|
Edited on Tue Nov-18-03 03:51 PM by Heddi
I've lived in apartment buildings where I've had to call the police EVERY NIGHT for MONTHS regarding outrageous amounts of noise, physical fighting, people jumping off the balcony, etc, coming from ONE apartment.
I'd call the police, they'd come out, tell them to be quiet, and 30 minutes later, the noise would start up again, call the police again, they'd come out, tell them to be quiet, ad nauseum.
THe next day, I'd call the landlord, tell them I called the police 3x's on one apartment, they'd say "okay" and do nothing about it.
At that particular apartment complex, the lease included a statement that said if excessive noise or disturbances were reported to the police and/or landlord, the landlord WOULD evict due to excessive complaints.
I don't know about anyone else, but I consider it 'excessive' when at least 45 police calls were made in a 2 month period on ONE apartment. (and those were just the complaints from ME. Other neighbors, not even in the building, had complained just as much, if not more, on the same apartment)
At what point does the LANDLORD have to uphold THEIR end of the lease that both tenants AND landlords signed?
If I didn't pay my rent for months and months, you better BELIEVE they'd hold me to that lease and evict me if payment wasn't made.
Yet they're not held to the same standards--there is the clause re: excessive noise and that eviction WOULD occur should excessive noise/complaints be made.
Recently, a law was passed there that should an apartment get 3 noise violations in 1 month, the landlord would be fined in addition to the tenant being fined.
I totally agree with this.
My landlord did NOTHING to stop the noise. NO letters were sent out, no eviction, nothing.
So these yahoos were partying EVERY NIGHT From 11pm until 6am, when their highs wore off and they passed out.
So EVERY NIGHT from 11pm until 6am, my husband and I got NO sleep. NONE. And I was a F/T student AND had a F/T job which I had to be to at 7am.
REAL nice.
I don't really see how this could be abused, because with the new law in Chas, the landlord is only 'fined' if there are three, VERIFIABLE noise violations in 1 month. Meaning, that if the noise could be heard outside the apartment, then that was a violation. Someone walking too hard on the ceiling, or shutting their doors too hard was NOT a violation.
GOOD tenants (the sad minority of us) have been behelden to BAD neighbors for far too long. And bad neighbors are enabled by complacent Landlords who look at NOTHING but whether a steady rent check is coming in.
The noisy people who lived above us finally, one day, just left---left the apartment a TOTAL mess---and the landlord had to spend quite a bit of $$ replacing doors that had been beaten in, or torn off their hinges, and floors that had been ripped up, and holes that had been knocked in the walls, and windows that had been broken out, and sinks that had been ripped from the wall.
OF course, they wouldn't have had to spend thousands fixing up the apartment if they'd listened to our numerous complaints when we called to TELL THEM about the sound of windows being broken at 4am, or the sounds of massive fights occuring above us and actually HEARING holes being knocked in the walls (you could hear the plaster falling down the walls that we shared), or the sounds of general distruction taking place above us.
On Edit:
Also, I believe that landlords should also be held responsible for the simple reason that by them NOT doing anything about noisy/disturbing tennants, THEY (the landlords) are contributing to the problem. EVERYONE in the neighborhood, whether you're a tenant of the landlord, or just happen to live next-door, or down the street, has a right to a quiet evening, no rowdy parties, decent neighbors, etc.
By landlords NOT doing anything about the problem, they're not just enraging their OWN tenants, but people who live in the area as well. They're CONTRIBUTING to the public disturbance as much as the tenants themselves are.
|