Can I legally break my lease due to a loud neighbor?

Question

We have a neighbor that is very loud in our apartment building. I have been keeping a log of when we called the office due to the noise and what action was taken, which seems like very little and the cops have been involved. Can we legally break our lease because of the noise and the non stop problems with this person? And, yes we are buying a house as soon as we can.

Answer 1

The following excerpt was taken from http://ohmyapt.apartmentratings.com/livi...

I hope this helps.

Most states have a law that states that each tenant or homeowner has a right to the quiet enjoyment of their homes, which you would see as part of the rental agreement. If you have a perpetually noisy neighbor, they are breaking this law and thus, you can actually sue them in small claims court.  

Answer 2

Yes. If the landlord can't or won't stop it.

Answer 3

you ought to check with your landlord and see if the offending neighbor could be evicted since he or she might be offending others

Answer 4

Save your money and have your landlord's leg 'broken'.

Answer 5

Absolutely!

The legal wording for this justification is something like you "are being deprived of enjoyment of the property" or something like that. It's essentially the idea that your landlord has the responsibility to provide you with reasonable standard of living while renting from him..

Loud neighbors definitely detract from quality of life.

Answer 6

If the neighbor also lives in your same apartment complex and has the same landlord, maybe.  In the US, generally, you are entitled to "quiet enjoyment" of the premises.  If the landlord does not take reasonable action to keep things quiet, you can claim that the landlord has "breached the covenant" of providing "quiet enjoyment".

But beware--if the landlord sues you for the remainder of the lease, you may lose the case.  A certain amount of noise is expected in apartment living and a judge doesn't let a tenant off the hook every time.

Answer 7

Unless there is a loophole in the lease that refers to unhospitable living that includes noise from neighbors, you are rather stuck to be honest. Not to mention, loud noise below certain decibles are allowed from about 6am to 10 or 11PM depending on your city ordinances. to give you an idea of the decible levels, a noisy dishwasher is about 65 decibles.

You may also want to consider that you hear whit noise because there is lack of insulation between the apartment walls. Most interior walls are not insulated so the noise is not muffled. Lastly, if the noise was really that loud, I am sure the cops would have done something by now.

Answer 8

Under the law, everyone should have "peaceful enjoyment"

of their apt.

Since the police are doing nothing, it might not be as bad as you THINK it is.

Calling the office will not give you a way to break your lease.

Put a letter in writing about your problem.

But, it appears to me you want out to buy your house.

What times are the noise?

Day time before 10pm will be hard on you to show cause.

I myself would have given your neighbor a warning letter.

If the police had taken some type of action, it would have helped the landlord get rid of them.

Are you willing to go to court with your landlord to show cause to evict them?

That is always my problem with dealing with these matters.

Under Arizona law if the police had taken action and or I caught them and or if you are willing to go to court, I would serve a ten day notice.