this is what my friend received on his front door from a Finnish anonymous, it was sent to other Ukrainian refugees too in that building
this is what my friend received on his front door from a Finnish anonymous, it was sent to other Ukrainian refugees too in that building
33 comments
Other than the comment about the smell of the cooking, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this. The requests about quiet after silence and sorting your trash were polite and nothing that can’t be changed
Many such cases in Finland, not surprising since it seems these types of anonymous residents exist in almost every apartment buildings. This could be addressed to anyone, I don’t see a point for mentioning that the receiver was Ukrainian
I think the noise complaints might be genuine especially if they play music or put their TV at high volume
If they don’t make disturbing noise (everything what isn’t considered normal life sounds like doing Laundry or something like that) after silence time (usually around 22-07) I would call own landlord and ask advice what to do if there isn’t any reasons why this was sent to them. It can be one of those cases where “neighbour claims someone’s dog is causing problems when they don’t even own a dog kind of cases” if they really isn’t being loud after silence time.
Boo-hoo. Anonymous and unpolite, how typical. I guess every block has one of these characters.
If these are refugees, some of these things are not surprising. Having your food smell throughout the entire frigging staircase is actually a thing, especially among the poorer communal residences. I too have no idea how you can mess up your flat in such a way that the food smells are vented out into the staircase, but it happens and I think people don’t even realize they are doing something wrong.
Sorting garbage – this is nor surprising. If people just emigrated, they are not going to sort garbage automatically, they will just put all the junk together.
As for the levels of noise, hard to determine whether this is a thing. I once had a table tennis table in my flat and a person in the flat below complained.
Make less noise and sort the wastes then there wouldn’t any complaints. I would do the same if my neighbors make noise 24/7 and messing wastes.
The best neighbour is the one you never see, hear or smell. All others are annoying
An average pissed neighbor’s note is hand written
This is carefully crafted
Well, I have no idea if it is called for but the person that has written it should work on how to write such a note without sounding like a dick.
“Another thing is your cooking, the smell is terrible and the smell spreads throughout the stairwell, up to the air condition and also the other apartments. It’s like living in a pizzeria in a southern country.” 🫣
How to offend your neighbor and any other southerners… This is unbelievable
From someone who has worked as a real estare intendent, isännöitsijä, noise and disrespect for common garbage rooms can cause administrative actions, such as huomautus(verbal warning) or a varoitus(formal warning), and then it goes from there. I would also note that based on the letter, the residents are not customed to noise and thrash, I think it is only fair to respect them in this regard.
EDIT:
And just to add, have nothing against Ukrainians in general, different cultures can create these situations. If you want to be beyond nice you can write a letter in the notice board saying you are doing your best to be respectful. Of course mild noise such as listening to music before 10pm is allowed, but be aware that some people, and I hope these kinds of people do not live in your house, still manufacture reports and even lie about the timing of music.(have experience of this happening
This is pretty harsh letter and the smell is what it is, no one should complain about it. But I have to agree that listening noise after silence is terrible. This doesn’t count as a warning so I would just watch my own doings. After all he/she didn’t call police.
While the note has damn racist redneck tone. There are few things:
1) actual disturbing noises are illegal. But example daily loud music does not fulfill this. Unless actual windows shake. Music is part of normal life.
Many apartment buildings say that “quiet time” starta at 10-11pm. But even this allows “once a month night parties” long as music is on reasonable level.
2) smells are part of normal life. Especially food smell. Only actual smoke is considered not fine.
3) trash should be sorted out. It causes extra expenses to whole apartment complex if some people refuse to recycle.
If food smells bad, that is on the landlord for not providing decent enough hob. If the complaint doesn’t specify what is bothering and when it is bothering it is just a stingy neighbour who just doesn’t like to live next to a living person.
Don’t threaten neighbours, tell them what is the issue and don’t go roundabout about it either if issues are real, point them out and don’t just huff and puff nonsense as an anonymous bastard
“Your living and feeling are too loud” most finnish sentence ever!
It reads like overdone parody of a racist asshole.
Noise during silent times is one thing – this rule should be respected. And Finns have spats and verbal fights with their Finnsih neighbours about this when someone doesn’t respect the rules. Pretty standard stuff.
But the ”your cooking stinks” is pure parody. If it’s real, there’s propably someone with not all their mental faculties at the other end of this note.
(On the really remote chance it’s real, here’s the responsibility guideline for you: if the smell of your cooking spreads to other apartments, there’s something wrong with the air flow of the building. It’s not your fault. You can cook as smelly as you want. 😁 It’s the building maintanence authoritys responsibility to fix the air flow. And if there really is a problem it really should be fixed – cooking smells or no cooking smells.
