End Discrimination Against Families with Children!

We are currently in our second year living in an apartment complex owned by Avise Properties. No one has had a problem with us until recently. The tenant downstairs has just started complaining about my children making "noise" during the day. My children are ages 2 years old and 10 months old.

We have no bicycles or tricycles, no instruments, and no sports equipment. I am assuming the downstairs tenant is home all day due to retirement or working from home, and was not expecting to be living under a stay at home mother. He probably assumed everyone else would be working during the day, and now that his expectations were not valid he is ANGRY.

This "noise", I assume because no one has actually given us a description of said "noise", is simply coming from my 2 year old walking around, my 10 month old occasionally dropping something (she's 10 months old!!!!), or my 2 year old having an occasional fall. All noise happens strictly during daytime hours (ie middle/late afternoon) as my children are in bed by 8pm, and there is no movement in our unit at nighttime.

We have been harassed by this tenant and the property manager- Patricia "Trish" Cooper. After repeatedly telling both parties that we try our hardest to keep any noise to a reasonable level and it is never outside of daytime hours, neither has listened or cared! I also have cited numerous laws and court cases regarding this issue, and have attached them at the end of this description.

It's worth noting, that other tenants on the 4th floor blast music both during the day AND in the middle of the night, as well as bang around in the middle of the night to the point that my bed is shaking, and Patricia Cooper does NOTHING about it. When we asked our neighbors to please stop disturbing the peace at midnight/1am/3am- they swore at us and threatened us. Patricia says she needs "police reports" in order to to anything about this noise, and claims that the tenants say they were "cleaning" at midnight and so it was essentially okay to make that much noise since they were "cleaning". Patricia did not seem to find it odd that people would be cleaning at midnight, to the point of shaking our apartment, and did not tell them to stop. And she also has not told our downstairs tenant that he needs "police reports" for her to do anything about us. She is not treating the situations regarding noise EQUALLY- ie: she is discriminating because we have kids.

Patricia has no problem harassing a family about daytime noise coming from children playing (as they have every right to do!) but will not confront hostile tenants that disturb the peace throughout the night and swear at their neighbors when asked to stop.

Children are allowed to play. It is not our fault that the floors are crappily built and allow that much noise transfer. In fact, children are protected under the law to be allowed to play within the reasonable and allotted daytime hours.

I want to spread awareness of the Fair Housing Act and what it represents. There is a lot of misconception over what it covers. I am not the only tenant dealing with discrimination, I know many people have dealt with this as well. Landlords tend to ignore the laws and think they are above them.

I want to spread awareness to the Fair Housing Act for anyone who needs it, and I would like for Avise Properties to end Patricia's descrimination towards my family.

Cited Court Case Rulings:

In the case of Landesman v. Keys Condominium Owners Association, 2004 U.S.Dist. LEXIS 21746 (2004), the court held that, "The desire for peace and quiet -- while a worthy goal -- is not a valid justification for denying access to common facilities on the basis of familial status." In short, you are required to put up with normal noise from children EVEN IF it offends other tenants.

In Schild v. Rubin, 232 Cal.App.3d 755 (1991), the court held:

"Not every activity which is `offensive to the senses and interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life' is a nuisance."

The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §3604 et seq. prohibits discrimination against families with children. In short, it is illegal to issue rules that prohibit children from making reasonable noise while playing inside or outside.

In the case of Fair Housing Congress v. Weber, 993 F.Supp. 1286, 1291 (C.D. Cal. 1997), the court held that a written apartment rule stating "Children will not be allowed to play or run around inside the building area at any time because of disturbance to other tenants or damage to building property" violated fair housing laws. Although other tenants may desire "peace and quiet," it is illegal to silence children to accomplish this goal.

In Schild, a neighbor alleged that repeated basketball playing, and bouncing of the ball, constituted a nuisance to his family and soon-to-be-born son. The court rejected the idea, and ruled as follows:

"[E]very annoyance or disturbance of a landowner from the use made of property by a neighbor does not constitute a nuisance. The question is not whether the plaintiffs have been annoyed or disturbed . . . but whether there has been an injury to their legal rights. People who live in organized communities must of necessity suffer some inconvenience and annoyance from their neighbors and must submit to annoyances consequent upon the reasonable use of property by others. [Citations]." Id. 232 Cal.App. 3d. at 764.

Additionally, the court in Schild concluded:

"A reasonable person must realize that complete emotional tranquility is seldom attainable, and some degree of transitory emotional distress is the natural consequence of living among other people in an urban or suburban environment." Id. at 232 Cal.App. 3d. at 763, quoting Fletcher v. Western National Life Ins. Co., 10 Cal.App.3d 376, at 397.