An Alteration Agreement Is Not Enough

As the mania for combining and renovating apartments continues unchecked in New York City, it’s inevitable that there will be complaints from neighbors about excessive noise and inconvenience. At one co-op where an apartment-combining job has dragged on for six months, distraught shareholders have complained to the board and management, but the work – and the attendant noise and inconvenience – continue. What can be done?

The co-op may have an alteration agreement in place, it may have strong enforcement provisions, and the co-op board may have signed off on a renovation plan, but that does not give the renovators license to make everyone else miserable, says the Ask Real Estate column in the New York Times. “They can’t just do anything,” says attorney Ingrid Manevitz, a partner at Schwartz Sladkus Reich Greenberg Atlas.

If the renovation work generates unreasonable noise and the board fails to intervene, aggrieved neighbors might have a claim against the renovator and the building, Manevitz says. To prove that it is unreasonable, neighbors could hire an acoustical consultant to measure the noise. Armed with that evidence, they may be able sue the building for violating the proprietary lease, the warranty of habitability, and shareholders’ right to the quiet enjoyment of their apartments. As for the offending neighbor, shareholders may be able sue him for creating a private nuisance.

But litigation is messy – and costly – business. After documenting the excessive noise, shareholders could bring the evidence to the property manager, urging him or her to deal with the problem in order to avoid litigation. And remember to take the long view. Today’s aggrieved party might be tomorrow’s apartment-combiner.

“Many of my clients have endured renovations by neighbors before they proceed with their own,” says Paul Barnla, the founder of Artistic License Interiors, a contractor based in Brooklyn. “It’s a bit of a rite of passage and a trade-off for living in the big city.”