Noisy Children

[emk119]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY
I have lived in my coop for 7 years now. 1 year ago, just after refinancing my mortgage, my upstairs neighbor moved a woman with 2 children into his 1 bedroom apt. The children run around and create ALOT of noise - jumping off furn and basically pounding on my ceiling until 11pm or 12am almost every night. After 3 months I sent him a letter asking him to keep the children quiet after 9pm since they were disrupting my sleep. He showed up at my door angry and insisted on a meeting with the management company - at our meeting he insisted that he lives alone, goes to bed every nite at 8pm and has no idea how any noise could be coming from his apt. This is clearly not true - the older child is picked up by a school bus in front of the building. The managment company is also aware that someone is living with him but did not do anything about his lie. They inspected his apt at the conclusion of our meeting to be sure that he has 80% carpet per the house rules which he does. The noise have never stopped. The children still run around for hours on end and I've taken to banging a broom on the bedroom ceiling when they are running around after 10pm. I called the management company in November and told them that the problem continues and basically I was told that there's not really much they can do about people who have children. I am at my wit's end and must move - I cannot live under the stress - it is making me physically ill and I am constantly angry living in a home that I cannot enjoy where no one looks out for the shareholder who is not the problem. If this shareholder will not admit that he has children living in his apartment why should he have any protections afforded to "Parents with children"??? Do I have any recourse against the management company or the shareholder above forcing me out of my home? I would have never refinanced my mortgage due to the thousands of dollars in fees if I was planning to move and now I will have expenses to move and possibly have trouble selling my unit due to the recession and also no buyer will ever buy it if they hear the noise above when they are looking at the unit. Please help.

[You Are Guilty]

What do the House Rules say, if anything, about late night noise/disturbances?

In any event, even if you elect to sue the BoD/Mgmt Co and your upstairs neighbor, how to you intend on proving the noises you complain of? (Your testimony will be insufficient. "Your Honor, it was real loud!") Hiring an acoustic expert to measure the noise and conduct sound transmission tests will run you several thousand dollars and that's just for the testing and preparation of a report. Testimony in court will easily be double that.

Incidentally, I've lived in NYC apartments continuously since 1980 and have had more than my fair share of obnoxious neighbors (i.e. ones who like to move the couch and clog dance at 4am). Rather than sue them all, I've found that using earplugs provides a more practical solution to the disturbances.

[emk119]

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I cannot use earplugs to go to sleep at night as then I will not hear my alarm clock to get up for work. I do have audio recordings of the noise and I have spoken to another resident of my coop ( a police officer) who also was forced to move out last year due to his upstairs neighbors uncontrolled children running around. Management did nothing to help him either.
The house rules basically say that no resident shall disturb others with noise, etc. and that fines may be levied for repeat offenders. The rules are very vague obviously and the management clearly is not interested in getting involved.
The management company is aware that the neighbor in question has a grown daughter with children and might possibly be the one who has moved into the apartment without notice. They received complaints about her years ago when she was a teenager living with her father. I've looked over the house rules for something about shareholders being required to inform managment of new tenants moving in but it only seems to address subletting.

As I said, I now have to move. The situation is too tense for me to live there any more as I am afraid my neighbor may resort to an altercation ( I can also hear him fighting violently at times with the woman in the apartment).