Noisy Next Door Tenants Is Landlord Liable

[zorris]

We live in MA...
Next door to us is a 2 family unit with renters. The bottom half is extremely noisy (loud stereos, loud cars, screaming and yelling the middle of the night, honking horns, etc.), and they are also driving up and down our yard and ripping up the grass. We have called the landlord several times with no positive action. We now have the Chief of Police, a Lieutant, and the Mayor involved. If the Landlord still refuses to do anything about it can we sue him for nuisance and possibly the cost of another house? We do have all incidents from the 1st of the year logged and the current police investigation.
Thanks in advanced.

 

[LL]

Are you talking about YOUR landlord, or the landlord of the neighbor?

Yes, your landlord has some responsibility to provide you with a quiet environment. But what is it that you expect him to do?

I don't know what responsibility the next door landlord would have to you?

You say that the police (and others) are "involved". What does that mean? Did you make a complaint to the police, and they came and arrested the neighbors? Generally, police do not get involved in such things, unless someone or some property is getting hurt. Thus, any noise statutes aren't seen as being worthy of being applied. And that implies that your log of events isn't worth much. A lot depends on where you are. In a small community, you can get a lot more done than you can in a big city.

I find that such neighbor problems are nearly impossible to solve, if simple mediation doesn't work in the beginning.

As far as suing, you can no doubt, find a lawyer that will be happy to take any case. You have to think of, What is the depth to which you are really being damaged, how much money would likely be realistically assigned to your damage, how long would it take to get to court and then to collect on a judgement, what do the neighbors have to collect from.

If the mayor is really involved, see if you can get some action from him to get authorities to act, if the situation is really that bad.

 

[LL]

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