In a perfect world, we’d get along with every one of our neighbors and never have any issues that would disrupt our peace of mind. Unfortunately for many of us, that’s just not the case.

For one frustrated Reddit user, the upstairs tenant of their apartment building was displaying some aggravating behavior that just wouldn’t stop. The original poster then took to the r/Apartmentliving subreddit for advice to remedy the situation.

“My upstairs neighbors keep dropping stuff off their balcony and onto my patio,” the Redditor wrote in their post. They documented various incidents in which objects such as planters and candles have fallen from the upstairs neighbor’s apartment and landed on their property, leaving them to clean up the mess.

Although they initially chalked up some of the occurrences as purely accidental, they have since been inundated with objects that have made their way down from up top: “a stuffed animal, several water bottles, general trash, plant trimmings, wet spots on the concrete from other water being dumped,” and more.

With attempts to contact the upstairs neighbor coming up short, they began to give up hope of handling the situation internally. “Apartment management is absolutely useless so it’s not like I can get a manager to talk to them,” they added.

Users in the comments section chimed in to offer the original poster some useful advice.

“Leave a note on their door. Kind but firm. And don’t return anything that falls, trash it,” one commenter suggested.

“Keep a diary of every issue, every interaction with the neighbors, recordings every time sounds are intense for a prolonged period, and every interaction with management about these issues,” another user noted. “I can’t tell you the best possible steps from there, but you need a paper trail yesterday.”

Dealing with problematic neighbors can be particularly frustrating, especially when it interferes with your ability to live in peace and quiet or enjoy time spent outdoors. This can affect your mental well-being and potentially limit your ability to cultivate a backyard garden.

As the commenters noted, it can be extremely useful to leave a paper trail that documents incidents with neighbors and failed interactions with lower management. You can then attempt to contact a corporate representative for your apartment building or even look for legal advice if the situation continues to be a problem.

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