A situation came up where I am living. We live in rental in a coop. My husband was made to appear before the board. The tenant upstairs made claims that my husband was intimidating her. We moved in April of 2007. A few weeks after we moved in we heard very loud banging, crashing and screaming coming from the apartment directly above us. It sounded like a bowling alley. I have hearing loss and wear 2 hearing aids. When I listen to TV I wear headphones. This noise was so loud I could hear it with my hearing aids off and my the headphones for the TV on. The ceiling in our apartment was even shaking and the noise continued for about seven hours. June of last year my husband just left a note that was only one line asking the tenant to please not make so much noise. In August we again heard very loud noise. If was coming from above us. We couldn't tell if was coming from directly above us.
My husband went upstairs and knocked on both apartment doors, but no one ever answered. At the beginning of February my husband received a letter addressed to him and the woman who lives above us asking that he appear before the board regarding noise issues. We thought this was very strange. We had not complained to anyone about the noise or have not been contacted by anyone stating that anyone had complained against us. If we experience problems we usually just try to deal directly with that individual. We called the person at the management company who signed off on the letter. He said he only was instructed to send the letter. He said call the president of the board. We called her and she was on her way to take her husband to the hospital. She said in a nutshell the woman upstairs was 91 and that my husband had been pounding and screaming on the ceiling when this woman had her grand children over and that there had been a fight.
This entire situation sounded totally crazy. I told the president we had never even directly spoken to the woman the entire time we had lived here. My husband had never pounded or screamed through the ceiling. We explained about the very loud noise we had been experiencing and that we had left the note and knocked on the doors upstairs. I pointed out this was last summer. When we went to the board meeting the woman's son and daughter were there. They said their mother felt intimidated to turn on her TV because of pounding and screaming. She said her mother was 91 and how much noise can a woman of 91 make? Her son said her grand children came over every six to eight weeks for an hour or so. He said his mother was entitled to have her grand children visit. He then stated that the fight he had with my husband had taken place two months earlier. He had fought with my husband through our front door. What we were being told made absolutely no sense to us. We explained to the board the level of noise we were hearing was banging, crashing and screaming. If was not for just an hour or so. It was for several hours and it went into the evening. I explained the fact I could hear it without my hearing aids.
We stated that no fight had taken place. When I asked when this fight had happened, her son said he didn't remember the exact date. It was on a Sunday two months earlier he said. Two months earlier I was on vacation and we had gone away for a few days and then when we returned my husband and I were both very ill with the flu. My husband could not even speak he was so sick. I was home with him during this entire time, so I know this fight had never taken place. I found it odd if my husband had been intimidating this woman and her son had fought with my husband, why they would wait two months to act on it? The final response from the board was that this woman was only making white noise. Banging on the ceiling and screaming was intimidation. I am not clear how banging, crashing, and our ceiling shaking can be considered white noise? I am questioning the legitimacy of this situation because my lease is about to expire at the end of April. My apartment is a sponsored unit. This means that my apartment is owned by the original owner.
This means if he wants to rent the apartment, the board has no jurisdiction about who he rents it to. The other questions I have are why the board was even involved. We are renters. The board told us directly last year after we moved in. If there are any problems we would deal directly with the management company since we are renters. We didn't really want to go to the meeting, but we attened in good faith. The other question I have if this was legitimate why no one ever notified us before now? A copy of the letter my husband received was also sent to the owner of my apartment. For a board meeting to have been called and a copy of the letter being sent to the owner, this was being considered a very serious issue. It would have been easy enough for someone from the management office to pick up a phone and call us. I asked why this was not done at the board meeting.
This is the answer I received from one of the board member’s was that he know about the noise issue over the summer. He just thought that we were just settling in. My concern is that for what ever reason the board does not want renters in the complex and came up with this situation just to get us to move. As I already mentioned they can not tell the owner they he can not rent the apartment since it is a sponsored unit. My lease is going to expire at the end of April and we have not received a new lease yet. Another odd thing is when I looked at the apartment before we rented it, is that the super thought we were buying the unit. He made a statement that renters only were able to rent apartments for one year. I asked the broker and assured me this was not the case. I am not sure what exactly is going on? Any feed back would greatly be appreciated.