If this sort of disruption in the air flow occurs it might slowly damage the building with accumulating moisture load from air humidity)
The “Go back to where you came from” Finnish edition. Even though the most of the points are valid, this is not the way to approach people who are new to a country with their own insecurities and anxiety.
This letter is rudely worded but if the people are doing the things listed in the letter then they are asshole neighbours.
Seems like just something when someone wants to get a raise out of others.
If this was a real problem, this person would have gone to Isännöitsijä and made their complaints there. Or straight to the door when they are making this claimed noise.
Throw this to recycle bin where it belongs.
You should share the food, if its good then everyone will become excited when that smell comes again.
“country like country” lmao
As a foreigner I have to agree there is some targeting, especially if other foreign neighbors got the same letter. The language is also rude and condescending. If they had any basis for a complaint they should have messages the building management rather than harassing their neighbors. Insulting never made anyone change, it only antagonizes people.
I would first take a look at their claims and whether this friend can improve their trash sorting or anything else, or if they can prove that the claims are void: *Once a neighbor complained to the building company that my dog had been barking all day and night, luckily they gave the dates and I had proof that neither me nor my dog were at home that weekend. The neighbor had previously proven to expect worst from me than from Finnish neighbors who also had dogs, they assumed that the untrained dog had to be the immigrant’s dog.”
Next, if the claims are void, make a collective complaint to the building management that someone is anonymously harassing other neighbors. They should then inform all neighbors of the appropriate ways to place a complaint.
“country like country” doesnt ring any bells after 36 years, and i was born here too.
The tone of this note is racist but being loud during quiet hours and not disposing of trash properly is an asshole thing to do (if the note writer isn’t pulling this stuff out of their ass). The food thing is complete bs though so that one can be discarded
The general tone of “heippa-lappu” is very passive-aggressive, so while that’s not worded politely it’s absolutely the norm.
There are probably Instagram accounts on heippa-laput, laughing at them and I think there’s some really gem phrasing on this one too like “country like country” 😅
It’s absolutely common to start with a heippa-lappu instead of acting like an adult and say things to people face to face or starting the discussion in a polite, diplomatic and unassuming way.
What your friend should do is think if there’s improvement on their part on the matters and also let their landlord about the note, in case this escalated into something.
I’m surprised most of the people don’t see any problem with this. Of course some of the points could be valid, but even for a “heippalappu” the wording seems extra hateful and xenophobic. And the fact that this was copied out to multiple refugee households feels like they’re saying “you’re not welcome here”.
I mean it would probably be way more effective to just start with “Hi new neighbors! Please remember that silence starts at 22 and you’re required to sort your waste..” like a proper Finnish passive-aggressive “heippalappu”.
No need to use badly written borderline racist language like “smells like pizza place from a southern country (what??)” or “pack your things and move to a place..with no responsibilities for anything”.
Most importantly I would expect some decency, manners and sympathy towards people that are forced to leave their homes because they’re being bombed by a f***ing psychopath regime. Remember our own history with the same oppressor?
We call them kerrostalokyttääjä. Apartment hawks. They keep track of residents and their actions and look for reasons to complain and cause drama because their lives are so dull.
There are proper channels and ways to deal with people causing noise or disturbance in apartment buildings and someone writing a passive aggresive letter is not one that should be taken seriously. They can call the police if there really is too much noise at night or make a complaint through the housing committee. This type of behavior is just them trying to go on some power trip and/or vent their pent up frustrations in a stupid way.
Writer needs to learn some manners. He doesn’t even know who the culprits are and hasn’t got the balls to even say hello or find out. Just accuse everyone, what kind of hermit grouch are you?
Write a response to it and place it to the public billboard with the original letter telling them that writing such language is much more disturbing than your cooking or sounds.
Heippalappu, I think these are called.
I wouldnt take this note too seriously. Almost every apartment complex in Finland has these neighbor watchers who do this for a living (usually elderly folk with nothing better to do) and wait for an opportunity to complain about every other thing. This is a typical rude “heippalappu” and probably will lead to no real action on behalf of the hosts. Normal living sounds like washing laundry or showering are permitted during the quiet time (10pm-7am usually) and if there are smells travelling from apartment to another, it is a problem for maintenance to take a look at. The only real point this note has is the sorting of waste, it is expected of in these apartment complexes, and garbage cans filling up too quickly can cause extra costs for the apartment complex hosts.
It always makes me sad and very disappointed when people in this sub defend or excuse racism and xenophobia.
This letter is not okay in the slightest even if the grievances are real. But from the tone people like that always assume it’s the foreigners that are causing disturbances even when it’s not.