Just moved into a new apartment and got a noise complaint on day one. Neighbor also shut off our hot water. What should I do?

Hi everyone,

My partner and I just moved into a new apartment a few days ago, and today we had our first issue with one of our neighbors.

We both work from home and study online. Our schedule is a bit unusual because we're usually awake and working from around 6 PM to 6 AM. We don't play loud music or have parties, but we do have meetings, talk to each other, move around the apartment, and sometimes pull out chairs or walk around during those hours.

Today, our hot water suddenly stopped working. I went outside to see if there was a maintenance issue, and I noticed that someone had turned off our hot water valve. Right next to it was a handwritten note saying we were being noisy and that we needed to be quieter.

This really caught me off guard. Instead of talking to us or contacting the apartment management, they shut off our hot water, which feels like crossing a line.

We're new here and want to be respectful neighbors. At the same time, we're just living our normal lives and trying to work and study. We honestly didn't realize the noise was bothering anyone.

Should I report this to the apartment management, especially since someone tampered with our utility? Or should I try talking to our neighbor first?