Spatch is not happy with whoever's remodeling the kitchen in the apartment under his:
... [P]ower drills are whirring and things are getting hammered and slammed and pulled down and stuff.
At 7:30 in the goddamn morning. On a Sunday. ...
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renovations will come to an end
By Anonymous
Sun, 11/30/2008 - 1:13pm
Spatch can buy a house and then be annoyed by his neighbor who puts their dog in the yard while it barks and barks and barks and barks and barks.
Did you know that a dog barking in the City of Boston for five minutes or longer is "a nuisance"?
Animal control will cite the owner and ask the owner to remedy the situation. If however, the owner disregards animal control's citation and the dog continues to be a nuisance, it takes ten signatures to get a hearing. Animal Control has an officer on staff that will conduct the hearing and render a disposition.
Dogs that are a danger (as opposed to a nuisance) are treated with fewer accommodation to the owner. In other words, if the dog bites or bears it's teeth and snaps in a threatening way, it is a danger and must be restrained from neighboring properties.
When are they supposed to do this?
By SwirlyGrrl
Sun, 11/30/2008 - 2:40pm
We were both working - me full-time, my husband half-time, when we were renovating our kitchen last year. We had a power saw going at midnight one night so we could finish the floor ahead of the plasterers. I felt bad for the neighbors, but it was the only time we did anything like that and, well, we had to do it then. They have renovated things and made noise at odd hours too. If it is just once or twice and only once in a while, then it isn't any big deal. I had to put up with hired landscaping noise interrupting my work through my entire dissertation.
The kids just learned to sleep through it in the evening, when I would often be up until midnight working in there. Get home from work, microwave something, change into work clothes, wreck or build something.
If you want to have a nice neighborhood or an attractive building, work has to happen sometime. We got back to the completely empty kitchen last Thanksgiving, and did demolition for ten straight hours, because that was when we had the time to tackle the job. If it was a problem, we told our neighbors to say something.
If they are in Boston...
By Neal
Sun, 11/30/2008 - 5:53pm
they're supposed to do it during construction hours, which are 8AM to 6PM Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. Any construction outside of those hours is illegal without a special permit. Regular building permits are also only valid during those hours.
But do you share walls, floor, or ceiling with your neighbors?
By Ron Newman
Sun, 11/30/2008 - 6:29pm
That's the issue Spatch is having -- the renovation is happening in another apartment of the same (fairly small) building.
Step 1: Talk to your neighbors!
By SwirlyGrrl
Sun, 11/30/2008 - 8:00pm
Step 2: what are the local laws
Step 3: Check if they have a building permit
Share walls, ceiling, etc? Been there, done that. We lived through an entire winter and more of renovations to the apartment above us. The landlord, who was renovating to move himself and new bride in, kept to the permitted hours for the most part, and usually warned us when they were going to have to do something earlier - like bring a crane in to swing the drywall to the upper floor. He also warned us when he was pulling day shifts and had to work in the evenings - a lot of the time, actually. For our part, we let him know when we were going to be gone so they could make a racket to wake the dead.
The real question is, how long will the off-hours noise be going on? One morning? Who cares. When I had a more random schedule, I got woken up all the time because somebody always has to do something sometime. Entropy is forever, you know! Weeks on end? Talk to them about it, and bring in the city services if they give you grief.
It's all about the relationship you have with your neighbors
By eeka
Sun, 11/30/2008 - 10:59pm
We live on one floor of a threedecka. One of the neighbors, we always tell if we're going to leave anything in the common hallway for a few hours, going to be hammering or have people over or have hammered people over. We ask them what time we should stop, and they're always like "no big deal, thanks for letting us know," and they similarly let us know if they're planning anything.
