Finding a good neighbor—it’s what we all hope for when we move into a new building or community. The same is true for commercial properties in residential buildings. Making a good match, one that benefits both the commercial tenants and un…
When you live in a multifamily building, however, peace and quiet can be hard to come by. From the guy upstairs who gargles loudly at precisely 6:47 a.m. every morning to the neighbor with the yapping Chihuahua—at some point the soundtrack …
Q This seems to be a perennial problem for anyone living in a multifamily community. Our upstairs neighbors always have loud noises coming from their unit—sometimes it emanates from the television or it could be coming from music and vide…
Q I live in a condo in which the majority of the residents are older or active adult age. However, it seems that there are several families with children with which we are having problems related to noise complaints. For the past year or …
Last year I became disabled and applied to the board for approval for a companion dog. Upon approval, I signed an agreement that restricted the dog from certain areas and reiterated the dog could not be a nuisance to neighbors. I installed …
Living in a condo means putting up with certain occasional inconveniences: that curious odor emanating from the neighbor’s unit, the downstairs saxophone player who practices every Tuesday afternoon, or that one resident that insists at ev…
Walls are often the only separation between you and your neighbors when you live in a densely populated area like Chicago, and privacy sometimes seems to go out the window. People hear their next-door neighbors talking, footsteps from …
As the old saw goes, one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. The same idea often holds true for residents who choose to ignore bylaws or house rules, even if they are well-intended and in place to serve the greater good of the communi…
Q Our upstairs neighbors always have loud noises coming from their unit: TV, music, video games, etc. Our condo building is older and everything can be heard from above. Our bylaws don’t really specify any rules about noise except that …
Noise is a key quality-of-life problem for almost anyone living in a densely-packed urban environment. It's the bane of many a condo-dweller’s existence, and over the years engineers, architects, and designers have tried any number of w…