Noisy tenants can negatively affect their neighbors’ quality of life and your units’ rentability. Addressing both the offender and the complainer can be a challenge, but not an insurmountable one.

Here’s how to deal with noisy tenants and the people who report them.

Refer to your rules and regulations

Do you have a noise policy in your lease agreement? If not, you may want to amend your leases going forward. Setting clear expectations about noise levels and quiet hours can help resolve noise complaints quickly.

Vet the noise complaint

Who reported the noise complaint, a tenant of yours or a neighbor? You need to be respectful of both, of course, but if it’s a tenant, you’ll want to make sure you meticulously document the complaint and your response. You should also keep records about the noisy tenant. Regardless of who reports the noise, hear out both parties and ask other neighbors if they heard excessive noise.

Assess how bad the noise issue really is

Determine if the noise was part of everyday living (e.g., walking across the floor) or if it was excessive (e.g., walking across the floor in tap shoes while dribbling a basketball). Was it a one-off occurrence, like a graduation party or playoff celebration? If it was a one-time event, work with the parties involved, and ask that the event-planning tenants notify neighbors of their plans ahead of time and adhere to quiet hours.

Talk to both parties (separately)

Inform the noisy tenant about the complaint and what they need to do to resolve it, then share your plan of action. For now, that could be just a warning.

After that conversation, let the complaining party know you’ve spoken to the loud neighbor about the issue.

Keep an ear on the situation

If you keep receiving complaints about the same noisy tenant — and if you have a quiet hours clause in your lease — inform the tenant that they’re in violation and subject to penalties. Depending on how you worded the clause, and per state and local laws, those penalties might include monetary fines and/or eviction.

A cure or quit notice might also come in handy. It tells rule-breaking tenants to amend their offensive behavior by a certain date or be subject to eviction.

If the excessive noise doesn’t stop, you might have to evict that tenant, especially if the noise is affecting your other tenants’ quality of life. Better to rid yourself of one bad renter than lose a handful of good ones — and tarnish your good landlord reputation.

Best practices for tackling noise complaints

Act quickly. If you quickly respond in person, you might witness the noise firsthand, allowing you to better evaluate the situation. Plus, your responsiveness lets everyone involved know that you care about their comfort.

Be empathetic. Make sure complaining tenants/neighbors feel heard, and validate their concerns. Let them know you’ll update them as you address the issue.

Provide options. If appropriate, offer alternative (or interim) suggestions to reduce the disruption — turning on a fan, running a white noise machine or even moving furniture so restful areas are farther away from the noise.

Point to the signed lease. Let the details in your noise clause illuminate the steps toward resolution and provide the final say in the matter. The clause is there for a reason; if the noisy tenant signed the lease, the consequences are clear.

Update the unit. If the building itself is contributing to the racket, a little handiwork can take care of it, often quickly and inexpensively. Shore up or lubricate squeaky floorboards, oil rusty hinges, install soft-close or slow-close hinges to prevent slamming, seal or update old windows and fortify your insulation.

Choose renters carefully. When running background checks on prospective renters, keep a cautious eye out for anyone with previous noise complaints lodged against them.

Ignoring both parties is the worst thing you can do with a noise issue. Telling tenants to work it out directly with each other is inadvisable, because you can’t predict if one of them will escalate the situation. Tenants look to you as the landlord to manage the property, so resolve noise issues quickly and decisively — your good tenants will likely stay longer if you do.

Related resources

• 5 Strategies to Building a Good Tenant Relationship
• Getting Your Tenants to Renew: Why They Stay, and How to Keep Them