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Are you under any rent regulation? If yes, there's something called a warranty of habitability (it might apply to all NYC leases, regulated or not--I haven't dealt with tenant issues in a while, so I'm not sure). The person to sue is the landlord (not that I'm suggesting you do so) not the tenant, because the landlord has provided only half-baked solutions to your problem, and he took nearly three months to do it, if I read your post correctly. Since your lease is with the landlord, he's in breach of your lease, because he's failing to provide a habitable space. You've tried to work it out the tenant, who is not cooperating. It's the landlord who needs to force her to, or come up with some structural solution to her apartment to dull the noise. If your building is not rent requlated, he's under no obligation to renew her lease. Let's hope she's gone soon! Sorry you're going through this. Otherwise, I like the suggestions to blast your own TV and music just when you sense she's fallen asleep. That might induce her to negotiate peace with you.
I'm not regulated, but yes the warranty of habitability, and the sub-clause of quiet enjoyment are law in NYC, for all rents.
I'm not going to blast music into her apt, that's childish and clearly isn't a winning argument.
UPDATE: LL said he would put insulation, then a month later asked me to pay for 1/2 of it, to which I agreed, then a month after that said that his 'partners' wouldn't pay for it (even though I agreed to pay for half).
I took my neighbor to small claims, judge didn't see us, going back to court next month. LL sent me an email stating that his 'partners' won't be renewing my lease AND that he wants to drop the small claims lawsuit against her (fat chance). And thanks to the tenant blacklist, renters are SOL in NYC against landlords.
UPDATE: LL said he would put insulation, then a month later asked me to pay for 1/2 of it, to which I agreed, then a month after that said that his 'partners' wouldn't pay for it (even though I agreed to pay for half).
I took my neighbor to small claims, judge didn't see us, going back to court next month. LL sent me an email stating that his 'partners' won't be renewing my lease AND that he wants to drop the small claims lawsuit against her (fat chance). And thanks to the tenant blacklist, renters are SOL in NYC against landlords.
I'm very sorry to hear about your lease - but I see that I advised you against small claims, told you to try to band together with your neighbors, and suggested that you write a formal letter, and it sounds like you ignored all of that.
Maybe for your next place you can sublet from a co-op/condo owner, where any blacklist won't matter.
I'm very sorry to hear about your lease - but I see that I advised you against small claims, told you to try to band together with your neighbors, and suggested that you write a formal letter, and it sounds like you ignored all of that.
Maybe for your next place you can sublet from a co-op/condo owner, where any blacklist won't matter.
Oh, I wrote formal letters, but LL did nothing serious other than text her (not even one notice to cure), also, the way the building is set up I'm the only person that hears her, because we are on the top floor and the other wall is load bearing brick. Taking her to small claims was the only time that for about two weeks she finally stopped!
I'm not on the black list, as the LL hasn't taken me to court, so I'm not sure where you got that from?
The 4-story building I live in is from the 50's. All modern flat-screen TV's to make them so thin have the speakers located in the rear of the TV, i.e. they project backwards and are horrible speakers.
I live in a studio, and luckily live on the top floor, so I have no one upstairs and one of my walls is solid load-bearing brick so I don't hear anything. Unfortunately, the common walls are made out of spit and paper and I share a very large (20' x 9-6") wall with my neighbor. Because the walls are so thin, and have no insulation of any kind, you can hear everything.
My previous neighbor and I were quite courteous to each other: she used to have this cone-shaped speaker next to the common wall and I could hear it in the evening, so she moved and I never heard anything again. When I got a TV, I reciprocated and bought a soundbar, and she never heard me. I have the subwoofer that came with the soundbar about a foot away from the brick wall on a professional isolation platform as to not disturb my downstairs neighbor: it's really rather easy to be courteous. We also made sure that we and guests spoke at a normal voice-level and not past 10pm on working nights (Sun-Thu).
My previous neighbor unfortunately moved to California and a new neighbor moved in. Like my previous neighbor, my new neighbor is a woman, but is in her mid-20's vs early 30's like the previous one. I originally had a friendly relationship with the new neighbor, and the way she placed her apt: with the back of her couch facing the common wall and her TV against her brick wall, with the speakers projecting onto the brick wall worked well for both of us: the sound projected by her and her friends was directed away from the common wall and by the time the ****ty TV speakers hit the brick wall and then finally reached the common wall, I couldn't hear anything.
