“Next-door construction is driving our tenant insane”

Photo by Brian Mosley

“Dear PoPville,

How can we accommodate our tenant, who is being driven out of his mind by the loud construction noise in the rowhouse next door?

Backstory: The rowhouse next to us is under intensive renovation – completely gutted, popped back, the whole works. All construction seems to be legally permitted; we’ve been in communication with the owner (a developer who won’t be living in the finished house), and we don’t really have any issue with the work per se. The problem is the noise.

We have a tenant in our basement apartment who is really suffering. There are times when the drilling/pounding next door turns his apartment into a sounding board, with the noise in his space reaching over 100db (according to a phone app).

While the noise can be grating in our living space, it reaches unlivable levels in his. He is a new arrival in DC, with a federal job, working from home, and no alternative office space to speak of. The construction noise has made it truly impossible for him to work on some days.

We feel really badly for him, and would be willing to allow him to break his lease with no penalty – except, of course, we couldn’t get another tenant in while the construction is happening. And we can’t afford to lose the rental income.

We’re going to talk with the owner of the house next door ASAP, to figure out if we can at least get a warning when they’re doing the kind of work that is extremely loud in our house. But I’d like to ask your readers: 1) Is there anything we are legally obligated to do to accommodate our tenant? 2) Do we have legal standing to demand that the next-door house’s owner pay for, say, a WeWork space for our tenant, or to cover the lost rental income if our tenant moves out?“