Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Indiana

Re: Breaking a lease / excessive noise

There are no really inexpensive, feasible options when this occurs. One judge might agree that you have been constructively evicted on account of a failure of the covenant of quiet enjoyment, another might not agree. The difference would be whether you would continue to owe rent after you moved out. Another option is to sue the noise-maker for nuisance or an injunction to stop the excessive noise. A final option is to sue the landlord or management company to compel it to enforce the rules to stop the noisemaker or evict him. In any case you will have to pay your own attorney fees, no matter how much time an attorney has to devote to this matter unless he can find a statute that would allow recovery of fees. Be sure to document your complaints to the landlord or management - keep copies of the letters you send and handwritten notes of your telephone conversations as to date, time and the name of the person you talked to. You might want to retain the services of an attorney to make an "official" complaint for you to both the landlord and to the offending tenant. I cannot promise that will make any difference, but if you decide to move out, it will be another point to assist the judge in determining that it was a constructive eviction.

Re: Breaking a lease / excessive noise

In any given lease it is implicit that a tenant will have "quiet enjoyment" of the leased premises. This is a legal term, and what constitutes quiet enjoyment varies from lease to lease. For example, a tenant leasing a commercial site would not expect the same constraints as a tenant of a warehouse in an industrial area. Of course, for residential leases, quiet enjoyment is usually interpreted by the courts as to what a reasonable individual would be able to put up with without being able to enjoy the premises. I suggest you look at your lease - there are usually provisions in residential leases that contain provisions where the landlord is assuring the tenant that he/she will have the quiet enjoyment of the use of the apartment. also, look to see if there are restrictions on loud noises emanating from the apartment. If both are present, I would write a demand to the landlord or its management, citing the number of times that you have had to call police, the number of times you have complained about the loud music, and indicate that if it persists you will vacate the premises as you are not able to live under those conditions. You can also state that the law requires that you have quiet possession and enjoyment of your apartment and you do not have that. Hopefully, the landlord will either move you to another apartment or voluntarily rescind the lease. If he does not do either, and you vacate, you can expect him to sue you for the unpaid rent. If so, you should prepare for this by getting copies of the police reports, and reconstructing a record of when you complained to the landlord. It would also be helpful if you know of other tenants who have complained of the offending music.