Tenant should state concerns to landlord to turn up heat on noisy upstairs neighbour
CITIZEN ADVERTISING FEATURES Source: DICKIE & LYMAN LLP, who practice landlord/tenant law and other areas of law.
QUESTION:
I have been living in a nice basement apartment in a 1920s era house for almost six years. I have fixed it up immensely at my own expense to make it cozy and a nice place to live. Unfortunately, about 18 months ago, a new neighbour moved in upstairs with an 18-month-old boy. When I am home, I hear the young boy’s temper tantrums, and have to listen to him running and jumping on the bare hardwood floors. I have politely asked the father to teach his son about respecting others’ spaces, but to no avail. I have emailed my landlord who lives nearby and not received any response. I am now feeling that I have no recourse but to incur expenses of moving again. I have looked over the original lease I signed and it states that tenants should have carpeting if there are hardwood floors and complaints from neighbours underneath.
Also, the thermostat for heating the entire building is located on the floor above me so my neighbour (the noisy one) is in control of it. He is always adjusting it to his whims and usually this apartment is 18 degrees Celsius, so I have bought electric heaters to use when I am sitting around. What recourse do I have? Should I just move, which I really don’t want to do?
ANSWER:
Landlords are obliged to take reasonable steps to stop tenants from substantially interfering with the reasonable enjoyment of other tenants. However, the problems about which you have complained would probably not be seen as substantial interference. Substantial interference is a ground of termination, and it is a realistic threat of termination of the tenancy that is a landlord’s main tool to prevent such interference.
Landlords can also try to manage tenant behaviour which does not amount to substantial interference, but which does constitute unjustified interference with other tenants. For instance, your landlord should ensure that the upstairs tenants put down carpet on the hardwood floors to help muffle the sounds coming from upstairs. Perhaps that will make matters tolerable for you.
If the noise caused by the neighbour’s son is over and above what one ought to expect from a young family in today’s day and age, your landlord can potentially give the parents a notice of termination of their tenancy. That is really a formal demand that the parents control their child to avoid undue disturbance of the neighbours. Upon receipt of such a notice, most tenants then realize that the situation is serious and will take action to ensure compliance.
However, if the disturbances are caused by the normal noise and playing of a healthy yet rambunctious toddler, you will either have to learn to live with the child’s noise until he outgrows this particular stage of life, or move somewhere without nearby children.
As to the heat issue, City of Ottawa bylaws require that where the landlord is responsible to provide and pay for the heat, the temperature must be kept at a minimum temperature of 20 degrees Celsius during normal waking hours (i.e. 6 a.m. until 11 p.m.) but can be kept as low as 16.67 degrees Celsius during normal sleeping hours. If the upstairs tenant is causing the temperature in your unit to fall below that level, the landlord is required to address the issue. However, the provision of supplemental electric heaters may be a sufficient response.
For both matters, you should state your concerns to the landlord in writing, with specific details as to when the disturbances and lowering of heat is occurring in order to put the onus on the landlord to take reasonable steps to try to address the problems.