Noisy Upstairs Neighbor

Started by DoloresM2 • 6 replies • 2142 views

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DoloresM2 (California)
Posts: 60

Posted:

A relative of mine lives (rents) in a retirement community in Florida. She moved in just over a month ago and likes the community but her life has become a nightmare because of the upstairs neighbor. Apparently he paces the floor for hours at a time at all hours of the day and night.

She went up to his apartment to try to talk to him and explain how loud the noise was for her. He was very rude and told her to go away and slammed the door in her face. She did notice however that there was a tiled floor and she was not sure that it it cork under it, which is apparently a requirement for second floor apartments. Again one night after several hours of his pacing the floor, she attempted to go up again and try to reason with him. A woman answered the door and as she was explaining the problem to the women, he emerged from another room, screamed at her to go away and slammed the door.

She spoke to her landlord who asked her to put it it writing so that he could make a complaint to the Board. However, she is nervous about doing that as the upstairs neighbor appears to have some anger issues and obviously, with hours of pacing at a time, he must have other problems.

What, if anything, can the board do about her problem and would she be able to terminate her lease if the noise continues. I realize the lease issue is between her and her landlord but maybe someone on this board has come across similar issues.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,047

Posted:

Dolores,

If there is no cork under the tile, the Board could force the individual to do that.
If there is cork under the tile, the Board is limited in what they can actually do.

You probably know that as a renter, your relative has zero standing with the Board and everything has to be done through the landlord/owner. The landlord put the ball in your relatives court as they are willing to bring this to the attention of the Association to see what can be done. However, the landlord requested the complaint to be in writing. Now your relative either needs to put the complaint in writing or live with the noise.

Who knows, there could have been other complaints in the past and the Board just needs one more in order to take additional action.

Terminating the lease would depend on the contract your relative signed.

Tim

FredB4 (Ohio)
Posts: 375

Posted:

Tim is correct. This usually is considered a "neighbor issue" and outside of the authority of the board. It is a problem that your landlord should be handling with the owner in question but that is not always easy especially when the neighbor is nasty and uncoperative.

RobertC14 (Colorado)
Posts: 78

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By DoloresM2 on 12/16/2011 2:40 PM
A relative of mine lives (rents) in a retirement community in Florida. She moved in just over a month ago and likes the community but her life has become a nightmare because of the upstairs neighbor. Apparently he paces the floor for hours at a time at all hours of the day and night.

She went up to his apartment to try to talk to him and explain how loud the noise was for her. He was very rude and told her to go away and slammed the door in her face. She did notice however that there was a tiled floor and she was not sure that it it cork under it, which is apparently a requirement for second floor apartments. Again one night after several hours of his pacing the floor, she attempted to go up again and try to reason with him. A woman answered the door and as she was explaining the problem to the women, he emerged from another room, screamed at her to go away and slammed the door.

She spoke to her landlord who asked her to put it it writing so that he could make a complaint to the Board. However, she is nervous about doing that as the upstairs neighbor appears to have some anger issues and obviously, with hours of pacing at a time, he must have other problems.

What, if anything, can the board do about her problem and would she be able to terminate her lease if the noise continues. I realize the lease issue is between her and her landlord but maybe someone on this board has come across similar issues.

i'm quite curious what could legally be done (except maybe offer the person a ground floor unit in the case of a rental) about someone pacing the floor at night. not exactly the same thing as jumping up and down on floor or blasting tv, stereo or other electronic audio device or screaming all hours of the night.

RobertC14

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BonnieG1 (Nebraska)
Posts: 1,186

Posted:

In NE there is a section of the State Law that states "No tenant of an apartment may make any noise or cause any annoyance or do any act that may disturb the peace of the other co-owners or tenants"
We could use this in NE, but I would use it very sparingly because I feel it is so broad that someome could say another person is disturbing them for any variety of reasons including breathing.

SusanW1 (Michigan)
Posts: 5,202

Posted:

It might help is there is a history to this complaint - other tenants complained? the reason the owner does not live there? That would show it just isn't you who (was) is bothered by the noise.

In the meantime, get yourself a background "white noise" machine to drown out that thump, thump . . .

RobertC14 (Colorado)
Posts: 78

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By SusanW1 on 12/22/2011 8:07 AM
It might help is there is a history to this complaint - other tenants complained? the reason the owner does not live there? That would show it just isn't you who (was) is bothered by the noise.

In the meantime, get yourself a background "white noise" machine to drown out that thump, thump . . .

i am going to tell you why such a complaint gives me severe reservations. the mother of my kids was african american. i am caucasion. we lived in a 8 unit apartment building. the son (of the couple constantly calling police on us) live below and to the back, nephew to the side, mother and father below, and a few other of the apartments were related to these people. i think us and one other unit were the only people who were not related. they were an old redneck family who absolutely did not approve of the interracial coupling much less the offspring. the PD was regularly at our door for this very kind of complaint nightly. when she was pregnant she could not sleep and would pace at night and/or have to get up regularly to use the facilities, then after the child was born i do not have to explain that one as these things are totally beyond any ones control. since the couple and family were the majority in the building and were friends with most of the police force you can see why it was a loosing battle.

but this is why laws and regulations like this are no good often they are used for retaliation or other things.

just a little background from personal experiences and why i look at these types of noise complaints with a little skepticism.

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