Opinions on dealing with tenant complaints

[Scott Lyons]

Hi folks, question on how others handle these types of situations: we've had a longer term tenant (~3 years) who have been great, never complain, etc, until recently when a new tenant moved above them. Since then they have complained to us that the upstairs tenant is very loud at late hours, kids dribbling basketballs at 3am, etc. We've reached out to the upstairs tenant and asked that they please try to be respectful to their neighbors, especially during late hours but it hasn't solved the problem as it still seems to be happening. We do have noise clauses, especially at late hours, in the contract but is this something you generally let the tenants handle themselves? Don't want to lose the good tenant but I'm not sure it's something as a landlord I really want to get in the middle of and there really isn't much I think I can do except evoke the contract and evict, which I don't want to do. Any thoughts on good ways to handle this?

[Jared Hottle]

I would tray again to communicat with the upstairs tenant. Personally, I do not think it is worth losing a good tenant over when this family just moved in. In Iowa we have a 7-day notice to fix the lease violation or the eviction process would start, this may be an option because once people see something in writing they may take it more seriously. In the future as you buy more deals keep in mind the up down duplex can always be a problem like this. If you buy another or end up rehabbing this one ever maybe consider a sound barrier between floors.