Spotlight on: Noisy Neighbors and What to Do About Them
Dec. 9, 2014 — Nobody wants to be that guy — the chronic complainer, the nit-picker, the drag who makes mountains out of molehills — especially when it comes to subjective issues, such as noise complaints. Hearing a next-door neighbor sneeze now and again may not be a big deal to many. Hearing a next-door neighbor hock loogies for an hour while you are trying to have dinner? No. Noise is an especially sensitive issue within co-ops and condos. The problem, of course, is that boards need to figure out whether a tenant is overly sensitive to noises that are par for the course in apartment life, or whether the noise in question is truly bothersome.
Dealing with Conflict
One way boards can investigate the validity of a noise complaint is to have the tenant explain what the noise is, when it's occurring and for how long, and how it's disrupting the tenant's quality of life.
Is the tenant tired of hearing the upstairs neighbor vacuuming at 5 a.m. or after 11 p.m.? Is the tenant reporting that the upstairs neighbor is dragging furniture at the crack of dawn? Is the tenant complaining about loud radio or television noise at midnight? Is the noise disrupting sleep or work (if the tenant works at home)?
Consider, too, whether the tenant complaining is not prone to so. Whatever the case, co-op and condo boards can't be quick to dismiss a complaint as illegitimate, especially since the affected resident might find him or herself forced to turn to the legal system. And that's a whole lot of wasted money, time, and resources.
Two, Four, Six, Eight! It Is Time to Mediate!
Not surprisingly, boards don't typically like to get involved in conflicts arising from noise complaints. Because these types of issues so difficult to resolve, boards should encourage mediation.
A mediator can go a long way toward calming hot tempers and encouraging both parties to reach an understanding or compromise. A neutral third party might be instrumental in getting a noisy tenant to realize just how disruptive they are being.
Likewise, an arbitrator might convince a fed-up tenant that while complaining about sustained stomping at 2 a.m. on a weeknight is valid, expecting absolute quiet at 4 p.m. on a Saturday is, perhaps, too much.
Having a mediator work with the tenants in question to resolve their noise problem also means that the matter doesn't get dragged into time-consuming, resource-draining, and massively expensive litigation. And that's win-win for everybody.
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Adapted from "Noisy Neighbors" by Andrea Roschelle (Habitat, March 2005)