Noise Complaints - What Do We Do?

[Catie Fihn]

We own a duplex, occupied by a single guy in the top unit and a single girl with her 3 kids in the lower unit. They both moved in last November. Everything has been fine until the last week, when the upstairs tenant started complaining about the noise the downstairs tenant's kids have been making late at night. The upstairs tenant said that he can hear the downstairs kids running around at all hours of the night (12:30/1:00am).

He brought it to our attention once and we then addressed it with the lower tenant. She said she will try her hardest to keep the noise down, but it may be a challenge given that her youngest is autistic and nonverbal. The autistic child apparently is the one creating the most noise.

A few days later, the noise persisted and the upstairs tenant came down and knocked on her door at 1:00 in the morning to confront her on the noise. We got a different story about how that conversation went from each of the tenants, but the message out of it was that the lower tenant was not doing what she needs to be doing to keep her kids quiet. The upstairs tenant gets very mad about this, and I can understand that, as he works first shift, 12-hour days, and is being woken up in the middle of the night by the noise. The downstairs tenant feels there is only so much she can do to keep her autistic child quiet, and she states it is impossible to do so.

The downstairs tenant made a deal with her ex-husband that he would take the autistic child 3-4 nights per week to stay over by him, so there won't be any noise issues on our property (the tenant's older kids can keep quiet...it's just the autistic child that is creating the noise). But that still leaves the autistic child staying on our property 3-4 nights per week.

Last night, I guess there was yet another noise issue. My husband got a text at 1:00am this morning from the upstairs tenant, saying those kids are still running around, banging things around, making noise. After hearing from our tenant again overnight last night, we will need to address this again with the downstairs tenant. I feel badly for her, as she is a single mom, she is scared of the upstairs tenant (not that he has been threatening or anything, but she is living there without a partner and knows that the upstairs tenant is not happy with her, and told us she was a bit shaken up after that confrontation last week).

Our lease does include that tenants must observe quiet time between 10pm-8am.  I am not certain why her 5 year old autistic child is awake at 1:00 in the morning. She needs to do something to keep the noise down, or I feel we will need to take more aggressive action (or the upstairs neighbor will keep complaining, and this situation will never end).

Any thoughts on what our next move should be?

[Alison Brenner]

1) This is not about a single mother. This is not about a child with ASD. This is about a tenant who is creating a nuisance and violating her lease agreement.

2) When a tenant violates your lease agreement, you serve a cure or quit. If the problem persists, you serve another cure or quit. Still a problem.....final cure or quit, and then evict (this is my protocol; you need your own). If your tenant cannot comply with the terms of her lease agreement, she needs to find a new place to live. 

3) You have a beautiful heart. Please remember a lease violation is a lease violation; a nuisance is a nuisance. It shouldn't make a difference if your tenant is snorting rails and blasting Duran Duran like it's 1983 at 1 am. A tenant who doesn't follow the rules detailed in your lease agreement is a problem for your business.