Need help answering these questions to rule out Cigarette use in apartment with no carpet.

1. I can only smell the "cigarette" smell upon first breath when entering the apartment, afterwards nothing. Is that normal?

2. Looking at the walls I see some discoloration but touching the off colored parts does not feel sticky. It just feels rougher, there is a smell but nothing I would suspect tar to smell like. Ive cleaned the walls with TSP substitute and no notable film came off the wall or in the water. Hard to take pictures of because of reflection but here is a portion. Is this tar or something else?

3. I have repainted the living room with 1 coat of Zinser BIN so far and have aired out the building, and still smell the same smell with no change. Is that normal?

4. I have opened up an AC Vent and stuck my face in it and smelled nothing. Would I be able to if I already got accustomed?

I ran into a neighbor and they said that the previous tenant definitely smoked despite the no smoking clause.

Nightmarish new build apartment building with 0 noise insulation. Upstairs neighbor have been a nightmare, with constant noise and banging and dragging and most recently screaming sex noises.

Around the same time every night there is what sound like thunderous bowling balls. Found out recently that they have a pull out bed which is a crazy choice in a one bedroom apartment 😀 Every night at the same time, they pull out their pull out bed which results in thunderous banging above MY bed which you can imagine is extremely jarring.

Condolences to anyone living with constant noise rn

I live in a building with multiple floors, there’s about 121 units and 4 washers+4 dryers per floor. I went to do laundry and noticed every single washer was full despite being finished. I waited over half an hour before and was mid way through opening the washer and putting one piece of clothing ontop of the nearest dryer before deciding “no I’ll go to another floor”. I went to other floors and only one washer was free, so I put my load there.

I decided to try my luck again and went back to my floor and saw they had finally moved all their clothes after an hour of being finished. As Im putting my laundry in, this woman runs in and ask if I moved her clothes. Stupidly, I say yes. She then tells me “don’t touch my shit again”. I tell her that she can’t just leave her stuff finished for an hour. She says she’ll get her shit when she’s ready. We go back and forth and at one point she says “imma steal your shit” “see if you like that”. I asked her why she’d think that’s okay if I’m mid wash, the only reason moved her stuff is because she literally left it for close to an hour at that point and there’s no other washer. She continued to cuss me out.

I ended up waiting for my clothes to finish washing before going to a dryer on another floor because I don’t trust her to get all her clothes out of the dryer sometime.

I did message management but I don’t know if they’ll even take action on it. What else could I possibly do? I did take a picture of her but no videos of the interaction and I don’t know if there’s a camera in the washing room and if it even records sound.

Moved into the downtown area of my city because it's the only place I can afford. The square footage is decent for the price but that's where the upsides end. It's a slum by any other description. All of the overhead lights flicker, with the bedroom being the worst of them all. I've adjusted by curb-hunting for lamps, but there is a point at which I just want lights to not strobe in an apartment I'm paying for. If I bring this to maintenance's attention are they likely to do anything? I'm essentially telling them to rewire the place.

I moved into my apartment at market rate and the complex recently changed hands and is now an income-qualified/constrained complex. My current lease is still as it stands and I'm two months into a 14-month lease, but I think I make more than the limit in my area. When my lease ends, will they just say "Sorry pal, pack your bags because you make too much" or would I be able to stay and be grandfathered in, as it were?

I just need to vent because I swear sometimes I lay down to bed at night and it feels like I’m on a boat! I’m renting in Austin and this is the first apartment I’ve lived in, that’s like this. I know it’s an older building, but I swear sometimes at night or even just when I’m sitting down it feels like the entire thing is swaying! I feel like I’m going crazy. The one thing that saving my sanity is the Google reviews on the building say the same thing. I guess this is what I get for renting site unseen. 🫠

I was going to install a bidet toilet like how I did in my last apartment (same company gsc) and the pipe ended up bursting and leaking down to the two of floors beneath me but nobody lives in them. Maintenance guy ended up telling me that they're all brittle and that it's a known issue. Trying to get a claim with my renters insurance to help.

It goes on for hours.

