Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in New York

noise problem in rental building

I have been having an ongoing severe noise problem with the tenant upstairs. I called him, wrote 2 letters to the management who then confronted him, and tried to file a complaint request with the police (New York City), however they turned it down. The noise consists of very loud banging of heavy objects on their floor, shoving, shattering, and dropping of objects, mostly at nighttime. After all the interventions the tenant keeps doing it and my nighttime sleep is repeatedly interrupted. All of which results in impacting not only my health but also my work performance since I also work from home. The tenant appears defiant and told me I was harassing him.

Can you point to any further action I could possibly take? Or free/inexpensive legal help? Or how to engage the building management better? I am low-income tenant living in publicly financed housing. Thank you.


Asked on 3/21/07, 1:00 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Lawrence Silverman Law Firm of Lawrence Silverman

Re: noise problem in rental building

The building management is legally required to take any measures necessary to compel an excessively noisy tenant up to, and including, eviction of the noisy tenant (or, e.g., to soundproof the offending tenant's apartment). Keep pressing management to compel the tenant to stop the noise. Perhaps you can make common cause with other tenants who are also troubled by the noisy tnenat to hire an attorney together and/or to press the building's management to evict the noisy tenant if that tenant does not agree to stop the noise. I addressed some of yoour problems in more detail iin the following answers to LawGuru questions, all in the LANDLORdS AND TENANTS category:

I addressed this issue and its ramifications in more detail in my answers to the following LawGuru questions in the LANDLORDS AND TENAnTS LAW category and you may want to check thme out:

3/9/07: NOISY NEIGHBOR

12/22/05: PROBLEMS WITH NEIGHBORS THAT MANAGEMENT WILL NOT TAKE CARE OF (I answered in two parts in more than one answer to that same question.)

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Answered on 3/21/07, 10:15 pm


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