Hi guys,
Here's my situation. I moved into an apartment in the Greenpoint/Wburg area about five months ago. Since then, whenever I have interacted with my landlady, she has been kind of rude, but not to the point where I was extremely concerned about it. But recently, I got an extremely angry phone call from her a few weeks ago saying that the (perceived) noise going on in my apartment after midnight had to stop. Unfortunately, she lives directly next door to me in a building with extremely thin walls, and noise travels really easily in this building- I can hear the front door slamming, and I am on the fourth floor.
Here's the thing- I am extremely quiet, I've never had any complaints anywhere I've lived before. I have rugs down in most of the apartment, take my shoes off whenever I get inside, and have never thrown a party. I was really shocked and blown away by her anger and just frightened by how disproportionate it seemed.
When I called her today to tell her I hoped we could resolve this and we could both feel comfortable in our apartments, she immediately launched into a tirade against me. She said that she hears me "walking back and forth all night" which I definitely do not do. If anything, I have been woken up by the very loud, clanging radiator in my bedroom, and gotten up to use the bathroom or get a glass of water. When I calmly told her that perhaps she was hearing someone else in the building, she insisted that it was me. I asked if the people below me or on the other side of me had ever complained and she said, "Maybe that's something I need to look into," which makes me think that no one has complained, and certainly no one has ever said anything to me directly. I then told her that I hear her very easily through the walls, and I hear her whenever I happen to be up at night. She insisted that there was no way I could be hearing her, but of course, I do, and people who have been over have been startled by how loud just her walking in the other room is, to which I have always just explained, "the walls are paper-thin." Yet she insists that there is no way I can hear her but she can hear me.
She said I am "very heavy-footed," when I am actually a small person and no one has ever said they could hear me before. She also said that I was out of line to call her when my toilet wasn't working (this was three months ago), even though she is the super/LL and everyone I have spoken to has said this is her responsibility. If I'm renting and forced to deal with her rudeness, I shouldn't have the same responsibilities to maintain my apartment that an owner has, right? She went on to say that if she'd had to call a plumber, it would have been x amount of money that I would have had to pay. When I tried to respond to her and have her see my side in as nice a way as possible, she kept saying that I was being argumentative. Then she cut me off at one point and said, "I don't like your attitude or tone, if you have a problem, move out." Well, I have a year lease and spent a lot of money on a broker's fee (and of course I would never recommend this broker to anyone) and a deposit. She also said, "I'm not renewing your lease, that's it." Well, she's deluding herself if she thinks I want to renew this lease! But the scary thing is, I wasn't calling to complain, I was only addressing the complaint she had with me! I was being diplomatic and extremely civil throughout the entire conversation, even though she was being so rude. She ended our conversation with, "I don't have the luxury to be on the phone all day, I need to go." It was just bizzare.
Basically, I'm extremely nervous now that she's going to do something. It's a small apartment building, and I am unlucky enough to be the only directly sharing a wall with her. Does anyone have any thoughts/advice?