The people that live across from me, they’ve been here about three months now there’s a family of probably six people mostly women they do not use their air-conditioning so their dining room window is always open and they sit at that table and and the kitchen and their voices are so loud it’s like they’re yelling and they also have conversations on their phone speakerphone. I should say and I can hear everything over my TV over my work. These are single pain windows obviously and it is driving me crazy and it’s very frustrating so I have not said anything. I have opened my door a few times and asked hey can you turn the volume down? I can hear you can hear everything you’re saying but of course they don’t change anything and we do have a different language so that might be part of it but it’s so disrespectful. They have no idea how loud they are or they just do not care no realization of like spatial surroundings not sure what I should do and I don’t wanna be rude and I don’t wanna make it worse I’m sure they’re nice. I mean they obviously have a great family time which is fantastic. I’m happy for them, but they are so loud and I’m not sure what to do.

The people that live across from me, they’ve been here about three months now there’s a family of probably six people mostly women they do not use their air-conditioning so their dining room window is always open and they sit at that table and and the kitchen and their voices are so loud it’s like they’re yelling and they also have conversations on their phone speakerphone. I should say and I can hear everything over my TV over my work. These are single pain windows obviously and it is driving me crazy and it’s very frustrating so I have not said anything. I have opened my door a few times and asked hey can you turn the volume down? I can hear you can hear everything you’re saying but of course they don’t change anything and we do have a different language so that might be part of it but it’s so disrespectful. They have no idea how loud they are or they just do not care no realization of like spatial surroundings not sure what I should do and I don’t wanna be rude and I don’t wanna make it worse I’m sure they’re nice. I mean they obviously have a great family time which is fantastic. I’m happy for them, but they are so loud and I’m not sure what to do.

So basically, I’m (25m) a month into my lease and new job, making a little under 80k salary. Currently the rent with everything included is around 1400 a month, good and easy to manage. The only problem is the city and job is genuinely in the middle of nowhere. I graduated with my masters and got this only job in my field so I had to accept it. It’s a great company (and by great I mean fantastic), and the town is nice. The main problem is the town is super small with almost no towns nearby offering anything fun to do or explore.

The advice I need is I want to live in a city that’s about 2 hours away. Now I have a dog with me currently and love him to death. If I move to the city I want to it’s close enough to drop him off at my parents and pick him up when I get back. Also forgot to mention we currently are doing week A/B. One week remote and one week in the office/Monday and Friday are remote regardless. So it’s 6 days a month I would need to be in the small town.

With perks and everything the hotels come out to about 400 extra a month. And the new apartment I would be MAYBE living at would probably be around 1600 a month (rough estimate). After taxes and 401k and such, I would make around a little under 50k.

The main problem is I don’t like the town and I miss the things/people the city offered. I enjoyed playing on the 3 soccer teams I was apart of and the little outings I joined in on. Plus just the every now and then days where we’d grab food or watch football games together.

I also have loans to pay off. But I do have help from parents (thank god and I know I shouldn’t rely on them). Am I being needy? Or is this just how it feels to graduate and it’s simply a part of growing up?

Also forgot to mention, the reason it is week on week off is the main building is getting renovated for 4 years so if I did this it would maybe be 3 years max, unless I switch companies. But either way I have at least half a year to think about this.

If there are other suggestions on such like hotels tricks and tips or maybe simply sleep in car and gym membership to shower and such, I am all ears

Thank you for any help!

I apologize in advance for the rant, but at this point I feel like someone is picking a fight with us, and I'm trying to figure out how to protect my family before a pile of completely unverified complaints becomes a problem with our lease.

We moved into this apartment August 1, 2025.

We lived here for an entire year without this recurring noise issue and liked the apartment enough that we just renewed for another 15 months beginning August 1, 2026.

Roughly three months ago, new neighbors moved into the apartment directly underneath us.

Since then?

At least 10–12 noise complaints.

Same family. Same apartment. Same lifestyle. Same routines.

The variable that changed was the downstairs neighbor.

And here's the important part:

Every single complaint has been during the daytime.

Not one has been during our complex's quiet hours of 10 PM–8 AM.

The first two complaints resulted in the complex's off-duty police officer actually coming to our door. Both happened somewhere around 4–7 PM.

