Children are running and constantly crying from above: what to do, who to contact

There are several ways to deal with children stomping on top. The easiest option is to talk to your neighbors. But it doesn’t always work. Therefore, you should record video, audio, and involve witness testimony. This article will tell you where to go in difficult cases.

The legislative framework

Each region has its own “silence law”. This is a conditional name, since the official names are different, for example, the law “On maintaining peace and quiet”. In February 2023, a bill of the same name was introduced to the State Duma, which could become a federal law.

If it is adopted, uniform standards will apply to all subjects. However, even today they are approximately the same:

1. At night, it is prohibited to make noise between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
2. During the day you should not make noise during the quiet period from 13:00 to 15:00.
3. Noise is defined as sound that exceeds 45 dB at night and 55 dB during the day.

You can understand whether it is a lot or a little by comparison. So, at night a person can easily perceive even quiet sounds of 10-15 dB. A whisper from a distance of several meters already corresponds to 30 dB. A muffled conversation is 35 dB, and normal human speech at a short distance is 45 dB. If we talk about 55 dB, when it is already a clearly audible sound, for example, a loud (but not prohibitively) conversation.

If the neighbor's children are running around, then their screams combined with stomping may well correspond to 50 dB, that is, within the established daily norm. Thus, there is no formal violation of the law, although in fact life may become unbearable. Therefore, action is necessary, as discussed in the next section.

What to do if children are noisy

There are several ways to solve the problem, but none of them, unfortunately, guarantee results. The approximate sequence of actions is as follows: first you need to try to solve the problem peacefully, and then contact the police, the local police officer, and even the court.

Negotiation

Before you figure out where to go if your neighbors are yelling at your child, you need to negotiate with the residents themselves from above. It is necessary to refer to the current legislation.

But there is no need to enter into an obvious conflict - talking in a raised voice will not solve anything. In addition, the neighbors themselves may provoke you or begin to take revenge. Therefore, if it is known that people react inadequately to negotiations, it is better to avoid this stage and immediately proceed to the next stage.

Contacting the police

If children are running around on top, what to do first is to get evidence of an offense. To do this, you need to record audio, possibly video (for example, from a balcony) and be sure to indicate the date and time. Another option is to collect testimony from other neighbors. They must be prepared in writing in any form, but again indicate the date, time, and sign. The more such documents are presented, the better.

When learning what to do if your neighbors have a child stomping upstairs, you can contact the police.But this option is feasible only if there is a clear violation, the evidence of which, again, it is desirable to record. That is, if children are noisy during the day, the police are unlikely to come when called. You can try to call them only in the case when not only children are running around and making noise, but there are suspicions that their parents are beating them.

If the police nevertheless agreed to come, it is important to ask them for a copy of the protocol or at least take a high-quality photo of the document. If a preventive conversation does not help, this can later be used as additional evidence in court.

Appeal to the district police officer

If your neighbors’ child is constantly crying, here’s another place to turn – to the district police officer. Moreover, this is the main option in the case when negotiations do not help, and the police refuse to come. You can find out the phone number on the Internet and other sources, for example, 2GIS.

The first visit of the local police officer involves a preventive conversation. If this does not help, the second time the violator may be punished with a fine, that is, brought to administrative responsibility. All these facts must be recorded by asking for copies of relevant documents.

Going to court

This is not the most common method, since it is difficult to implement, and victory in the case is not at all guaranteed. Trials can last several months without clear results. Therefore, you should first think about how advisable it is to make such a decision. In some cases, it is easier to simply change apartments than to re-educate your neighbors.

Thus, certain measures can be taken against violators. The easiest way is to settle the matter peacefully, that is, through negotiations.Next, you can call the local police officer and only after that plan to solve the problem in court.