So let me set the scene...

We live in a flat (apartment) surrounded, naturally enough, by other flats. Across the hall from us is a bigger flat that not only occupies the opposite side of the building, but also has two floors, so stretches above our little flat. The upshot is, there are noisy, noisy girl students living above us. They're second years I think, so 19-20 years old.

Anyway, last night, they come home at 2.30 in the morning, drunkenly screaming, which is annoying enough but, half an hour later, the boyfriend of the girl whose room is directly above our bedroom turns up, and he is pissed off. We couldn't quite tell about what, but it seemed like she danced with another guy or kissed another guy or something. Anyway, this boyfriend is really drunk and they have a screaming argument that culminates in him trashing her room.

Bizarre, right? It gets worse...

So he storms out after making a noise that sounds like he threw a bowling bowl around the room and then punches his fist through a second storey double-glazed window in our stairwell.

This is not a window in their flat, but one that looks out from the stairs going up the middle of the building. We actually get a call (our doorbell goes to a phone thing) from a guy on the street below who must have been lucky not to be sliced to pieces by the glass checking everything is okay and we just have no idea what's going on at this stage. From what we can tell, the girls in the flat tried to clean up the mess, but the guy then came back and they let him back in for some reason! He had another argument with his girlfriend, the crux of which seemed to be "I put my fist through a window for you" and then leaves again.

We phoned our landlord this morning and apparently the girls called the police and this psycho is getting fined for causing criminal damage, but Jesus...how drunk do you have to be to smash up someone else's room and then break a window with your fist?

It's not like we live in a ghetto or anything either - this is a nice building in a nice town. Fucking students.

That would be ridiculous if it wasn't exactly what I'm used to when living in apartments!

It's not just students either. I had a couple in their 30s or so above me at one point, and they had screaming matches every other night it seemed. With their baby crying all night in the other room.

At one point, he had taken a bunch of her shit and thrown it off the fourth floor balcony, so the next morning, we found all kinds of clothes, some cables, and even a giant teddy bear hanging from the tree beside our balcony.


I do love that the girls let him back in after all of that though. Those are some smart-ass people!

Dude you should have made some popcorn while you were up

That's fucking strange. So if I get a bunch of roommates, we can just rent rooms and get a cheaper apartment/flat there?

I think that would be subletting...

No, the point is that five people can afford to pay more than two people and what they're paying for isn't a great as what we are, because they have to share it between five. There are certain rules about HMOs anyway; they're a legally recognised specific form of dwelling for students and stuff.