For donations Click Here

Rental apartment – excessive noise – reduction of rent?

Question:

We rented our studio to a tourist for about three weeks.
After a few days our next door nneighbor started interior building works and made lots of noise during the daytime.
We were not informed about this beforehand. The heavy noise went on for a few days.
Our renter was very upset.
He got up every morning very early and during the morning hours he went back to sleep.
With the noise sleep was impossible.
He was thinking of looking for a different place to stay but in the end decided to stay in our studio.

The renter left after the three weeks and is now asking for a partly refund of the renal fee..
Question: Do we have to give a refund to the renter and if yes how much?

Answer:

Answer from Horav Y. fleishman shlit”a.

According to the Shulchan Aruch in siman 321 based on the Maharam Padua he could have perhaps left and if he didn’t he isn’t entitled to a refund. However many batei din do reduce the rent if the apartment was somewhat uninhabitable. It is hard to tell you how much but basically it depends on how bad the situation was and it is only for the days when there was a serious problem.

 

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *