Condo upstairs noise

[Jerry Akop]

I have a Condo located in Los Angeles, CA and the upstairs neighbors are very loud. Every step you can hear downstairs. Hoa hired a company to come do a sound test of the floors and they failed. Test said they need to put rugs or carpet. They are not doing it. What can I do? Please help.

[Greg M.]

I've gone through this exact issue both as a person who had a condo above me and as a HOA Board member. The real question is what is causing the noise and if no changes have been made to the unit above, is the unit grandfathered under the law to allow that level of noise. If nothing changed in the unit, your only recourse is for the HOA to mandate carpet/rugs in units that have another unit below them.

Was there carpet in the unit and the owner removed it? If they did, then they have to bring it to current sound code. Problem with going to the City is that they will want a sound test to have been performed and you will need access to the upstairs unit for this. 

Your best bet is to have the HOA take action. Have them start fining the unit until they comply.

I don't know how tough your HOA is, but we had warned a unit that was replacing their carpet floors with hard floors that they needed to install the cushioning sound barrier under the floor. I personally told the guy that if he didn't, he'd end up having to rip out his new floor as hard floors were going to cause massive sound transmission. Swore 100% he was doing it and even showed me the estimate. He cheaped out and didn't do it because the contractor said it wasn't necessary. Within the week there were police at his unit because the neighbor below was ready to beat the hell out of him because he couldn't sleep. HOA told him to rip them out. He refused. I explained the next steps: $100 a day fine, HOA going to court to get court order to remove the floor, HOA hiring someone expensive to remove them, sending the bill to him and if not paid, a lien on his place and eventual sale. He ripped out the floors.

Another unit refused to put rugs down because they are dirty. Neighbors told me she vacuumed her bare floors for well over an hour every single day. Unit was 1300 sq ft. HOA issued daily fines until rugs were put in. They refused and to punish the HOA stopped paying their dues. HOA placed a lien and eventually foreclosed on the unit.