I own a lower level condo. A prior resident of the upper level condo,
directly above me, tore out the carpeting in the entire unit,
including the bedrooms, and installed wooden flooring. What this did
was remove the noise reduction provided by the carpeting and its
padding. I was not aware of the significance of this (the prior owner
was rarely home) and its impact on the quality of my home life until
the unit was sold to a young couple. Their heavy feet, combined with
the loss of noise deadening qualities provided by the carpeting and
its padding, is making my life miserable. It is impossible to read,
study or even watch TV when they are walking around, the noise is that
distracting. And when they have hard soled shoes on, its almost a
joke its so noisy. I have resorted to sleeping with ear plugs, but am
still woken up early every morning as they move about the bedroom
above me. Its as though I live in their basement. Because of their
wooden flooring I do not enjoy nearly the same level of noise
reduction that other lower level condo owners do. I have not been
able to work this out with them. I brought this to the attention of
my condo association. They advised me they have no guidelines
regarding the installation of wooden floors, and basically, I'm on my
own. Besides making me miserable, I am concerned that this will
negatively impact my ability to sell my condo unit, and reduce the
price I would get upon selling. (I do not want to sell, I am
otherwise happy with where I live.) My question is, do I have any
legal recourse to encourage either the owners of the unit above me, or
the condo association, to do whatever is necessary to bring that unit
in line with other upper level condos in terms of sound reduction in
the flooring? Would getting an attorney involved in this matter do me
any good?

pwkrattlesnake wrote:My question is, do I have any legal recourse to encourage either the owners of the unit above me, or the condo association, to do whatever is necessary to bring that unit in line with other upper level condos in terms of sound reduction in the flooring? Would getting an attorney involved in this matter do me any good?

If the previous owner made modificiations that resulted in your abode being
uninhabitable significantly reduced in livibility, then you have a claim
against the owner of the condo. Have you discussed this problem with your
upstairs neighbor?

Assuming what you state is factual, and that a reasonable person would, like
you, find the hard floors to generate an intolerable level of noise, then
you do have a case where the actions of your neighbor resulted in financial
loss for you (your condo worth less) and damages to you (too much noise to
enjoy your condo).

Before seeing a lawyer or taking this further, why not discuss this with
your neighbor? Invite one down to your place while the other walks around
their place in such a manner as you find troubling? If they are obdurate and
you are sure you're not being overly sensitive, then you may need to seek an
attorney to pursue legal action. If your condo is unlivable or miserable
based on a standard of resonableness, then you should be successful in some
sort of recovery.

I'm being very cagey here on this reasonable business. For example, if you
have a neighbor who owns a dog that barks always, you have cause of action.
If the dog barks once a day for a few seconds, the bark is the same, but the
complaint isn't resonable because in our lives, we must tolerate some
inconvenience - even if you hate the sound of barking dogs. If only a very
rare person would be bothered by the noise in your condo, then you probably
won't recover.

-paul
ianal

Robert Bonomi wrote: Your simplest recourse may be to insulate your ceiling.

Or getting a night job.

"Eliyahu Rooff" <lrooff@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:vsjijvsrnj4gkg81rpk7o79vbpj7dq62fc@4ax.com... "pwkrattlesnake" <pwkrattlesnake@aol.com> wrote in message news:pknfjv0ahjmijal1bjue2qnv95megoethj@4ax.com... I own a lower level condo. A prior resident of the upper level condo, directly above me, tore out the carpeting in the entire unit, including the bedrooms, and installed wooden flooring. What this did was remove the noise reduction provided by the carpeting and its padding. <details snipped> Would getting an attorney involved in this matter do me any good? Depending on how high your ceilings are, you might get more satisfaction
and comfort for your dollars by hiring an acoustical engineer to see what can
be done from below to reduce the noise. Injectable foam insulation between ceiling and floor, suspended ceiling with insulation, etc... I realize
it's not fair that you should bear the cost of what a previous resident did,
but the folks who are living there now aren't responsible for the change
either. Would they consider area rugs if you offered to go halves on the cost? Eliyahu

I'm going to "amen" the idea regarding soundproofing the ceiling and add
that, if it's done right, might even add to the value of the unit.

I had a friend years ago who had the same problem with a next door neighbor.
The common wall was not insulated, and the neighbor made a lot of noise:
Loud music, yelling at each other, etc.... what my friend wound up doing was
building an acoustical layer over the common wall: basically built a wall
*over* the existing wall using 2x4 studs with acoustical foam between the
studs and sheetrock nailed over that. You'd never know anything was done,
and it effectively sound-proofed the wall.

I am not a lawyer, but I have been involved in litigation. It is expensive
and time consuming. I'd think you'd get a better return on investment
spending your time and money upgrading your unit instead of suing the
neighbor: Even if you could get these guys to put down area rugs and keep
the overall noise level down, what do you do if they sell to a bunch of
tap-dancers <gggg>?

Just my 2 cents.

BG