Condo Living

November 30, 2024 Published by Huronia Chapter - By Murray Johnson

Quick Tips On Nuisance Complaints

From the CCI Huronia Fall 2024 Condo Buzz Newsletter

First off, you are not alone if you are being confronted with nuisance complaints. I have talked to Condominium Directors from Vancouver to Saint Johns Newfoundland, and I can attest that this is an issue across Canada.

Let me start by addressing the label “Nuisance” attached to a complaint. It may be a nuisance to the board and Manager, but let’s put ourselves in the complainants place, with the exception of a few emotional or mental health issues, most nuisance complaints are a result of chronic or sensitized issues. Let me share a “Nuisance Complaint” story with you:

I’ll call the two parties “upstairs” and “downstairs”. Downstairs made a complaint about excessive noise coming from Upstairs and the fairly new Manager promptly sent upstairs a letter asking that they stop making the excessive noise. This is when the issue exploded and almost got out of hand.

Upstairs came to the Managers office and complained about downstairs harassing them. Seems the Downstairs had been complaining about Upstairs noise at intermittent times for the last ten years and Upstairs had just about enough. Threatening legal action against the Board and Manager as supporting harassment form Downstairs was just the opener. That’s when I got called into the ring.

Listening to both stories there appeared to be some discrepancies in the complaints. One complaint was about late night piano playing. The date of the complaint was offset by credit card bills and air fare tickets of the Upstairs being in Europe at the time, to add insult to injury, Upstairs doesn’t own a piano and doesn’t even know how to play one.

There was obviously something both parties were not sharing, how was this allowed to go on for over ten years? It was clear to me that just as “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, the label of “being a nuisance is in the ear of the person receiving the complaint”.

The issue had to be resolved for the complaint on the table, and the issue of ten years of complaining had to be resolved. One of two things was going to happen, I would either create two units full of enemies or I could create ambassadors that would defend our actions going forward.

We needed a third unbiased party with nothing to gain, win-or-lose. I suggested that we would, at the Corporation’s expense, bring in an Engineer familiar with sound transference issues with the proper equipment and run some sound tests. I suggested to both parties that the Corporation would take steps based on the results of those tests if they agreed to abide by the outcome.

The test results indicated that the sound transference from upstairs to downstairs was not only within acceptable building standards, it was actually much better that those standards. The Upstairs Owner’s had changed hardwood underpadding, put carpets in place and taken every step they could over the years including the use of earphones when listening to music.

Based on the test results we acknowledged that the current complaint had no foundation and that in the opinion of the Engineer the types of complaints over the years didn’t make sense. We apologized to Upstairs and informed Downstairs that no further complaints of excessive noise from Upstairs would be entertained or investigated. The result? Downstairs stopped making complaints (knock on wood, it’s been three years) and the Upstairs Owner’s are now one of the Condominiums Corporations best ambassadors.

I could talk about hundreds of complaints that Managers or Boards, or both had labeled as a “Nuisance Complaint”, and while I don’t dispute that receiving the repeated complaints is a nuisance, there can be many reasons that a person would continually complain about just about everything. So what are the takeaways from my little tale of phantom piano playing? I have eight takeaways:

1. Investigate, Investigate, Investigate.
2. Have an open mind, listen to all sides, what are they not saying?
3. Be empathetic with all parties.
4. Create a plan to resolve the issue, give timelines.
5. Have all parties agree on the plan and timelines.
6. Can you find an unbiased third party to assist?
7. Execute the plan and take action based on investigation.
8. If necessary, take detailed notes.

Murray Johnson
FirstService Residential