Rent-stabilized tenant with noise complaints

[Jerad Shapiro]

First time here, I need help with a tenant in a rent-stabilized apartment in Brooklyn making noise complaints. I will try to state facts as best as I can. 

The Good: Rent-stabilized tenant and family have been in the apartment for over 28 years, the tenant is very handy and I can’t deny he has made many improvements to the unit over the years out of his pocket. Has also handled all his own maintenance and repairs (except for big ones) and no late rent payments during tenancy either. 

The Bad: Tenant spent two years traveling sporadically for work and had relatives move in as roommates without asking me. But they still claimed that apartment as permanent residence, his wife still lived there. Apparently she did not want to live alone and so they had relatives/roommates move in. That bothered me, and I was very much hoping and pushing them to move out because of how much it bothered me. 

The Situation: I moved a family of 5 upstairs of them, and the tenant has constant noise complaints now. They wrote me a certified letter with all the noise complaint details, as well as recordings. Upstairs neighbor has threatened them for complaining too. From what the tenant has recorded and the building super has told me, there is constant stomping/yelling/things dropping/talking from above from 6am to 11pm, and that the tenants ceilings and furniture vibrate and shake constantly. Also things have fallen off tenants’ walls twice and broken. The upstairs neighbor is angry about complaints and put down rugs, but the noise is still an issue. Tenant has now had to vacate their unit to live elsewhere since in NY, we are all quarantined and the tenant and his family cannot live in the apartment (they were all apparently sleeping in one room since the rest of the apartment was unusable due to the furniture shaking). 

Question: Downstairs tenant wants me to install carpet in the upstairs apartment to see if it solves the noise/shaking problem or to buy them out of their rent stabilized lease since they have spent $10 grand fixing it themselves (they have receipts and proof from the super unfortunately). With the ****** new rent laws in NY, I cannot raise the apartment rent to market rate because it is rent stabilized if they move out, can I? What incentive do I have to buy them out of the apartment to shut down their noise complaints? What is your suggestion on the noise complaint? Tenant has started to speak about taking this to court since I have not answered or completed any of their maintenance/repair requests this year and they have had to do it themselves and have proof (why would I do it when they pay for it themselves?)

Let me know your thoughts.

[Greg M.]

From what the tenant has recorded and the building super has told me, there is constant stomping/yelling/things dropping/talking from above from 6am to 11pm, and that the tenants ceilings and furniture vibrate and shake constantly. Also things have fallen off tenants’ walls twice and broken.

The upstairs tenants are clearly violating the peaceful enjoyment of the unit to the downstairs tenant. What has been documented is well beyond the scope of normal noise. Send them a Cure or Quit notice. If the noise continues, file for eviction. The fact they spent $10K fixing up the place is meaningless. 

Your downstairs tenants lived there for 28 years without noise issues from above. Pretty cut and dry that the new tenants are not behaving properly.