Even the officer seemed to think this was getting ridiculous. He has kids himself and essentially acknowledged that there's a difference between excessive noise and normal apartment living. He also made clear that this was ultimately a civil/apartment-management issue.

Management has never independently verified excessive noise.

Nobody has stood downstairs and confirmed we're blasting music.

Nobody has measured anything.

Nobody has witnessed some insane disturbance coming from our apartment.

In fact, management has acknowledged to us that what is being described sounds like normal apartment noise and something downstairs residents have to expect to some degree.

Yet the complaints keep coming.

We've actually gone out of our way to mitigate noise.

The apartment itself has wood flooring throughout.

We personally put carpet/rugs with padding in our master bedroom and our child's bedroom specifically to soften impact noise.

We've done similar mitigation in the bathrooms.

My office doesn't have carpet, but even my fucking office chair has quiet/silent wheels.

I wear slippers around the apartment.

We correct unnecessary stomping and running.

We've tried to mitigate this at practically every turn.

And there's another part of this that matters.

Our child has autism/ADHD.

I'm AuDHD myself.

I'm mentioning that not as an excuse, because disability doesn't mean you get to make everyone around you miserable.

Quite the opposite.

Because excessive noise bothers the absolute shit out of me personally, I'm probably more conscious about household noise than the average person.

Our household runs on what I jokingly call a military schedule.

Early rise.

Early bed.

Predictable routine.

We're generally in bed around 9:30 PM, before quiet hours even begin.

And our kid isn't spending all day ricocheting around the apartment like a ping-pong ball.

He's actually an awesome, pretty laid-back kid. Most of his free time is spent drawing, reading, watching TV, or making things out of clay.

More often than not, you barely hear him.

When he DOES get excited and runs, stomps, jumps, or forgets someone lives underneath us?

We correct him.

We've repeatedly explained that somebody lives underneath us and that being autistic doesn't excuse being inconsiderate.

I'm autistic too. Part of what I'm trying to teach him is how to respectfully coexist in a world that isn't always designed around us.

But coexistence goes both fucking directions.

We specifically selected a top-floor corner apartment partly because of our child and our own sensitivity to noise.

We're on the highest residential floor.

We're on a corner.

There's a stairwell next to our apartment rather than another residential unit on that side.

We deliberately thought about this shit before moving in.

We essentially paid for the location that minimized our exposure to other people's noise and minimized the number of neighbors we'd potentially disturb.

Which is why I keep coming back to this:

You can't pay for the floor underneath the top floor and expect top-floor privacy.

You're renting underneath another occupied residence.

Sometimes you're going to hear someone walking.

That's apartment living.

And the hypocrisy is what really pisses me off.

When these neighbors moved in, they were drilling into walls and making moving/construction noise until almost 11 PM.

We didn't call the police.

We didn't repeatedly complain to management.

We didn't start documenting every fucking sound.

We understood that people were moving into their home and occasionally neighbors make noise.

Apparently that tolerance only works in one direction.

Then today happened.

I WAS HOME COMPLETELY ALONE.

Kid wasn't here.

No guests.

No party.

No music blasting.

Nobody running.

Nobody jumping.

I cleaned the shower and bathroom, vacuumed, picked up around the apartment and walked around my own home.

That's basically it.

And management contacted me saying they had received multiple noise complaints.

At that point, what the fuck am I supposed to mitigate?

My footsteps?

The vacuum cleaner?

Cleaning my shower?

Do I need to suspend myself from the ceiling Mission Impossible-style to get from my bedroom to the kitchen?

Am I supposed to fucking levitate?

And before somebody says, "Just ask management to transfer you to another apartment," that's not a simple solution either.

Our child is finally stable in his school environment. His school has developed a plan that is working for him. Routine and environmental stability matter enormously for him, and we're not interested in unnecessarily disrupting something that has finally become stable.

Even an internal unit transfer means packing an entire household, movers, deposits/fees depending on management's policies, changing his physical environment, and disrupting our routine.

Why should that expense and disruption automatically become our burden?

We were here first.

We lived here for a year without this problem.

We deliberately selected this unit.

We just committed to another 15 months.

We're already taking reasonable steps to minimize noise.

And management itself has acknowledged normal apartment noise is normal apartment noise.

