Advice about a complicated unit situation...

14 years ago

This will be a little difficult to explain, but I will try my best.

#1. The unit we occupy, 1 of 2 in the building, is a 4 bedroom 3 bath split level. The master bedroom and 1 of 3 bedrooms is located on the ground level. (this is my living area, bedroom and study for school work and office.) On this level is also the garage. There is a door that separate the garage from my living area and a hall of approx. 5ft. The issue that I am having is this. The garage is being used by the upstairs neighbor to store his motorcycles along with various other belongings of his. He has now decided to start to use the garage as a "workshop" and this creates a lot of noise and mess that comes into the unit. I have addressed the problem and he says that he owns 1/2 of the garage and can do what he wants in there.

Is there a privacy issue here? I think since there is direct access into this unit, it is like me going up to his back door and deciding that I am going to start cutting wood or hammering and building things. I am thinking of going to the city and checking into my options on what I can do.

Besides that, does anyone know of a good reference for looking up city codes regarding matters of areas of a rental unit and who can have access and to what.

thanks

Comment (1)

moonshadow
14 years ago
Tricky.
I'd probably research local code first.

If you're in a town, your town's Code Enforcer should be able to assist and give you copies or ordinances (I have copies for each town we have a rental in).

Larger metro area, I'm not sure. You can try googling it or checking the government center web site of your city. Or drop into a local city hall and ask from there.

If neighbor is a tenant, he doesn't "own" anything. If he's permitted garage access, he's only leasing that space. I'm pretty tired, so haven't put a lot of thought into this, but you do have some valid issues. (Your right to quiet enjoyment, for one.) You say you've addressed it, but have you taken it up with the LL/owner?
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