If you live in an apartment, you are almost sure to have other people living around you. While these neighbours can be of great help and some may even turn to be your close friends, some of them can make your life unbearable. Dispute with your neighbor can arise over pets, noise, odor etc. and escaping this situation isn’t just as easy as packing up and moving out. If you are suffering the misfortune of living next to people who you don’t get along with,here are some of the tips on how to deal with bad neighbours.
- Approach Your Neighbor
Communication is one of the best and easiest ways of solving disputes but many people shy away from it because they fear confrontation. Approach your neighbor in a polite way. Even if you are approaching them with grievances or they haven’t been showing consideration towards you, approaching someone with a cordial disposition can easily change their response. Be friendly, clear and factual and treat it like a friendly chat because your goal is to explain your concerns, reach an agreement and not to start a fight. However, some neighbours aren’t reasonable and when they get confrontational, make it clear that you are not there to argue but if they persist, leave. The fact that you chose to approach them will cast you in a better light in case you decide to involve your landlord or take legal action. - Talk to Your Landlord
All tenants have the right to live in apartments without them being disturbed i.e. Covenant of quiet enjoyment. If you have a problem with your neighbour and you have tried to approach them without success, it’s the landlord who needs to put an end to it. If your apartment has thin walls and you can hear your neighbour talk or hear what they’re watching or listening to, it’s up to the landlord to reinforce good walls. If your neighbours are playing loud music, making unnecessary loud noises at night or smoking cigarettes in the hallway that’s outside your door, the landlord needs to enforce a lease provision that warns against smoking in the hallways, install high quality filters and set aside some hours as a quiet time. Note that the landlord will listen and quickly solve these kinds of problems if you are a good tent who pays rent on time. - Take Self-Help Measures
If you have talked to your neighbor or you have reported to the landlord and still things aren’t changing, you can take self help measures such as:
• Wearing earplugs if you are dealing with a noisy neighbor. Earplugs will help to cut out the disturbing external noise and you can enjoy peaceful moments while sleeping, watching, reading or doing other house chores.
• Fight the disturbing external noise with white noise. You can do this by investing in a White Noise Machine which creates gentle continuous sounds and mask stray noises. You can also turn on the fan or play a CD which has ambient sound effects.
• Use air purifiers .They help to mask odors that maybe wafting from your neighbor’s house and make the air that you breathe cleaner and healthier. - Take Legal Action
Taking legal action is one of the last resorts. If it is a noise complaint, you can file a police complaint or through the local council. If you feel that your neighbours are bullying, harassing or stalking you, take the matter to the police. You can also sue your landlord for breach of quiet enjoyment. If you move out in the middle of your lease term because your landlord broke the lease agreement by breaching the right to quiet enjoyment, they may decide to sue. Therefore you need to be prepared when taking legal action. Have a good documentation that will support you case e.g. Attempts that you tried to solve the problems with the bad neighbour, the number of times you reported the case to the landlord, the lease agreement your neighbour or landlord has broken. - Move Out
Once it has reached a point where your neighbours are causing too much problems and you have used all means that you can to solve them, move out. You can still find a nice, quiet apartment with respectful neighbours.
