Seattle woman, annoyed with neighbor’s crying, newborn plots revenge, but her landlord gets the last laugh

A Seattle woman has fought back against her apartment neighbor’s noise with noise of her own, but she’s the one threatened with the lease violation. The woman, MK, Ultra victim (@MKaylaUltra) shared the story on X, along with screenshots of an email exchange with her landlord, and the internet can’t decide who is right.

At the center of the controvesy: a crying baby. According to MK, her neighbor had a baby who cries “16 hours a day.” She wrote on X,

I feel like you should have to disclose to potential tenants if anyone on that floor is thinking about getting pregnant, because I would not have signed this lease.”

via @MKaylaUltra, X

As noted in the email exchange, in response to her neighbor’s crying child, MK “recorded the times and lengths at which the baby cries” at the same decibels and plays the sound of a crying baby back on different days from a speaker attached to a Roomba in her apartment.

MK asks her landlord why she’s getting the lease violation threat when in her view, it’s the same sound her neighbor’s baby makes, and she doesn’t get the same punishment.

Her landlord says it’s not the same thing: a real baby versus the sound of a fake one, and MK needs to stop.

Are crying babies subject to noise ordinances?

In Seattle, residents can file noise complaints for disturbances ranging from loud parties to mechanical equipment, but city guidance and enforcement policies generally exclude everyday household sounds such as crying children or babies, which are considered normal, non-controllable activity rather than “unreasonable noise” under municipal enforcement standards.

Local guidance also notes that sounds like human voices and other residential noises are generally not the target of noise enforcement programs, which are instead aimed at commercial, construction, or amplified disturbances.

Moreover, baby crying is usually treated as a protected, involuntary household sound rather than a violation subject to fines or citations, even if it occurs during quiet hours.

Similarly, several comments on MK’s post noted the bad optics of her behavior. One person wrote,

Imagine you haven’t slept in 16 hours then you finally get your baby to stop crying and this jack wagon wakes your baby back up with recording of its own crying. My friend, getting evicted might be beneficial to your own personal safety.”

via Furious George, X

Moreover, in Washington State, including Seattle, tenants are generally under no legal obligation to disclose a pregnancy or plans to have a child to a landlord, and housing providers are prohibited under federal and state fair housing laws from discriminating based on “familial status,” which includes pregnancy and the presence of children.

While leases may include occupancy limits tied to safety codes, those rules apply equally regardless of pregnancy, and there is no statutory requirement in Washington for tenants to notify landlords about a pregnancy at any stage of the tenancy.

So it remains to be seen how MKs conflict plays out, or as she notes in a comment, some people think, “baby rights should trample over the rest of us, but they are in the minority. Baby Supremacists are a threat to national sovereignty and i’m glad I could start a discussion.” But one thing’s for certain, the law is not on MK’s side.