Tenant complaint noisy children

[Kate Elson]

My first floor tenant is complaining about excessive noise from the second floor tenants children. Second floor has 3 young boys from 18 months to 6 years old. 2nd floor claims its normal noise and all kids are in bed by 8 and sleep until about 8 so not early in the morning. During the day though, she home schools and is there all the time. I’m pretty sure the boys run rampant playing, jumping off couches things like that. The first floor tenants are a wonderful young family too but I’m pretty sure they are more subdued with their girls and would not let them run in the house etc and would expect the same. I feel bad for both tenants because I’m pretty sure the noise is bad but how do you keep three young boys sitting quietly and it’s winter in New England so where else are they supposed to play? I would not want to live below that for sure though. Second floor is a 4 bedroom apartment so I will probably always have a family even if I ask them to leave. What are my rights and responsibilities as a landlord? Do I have the right to tell her the children can’t run around so the first floor has quiet enjoyment? I could install carpet but there are beautiful hardwood floors and the second floor tenant would hate it with the mess of kids. Any help is appreciated thanks

[Nolan M.]

As a police officer I am frequently called to these situations. Unless there is unreasonable stomping around in the middle of the night I do nothing more than tell the upstairs neighbor that there was complaint. I inform the downstairs neighbors that noise from the upstairs unit is par for the course in apartment living, it’s not a police issue. If they want peace and quiet they need to move to a house, simple as that.