Crazy Neighbor causing damage to ceiling

Crazy Neighbor causing damage to ceiling

Member since 2020 · 8 posts · 2 votes

Hi BP community!

I have a question and needing your advice.

Here is a background: One of our rental condos is on the ground level, is in a great neighborhood and everything would be perfect except for a tenant above our condo. In a few words, he is a 50-something single man with what looks like a somewhat unstable mental condition (bipolar maybe? But I’m not a dr to diagnose). He seemed to be friendly for the first couple of times I met him. Soon after the purchase of the condo we started work restoring it. The upstairs neighbor wasn’t happy about the noise and one day he came to our unit swearing and threatening my contractors. Fast forward, our unit was restored and renovated, we rented it out to a great tenant who moved out after a year, complaining that the upstairs neighbor was creepy and had been extremely loud the whole time. My understanding is that the neighbor was retaliating for the noise he had to endure during our renovation, but it seemed that he calmed down for a while there.

Our current great tenant just complained that the upstairs tenant woke him up at 7am hammering on something for 1.5 hours on a Saturday to the point that the ceiling drywall nails started to pop through in our unit.

Question: do I absorb the costs of repairing ceiling drywall in our rental unit in hopes of keeping the peace for my tenant and not make the upstairs neighbor wanting to retaliate, OR do I contact the owner of the upstairs unit and ask them to cover our repair expenses, knowing that they will most likely talk to their tenant which would probably make him angry and make him want to be loud and disrupt my tenant’s peace.

To be clear, there are multiple signs suggesting that the neighbor is emotionally unstable, not just the fact that he got angry because of the noise my contractors made. His landlord/owner of upstairs unit is somewhat uninterested in our experience, claiming that the tenant has been good with them.

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  • Real Estate Professional · West Palm Beach, FL · Member since 2012 · 23k+ posts · 13k+ votes
    4y

    This is where you need to talk to the upstairs tenant Yourself. Try to establish a friendly relationship and get a feel for the guy yourself. He may harbor negative feelings from before, or not, if he feels like you never “heard” his complaint before. I’m not saying it’s your responsibility, but it may be your best way….. in other words “solve the problem” so that your life is easier going forward. 

  • Member since 2021 · 94 posts · 45 votes
    4y

    I definitely agree with @Wayne Brooks. The more friendly interactions you can build with this upstairs tenant the better. Most often people just want to be heard and understood, and it sounds like maybe this guy still has some frustrations. Although mental instability may be a factor in this equation, trying to build mutual respect and understanding is a good place to start. If it were me, I'd cover the costs of repairing the ceiling and move forward from there. At the same time, I'd also keep an eye out for any more damage. It's best to give the benefit of the doubt, but this is also a business and you need to protect your investment in the case that this type of behavior becomes repetitive. 

  • Real Estate Investor · Williamson County, TX · Member since 2011 · 1k+ posts · 961 votes
    4y

    @Nataliya Isupova Might ask if it is safe to repair the ceiling...if he is done upstairs. Then at least he will know he caused a problem and will know why he is hearing work below him.

  • Winter Springs, FL · Member since 2018 · 11 posts · 9 votes
    4y

    Hi @Nataliya Isupova. I agree with @Wayne Brooks and @Marian Smithbut meanwhile I would contact the HOA because they must have a noise ordinance in place when you are dealing with a condo. At least get familiar with the HOA rules. If that doesn't work I would prepare the damage myself and if it happens again get the HOA and owner of that other unit involved.

  • Real Estate Consultant · Halifax, NS · Member since 2021 · 26 posts · 2 votes
    4y

    Hi Nataliya,

    Sounds like quite the tricky situation. From what it seems the upstairs tenant has been doing this for too long to assume he will stop if you leave him be. Therefore I would look into the legal remedies to the situation, in particular the by-laws controlling noise or your condo's HOA. Before going through the legal route I would talk to the upstairs tenant to establish a bit of a relationship.

    Let me know how it goes.

    Grant
      

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