| Sunday, May 12, 2002 - 09:41 am About 4 years ago, a new landlord bought the building that I live in. Since then, he has only rented to college students. These college students have loud parties on the weekend and generally trash the hallways. Our building has become like a college dorm. The majority of units are taken by college students who don't care about the quality of life in the building. Is there anything that I can do to stop the noisy parties? PC
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| Wednesday, May 15, 2002 - 04:57 pm Noise is very difficult to deal with. I had a bunch of stuff from an anti noise group that I was going to do a story on, but I can't find it right now. But generally noise is the LL's responsibility to deal with. He has to allow "quiet enjoyment" of the premises. Now half the attorneys will say "quiet" doesn't mean "quiet" in the normal sense, this is true to a degree, but when it is substantially diminishing a tenant's quality of life it is his responsibility to cure the problem, or make good faith efforts. Tenants have a cause of action in contract and in tort under the theory of nuisance. The problem is that many of the lower judges don't have the legal firepower to comprehend basic common law doctrines, or the literacy to read the statutory framework in lay terms, let alone as legal professionals. It's easier for lazy, ignorant pseudo judges to simply cosign the LL's theories. Also, if you have a regulated unit, you may want to consider the harassment angle. If these short term students are being used to harass you out of the apartment you can make an argument in that regard. Also, check out www.Tenant.net for their noise section. It is very good because the webmaster has also been dealing with noisy problems in his neighborhood. And check back here, if I find the name and number of that group I'll post it. Their claim to fame was that they could get the police to actually come to quiet noisy neighbors. And they had a mayoral liaison under Guiliani, Dinkins, and Koch!! Presumably Mayor Bloomberg would follow suit. Ronin
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| Friday, August 30, 2002 - 11:17 pm I need the anti-noise group information so that I may contact them for help. Thanks, Felicia PKandel@MSN.com
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| Tuesday, September 03, 2002 - 09:08 pm Sorry, I've been busy and couldn't find it where I thought I had it. I'll give it another shot. If you don't here from me in a week call for help, I'll have been mired in the quicksand of my filing system! Ronin
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