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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    4

    Default Are Prior Complaints About Other Tenants a Defense to Eviction for Excessive Noise

    My question involves an eviction in the state of: Maine

    Recently moved into a 3br apartment with my family. On one side of the building we reside in a 1st and 2nd floor apartment and on the other side is a small business on the 1st floor and a lone tenant on the 2nd floor. We share a 'U' shape parking lot/driveway, we have a small yard which the kids can play, however, they must cross this driveway area in order to get to the yard. Within the first few days residing here we noticed the employees and their customers tend to drive fast through the driveway/parking lot and it would be a safety issue for my kids. My wife politely asked the employees of this business to remind them and their customers that there may be kids playing and to slow down. Over the course of the next couple of days we realized that the traffic from that business were not slowing down, so my wife again asked to slow down the issue still persisted. We spoke with the landlord about the issue about two weeks ago and he said he would speak with the business, even with his interjection the problem persisted still. About a week ago my 13 year daughter was outside at around 830 pm taking pictures of the sky for a school project and I was on the back steps watching her, as she was walking back to come inside an employee of the business drove at a high rate of speed nearing hitting my daughter, she fell back hurting her wrist, I filed a police report. Four days later the landlord spoke with my wife and stated the business next door complained about the noise coming from our apartment, we know that this claim is false as two of our children are in school during the day and our two younger children are not 'noisy', outside of a couple a short temper tantrums daily they are very well behaved. We then received a lease violation for noise, and then we received a notice to quit and just yesterday an eviction notice to appear in court next month. The owner of the business is the mother in law of the LL's son and the other tenant is a friend of the LL and his son, also both the owner and the other tenant have told neighbors that they believe we are abusing our kids but don't want to call the police as they don't want to get involved. Can anyone give me some information about this situation as to what I should do. I realize this is just a brief summary but any help would be appreciated.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Are Prior Complaints About Other Tenants a Defense to Eviction for Excessive Nois

    The one has nothing to do with the other. If you are creating noise at a level that justifies eviction, it is not a defense that other people speed in the community - just as their complaints about your noise wouldn't excuse their speeding.

    If you believe that the landlord cannot substantiate a case for eviction based on noise, you can go to court and present your side of the story and any supporting evidence and let the judge decide whether or not you were excessively noisy.

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