[ad_1]
Q: My roommate and I reside on the third ground of a three-story walk-up in Brooklyn. Our landlord and his household reside on the second ground. Each step we take reverberates by their condominium, so if we stroll to the kitchen at evening or use the hallway rest room after 11 p.m., we get a broomstick knock from under or a belligerent textual content about stomping round. We’ve carpeted the place we will, don’t put on sneakers within the condominium, and attempt to stroll as calmly as potential. However currently our landlord has turn into more and more irate every time we’ve got visitors. Do we’ve got choices when he calls for that no pals go to? What are our rights?
A: The excellent news is your landlord seemingly doesn’t have grounds to evict you based mostly on the minor noises you describe — that means you need to be free to proceed internet hosting visitors.
“The usual for noise is unreasonable or extreme in an effort to violate the noise code, and it’s a reasonably excessive bar, particularly in New York Metropolis,” mentioned Ingrid Manevitz, an actual property lawyer and a companion on the regulation agency Seyfarth Shaw, the place she can be a co-chair of the Condominiums and Cooperatives apply.
Establishing whether or not noise is, the truth is, legally extreme or unreasonable is on the owner. “That requires testing as a result of the courts wish to see measurements and knowledge earlier than taking that type of motion. That’s an expense for the owner to incur,” Ms. Manevitz mentioned.
For the reason that landlord owns the constructing, it’s additionally his accountability to make sure that the residences are liveable. If, say, the floorboards are creaky and loud, he wants to repair them, add some soundproofing or go on being irritated. “The tenant’s not doing something mistaken to have to enter their pockets and pay for a cloth simply due to the way in which the constructing is constructed,” Ms. Manevitz mentioned.
In fact, nobody needs to be in a dispute with their landlord, particularly after they’re neighbors. Ms. Manevitz prompt asking yours to put in a foam-material padding that may take in sound under the carpet. It’d take some negotiation, however “the tenant may supply and say, ‘We’re doing every little thing we will. I hear that there’s this materials. If you wish to pay for it, we’ll put it underneath our carpets,’” she mentioned.
For weekly e-mail updates on residential actual property information, join right here.
[ad_2]
Source link