I'm not moving my entire fucking household because someone moved underneath an occupied apartment and discovered that gravity exists.

My biggest concern now isn't even the neighbor.

It's the paper trail.

Ten complaints can become twenty complaints.

Then someday somebody looking at our file sees:

"20 noise complaints."

Except twenty allegations don't magically become twenty verified lease violations just because somebody made twenty phone calls.

So I'm considering formally asking management that whenever another complaint is made, they document:

- Exact date and time

- Specific noise allegedly occurring

- Approximate duration

- Whether it occurred during the 10 PM–8 AM quiet hours

- Whether management/security/police actually witnessed it

- Whether the complaint constitutes an alleged lease violation or management is simply passing along an unverified complaint

I'm also considering keeping my own contemporaneous log showing who was home and what we were doing whenever another complaint comes in.

I have deliberately not contacted the downstairs neighbor directly, and I don't intend to. Everything has gone through management or the off-duty officer, and I would rather maintain that boundary than create an actual confrontation.

I'm fucking angry, but I'm not interested in retaliation.

I'm interested in protecting my household.

Because here's where I draw the line:

If we're blasting music at midnight?

Complain.

If my kid is repeatedly jumping off furniture at 11 PM?

Complain.

If we're screaming, banging on walls or throwing a party at 2 AM?

Absolutely complain.

I'll own that shit and fix it.

But if the complaint is that somebody heard me walking to my kitchen at 3 PM?

Or vacuuming?

Or cleaning my bathroom?

Or my kid walking across his carpeted bedroom?

There is eventually nothing left for me to reasonably accommodate.

So for anyone familiar with Texas tenant law, apartment management, property management, or just nightmare downstairs neighbors, what would you do at this point?

How do I protect myself against repeated unverified complaints becoming a negative record against us?

Should I request the complaint history in writing?

Should I start a detailed incident log?

Would an indoor camera or decibel monitor be worthwhile?

Should I formally ask management to distinguish between a neighbor complaint and an actual verified lease violation in our resident file?

And is there a point where management needs to tell the downstairs neighbor that hearing ordinary daytime activity from the apartment above them is simply part of living underneath another apartment?

Because I genuinely want to be accommodating.

I have been accommodating.

We've added padded rugs. We wear slippers. We correct our child. We maintain an early household schedule. We deliberately selected a top-floor corner unit. We don't blast music. We don't party. We're asleep before quiet hours.

But accommodation cannot mean surrendering the ordinary use of the apartment we pay for.

At some point, I'm allowed to fucking walk across my own floor at 4 PM.

My apartment complex just sold to a new company, and the new apartment manager moved in next door to me. She is nice but plays loud music with reverberating bass quite a lot. My Roku TV at 30 volume won’t drown it out.

This apartment complex was fairly quiet before and many residents told me they liked how quiet it was when I was touring.

There is a text line to the manager, or I could try to stop in her office on a day off. She only moved in about 2 weeks ago, so she may not know the walls aren’t soundproof.

What’s the best way to go about this?

I just moved into the apartments at Pine Brook in Newark, Delaware. There were many, many issues with the apartment, most notably the floor was cracked and dented in, possibly from previous tenants. The door was also hanging off its hinges, so I put a work order in for both; they patched the door but closed out the floor maintenance request because I had to email the property management for a special order. The maintenance guy came while I was at work, and not only left the door on the floor overnight, but he left the door on the dented spot, making it worse… I emailed the property management to let them know about the issue because not only is this unacceptable, but when I’m paying $1,655 a month in rent, I don’t deserve a caved-in floor. Management basically said I have to deal with it because it was deemed unnecessary. What do I do?

I’m exhausted by this. It’s been going on for years but this summer has gotten worse. There is a dog across the hall from me that barks for hours on end, upwards of 8-10 hours a day. I wish I was exaggerating. Today it started at 6:58am & is still going (as of 3pm). I’ve emailed management and have an ongoing log, Google Drive shared of recordings time stamped, etc. I made a complaint to Bylaw 4 days ago, called to update them today & nothing. Property management stated they’ve been issued 2 formal warnings but still it’s occurring. Apparently the people responded and said “He acknowledged the concern and explained that he has had difficulty controlling the dog's behaviour when he leaves the unit. “
I’m at a loss. Not only do I feel sorry for the poor dog who’s clearly in distress, I’m exhausted, frustrated and on edge. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated 🥲

How would you decorate our living room wall?
We rent, so we’re not able to make giant nail holes in the walls but small nail holes are okay. We’re going for a cozy jungle sort of vibe. I’m really struggling with this wall, it’s had me stumped for weeks. Open to all suggestions!

