Experts encourage partners to be communicative with each other during intercourse, but the neighbours of one Swiss couple think they’ve taken that too much to heart.
A resident of Rosengarten apartments in Untersiggenthal, in the Swiss canton of Aargau, soon got tired of being woken up in the middle of the night by a neighbouring couple having noisy sex.
Angry with the nocturnal activities, he decided to write down his frustrations in an open letter to the building in order to shame the rowdy couple to tone it down between the sheets.
In his letter he wrote, “At the beginning [it] was quite amusing to listen through the walls and windows to their loud mating rituals, but still, in the long run, I have to say as a neighbour it just sucks.”
He also went on to further explain his grievances: “It’s no fun to explain [to visitors] that ‘Oh God, I’m coming’ [has] nothing to do with religion or suicide.”
This disgruntled neighbour wasn’t the only one who had complains against the couple. After the media got involved, another neighbour from a different building added that they could hear the sex noises through open window in their building as well.
On the flip side, the response from many others to the annoyed neighbour was: “Buy earplugs.” There are some who feel that it’s none of their business, with another resident saying that “sex in your own home should still be allowed.” The conflict sparked debate on whether the neighbour’s complaints made in public were a violation of privacy.
The Untersiggenthal resident felt it was within his rights to post a note detailing his disdain on the door to the parking area of the couple’s the building, but Walter Angst of the building’s tenant association asserted that no one should be expected to keep quiet during sex and the sort of complaint that was publicly posted could be grounds for legal action on account of violation of privacy.
So, what’s the deal with noisy sex in our home province? According to BC’s Privacy Act, “privacy may be violated by eavesdropping or surveillance, whether or not accomplished by trespass.” The problems outlined in the letter were a result of accidental eavesdropping since the noise was loud enough for residents in other apartments to hear clearly.
In BC, there are exceptions to the violations of the the Privacy Act: “A publication of a matter is not a violation of privacy if (a) the matter published was of public interest or was fair comment on a matter of public interest, or (b) the publication was privileged in accordance with the rules of law relating to defamation.”
An unhappy Vancouverite wrote into Dan Savage’s love column in The Georgia Straight also complaining about neighbours having loud sex. Savage explained, “Your creepy neighbour with the hipster mustache and his girlfriend can be as loud as the hell they want when they’re makin’ love.”
He added, “But you and your wife — their annoyed neighbours — can be as loud as the hell you want when they’re making love. You can pound on the walls, [. . .] make your displeasure known, scream and yell, et cetera.”
Savage Love is a column specific to The Stranger, Seattle’s weekly arts and culture paper, and gets republished in The Straight and various other publications. Anyone, worldwide, can write in; there’s no way of knowing where the complainant is located.