Is There Anything a Nashville Property Manager Can Do About Noisy Neighbors?

Lee Blackburn

Noisy neighbors are difficult to deal with, especially for the tenants who are living in a Nashville rental property. Typically, this is a challenge that multi-family residents and apartment dwellers struggle with, but single-family homes are close enough together that loud music, barking dogs, and other types of noise and disruptions can be a problem. 

As a Nashville property manager, we’re often called upon by tenants to help them deal with noisy neighbors. There’s not always a lot we can do, especially if the offending neighbor isn’t one of our tenants. 

Here’s how we recommend such situations get handled. 

Accept and Investigate Tenant Complaints

When one of our tenants complains that a neighbor is making too much noise, we listen to our tenant and we do a little investigating. Sometimes, people just want to be heard, and because we believe strongly in a positive customer experience, we are always willing to listen to our tenants. They’re frustrated and irritable when a neighbor is making too much noise, and we understand that. 

As much as we can, we’ll find out how much merit there is to the complaint. Maybe it’s just a one-time thing; a noisy birthday party got out of hand, for example. That allows the situation to resolve itself, typically. What we don’t want is escalation, and we’ll try to help the tenants manage the problem and the neighbors as much as possible. 

We document these complaints from tenants and keep careful notes about what was done or whether the problems persist. 

Encouraging Communication with Nashville Tenants

Communication is always important, and if the tenants are comfortable talking to their neighbors about the noise, we always encourage that. Perhaps they don’t even realize that their music or their video games or the surround sound is so loud. At nighttime, loud noises are particularly disruptive, so perhaps a simple conversation can result in neighbors lowering the volume after 8:00 p.m. We counsel our tenants not to be accusatory or combative when they bring up the noise, but simply to have a neighborly conversation. 

Sometimes this works, and sometimes it’s useless. But it’s usually worth a shot. If the neighbors are rude and problematic or they don’t seem to care about the comfort and quality of life of others, we ask our tenants not to escalate the situation. No one wants things to get worse.  

When All Else Fails: Contact the Police

It’s possible tenants can enlist the help of law enforcement, especially when it’s a civil issue that isn’t affecting only one tenant, but the entire community. If someone in the neighborhood is throwing loud and noisy parties every night, a call to the police is not a bad idea. They can visit the property and ask the neighbors to quiet down. 

We don’t want tenants to be afraid to call the police, but we also don’t want it to become a habit. If calls are made every time the neighbors are heard, the police won’t take those complaints seriously. 

Noisy neighbors are no fun, and we do everything we can to ensure our tenants enjoy a peaceful and pleasant rental experience. If you’d like to hear more about how we handle relationships with our Nashville tenants, please contact us at Omni Realtors & Property Management.