Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

Re: New Construction Defects

This is an interesting one. 3 points.

1. Yes, if the seller or seller's agent made affirmative misrepresentations in marketing the unit for sale to you as to the unit's soundproof-ness. This could be the seller/agent telling you the rooms are soundproof/quiet, etc, or written in marketing literature, etc.

2. A recent Mass Supreme Court case came down, holding that the "warranty of habitability" applies to sales of new construction homes. Fortunately for you, "habitability" is often defined to mean "QUIET enjoyment"! Of course, its all relative. Reasonably quiet means different things to different people. And the analysis is informed by case-specific factors, like the character of the neighborhood (next to the commuter rail or surrounded by tranquil meadows), the type of people who live in the neighborhood (Frat Row in Allston, or in Wellesley), etc. So I'd need to know much more about the specifics.

A case called Sound Techniques v. Hoffman comes to mind. While I might not remember it accurately, a commercial tenant rented space for his music recording studio, and specifically required quiet enough not to interfere with his recordings. The landlord said something vague, like 'its not a very noisy building'. Something ambiguous. I recall discussion of the decible levels - did the decible levels exceed some limit.

That case was not under breach of habitability, and surely the tolerable level of noise in a home is lower than in a commercial setting during business hours. But the noise analysis would be interesting to examine for your case.

There's a case with closer facts to yours, though I can't recall the name (or the result). I believe a woman sued due to excessive noise in her home coming from the raucous bar next door. I seem to recall discussion about acceptable decible levels there as well. But that was probably a nuisance case, not breach of habitability, although relevant for the noise analysis. I'm sure a noise claim based on habitability would be easier to prove than a nuisance claim for noise.

Yours would be the first case I am aware of to use the new breach of habitability claim allowed by the new SJC case.

3. The final way would be if the builder/developer was required to build to certain construction specifications, which required materials ensuring soundproof-ability ,and failed to follow the specs. Or if the builder/developer just tried to save on building costs by choosing to build to inferior materials that have resulted in your problem.

If you contact me directly I'd be happy to discuss the particulars in greater detail with you. Obviously I am interested in the issue.