Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Maryland

Hi I entered a lease agreement for my apartment on February 2012. The lease contract states that there is to be no smoking inside of the apartment as well as on the balcony. Well a few months after we moved in new tenants moved in upstairs who smoke on the balcony. We have picture evidence of ashes on our balcony furniture falling from up there. We have complained to the property manager of the apartments many times and all he ever did was tell them to put a piece of carpet on the balcony so that the ashes did not fall. This did not help as there was still ashes falling on our balcony among other things. When we are inside of our residence with the sliding glass door open the smell of cigarettes fills my apartment. I can not stand the smell of cigarette smoke and I was also pregnant at the time and did not like having to bear the smell of cigarette or close my balcony door on the nice summer days. I explained this to the manager as well and once again he did nothing. My upstairs neighbors also make a lot of noise. I understand that I will have to deal with some noise but I say they are loud I really mean LOUD. They continuously run around stomping and play fighting(not sure if that is what they are doing but that is what it sounds like) and screaming and laughing loudly. I can understand this happening during the day however, this noise is ongoing from sun up until sun up the next morning. We are always woken up out of our sleep. They do so much that it rattles my apartment and makes everything move around, even my ceiling fan. I am scared that one day my ceiling fan or wall mirror may fall. Again I have told this to the property manager numerous times and as in the smoking situation nothing was done. All of this is in the lease agreement about the smoking inside and smoking on the balcony as well as excessive noise. Is there anything that can be done about this? Thanks!


Asked on 1/24/13, 1:25 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Cedulie Laumann Arden Law Firm, LLC

Maryland law offers tenants the right to "quiet enjoyment" of leased premises. If a situation under the landlord's control interferes, a tenant may in some cases have legal grounds to break the lease or seek damages. The law also sets noise decibel limits after certain hours, so a tenant with a noisy neighbor may wish to monitor the noise decibel levels and document same.

While I hope this general legal information helps, it is not legal advice on your specific situation. You may want to contact an attorney to discuss your specific situation and/or contact the free landlord/tenant hotline @ 410-243-6007 offered by BNI , a non-profit dedicated to landlord/tenant issues in this state.

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Answered on 2/02/13, 7:23 am


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