About 6 months ago she rearranged everything, with the back of her couch against the brick wall and her TV about a foot away from the common wall, making the sound from her TV reach me because it's about 1 1/3 feet away, vs 10+ feet away from her couch. I could now hear EVERYTHING (and I mean everything, I can differentiate between male and female voices and often make out what they are saying, and it's TV speakers, not actual people!) and not only does she sometimes have the TV on on a weekend from 11am until past midnight, but also she's an insomniac and will turn on the TV at 2:30am, etc...
I spoke with her and she started with a barrage of ridiculous excuses, and I quote:
1) If I heard you, I wouldn't complain
2) In my old apt we had people that vacuumed at midnight and it made total sense that we complained
3) I'm bothered by honking cars, but my TV isn't an issue
4) I pay a lot of money for rent, so I can do what I want
5) You should get a white noise machine or ear plugs
I then offered to buy her a soundbar and she agreed and weeks went by and I followed but and she basically started screaming at me even that she wouldn't buy it, though she agreed to...! I didn't go to management as my lease renewal was coming up soon and didn't want an issue. She then started escalating the noise: having friends over with over-decent voice-levels until past midnight on weekdays.
I went ahead and spent money on some heavy-duty noise barriers, covering 12' of the wall (another 4' is covered by full bookshelves, hooray for free books), which weigh a pound per square foot and were stupidly awkward to install. Unfortunately, they did nothing.
After my lease was renewed, I spoke with the landlord, who doesn't like her at all (she doesn't like him either), and he said that her behavior was unacceptable and that he would speak with her and to send him the link to the sounbar and he would purchase and install it. I sent him the link and it took 3 months for them to finally install it! three days from the time they said it was installed, I'm able to hear everything again, sometimes at louder levels than before! I have no idea if she is pointing it towards the wall (on purpose) or if both the sounbar and rear-facing TV speakers are turned on, but I'm entirely too involved in the state of her electronics. EVERY TIME her TV is on: I hear it, often OVER my white noise machine, A/C or sometimes over both at the same time! Calling 311 is pointless, I would have more luck become an NYPD officer than complaining to 311!!!
Unfortunately, I'm the only neighbor affected by this, as I am the only one that shares a common wall with her and has her TV speakers directly broadcasting onto the wall. And the landlord stated that he will continue to call or text her, but he isn't doing anything else (even though of course he is in breach of my lease).
I've had to apologize to my boss on more than one occasion, this is affecting my mental state, and my ability to work and pay rent, bills, etc... not helping is that I make far less than the '40x rule' for the apartment and am wholly unable to move, I got this apartment only because the landlord was sympathetic to my previous apartment issue (massive mold prob, but I showed 4 years of perfect payment history).
It's been 6 months of utter torture. On more than one occasion I've almost had all humanity stripped out of me and I was ready to physically assault her. I have no idea what to do, but my back is between a rock and a hard place, and I'm very afraid of lashing out with permanent consequences.
Get your local neighborhood pimp to drop by her home at midnight when she is all alone. He will pimp slap her sooo hard that she will be on the corner by 12:10am and your noise worries will be over for good.
Get your local neighborhood pimp to drop by her home at midnight when she is all alone. He will pimp slap her sooo hard that she will be on the corner by 12:10am and your noise worries will be over for good.
Too late for that in the long run, LL already told me that he doesn't want to renew my lease. So I have to move regardless. And honestly, I don't want to be here any longer anyways.
Too late for that in the long run, LL already told me that he doesn't want to renew my lease. So I have to move regardless. And honestly, I don't want to be here any longer anyways.
Can't blame him either. You made wayy too much of a stink over this. You're not the only one that has lived somewhere with thin walls. You could've solved this by agreeing to pay for all of the insulation yourself. Instead you took it small claims court. Ridiculous. All over a freaking TV. Give me a break. You sound like a miserable individual to spend so much time on this issue.
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