Settlement.org logo

Register
Lost password
 

HomeLandlord and Tenant Information and Issues

Landlord/tenant rights, dealing with problems, where to get help...

Noisy Tenant in Shared House 

MandyWei
MandyWei
Posts: 1


Posted On: 5/29/2015
MandyWei
MandyWei
Posts: 1
Hello everyone,

my family and I live in a shared house on first floor with another person.

his room and ours are separated by a kitchen in the middle, and because theres a hallway on our side of rooms, noises level is quite the problem.

The tenant is not a night shift worker, he is by choice choosing to sleep from the hours of 4am to 1pm next day. He cooks at 2am almost every night, and makes whistling and loud noise in the open kitchen pass 11pm.

Sometimes I feel i'm being harassed when coming out from the shower to my room fully clothed when he starts to whistle. When he watches tv shows, he often puts it on surrounding speakers, and this happens often past 9pm. our family has a young child of age 10, and she needs to sleep by 10pm, so you should see why this is quite the disturbance.

My mother also work during the day where night time is the only time she can sleep. Our family have been woken more than 15times within the month we've moved in, and I think this is getting way out of hand.

I have asked him nicely to lay out rules about noise levels etc, he said that he will keep quiet at night.

But on the same day we had our discussion, he made noises in the kitchen louder than usual. I'm not sure if this is aimed at us for confronting him about such matter.

What is more unbelievable is that he even wrote messages to me telling my family to be quiet during the day, and make no noise when cooking. I am very frustrated and lost at his demand.

When my family cooks or have any activities, it is during reasonable hours with reasonable noise level, but he said that because he sleeps during the day, we need to be the same as he is at night, not making any noise.

Obviously theres the irony there that he IS making noise at night, when I pointed that out, he used excuses such as that he has to eat and he is large build.

When I said that we will be quiet during the day, but we do have three people in our family, so there will be noises and it should be allowed a little bit louder than he is.

The tenant said he doesn't care, and if I want him to be quiet at night, we should do the same for him during the day.

He also mentioned that we should not include him in our family conversations because he can hear it through the wall.

I am absolutely speechless by his request, in no way did our family talk loudly or "included" him in our family matters. He even had the audacity to tell me to speak in our own room when the kitchen/dining is shared.

I do not know what to do, and I have told the landlord but i think that telling our landlord will prove this inconclusive.

We've also requested a door to be added at our side of hallway to reduce noise and keep some privacy.

But i think the landlord does not want to due to cost.

we really don't want to move as it is close to my younger sister's school. as of this point, what can we do next?

The tenant does not have an ounce of conscience to stay quiet, and it has been a toil for our family to live like this.

Thank you!

M.
link
Moderator
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 4063


Posted On: 6/2/2015
Moderator
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 4063
Hello M,

Thank you for sharing your situation and question with us.

We can appreciate that you would be concerned about this situation. It sounds like it is quite stressful for you and your family.

You can find some helpful information in this Sharing Rental Housing Tool.

You may notice that it talks about roommates, however, if you go through the tool and answer the questions you will find some information related to situations such as yours.

We suggest that you may also want to contact the nearest Community Legal Clinic for some assistance.

I hope this information is helpful. Please let us know if you have further questions and if there is any follow up to your question/situation.

=====
Anna
Settlement.Org Content and Information/Referral Specialist, CIRS
Settlement.Org
link