i bought a duplex (!)

Noise issues and tenants who can’t get along

Well, it’s been about two years since I’ve moved out of my previously owner-occupied duplex. And the term “out of sight, out of mind” seems so true… as evidenced by the frequency of my posting on this blog!

In general, things have been going well — I’ve always gotten rent on time, haven’t had any vacancies, and have contracted with the upstairs tenants to tend to the lawn mowing and snow shoveling. The upper and lower tenants have been respectful of the property, even taking it upon themselves to turn off the exterior faucets for winter.

The lone issue is that the two groups of tenants can’t seem to get along with each other… they keep different schedules, have different lifestyles, and seem to keep butting heads over issues that I would think that reasonable adults could solve amongst themselves; but, alas, I keep getting dragged into the middle, having to play police (or perhaps more aptly, “parent.”)

It seems that one set of tenants enjoys having loud parties until 2 or later in the morning. In the past, this sort of thing has been easily solved by 1) inviting your neighbors (and then wrapping things up at a reasonable hour; 2 am is more than late enough; and/or 2) turning the music and/or voices down considerably after a certain hour. Seems like common sense to me. However, it sounds like last week’s party was not wound down at a reasonable hour, even after one of the tenants’ complains to their neighbor, and now I need to do something about it. I’ve advised the non-party throwing tenant to call the police in the event of a noise violation — even though I don’t want police calls to the house, I believe that it would teach them a lesson. I’ve also called and let them know that they’re in violation of their lease agreement, and if this happens again I will be terminating their lease.

What a headache over something that should be solved so easily… even though everything else seems to be going smoothly, I’m seriously considering hiring a rental management company so that I don’t have to be in the middle of issues like this — I’m too young to have to play parent to 20-somethings!

Does anyone else reading this blog have good suggestions for how to handle a situation like this?

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Entry Filed under: General Day to Day Landlady Stuff
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