Noisy Family Was Placed in an Apartment Above a Disabled Tenant
My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Texas
Here's the story. It is long. I am desperate for how guidance with how to proceed. I am a disabled single mother of one autistic adult child and and 11 year old. I am disabled with a brain tumor of the 8th cranial nerve. I am SSD (single sided deaf) on the left and have hyperacousis on the right. Hyperacousis a debilitating hearing disorder characterized by an increased sensitivity to certain frequencies and volume ranges of sound (a collapsed tolerance to usual environmental sound).
A person with severe hyperacusis has difficulty tolerating everyday sounds, some of which may seem unpleasantly or painfully loud to that person but not to others. Hyperacusis is often coincident with tinnitus. Due to my hyperacousis, I also suffer with severe anxiety and panic attacks. This is triggered by noise and hearing more than one sound at a time and in turn causes confusion, dizziness, and anxiety, panic attacks. I also suffer from severe debilitating spinal stenosis. I can not walk very long and I am not supposed use stairs. My daughter is autistic and she has the same sound sensitivity due to being autistic. She also suffers with severe anxiety and panic attacks.
We moved into a brand new apartment complex on December 20, 2017 on the ground floor. It is government subsidized. When we moved in, we informed the management of our health conditions. On January 31, 2018, a family moved in above us. This family has a young child. Since the day of move in, the child has been constantly running back and forth, pushing furniture, dragging furniture, knocking things down, etc. I spoke to management. When speaking with management, they asked if I had talked to my neighbors. I said no. They said it would be a good idea if I spoke with them first. I really don't like approaching people I don't know about something like this. I could not take it anymore, so I went upstairs and even brought some clothes to offer that was going to be donated to see if they could use them.
I was very polite and told them of our health conditions. I explained that I cannot take the noise and that I am very stressed. My daughter has had several meltdowns from the noise. The lady was very nice and told me that if there is any noise bothering us to let her know. The noise stopped right after I went up and that night was ok. It started again in the morning. This continued for another few weeks. I decided I would let them know for the second time how this is bothering me. So I kindly let them know again. It stopped and restarted again. I let a few weeks pass again. Still no change. I was trying to relax one day and could not. I went upstairs for the third time to ask them to please stop.
These people have a blatant disregard for us below. It is complete disrespect. I've been up there to speak with them three times. I have spine issues and I cannot keep walking up and down stairs. My daughter got very upset and she banged on the ceiling. I told the management this and they were like well if it works....good. I have decided that I will try one last thing. I will write a nice letter explaining how and why the noise affects us and to please cease with the noise. I will also mention that this will be my last communication. I have informed them kindly about this and they continue to disregard us. I have a friend in real estate that I told her about this. She said that I have a right to ask for another apartment.
I would like this, however feel we should not have to move. My 11 year old son does not want to to report them. He is afraid for his safety. My son should not have to feel like this. This is absolutely crazy to live like this. I have decided to write to someone here as well as call the Tenant's Council Monday morning. We do not know how to deal with this. We are afraid of retaliation. It has been tormenting us for too long.
Please advise.
Sincere thanks :)
Re: Disabled on Ground Floor Noisy Family Placed Above Us Fed Up
Please understand; in general society your issues don’t mean a lot to others. The upstairs neighbors are probably asking why they should have to take special effort to accommodate your issues, and realistically, they have a point. If the noise they are making is not considered excessive to an average person, asking them to accommodate you is asking them to do more than they should have to do.
So, since you don’t want to move (which is a perfectly acceptable solution), have you considered asking the management if it would be possible to ask the noisy neighbors to be relocated? Maybe they would be accepting of the offer since it would mean they wouldn’t be above you.
I caution you though. You can have this problem no matter where you move to or who lives above you. While I understand your issues, the bottom line is there is no guarantee it won’t be the same somewhere else or with different neighbors.
While it may not be possible, it sounds like you really need to find either something with nobody above you or a single family unit entirely.
Re: Disabled on Ground Floor Noisy Family Placed Above Us Fed Up
It is very excessive to the average person. It is not just my condition. I have had visitors tell me it is ridiculous. Understood and thanks for the response.
Re: Disabled on Ground Floor Noisy Family Placed Above Us Fed Up
So what is it that you want as a solution? The one reasonable and available solution you seem to not want to avail yourself of. What else can be done to accommodate you?
Re: Disabled on Ground Floor Noisy Family Placed Above Us Fed Up
People are allowed to live their normal lives while living in an apartment. With some apartment buildings, particularly older or converted buildings, noise transmission can be a problem, and that is typically worse for a neighboring or downstairs unit. But no tenant has to avoid creating noise consistent with activities of daily life, even if the noise is poorly contained and is bothersome to tenants in adjacent units.
The landlord cannot unlawfully discriminate against tenants with families, or tell them that they have to constrain their lawful activity in their own home. The landlord is thus offering to accommodate you by moving you to another unit where (at least at present) you will enjoy more quiet. Assuming that it can be managed, it would be sensible for you to request a unit on the top floor, and ideally one with as few shared walls as possible
Re: Disabled on Ground Floor Noisy Family Placed Above Us Fed Up
They did not offer me another apartment. I will speak with management again. A top floor will not work. I am disabled and there is no elevator. Thanks for the reply
They have to accommodate me as well since we are disabled. If not, that is discrimination toward us 😊
Re: Disabled on Ground Floor Noisy Family Placed Above Us Fed Up
Quote:
Quoting
Gaqtugwaw
They did not offer me another apartment. I will speak with management again. A top floor will not work. I am disabled and there is no elevator. Thanks for the reply
They have to accommodate me as well since we are disabled. If not, that is discrimination toward us
You need to understand the limits of accommodations though. You don’t get anything and everything you ask for.
This is an excerpt from a hud site;
Quote:
a request for a reasonable accommodation may be denied if providing the accommodation is not reasonable – i.e., if it would impose an undue financial and administrative burden on the housing provider or it would fundamentally alter the nature of the provider's operations. The determination of undue financial and administrative burden must be made on a case-by-case basis involving various factors, such as the cost of the requested accommodation, the financial resources of the provider, the benefits that the accommodation would provide to the requester, and the availability of alternative accommodations that would effectively meet the requester's disability-related needs.
It cannot impose an undue financial or administrative obligation on the housing provider.
So i ask again;
what are you seekng as an Ada accommodation?
Re: Disabled on Ground Floor Noisy Family Placed Above Us Fed Up
Quote:
Quoting
jk
So i ask again;
what are you seekng as an Ada accommodation?
It is not the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that applies to housing. It is instead the Fair Housing Act (FHA). What it requires landlords do is a bit different than what employers must do as reasonable accommodation under the ADA. But that said, the HUD site you quoted fairly represents the limits of what the landlord is required to do.
Re: Disabled on Ground Floor Noisy Family Placed Above Us Fed Up
Accommodating you does not mean restricting the movement of others. Requiring everyone else in the apartment building to limit their movements and activity to your requirements is not reasonable, and you are only entitled to a reasonable accommodation.
I understand that you feel it is discriminatory if you are not given exactly what you want no matter how it affects others. Please understand that your feeling is incorrect.