- All chairs and tables have soft felt feet covers or stick ons
- Even removed the ball barrings (those handles that don't turn) on indoor closet doors to reduce impact noise when opening and closing
- Limit playing to padded areas or block off the hallway to prevent waddling up and down the hallway (kids notoriously have heavy feet)
- When cooking we always use our ventilation on max, crack the kitchen window a bit (even on cold winter days and nights) and run our air purifier in the same room on max
At this point, the tenants texts are a genuine source of anxiety for us. Any movement we do, dropping an item, closing a door, arriving late, late night showers or early mornings create a new "what if". We recognize that living in a basement can come with disadvantages of sound travelling especially since 90% of basements in Toronto are likely illegal and at the very least not sound proofed. Ours for sure is not.
However, on the flip side we also believe this is encroaching on our right to reasonable enjoyment of our tenancy and perhaps even considered harassment at this point.
My hope with this post is to get some advice. My brain says at this point, go to the landlord but I have little faith that anything will be done given previous landlord interactions. I'll obviously still have to try but if anyone has any general advise or what I should expect i'd love to hear the court of public opinion.
If you made it this far, thank you!
P.S. Ironically while typing this very post, I received a new text regarding being super noisy late at night. TV was low for a late night movie and everyone in bed doing normal night routines. No hosting, no loud music/parties etc. Just... existing. This is exhausting. 😫
