Dallas Property Management Blog

4 Practical Tips On How To Handle Noise Complaints
Dallas property management tenant noise complaints

Federal property management laws require property owners and their managers to maintain a habitable environment for their tenants. However, tenants also have a responsibility to maintain appropriate living conditions inside and outside their homes. Just like it is important for tenants to clean regularly, it’s important that they don’t do anything to disrupt the neighborhood’s peace. As a property owner, you may receive noise complaints from other residents in the neighborhood. In such situations, you should first try to solve the complaint amicably and only involve the authorities if it gets out of hand. Keeping this in mind, here are four practical tips on how to handle noise complaints.

Investigate the Complaint

While most noise complaints are usually genuine, others might sometimes be out of malice. For instance, if a tenant complains about a neighbor whose car makes noise while being driven into the garage, such a complaint is not valid considering it’s beyond your control. On the other hand, a complaint against a neighbor who plays loud music at midnight is valid. With this in mind, you should be able to reasonably assess the validity of the complaint before making a move to prevent further disputes. You can analyze the situation by asking for input from other neighbors or even going to the property to witness it firsthand. This way, you will be able to take the right action to solve the noise complaint. In case a noise complaint is invalid, talk to the complainant and help them understand why you can’t do anything about it, and maybe suggest things they can do to be less bothered by the situation.

Mitigate the Noise

Once you’ve established that the noise complaint is valid, you can start working on reducing the noise. It is also worth noting that while some complaints may not be entirely valid, you can still address the cause of the noise in order to keep residents happy. Also, make sure you communicate with the noisy tenants. Whether the source is noisy pets, loud music or visitors, or arguing with other tenants, talk to them to help them understand the situation and to find ways to make less noise. Take note that if the tenant continues to create noise deliberately, you can generally file a formal complaint with the authorities to initiate the eviction process.

Prohibit Pets

Many tenants have pets, inside and outside. While a lot of animals are relatively quiet, certain situations or stimulants can cause them to create quite a ruckus. This will inconvenience tenants who don’t have pets, or whose pets don’t make a lot of noise. That said, you can ensure maximum quietness by asking your property management company to enforce a no-pet policy on your property. Even so, this is usually only necessary if the noise from the pets is constant and very obnoxious.

Set Rules

To accommodate every tenant, you can also set specific quiet hours. Additionally, you can set a limit on noise allowed on your property during the remaining hours as well as the penalties involved in violation of the rules.

Conclusion

There are many ways you can resolve noise complaints in your rental property amicably, but there are often many other issues that might be harder to handle. Specialized Property Management Dallas has years of experience handling tenants and their complaints. We are the experts at dealing with these difficult situations, so you don’t have to! For more information, or to get a quote, call us at 214-233-7572 or contact us online today.

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