What to do about tenant noise complaints?

[Julie Marquez]

Dealing with tenant complaints is my least favorite part of the property management gig, and this one is stumping me. Also, what vendor do I call to handle the noise complaints?!?

In a quiet fourplex building, upstairs lady is complaining about the noise being made by downstairs single lady. The noises are things like slamming closet doors and walking around (and things that sound like normal living to me), but they are happening in the middle of the night and keeping upstairs lady awake. I've been getting upset emails in the middle of the night for the past two months.

I talked to downstairs lady who is aware of the complaints and mentioned that she listens to her ipad loudly in the evening, but that's it. I guess I need to talk to her more and what - tell her she can't be awake in the middle of the night? Other people in the building don't hear anything. Do I need to go over there in the middle of the night to listen for noise to understand the issue? I'm at a loss on how to diagnose the issue and handle the people.

Both tenants are on month to month tenancy, so asking someone to leave is always on option, but they both pay their rent on time and cause no other issues. Any suggestions on how to handle these mysterious middle of the night noises?

[Julie Marquez]

@Timmi Ryerson I agree that the place should be quiet, but I've never heard the noises and neither has anyone else, so I have no confirmation about what is going on! I've been in the hallway late at night and heard nothing. Good idea about the letter, just to let downstairs lady know that there are continued complaints. Communicating the issue is about all I can do. I tried my best to just listen to upstairs lady and help her feel cared for, but I think it's opened up to her complaining more.

[Julie Marquez]

@Ned J. I totally agree with you, that's exactly how I feel. So nothing more that I need to do - easy.

@Bjorik Mutize I'll do a general letter for the effort, and hopefully that works.

@Jill F. Right, downstairs lady is not complaining about upstairs lady! My husband uses earplugs and white noise machine and I told her all about those solutions. We love our white noise machine!

@Amy A. She been a tenant since September, and I'm afraid she is just that type of person

[Julie Marquez]

@Bryan O. I've never heard the noises, nobody else has, so I don't know how extreme they are, but it's not middle of night partying issues or anything that would require me to evict her or even ask her to leave. @Mary M. but yes, upstairs lady should have a habitat that she can sleep in without excessive noise. Our rental agreement says that this is a quiet building and extremely quiet hours are from 10pm - 6am. But what right does downstairs lady have to live her "normal" life at all hours of the day? I don't know if anything she is doing is "unreasonable."

@John Clark Upstairs has not talked to downstairs, should I just let them duke it out?

@Chinmay J. I agree, I'll make all parties aware

[Jeremiah Ashe]

Unfortunately, these are activities of daily living.  I agree with most others that it needs to be explained to the upstairs resident that these are normal activities and you really have no authority to tell the downstairs resident that they can not walk around and open/close doors in their apartment.  You can also suggest the possibility of using some type of noise machine to drown out any noises that would wake the upstairs resident.  White noise works by increasing the baseline level of noise so that when things such as doors closing, cars driving by, and/or downstairs residents using their ipad occur, the increase in volume is minimal compared to silence.  Because of this, the upstairs resident would be less likely to wake up from noises coming from downstairs.

[Dennis M.]

Only a fool would get involved . The issue is you start taking sides then the other party feels animosity against you now and that could result is damage to your property , a difficult tenant  , late payment or a vacancy . All bad things and no benefit to the landlord.people retaliate if they feel unheard and threatened ! the truth is  Low income people cause drama *all the time . Their lives are in turmoil and frequent chaos . As the saying goes -misery loves  company . Your much better off letting them talk and work it out instead of throwing yourself in the middle of it ! Your business is rent them a unit not be their counselor or babysitter .   

[Jill F.]

Originally posted by @Chinmay J.:

...  

Stay as far away from it as you can.. Low income tenants tend to be drama queens.. Ain't no one got no time for dat !

 This has not been my experience at all. I get more complaints from my higher income tenants. I HOPE my lower income tenants call me when there is a problem because for the most part they put up with WAY more crap than I would and some of it I would be happy to fix if only I knew. Really, most of my experience with "drama queens" has involved tenants that I believe have some kind of diagnosable personality disorder or other real mental illness. 

[Timmi Ryerson]

I have solved the problem of tenants complaining.  The issue can be that the tenant, who may be older, is lonely.  If that is the case, any attention is better than none at all.  Think of your kids here when they want attention from you.  They will do what they need to get it.  My software that I use to manage my properties has a message center.  I can send messages to my tenants and they can message me.  I have educated them when they sign their lease that the software is where they go to see statements and payment history, pay rent and send me messages.  Voila!  No more phone calls.  I can see when a message is sent because I get a notification via email.  So I log in and read the message and respond.  2 minutes top of my time.  Everyone loves it.  I highly recommend using a message center for all tenants, even the good ones.  Smart Property Systems is the software I use.

[Michael Jones]

I would not get involved more than to say if it is severe then call the police. If it is not serious and you continue to involve me I will bring a 30 day lease termination letter for both units and will definitely flush out the problem.

[Julie Marquez]

@Jill F. I'm afraid this person might have some other issue like you mention, but I am doing my best to respond to her appropriately.

@Timmi Ryerson I love how you have taught them how to communicate with you. I have a generic business email address and that's all right now

@Michael Jones Good thing it's not severe enough for the police! I definitely could ask them both to leave, they are on month to month agreements.

[Michael Jones]

If it isn’t serious enough for the police it isn’t serious enough for the landlord.

[Ned J.]

I guess some people on here feels like "quiet time" means the place should be like a library during those time periods....and quiet enjoyment and peace and quiet in the their home means you could hear a mouse fart...

From all accounts it sounds like the tenants is making reasonable and normal sounds associated with life...normal opening and closing of doors......walking around....water running..... etc etc...those are all normal life sounds....not excessive in ANY way...... if you want absolute quiet, then buy your own place out in the middle of nowhere......you will NEVER find that in a multifamily atmosphere.

You have done your part ..... let the neighbors hash it out.

People will always complain when they have ZERO skin in the game for any form of involvement or solution....whine and complain and pass the baton to someone else to fix what they see as an issue. If you keep accepting the baton, they will keep passing it to you over and over and over for everything....