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You Be The Judge: The Case of the Noisy Neighbor

Published by Joseph Ferrara (2) November 26th, 2007 in Legal. Comments

real estate law judge

This is a real case. Decide who should win. (The names have been changed to prevent cheating. )

Mary Smith owns and lives in a condominium unit in a high rise building. The owners of the apartment below her decided to rent their apartment to a young couple, Mr. and Mrs. Noyze. The couple liked to play music after midnight—at full volume. The Noyzes also threw loud parties that ran late into the night. This drove Mary quite contrary because she couldn’t get a good night’s sleep. Mary asked the Noyzes to please lower the music or play it before 11 pm. The Noyzes refused. So Mary asked the super to intervene. He tried talking to the Noyze but to no avail. So Mary started writing letters to the Condominium Board asking for help in stopping the Noyze. After 17 letters, nothing changed except the Board decided to ignore Mary and her annoying letters.

Mary read the Condominium Declaration and Rules and found that loud music or noise was not allowed between 11 pm and 9 am and any nuisance to other owners was not permissible. The Declaration also stated the Board had the right to enforce these rules. So Mary demanded the Board enforce the rules. The Board wrote a letter to the owner of the apartment who had rented to the Noyze and demanded the owner get them to quiet down. No luck. The Board took no further action on Mary’s behalf.

Mary decided to tell it to the judge and sued the Board for damages for failing to enforce the condo rules, as stated in the Declaration. The Board said it was not their problem and not their responsibility to fix– if Mary didn’t like it, she could just move out.

OK, you be the judge. Who wins the case?

Tune in later this week to read how the case was actually decided.

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  • ANSWER---

    Mary lost the case. It was decided in Louisiana. The Court ruled that the right to enforce the rules did not require the Board to exercise that right. So Tony, you are right.

    Mary filed police reports but the cops did not stop the Noyze.
    Mary finally moved out.

    I represented an owner with the same problem as Mary. I was able to get the Board to threaten termination of the owner's proprietary lease for breaching its nuisance terms and not complying with the requirement that 80% of the unit flooring be carpeted (excluding kitchens and baths). (we had recordings of the noise, written diary entries with date and time, and police reports, other neighbor corroboration) The owner evicted the tenants.
    It is important to remember that each case is unique and each state is different in its application of the state law.

    Laurie-- your technique is pretty common, I'd say. It either works or leads to retaliation. I know cases where garbage was left outside doors, nasty notes taped to doors for all the other neighbors to see-- someone even greased the stair bannister. I advised one client to soundproof his ceiling (which he did). Heck, I once lived in an apt building where the guy downstairs waived a gun because he objected to noise. That's one reason to live in a detached home.
  • Answer coming tomorrow. Thanks for playing.
  • Ahhhhh, I truly feel for Mary. While it is true that she may not win and that she should call the police several times nightly until they start fining the landlord for the tenants offenses, it is not likely she will win against the HOA, even though she should.

    When I lived in NY I too had the tenant from HELL below me in my co-op building, I owned, he rented. He was like clockwork right around midnight he would crank up the music, start screaming at his wife and would often beat her, he was most likely a drinker and a nasty drunk. The heel of my western boots worked well for banging on the floor to try to get him to shut up and stop, but alas, it too was ineffective.

    What Mary needs to understand is that being in the upper unit she has a distinct advantage, as I did. I decided to get even with the pr*$k!

    I enlisted my sister. Together we moved my furniture to the walls, moved the coffee table out of the way, rolled up the area rugs, had a few drinks of our own, turned the monster sized speakers down onto the wood floors, laced up our roller skates and had a great time dancing in skates, jumping up and down, singing at the top of our lungs, blasting the music...just making all the noise that we could possibly dream up.

    Of course I waited until a day that it was obvious that he had company over.

    When he and his buddies banged on my steel door, we ignored them and rocked on. We did this in the middle of the day, when we had the right to make noise - not at an unreasonable hour.

    Nobody could do a thing. We went on for hours and had a great time while doing it.

    The wife left him about 2 weeks later, he moved within a month.

    The lesson here..............never, ever screw with your UPSTAIRS neighbor!
  • I know how Mary feels! Too bad for both the board (bad rep) Mary (no sleep). Call the cops and file a noise complaint? Just move.
  • I feel terrible for Mary. I say she should be the ultimate winner in this case, but the way condo boards are, I have a feeling that Mary will need to get a night shift job and sleep during the day. I really hope she comes out the winner.
  • The case goes through a long drawn out court battle where the judge ultimately throws it out. And the winners are.....the attorney's. Actually I vote for Mary because she decided to get a dog that barks all day preventing the Noyze's from getting any sleep. They move out two weeks later.
  • Board wins because they are allowed to but not required to enforce the noise rules. I sold a condo due to this situation. Mary should call the police so they file a report. When they continue to break the law she should sue the renters and the people who rented to the owners.
  • i say the lady wins not the board
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