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"Normal living" to you is making a ton of noise late at night?
Normal living to me is living as i pleased without worry about the feeling of other people within bound of the law. I will not for example vacuum in the middle of the night or blast my tv so loud that windows will vibrate but at the same time i will listen to tv at normal volume. I will use a blender if i am making something that is required the use of it etc.
I think your chances of getting your landlord to come over to your house at 10 PM and sit there waiting for your neighbor to make loud noises are pretty slim.
Quite honestly, there really isn't any way to tell which tenant is causing the problem. Maybe the other tenant really is excessively noisy, or maybe the complainer is excessively sensitive.
My own experience: I was sitting in my car in a tenant's driveway, with my windows open. I heard a neighbor's car drive by and looked up and saw it.
My tenant came rushing out of the house screaming about See! See! See what noise I have to put up with! Radios blasting so loud it shakes my house.
I was sitting right there, I heard the car (tire noise) and I saw it and I didn't hear any radio. I'm not hard of hearing. I would have noticed a blasting car radio.
At any rate, the neighbor drove up, turned into his driveway and turned his car off. Even if he had been blasting the radio it would have been turned off in under 2 minutes.
If tenants want to complain about excessive noise, I want to see police reports. I can't go into court and ask a judge to evict a family because the tenant next door claims they are noisy-- and especially when the noise complained about is walking too loudly.
I'm not a referee and I'm not going to sort out who is causing the problem. If two neighbors really can't get along, I'm happy to kick them both out and that way I get the problem tenant for sure.
All good points. However, is it possible to write into a lease that between 10 pm and 8 am, it is expected that tenants will observe rules about being quiet? For example, no loud parties, or loud music/TV, for example?
If so, then it would things easier to follow-up when the rules are not followed.
I would guess that police reports would come into play with late night loud parties, etc, but not something like kids running around yelling late at night, for example.
I lived in a wonderful place in New Hampshire for a couple years, an older house converted to 6 apartments, owned by a family business. The house was brick, 100 years old and very well maintained. Never heard a peep from any neighbors, who were all adults. It's kind of a roll of the dice, however, when renting anywhere.
That is because it is hard to document. An eviction against a tenant making noise is near impossible, without multiple instances that are well documented by a third party. Preferably the police.
Good point. Some "noise" is to be expected in a multi-family living situation, and some tenants are not reasonable (goes both ways, some complain too much, some are having loud parties). It's hard to find a "good" rental situation, with a responsive LL and "good" neighbors.
This thread is about noise, but another issue is also hard to deal with, that is smoking in a non-smoking apt complex. I've had situations where tenants smoke, the LL warns them, and they keep doing it and then deny it's them continuing to smoke. Very tough to enforce, and very unpleasant to live with for non-smokers. Eventually, the smokers usually move out, but it can be many months.
All good points. However, is it possible to write into a lease that between 10 pm and 8 am, it is expected that tenants will observe rules about being quiet? For example, no loud parties, or loud music/TV, for example?
If so, then it would things easier to follow-up when the rules are not followed.
I would guess that police reports would come into play with late night loud parties, etc, but not something like kids running around yelling late at night, for example.
I lived in a wonderful place in New Hampshire for a couple years, an older house converted to 6 apartments, owned by a family business. The house was brick, 100 years old and very well maintained. Never heard a peep from any neighbors, who were all adults. It's kind of a roll of the dice, however, when renting anywhere.
I do not see any judge enforcing that , plus what is your definition of loud music/tv? That is all subjective.
......., is it possible to write into a lease that between 10 pm and 8 am, it is expected that tenants will observe rules about being quiet? For example, no loud parties, or loud music/TV, for example? ..........
The loud parties and overly loud music can be dealt with by calling the police. If there are several police reports of loud noise during quiet hours, then maybe something can be done.
And very much preferably police complaints for noise filed by more than one neighbor. Which shows that the person complaining isn't just the neighborhood crank.
The kids running at night? It's rude and bad parenting, but there are only two things a landlord can do about loud kids. Give the parent s written notice, which 98% of the time will be ignored. Or try to evict for it and believe me, no judge anywhere in the country will evict a family because their kid was playing in their own apartment. It's just not going to happen. (The judge doesn't have to live downstairs from them and children are a protected class under federal law)
Landlords can not keep children out. Landlords can not group families with children into one wing of the building. A smart landlord would not try to reject for bad parenting, which is very likely to be interpreted as violating federal law.
I wish people would be more considerate, but they aren't.
I think your chances of getting your landlord to come over to your house at 10 PM and sit there waiting for your neighbor to make loud noises are pretty slim.
Quite honestly, there really isn't any way to tell which tenant is causing the problem. Maybe the other tenant really is excessively noisy, or maybe the complainer is excessively sensitive.
My own experience: I was sitting in my car in a tenant's driveway, with my windows open. I heard a neighbor's car drive by and looked up and saw it.
My tenant came rushing out of the house screaming about See! See! See what noise I have to put up with! Radios blasting so loud it shakes my house.
I was sitting right there, I heard the car (tire noise) and I saw it and I didn't hear any radio. I'm not hard of hearing. I would have noticed a blasting car radio.
At any rate, the neighbor drove up, turned into his driveway and turned his car off. Even if he had been blasting the radio it would have been turned off in under 2 minutes.
If tenants want to complain about excessive noise, I want to see police reports. I can't go into court and ask a judge to evict a family because the tenant next door claims they are noisy-- and especially when the noise complained about is walking too loudly.
I'm not a referee and I'm not going to sort out who is causing the problem. If two neighbors really can't get along, I'm happy to kick them both out and that way I get the problem tenant for sure.
You may be a noisemaker yourself if you think 2 minutes of loud music is OK (people can be woken up in 2 seconds). That same person will usually go inside and make more noise that you won't bother to trace.
Your blame everyone because you're too lazy/vague to get to the root cause approach is very common. A random case where someone screams about noise is a red herring. Many noise victims suffer quietly because they know many landlords don't care (vicious cycle). That's exactly why electronic monitoring is needed, followed by people who respect quality of life and aren't reticent to evict just because it loses money.
Calling the police on a neighbor is no small thing to do, as it often just makes them madder, being scum to begin with. If one knows a landlord will only act in extreme cases, the police seem like a waste of time and can cause bad neighbors to retaliate.
FACT: People driving down the street playing a radio, is not something a landlord can do anything about.
FACT: Other tenants, have the legal right, to lead a normal life, and to do so within their apartment, is their legal right.
FACT: Children have the legal right to normal play within their apartment.
BIG PROBLEM: A lot of reasonable rent apartments, have not been soundproofed, and even normal walking will sound like stomping, in the apartment below. Normal volume speech and talk will be at the same volume next door.
To not have the problems these cause, you have only 1 solution----That is to move into a much higher priced soundproofed unit. Peace and quiet in apartments cost's money. If you want peace and quiet in apartments, you have to be willing to pay to get it.
Building an upscale apartment house considerably raises construction costs, and effects return on investment considerably and require's rent higher than the majority of renters can afford.
I have heard that that older people like hearing their neighbors through the walls. It makes them feel less lonely.
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Another victim-blaming landlord
