landlord is horrible tenant

bonobo

Hi all! This is my first post, but I am an avid reader of the boards.

I have been living in Prospect Heights for nearly a year in a 4 story brownstone. I'm on the third floor and the landlord lives on the 4th floor. When he was renovating the building due to lack of funds or just plain laziness, he decided not to insulate between our floors, although every other floor was insulated.

As you can imagine this makes for a quite the noisey apartment. Basically we can hear every footstep, phone conversations, "private time," and especially music. Most of the time it isnt a problem; my roommates and I all work long days and dont get home until well into the evening. However, it seems as though the landlord and his 18 year old nephews that live with him don't have jobs and are vampires because they are up all nite. We have to ask him at least once or twice a week to turn his music down at 2,3 or even 5 in the morning.

He has said that he is exploring options for insulating, yet nothing has come of it yet. We've been nervous about calling the police to file noise complaints because we want to sign a lease for another year (besides for the noise issue, we love the apartment and the neighborhood, and cannot afford to move).

We've talked to him so many times about this yet nothing is changing. After sending a rather direct yet respectful email yesterday about an incident the night before, last nite was as if he was acting out in response to the email. I think they may have been rolling bowling balls of tables, and yelling to each other across the apartment.

If it were just another tenant, we would call the police and file complaints, and talk to the landlord. But because it is the landlord, we don't know what we can do. His blatant disregard and disrespect for us as tenants is so frustrating.

Thanks for reading, sorry this is so long. I respect people's opinions on this board and was wondering what you guys thought.

armchair_warrior

move out find a better place for same price.

bonobo

I wish we could. But between movers, brokers fee, and the money we've already put into the apartment, its just not an option.

MOD

Are you getting a better deal on the rent than the other apt.'s that are insulated?

Would fixing the problem mean that either you or the landlord whould be displaced for a while? I don't know much about this stuff, but I am curious. Anyone know about this type of work and how hard/easy is is to do?

jimmylegs

honestly, no amount of normal insulating is gonna make a difference if they're blasting music and bowling (!) are because it's the landlord you're in a tricky position. is there anything in your lease about what the tenant can expect as to noise and whatnot? i asusme this is a non-stabilized apt, otherwise you could get medieval on his ass.

idlewild

The only time I ever heard absolute silence in adjoining and/or top to bottom apartments is when the walls and ceiling were made from heavy duty plaster, or in the case of my friend, she boght a co-op in the Ex-Lax building on Atlantic Ave where the floors were spun from iron and cement. Are the bottom two apartments occupied?

kaiserkai

bonobo wrote: I wish we could. But between movers, brokers fee, and the money we've already put into the apartment, its just not an option.

Move yourself and do it without brokers. Shouldnt cost you a dime.
I have not used brokers for my last 3 apts.

As you said you have roommates so theres at least 3 of you, get a U-Haul and youre done in a day.

doublediamond

I think you need to treat your landlord as you would a tenant. By that I mean approach him and tell him that your quality of life is diminished by all the noise and that he needs to handle the situation in the same way as if you were complaining about a tenant. You may need to call 311 on his ass once in a while.

Try www.tenant.net as well for some advice.