The other neighbor won't ever answer the door or phone, so we've needed to call her landlord when this neighbor has done stuff like blocking in our car (the condo deed says that no one is to park in the driveway except for my unit) and we need to get in touch with her quickly. She was then really rude about it and said we didn't need to tattle to her landlord, we shouldn't be all territorial about the parking space that we own and she didn't ask to use, etc. Said neighbor also has been rude and threatening when we tried to ask her to turn down loud music in the middle of the night and she wouldn't answer the door or our knocking on the floor, so we called her landlord. So yeah, we no longer bother to let her know that we're going to be having people over or going to be assembling furniture. And I've noticed that when Rude Neighbor is being loud, the members of my household and I tend to mutter snide things, but if Friendly Neighbor is being loud, we tend to just be like "oh, she must have relatives over or whatever, cool."
Anyway, not to sound like some of our chronic explainers around here or anything, but there are definitely neighbors who are totally unreasonable about negotiating noise levels and such, and I think it's pretty normal to experience their noise as more aggravating than similar noise levels from people who are otherwise decent people.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
lay down the law
By Brett
Mon, 12/01/2008 - 12:29am
The other neighbor won't ever answer the door or phone, so we've needed to call her landlord when this neighbor has done stuff like blocking in our car (the condo deed says that no one is to park in the driveway except for my unit)
Then have her car towed. If it's parked on the street/sidewalk, call 911 (yes, that's the proper number. Only BPD can have the car towed; BTD CANNOT, at least by themselves.) If it's on private property, you might have to post a sign before you can legally have her towed yourself, dunno (a lawyer would of course.)
Said neighbor also has been rude and threatening when we tried to ask her to turn down loud music in the middle of the night
Ask her to turn it down, and if she's still rude, say "well, you can negotiate with me, or you can speak with Boston Police when they show up in response to my noise complaint.*display cell phone* Which do you prefer?"
Do it with someone who can witness it (have them hang back but be within sight/earshot.) If she threatens you, call the cops, and then there will be a record when a week later your tires are slashed.
The first visit, they'll probably just make it clear that she'll be in Big Trouble the next time they come, and hopefully that will be enough...
Better number to call
By dirtywater77
Mon, 12/01/2008 - 5:25am
Do the whole system a favor and program 617-343-4911 into your cellphone. This will get you the same citywide dispatchers as 911. Not only will you avoid tying up 911 lines that should be reserved for true emergencies, you will also bypass the State Police dispatchers, saving their time and yours.
The City of Boston does the entire public safety industry a disservice by encouraging people to adopt the bad habit of dialing 911 for non-emergencies. If Menino had a clue he would implement 311 for non-emergencies.
Thats when it's nice..
By Neal
Mon, 12/01/2008 - 10:51am
... to live in a building with a management company. When three Northeastern students moved in next door (into a one bedroom that was converted into a three bedroom -a change approved by the developer/condo trustee- that's a different story altogether), all noise complaints were directed to the management company, which imposed fines against the unit owner, per the condo docs ($100 per infraction!!). So far it seems to have worked on my next door neighbors, who haven't been a problem since the initial complaints (though the downstairs neighbor did call the police on them at least once because of a Sunday night party on Columbus Day weekend). The same owner owns a unit on another floor, and rents it out to students who seem to have trouble following the rules (they even damaged the elevator!). I'd hate to see how much in fines and damage fees this will cost her...
Here's the thing of it.
By Spatch
Mon, 12/01/2008 - 12:10am
The apartment downstairs has been vacant since September. Our home is a Philadelphia-style 3-story, so both apartments have rooms on the second floor.
The landlady didn't give us any notice that she was planning to renovate the downstairs -- not that I think there's any legal requirement to do so, but it would've at least been nice. And she most certainly didn't say that the contractors were coming in first thing on a Sunday morning to do their stuff. It's been my experience that contractors are scheduled on the weekdays to minimize noise issues, since it's assumed a majority of the neighbors/people nearby are on a Mon-Fri job schedule.
I guess what's never assumed is that there might be this guy in the apartment above whose insomnia had kept him up all night and by the time he was exhausted enough to try and close his eyes, the drills and hammers began. Not that I think that assumption should be expected, either, but boy does it put a fellow in a downright rotten mood.
Building Permit?
By anon
Mon, 12/01/2008 - 9:34am
Go downstairs and see if one is visible from the street as required.
If not, call inspectional services. Somerville has gotten pretty tight-assed about these things as of late.