It's been a year of noise torture, and I'm desperate. Is there anyone out there who can help? (New York: wood floors, apartments)

[HiImArgo]

I've been living in the same place, all of my life, for 31 years. In the last year the landlord and her husband(the Super), renovated the apartment above us, and tore up the floor. The people who did the flooring didn't take care to adequately soundproof the floor, and ended up making what amounts to a bass drum. Now I can deal with noise in general, I've lived in a construction heavy, night-scene/bar-scene heavy neighborhood all of my life. I've dealt with subwoofers at 2am, construction work at 8am, all of my life. I'm not an oversensitive person, but what's been going on for the last year is genuine noise torture that has robbed me of a great deal of quality of life. I cannot remember the last time I've slept for over 7 hours, and most nights are 3-5, at the total mercy of whoever happens to be living upstairs. The landlord promised me carpetting between the last person who moved out(A total sociopath who would make noise intentionally), but they ultimately don't seem to care because I'm only one of 2 tenants remaining with rent stabilization. I sent a polite letter to the new neighbor who just moved in apologizing that they had to put in carpetting and explained the messed up floor in hopes they would take it easy on me, but alas, stomp city. So I'm afraid to speak to them any further than the letter because I'm terrified they'll turn out to be unsympathetic or worse. The super neglects these 2 apartments because we simply don't pay(nor can afford to pay) the normal rent for this neighborhood. There's water damage in bathrooms and the room where I sleep(faulty radiator), the place is just a ****hole, but I've tolerated it and just sucked it up, but this amount of negligence is just unacceptable. I honestly don't care about the messed up apartment, but I'm being robbed of my right to sleep because any normal walking in the room above is like someone slamming a bass drum above my head. I've asked around and I frequently hear that there isn't legal recourse for this sort of thing, but if anyone has any advice or experience with this, I'm hoping there exists some sort of protection for tenants in these cases. Maybe? Anyone?

[charmed hour]

Install tile barrier padding on your ceiling to buffer the noise.

[ShayLove]

You can contact NYC Peace Institute for some mediation between you and the tenants above.
Mediation Services | New York Peace Institute
Not sure if you have tried to call 311 but the response time from NYPD can be up to 8 hours for a noise complaint. You can also make a HPD complaint about the radiator.

[vision33r]

I use to live in an apt where a couple below us would constantly argue and fight. It was actually good drama entertainment, like listening to a live play. Beats watching boring TV soaps.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

If it's just normal life there isn't much you can do about it. We had a neighbor complain we took showers at 5am. That he could hear our alarm clock and such.


We suggested ear plugs, the good ones made out of wax.

[BBMW]

There's a way to handle this, but it basically means going to war with your LL. And since he already wants you out, the war could be pretty bloody.

How to do it:

First carefully and completely document everything, the noise, your complaints to the LL about the noise. Make sure when push comes to shove, you can prove everything about the situation. Get a sound meter, video it when the noise is happening. Send complaints by mail, return receipt requested. Log dates and times of everything.

Second: Have a lawyer draft a letter to the LL stating that if the noise situation isn't corrected, you'll start withholding rent until it is. Just having a lawyer write a letter isn't that expensive, and it has two hugely beneficial aspects over just writing it yourself. It's shows that your serious enough about this to spend a little money on it. It also shows that you have a lawyer, and any shenanigans the LL might try to pull will be reviewed and responded to by someone who knows the law and how to use it. The latter is very important because most tenants who go to house court don't have lawyer, and therefore get outmuscled by the landlords lawyers. Quite specifically, the letter should say that the noise violates the quiet enjoyment clause of the standard rent stabilized lease, and therefor, by allowing it, the LL is in violation of the lease.

Third, once this letter goes out, and if the noise continues, start withholding some portion of the rent. Keep this money handy because at some point you might have to release the withheld rent to the LL as part of an agreement.

Here's where it get's dicey. The landlord may try to evict you. He'll file for an eviction, and you'll have to go to housing court, preferably with your lawyer, to fight it. But, generally, the judges in housing court are fairly tenant friendly. If you show all your documentation about the noise, how you repeatedly complained to the LL about the noise, and that nothing was done, the judge may dismiss the eviction, and let you keep the money. He may also allow you to keep withholding rent as long a the condition persists. The worst thing that is likely to happen is that the judge will make you pay back the withheld rent (that you kept handy) and makes you continue paying the full rent. The court almost always allows a tenant to cure a situation before going forward with an eviction.

This is a high risk tactic, but it's the only real way to put pressure on the LL to put pressure on the other tenant to cure the situation. Keep in mind, based on the way you describe your situation with the LL, that the tenant may have been put in there specifically to be annoying to try and drive you out.

There is one negative that can't be avoided with this tactic. If you go to housing court for any reason, that fact gets logged in the public court records. There are companies that collect these records, and sell a searchable database of them that the LLs use to screen tenants. If you ever move, and look for another apartment, chances are that LL will see the case coming out of this situation. A lot of LL will not rent to tenants who have any housing court history, no matter what the reason or disposition of the case.

[fluttereagle]

One of my neighbors was so loud that he affected my sleep, sanity, career, and health for an entire year. His behavior consisted of:

- slamming the door whenever he came or went so loudly that the walls shook
- playing music all hours of the night
- screaming profanity and whooping while watching sports matches all hours of the day and night

I wrote several letters of complaint to the building management. Eventually the neighbor moved out, but I am unsure if he was forced to leave. I later learned that other neighbors had written letters of complaint too.

You might want to band together with other tenants and present your complaint to the building management together.

Other than that your only choices are to wait until the tenant leaves or move to another apartment. It is a shame that some people have zero consideration for others.

[fluttereagle]

You might also consider getting a white noise machine, which costs about 40 dollars. The brand I bought was called LectroFan. Also earplugs at night. At one point, I had 2 white noise machines going full blast while wearing earplugs in order to sleep.

[Shizzles]

As someone with sound sensitivity, I feel your pain . Many hugs to you.

[NYC refugee]

There's some rule about having to cover a certain amount of your floor area with carpet to reduce noise. I remember this being mentioned when I was looking at an apartment with beautiful wood floors and thinking I'd rather go barefoot.