Effective Noise-Reducing Measures for Rental Properties
Reduce the chances of a landlord-tenant dispute by implementing preventative measures in your rental property. For example, noise complaints are a common bone of contention between landlords and tenants, and can cause significant strains in your rental relationship if you don’t handle it with care.
Unfortunately, many landlords overlook this process because they prefer to invest in cost-saving strategies that lower energy bills. However, while a quiet home doesn’t put money directly in your pocket, it can lead to better tenant satisfaction. Continue reading below as we’ve put together this guide to help you implement effective noise-reducing measures.
Why is Noise a Concern for Landlords and Tenants?
- Potential for Conflict
Avoid animosity between tenants by ignoring noise complaints. If a tenant isn’t getting enough sleep because their housemate or a neighbor is playing loud music, they can become openly hostile to the offending party. Thus, if you want to prevent your rental property from having legal disputes, implement noise-reducing strategies.
- Impact on Quality of Life
Protect your tenants’ right to peace and quiet by addressing noise issues promptly. After all, ongoing disturbances can increase stress levels, disrupt sleep, and reduce the general satisfaction of your tenants. As a result, they’re less likely to renew their lease, which can cause a high tenant turnover.
Differentiating Between Reasonable Noise and Excessive Noise
Living in a shared space can produce a certain amount of noise. With how thin modern walls can be in some buildings, you’re bound to occasionally notice when a neighbor has a couple of friends over, or hear the TV in the next room if you share an apartment. That’s why it’s essential to differentiate between reasonable and excessive noise.
Reasonable noise refers to sounds from everyday living such as walking, cooking, or watching TV at a moderate level. It can even include the occasional dog bark or a party. In comparison, excessive noise is often loud and disruptive, like when a neighbor is playing loud music or using power tools at unreasonable hours of the night. Since these sounds are often annoying, property management Texas professionals need to mediate noise concerns between tenants to maintain harmonious living in your area.
Noise-Reducing Strategies for Tenants
Request Permission for Minor Modifications
If you’re a light sleeper or value silence and tranquility throughout the day, your neighbor’s reasonable noise could still be a bother. In such a scenario, your landlord can’t force them to stop, but they can grant you permission to modify your unit to reduce the disturbance.
You could install weatherstripping on your doors and windows to seal up large gaps. If a neighbor lives below you, you could also add a rug or carpet to absorb some of the sound. The best part about this suggestion is that they don’t physically alter the rental or drop its value, so your landlord will more likely approve this one.
Establishing Quiet Hours
Suggest that your neighborhood or building adopt quiet hours. During these periods there’s an expectation for tenants to avoid disturbance and noise-causing activities as much as possible. Besides being respectful to other residents, quiet hours allow noisy tenants the opportunity to still work or party during acceptable times that cause less of a distraction. Most residential estates adopt 11 pm to 7 am as their quiet hour, with some wiggle room during weekends. If you live in a rental with HOA, they can enforce monetary fines if you don’t adhere to the lease agreement despite multiple warnings.
Strategic Placement of Furniture to Create Sound Barriers
Try using your furniture to act as a buffer against noise by being strategic with your placement. If you can’t make modifications to your apartment, work with what you’ve got by arranging your rooms in a way that the furniture can absorb some of the sound. For example, you can put a bookshelf against a common wall you share with the next-door neighbor. You can also position your bed and work table away from noisy areas like hallways to filter out some of the noise before it gets to you.
Conclusion
Implement effective noise-reducing measures in your rental properties to foster a better landlord-tenant relationship. Despite quiet homes not contributing directly to a home’s value, a noisy neighborhood can negatively affect your tenants’ quality of life and cause a high tenant turnover. However, before laying down the law, it’s essential to differentiate between reasonable and excessive noise.
As a tenant, you can filter out noise by making a special request to modify your apartment, or strategically placing your existing furniture. It would also be nice for landlords to implement quiet times, to curb excessive noise at odd hours.
