Neighbor has non-paying friend stay in Coop Unit and caused great distrubance

R

rs2016

Guest
Jurisdiction
New York
I moved into a coop in August of this year. A few weeks after moving in there was excessive noise beyond what a reasonable expectation would be for fellow tenants. In any case, after weeks of trying to complain to the board and management, I had to call the cops in the middle of the night. It turns out the individual that has been making this noise is a friend of the upstairs tenant who allows her stay there when he's not there. She walks around in platform shoes and throws things around. When I slipped a note under her door, she began to bang on the walls, so that's when I had the police involved.

Since I'm a paying tenant and the tenant above me has a person who is not a relative and is not on the lease, what recourse do I have legally? I have already looked into "right of quiet enjoyment" but I was wondering if there are any other habitable clauses in NYS/NYC I can use in order to further this situation. I'm looking into getting an attorney and have them issue a demand letter.

It's really unfair that I get jolted awake after "quiet hours" which apparently the board doesn't care to enforce and I only get 4 hours of sleep a night due to this individual's antics...I pay rent and the person upstairs makes all this noise and she's not even allowed to live here under the lease!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
 
Unfair doesn't necessarily mean that anything illegal is happening.

The police won't do anything because, apparently, no laws are being broken.

The co-op management won't do anything. I don't think that is has any obligation to help you since you are not the owner and have no contractual relationship with the co-op.

And I don't see your landlord having any responsibility here either.

According to the appellate division of the NY Supreme Court:

"To establish a breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment, a tenant must show either an actual or constructive eviction (see, Herstein Co. v Columbia Pictures Corp., 4 NY2d 117). A constructive eviction occurs where the landlord's wrongful acts substantially and materially deprive the tenant of the beneficial use and enjoyment of the leased premises (see, Barash v Pennsylvania Term. Real Estate Corp., 26 NY2d 77, 83)."

Quoted from:

Google Scholar

Bottom line, if you want any relief you are going to have to sue the woman giving you the problem.

It's called a "private nuisance" lawsuit and you can read about it at:

Property Rights: My Neighbor is a Nuisance - FindLaw

Either that or get yourself a decent pair of noise cancelling ear plugs.
 
Self help remedies get some people killed, and very often such remedies cause the bad actor to increase his or her bad actions.

Life law number #62: Don't kick or otherwise disturb the beast, critter, creature, or organism; unless you are prepared to KILL it. Disturbing any entity often will cause the critter to react in unpredictable, but devastating, disturbing ways. See life law #1 about KILLING.

Life law #1: Avoid killing anything in times of peace, (proceed cautiously during war) as great risks surround taking the life of any organism.
 
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