Noisy Tenant, Heavy Drinker

[Hope S.]

I have a single male tenant who move in in September.  He pays rent on time, sometimes two months at a time.  He is kind of needy but otherwise a decent tenant from a landlord's perspective.  

Problem is he is apparently very loud and has disturbed the upstairs tenant on several occasions.  Upstairs tenant is my longest running tenant I want to keep happy.  After the last noise complaint, upstairs tenant did some sleuthing and sent me an arrest and OUI record I did not find in my own background check.  Upstairs tenant also reports lots of bags of empty bottles coming out of new tenants unit.   The new tenant did report an OUI on his application, but that was "10 years ago" (which was not true).

How would you handle?   Give the new tenant a stern warning, reveal the lie in the application?  I am worried of a misstep and then a bigger problem over the long winter months.   

Any tips appreciated.

[Patricia Steiner]

The tenant should call the police AND you should send the tenant A Notice To Quit for Reason Other Than Non-Payment of Rent. By law, tenants are entitled to the peaceful use of their units. This doesn't mean no sound but it does mean they don't have to tolerate a drunken noisy dude.  Should you fail to enforce the lease and ensure this right, your tenant can break the lease.  Let drunken dude know that "we hear you, we don't want to,and it's against your lease to intrude on other tenants' rights."