Noisy neighbors are among the most common complaints of apartment dwellers. Tenants have the legal right to live in a safe home that doesn’t affect their quality of life. But unfortunately, excessive noise from a neighbor can completely disrupt a tenant’s daily life. Whether a neighbor hosts parties on weekends late into the night or they have a barking pet who affects their ability to enjoy the apartment, every landlord must deal with noise complaints from time to time. But are noise complaints your responsibility, and how should you deal with them?
Are Noise Complaints the Landlord’s Responsibility?
In short, noise complaints are the landlord’s responsibility. However, they’re not legally responsible. Therefore, legal action can’t be taken against you if you choose not to take action. However, not doing your due diligence can lead to your best tenants moving out.
In most cases, your tenants should handle noise complaints by talking to their noisy neighbors first and allowing them to correct the issue. Unfortunately, tenants can’t always handle disputes independently, and the noise might persist. Therefore, when a tenant informs you of noise, you must do your due diligence to determine if the complaint is true or violates the lease.
Additionally, noise disturbances may be against the law, depending on the location of your rental property. Some areas of noise ordinances restrict the amount of noise and times when the noise occurs. You can also add quiet time hours to your lease to help tenants understand what disruptive noise is and when they need to keep it to a minimum.
Handling Noise Complaints
Determining if a tenant is making excessive noise is crucial, and you shouldn’t always learn more about the situation before sending someone a lease violation notice. Some tenants don’t realize that some noise is expected in apartments, while others feel they have the right to create as much noise as they want. Whatever the case, you must determine if a tenant’s noise is excessive.
When you receive a noise complaint, you must determine if it’s excessive or just the noise of daily life, such as a tenant accidentally dropping something versus late-night party noises. Here are the steps to take when you receive a noise complaint to ensure both tenants’ rights are respected:
Investigate
Not every noise complaint needs to be investigated. For example, if a tenant tells you their neighbor is vacuuming at 2 pm, there’s nothing you can do since that sound falls under the daily life noise category. Additionally, if it’s a tenant’s first noise complaint, you may send a warning before taking further action.
When you’re ready to investigate, you must determine the noise source and which tenant is making the noise. First, you should gather as much information about the incident from the person complaining. Learn about the type of noise, when it occurred, how long it lasted, and if it’s ever happened before. You should also determine whether they’ve talked to their neighbor to try to remedy the situation on their own.
Talk to the Tenant
Once you’ve received information about the complaint, you should always talk to the tenant who might be the noise source. Let them know that you’ve received a noise complaint, and let them explain themselves. It’s possible the tenant didn’t realize they were being loud. If that’s the case, there’s nothing left to do because they’ll probably fix the problem on their own or try to avoid making excessive noise.
Some tenants will disagree about their noise level, which can complicate the noise complaint. You should always listen to their side of the story. Some noises are unavoidable, such as a dog barking a few times after a door slam or a child crying when they wake up in the middle of the night. While this can be annoying to neighbors, there are few things a tenant can do to address these issues, so it’s essential to hear their perspective on the situation.
Talk to Other Tenants
Before you can issue a noise violation, you should talk to other tenants to determine if they’ve heard the same sounds as listed in the complaint. Some residents may report that they’ve heard the sound but were undisturbed by it, while others may not be affected by the noise. Everyone has a different noise tolerance, so the sound may affect some more than others.
However, if you can’t find another neighbor who was bothered by the noise, you may have to revisit the original tenant who complained and review their story. Again, everyone has a different noise tolerance, but one of your tenants may not realize some noise is to be expected when sharing a wall, ceiling, and floor with another person.
Ask the Noisy Neighbor to Make Changes
If you’ve done your due diligence and had multiple complaints from a noisy tenant’s neighbors, you should give them a warning and give them time to fix the issue. For example, if someone’s dog is barking throughout the day, you can give them time to find a solution. In this case, dogs can’t always be controlled, and not all dogs are apartment-friendly, so some barking is expected, especially in a pet-friendly community. However, if you have a tenant who throws frequent parties, you can ask that they keep their guests and music quieter.
Issue a Noise Violation
If your lease states what qualifies as a noise violation to the lease, you can issue one if the noise persists. The penalty for lease violations varies, but a single noise complaint doesn’t mean you should evict your tenant. Instead, you can give them a lease violation that comes with a fee.
Eviction
Most landlords won’t evict tenants for noise complaints unless they become excessive. A single noise complaint is usually not enough to evict someone, especially without evidence. However, if you’ve issued multiple noise complaints in a short period of time, it might be grounds for eviction.
Final Thoughts
Before issuing a noise complaint, you should talk to the tenant in question. It’s possible the noise they were causing was a simple part of daily life, like cleaning their home during the afternoon. However, since everyone has a different noise tolerance, you may need to set expectations for tenants with what actually qualifies as excessive noise and at what times noise is considered disturbing.
Megan Isola
Megan Isola holds a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality and a minor in Business Marketing from Cal State University Chico. She enjoys going to concerts, trying new restaurants, and hanging out with friends.