Hardwood Floors in an Upstairs Unit

[Mike Riordan]

We are new to the landlord game and are having an issue with our first rental. It's a top floor condo that was our personal residence. We moved out and were able to find a renter easily. Awesome, right? 

Well, we recently found out that our downstairs neighbor has been complaining nonstop to our tenants about noise. The building is an older 1960s apartment complex that was converted to condos. There's a ground floor level and an upper level. When we first moved in, we replaced the old carpet with hardwood floors. We double checked with the HOA and building property mgmt and there weren't any restrictions in the CCRs. The building magemnt suggested we use a cork underlayment to help with sound attenuation, which we did.

While living there,  the owner below would complain about all types of noise problems - foot steps, toilets flushing, vaccuming, etc. We did our besst to best respectful. Fast forward to now, he's been constantly harrasing my tenants about the same things.  Our lease requires rugs and the tenants have verfied they have laid down rugs. We aren't sure what else to do, other than suggest he look into sound supression in his ceiling. Many other upper units have hardwood floors. Any suggestions? We're in SF if that matters.

thx Mike