Tenant's Right to Quiet Enjoyment: Safety Concerns and Harassment from Neighbors

Feeling unsafe because of neighbors can disrupt the right to quiet enjoyment. Let's explore your rights as a tenant and strategies to handle neighbor disputes while safeguarding your peaceful living environment.

1. Know Your Rights: As a tenant, you can enjoy your rented space peacefully. This right might be specified in the lease or local laws. 
   1. The Evanston Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance: Section 5-3-4-1(G) of the RLTO states that a tenant must “conduct himself/herself and require other persons on the premises with his/her consent to conduct themselves in a manner that will not disturb his/her neighbor's peaceful enjoyment of the premises.” 
   2. Check your lease. 
2. Written Complaint to the Landlord: It's the landlord's duty to enforce the agreed-upon rules among tenants. If your landlord fails to take action, remind them of their responsibility to maintain a peaceful living environment for all tenants. Document the instances and write a formal letter detailing the issue to your landlord or property management. Keep copies of all communication and write down dates and times of disturbances.
3. Legal Eviction Process: Landlords cannot kick out tenants immediately. The legal eviction process is time-consuming and costly, especially when the tenant is up-to-date with rent payments. The landlord might prefer to let things go if the problematic tenant is current on rent. 
4. Consider Relocation:  Consider your options if the situation doesn’t improve and the landlord remains unresponsive. According to your rental agreement and local laws, you might have the right to terminate the lease if the landlord fails to address the safety issues within a reasonable timeframe.
5. Make a Complaint: If your neighbor is making violent threats towards you or harassing you to the point where you feel like your safety is in danger, you may want to call the local Police Department and file a police report as well looking into getting a protective order from a judge. For information on obtaining a Stalking No Contact Order (SNCO), click here.

Remember:

• Keeping a record of disturbances is crucial for building your case in case of legal disputes.
• Follow the procedures outlined in your rental agreement before considering relocation. But you can only do this if the landlord doesn't fix the problem. You need to give the landlord a fair amount of time to solve it, like 14 days. Ending the lease should be approached with careful consideration. 
• Your documented complaints can support your decision to move out in case of unresolved disturbances, especially if legal disputes arise regarding unpaid rent.
• If the landlord doesn’t act or is unable to resolve the issues or evict the noisy neighbors, a tenant’s options are limited. Theoretically, a breach of the right to quiet enjoyment can be a means to get monetary damages or a court injunction. But, practically, the tenant will have to wait until the neighbor or you move.