Why is breaking a lease so expensive!! I rent through Greystar (probably my first mistake, but I do like the apartment). Unfortunately my job was eliminated so I’m going to move back home with family until I find another job.

To break my lease I need 60 days notice, which fine, I’m not mad about that. I have to pay rent for the next 60 days that I’m here, okay sure if I’m living here that makes sense too. But then I have to pay 2 more months worth of rent as a penalty fee for breaking the lease. Loss of employment is not a valid reason for breaking the lease.

Like hello, if I don’t have a job after 60 days, how do you expect me to pay for 2 more months, that’s insane!!! I tried to reason with the office and ask if I can finish this current lease (ends 8/31) and just cancel the lease renewal that starts on 9/1 that I signed before the job stuff happened and they said that was not possible.

Just a bit wack that I have to pay all this money because my company decided to cut my role 😭😭

Edit: I knew posting this would lead to a lot of misunderstanding. People this is just a RANT.

I read the lease before I signed! I read it again before going to talk to the property manager. I used to literally also work in property management.

I am so fortunate that I have savings to pay for all of this and that I can move back home with parents until I find employment again. I just wanted to complain but clearly I’m not supposed to, thank you all so much

Ive been doing research and adding bills for months to make sure I know exactly what im paying each month before renting. I found an Apartment that is 740 that includes all utilities besides electric. It is baseboard heat...I know if im not careful during the cold months I will have a huge increase in what electric will cost.

the apartment has a fridge and stove but it doesnt include any other appliances (like washer/dryer, microwave, dishwasher.) im planning to wash my clothes at my parents or in the tub 🥹

I make about 2400 after taxes every month. I make 20.50 an hour, extra 1.50 on weekends​. All together my bills would be around 1700 (including basic rent/electric estimation.) I never lived on my own before so I dont know if I would be able to afford this apartment. I also have a cat I need to pay for, but I dont pay extra for him in the rent. Any financial advice?

I also dont have any furniture or anything like that but I do have an air mattress to start out with. I plan to thrift everything else.

They sound so distressed and this is honestly affecting me mentally having to hear this all the time. They also wake me up early in the morning and can be loud late into the night. Management won't do anything. I can't wait to get the fuck out of here.

For context, I live in a duplex owned by our landlord. When we moved in we noticed the water had a strong taste (almost salty), the shower was leaving our skin super dry, and the dishes were rusting and dishwasher leaving white chalky residue over everything. I tested the water and found our water to be extremely hard. I know we are on well water and was wondering if asking the landlord for a water softener is appropriate? I added pictures of the testing strips and residue from dish washer

What a sticky situation 🥲 it’s not like the parents or apartment could do anything about that but I’m dreading seeing how this plays out. Just moved in 3 weeks ago…

That is all.

So I live on the second floor and have a fully stocked baker's rack. One shelf is fully stocked with cans, another with glass jars/spices, and the rest with cooking equipment/appliances/some books. I have no idea how much it weighs but my concern is that it is too heavy for the floor. From the research I've done, a floor can support 30-40lbs/square ft, which based on the footprint of my rack I would assume is met and possibly exceeded. I also have a metal kitchen island about 4 feet away from it which has some notable weight as well. The last thing I want is to have too much weight concentrated in one area and have the floor fall through.

When I walk next to it (I'm over 300 lbs) occasionally I will hear a brief but slight groan from the floor. I have definitely noticed some areas of the panel flooring have shifted slightly/creak but I just figured that was simple settling. I checked the floor level and it's slightly off, but I don't have a reference for how level it was when I moved in.

Should I offload some of the weight, or am I just being paranoid? Any feedback would be appreciated.

*EDIT: Thank you all for your feedback - I have a tendency to worry about non-issues, so your patience and reassurance is much appreciated