If you reside in an high rise, you are nearly guaranteed to experience many individuals residing around you. Other people may become useful (they may collect your letters and junk mail and hold a package while you are out of town or even grow to be your friends. But, as you may well already be familiar with, a sour neighbor can bug you to no end or send you over the edge.
When a neighbor begins to create disasters, it does not mean you need to pack your things and relocate to a house in the country. As an alternative, stick to these tested practices to handle the circumstances adequately:
Approach Your Neighbor
Most persons avoid this strategy for the reason that they may be scared of confrontation, particularly if their neighbor is a complete stranger. To overcome your fears, do not look at it like you are going to your neighbor as a potential altercation. As an alternative, talk about it more like a neighborly chat, bearing in mind that your focus is not to begin a fight, but to lay out your apprehension and investigate if you two can figure something out. You may ascertain that your bad neighbor is not so terrible after all. Here is how chatting to your neighbor can solve challenges:
Example: After staying in your property for a couple months, you begin to hear a tenant playing a trumpet through your wall. This continues for a month, when you choose to have a discussion with your next door neighbor. Your neighbor explains that he just purchased an grand piano for her teenager and that she should practice whenever possible. He didn t know the sound was vexing and says he can with no trouble move the piano so it is up alongside an interior wall instead of the wall that you share. Beginning the very next day, your neighbor s child practices piano, but you do not hear anything. Problem handled!
However, not all tenants are so agreeable. If a tenant gets angered, do not take the inducement, but make it unmistakable that you are not there to fight. If your neighbor continues, go, but do not be sad. The detail that you chose to talk to your neighbor will cast you in a stronger light if you talk to your building manager or end up in court.
Talk to Your building manager
You hold the right to reside in your unit devoid of being bothered. Attorneys refer this the implied covenant of quiet enjoyment. ) If a tenant disturbs your quiet, your building manager may have to stop it. For instance, your building manager may need to enforce a lease regulation that sets aside certain times as quiet time in opposition to a renter who makes loud sounds in the dead of the night. Or your building manager may have to send out a stern cautioning to a renter against smoking in the patio just outside your dwelling entry.
When occupants are not at fault for the disasters they create, your building manager could still be in a place to straighten things out. For instance, if your unit walls are so tinny that you are bothered even when your neighbor speaks or listens to music at a adequate level, check if your building manager can strengthen the walls. If a neighbor s cigar smoke makes its way from his dwelling to yours, ask your building manager to put in high quality filters or make changes to the duct system. Bear that your building manager will be more likely to relieve such challenges if you have been a excellent renter who pays the rent on time.
Call the police force
If a tenant hurts or makes threats to you in any way, notify the police force. Same holds true for other tenants who you catch a glimpse of conducting illegal action in your apartment property, such as prostitution. You can be sure that a visit by the police will get your landlord to pay more attention to your situation.
Take Self Help Measures
If talking to your neighbor and building manager doesn t further the situation, there are some things you can do on your own. For example:
Fight noise with white noise. Creating white noise can help cancel out any offending noise from an inconsiderate tenant. Turn on a fan or play a compact disk of ambient sound effects. Or, consider investing in a good white noise machine. These small machines create a continuous, gentle sound of rushing air, which hides stray noises so that you can concentrate or rest. You can find these machines at most stores or online retailers that sell small applicances.
Wear earplugs. Wearing earplugs can help make sure you get a good night of rest or get the peace and tranquillity you need to do work or enjoy a paperback.
Buy air purifiers. These cool little machines not only make the air you breathe cleaner and healthier for you, but some also mask cooking odors that may waft in from a neighbor s dwelling.
Go to Court
As a last resort, you may be able to sue your building manager for breach of quiet enjoyment. Also, if you leave in the middle of your lease term, claiming that your building manager broke the rental lease by breaching your right to quiet enjoyment, your building manager may decide to sue you.
Either way, stay prepared for that possible day in court by keeping good documentation to support your case. For example, keep a log that shows each bad neighbor incident and explains your attempts to resolve problems. Also note any promises that your building manager or your neighbors have broken.
Take Your Business Elsewhere
Maybe you have reached a place where other tenants have been creating too many problems for you. Or perhaps you ve tried all of the above practices and they did not work. Remember, you still have the option to leave. If you find a nicer, quieter apartment, then moving may just prove to be the best strategy of all.
Author Resource:
Stirling Gardner consults for http://www.ezLandlordForms.com - your best online resource for a state specific residential lease agreement, free application forms and rental leases.