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22 Sept 2011

Tenants Making too much Noise

Another complaint about one of my tenants making too much noise came via email this morning. What to do when you are this far from the problem. My neighbor who owns the duplex next door emails me
...there has been a lot of noise from your duplex recently. Its male voices mostly. I also get the impression that there are a few extra people living there now.
My great neighbor had to specify that its male voices because my tenant is a single mom with 1 child. Its difficult for me to just take this at face value as there may be some neighbor conflicts that exist. I thanked her and promised to deal with it. A huge sigh later, I sent my tenant an email to say "I dont say you did this, but this is a complaint I received, I just want to get your side of the story, Sorting this out immediately is good for all of us..." and a lot of other yada-yada. I dont want to unnecessarily upset an otherwise good tenant. Do you notice I was being overly polite and lacked some confidence???

My tenant didn't notice that. She was really pissed to say the least.
Yes we had some noise discussion with (neighbor). It only happened when I came in late with the car music. It stopped immediately she complained. There is no additional people, its me, partner (new fiance or hubby), daughter and person 4. And that is still in line with the agreement we have. If that is a problem I would ask for a month to look for somewhere else to live.
She went on to explain how other neighbors are making noise. How that is never addressed. Parties, etc. And at the end thanked me for letting her know. I do hope that she doesn't go confront and fight with the neighbor. I didn't mention the name of the neighbor but my tenant knew who she was. At the end, I am left with more problems to take care of. My tenant started listing the problems she has with other neighbors neatly. I am actually glad she did so that I try to have them sorted out. I only wish she complained earlier.
What it means is that I should add a clause about noise in my contracts going forward. I always have a separate sheet of the rules in the tenants' files. Ten years later, I learn how to work better. To think I have so much in my hands already with the one tenant moving out end of September and one moving in beginning of October. That means I have to prepare the duplex for tenants whilst it still has the outgoing tenants. The only positive thing is that, I didn't struggle to get a new tenant, and I didn't have to lower the rent.
I am now looking at buying a property I can convert into duplexes. I never did any property that needs structural changes like that. It will be a nice challenge shopping for a house with a good size land, changing it into nice duplexes with separate entrances. I cant wait.

Do you ever get complaints about tenants making too much noise? or its just my luck!

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