questions & answers

Question: I live in an upstairs apartment with my 4 children, whuch two of them are small babies 2 and 4 years old. My downstairs neighbor constantly complains that we are making dragging noises across the floor after 11pm. My children and I are not perfect. They need to move about our place and just simply live. We try very hard to keep the noise down. But recently she said she is going to the cops and management. I told her to go ahead we are not doing anything wrong. No parties, no guest. We're trying. Can we get evicted just because she makes something up?

Answer: The Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act states that a tenant must “conduct himself and require other persons on the premises with his consent to conduct themselves in a manner that will not disturb his neighbors’ peaceful enjoyment of the premises” (A.R.S. 33-1341). In theory, any tenant who is disturbing their neighbor’s “peaceful enjoyment” of their own apartment may receive a written notice from their landlord informing them that if they do not reduce the noise, then the landlord may seek their eviction. If the landlord does end up seeking the tenant’s eviction, then it will be up to the upstairs tenant to convince a judge that the noise coming from their apartment was not unreasonable.