Q: I lately bought an condo in a condominium in New York Metropolis. Sadly, it’s above the constructing’s gymnasium. The fixed noise and vibration from the treadmills and from weights being dropped has made my life depressing. What are my rights, and may I sue the constructing?
A: New York is a “purchaser beware” state, that means the onus is on consumers to do their due diligence earlier than making a purchase order. Sellers should, nevertheless, disclose materials defects.
Presumably, you may see that there was a gymnasium beneath the condo earlier than you acquire it, and so you may have requested for extra particulars concerning the noise, or requested to spend extra time within the condo to gauge the noise earlier than you made a suggestion.
However the gymnasium nonetheless has to respect the town noise code and can’t make a noise that materially diminishes your capacity to make use of and revel in your condo, in keeping with Lisa Smith, an actual property lawyer and a associate within the Manhattan workplace of the regulation agency Smith, Gambrell & Russell. You could possibly ask the condominium or the gymnasium operator to place the train gear on mats to scale back the noise and vibrations, or see if the condominium would add soundproofing supplies to the ceiling.
But when the noise isn’t in violation of metropolis guidelines, you’ll have a tough time exerting a lot leverage past that. You could possibly additionally look into the price of including soundproofing measures to your individual condo, and see if the board is perhaps keen to share a number of the value, Ms. Smith mentioned.
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