—Stop the Music
“First you can ask your condominium's board of managers to consider and adopt a rule as to floor coverings and noise abatement between units. The boards of many older condominium buildings have adopted rules requiring carpeting or other noise reduction measures in certain rooms, to deal with the problem that the older buildings frequently have hardwood floors and no sound insulation between floors.
“You can also ask your condominium board to adopt more specific rules as to permissible noise levels emanating from any unit into another unit or into the common areas of the condominium. Such a rule could be expressed in permissible decibel levels, to provide an objective limit on noise and to permit verifiable and objective enforcement by the use of decibel measuring meters.
“Finally, most condominium declarations provide that nothing shall be done willfully or negligently by the occupant of one unit which causes an unreasonable annoyance or a nuisance to other unit owners or occupants. If the noise problem is significant enough to constitute a nuisance, the board actually could, if it chose to do so and after notice to the offending unit owner and an opportunity for the unit owner to cure the problem, maintain an action to dispossess the offending unit owner from his unit. If the board is unwilling to maintain such as action, you could sue the offending unit owner in the Chancery Court, seeking an injunction against the nuisance.”
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