You just purchased your first 4-plex in Portland, Oregon and you’re excited about the prospect of building your own portfolio of income producing properties. But, there’s a problem….one of your tenants has been noisy and the your other tenants in the 4-plex have been complaining.
What do you do?
Tip 1 – Meet with All Parties Personally
As a property owner, you’ll find that it can be difficult to solve tenant problems when there are multiple parties involved.
To avoid “he said” and “she said” problems, it’s best to meet with all of the parties involved to discuss the situation and see if it can be resolved without any further issues.
Tip 2 – Speak with Each Party Individually
Instead of meeting with all parties involved in the noise dispute together, you should also consider meeting with the tenants individually.
This step is important because, many times people just want to vent and will realize that the problem wasn’t as big as it seemed after speaking with someone who was willing to hear them out.
Tip 3 – Consider Soundproofing
If the tenant who has the sound problem lives in an upstairs unit that is unusually susceptible to noise, you should consider soundproofing via carpet or other means. Hardwoods are beautiful, but loud to the folks living below.
Tip 4 – Create a Sound Policy
As a final step, you could also create a “sound policy” for your 4-plex which states that televisions, music and games must be kept to acceptable sound levels after 8:00 pm each night. You’d be surprised how many tenants would very much appreciate the existence of such a policy!
