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February 6, 2009
Dog Barking Fine
I have a tenant on the 3rd floor of a building I live in and own (3 Family). The tenant has a small dog that does tend to bark allot I guess when she's not at home during the day. My neighbor's tenant, who lives in the adjacent attached house next store, has left my tenant a bunch of notes basically saying that he works at home during the day and is unnerved by the dog's barking all day. Basically now my neighbor is now threatening to call 311 and saying that I would be subjected to fines if something is not done about the dog. I’m not sure what my neighbor expects me to do honestly (I mean I’ve tried reasoning with the beast )? No one else complains about my tenant and her dog. She’s quiet and pays her rent on time. My neighbor was implying that I should evict her which I would nevert do. But I’m just wondering what if any fines I could be subjected to? The dog never barks at night. And it doesn’t bark continuouslly. I think my neighbor is just over reacting honestly. Thanks for advice.
Comments
If I were you I would call 311 myself to ask what fines (if any) there are for dog barking and who would be liable for them (you or your tenant). It would help you to understand what could happen if your neighbor did call 311.
I would also talk to your tenant about ways to calm the dog during the day. Sounds like the dog is stressed about something and there are vet recommended methods for calming a nervous dog. We once had a problem with our cat peeing on our stove (weird I know), but the cat was just reacting to stress. We got this spray called feliway which is designed to calm nervous cats, and it took care of the problem. They have a similar product for dogs. I'm sure its easy to find on the internet.
Posted by: Turtlejam19 at February 6, 2009 12:20 PM
We have a yapper ourselves and considered an anti bark collar, something like this:
http://www.radiofence.com/bark-collars/innotek-spray-no-bark-collar.htm
She's calmed down a bit and so we never ended up using it.
Posted by: phripley at February 6, 2009 12:39 PM
I work from home and my neighbor's dog barks at the front windows constantly when no one is home. She barks when I go in the door, come outside, when a kid walks by and yells etc... My assumption is that this bark is more in the way of protecting the house than fear/nervousness etc...
Basically, I just try to ignore it/move to a room in the house where I can't hear her. If it gets to a point where I can't deal with it for whatever reason, I think my first step would be to discuss the situation with my neighbors and see what happens (I would even be willing to have them drop the dog off with me while they were away). If that didn't work and I still couldn't deal, then I guess 311 would be an option... but can you really imagine someone from the city coming out to assess the situation? I mean really, if they did actually show up, 9 times out of 10 the dog wouldn't bark. And, assuming that they did come and give them a ticket, the fine is probably less than $200 bucks or basically a joke.
Here's New York City's noise code --
No person having charge, care, custody, or control of any animal shall cause or permit such animal to cause unreasonable noise including, but not limited to, any sound that is plainly audible at any location within any residential receiving property as set forth below: (a) At or after 7 a.m. and before 10 p.m., continuously for a period of 10 minutes or more; (b) At or after 10 p.m. and before 7 a.m., continuously for a period of 5 minutes or more.
Posted by: SJ at February 6, 2009 12:43 PM
Dogs that bark all day are bored, stressed or frightened. Probably bored.
These are not good states for a dog to be in, and are all fixable. Maybe the solution is as easy as an obedience class or more consistent exercise.
Instead of worrying about whether or not the neighbor is right or wrong, I would talk to your tenant and ask her to solve the problem, which you do admit exists. I would do it because it's good to solve problems. It's good for the dog, it's good for the neighbor, it's good all around.
Posted by: vanburenproud at February 6, 2009 1:09 PM
SJ,
In light of your post, the OP's query is really whether a landlord can be fined as having charge, custody, care or control over a tenant's dog. Seems far-fetched (no pun intended) to me, but I don't know the answer.
Posted by: slopefarm at February 6, 2009 1:15 PM
Agreed, but I don't know for sure either.
Practically speaking though, if the city comes out to a location on a barking complaint where no one is home and they can't determine which apartment the barking is coming from and the person who complained does not know either (clearly not this situation), then they're just going to write the ticket to the building and the owner will end up with a ticket that s/he will need to deal with one way or the other.
Posted by: SJ at February 6, 2009 1:37 PM
Thanks everyone for the imput. Plan on talking to the tenant tonight.
Hopefully it can be resolved with as little trouble as possible.
Posted by: dosteov at February 6, 2009 2:28 PM
"We have a yapper ourselves and considered an anti bark collar, something like this:"
This stuff is on the market, and people use it, but it's not very nice, in my book. Basically you're electrically shocking your pet into submission. Definitely not the way to handle the situation, in my book.
Posted by: East New York at February 6, 2009 3:11 PM
ENY, it works in Gitmo, why not Brooklyn?
Posted by: denton at February 6, 2009 3:34 PM
Some breeds are so barky by nature and their breeding, like terriers, it's impossible for the owner to do anything. My parents had such a hard time with our Dachshund barking too much for their condo neighbors. They were fined by the condo board. And I had a friend who had to get her terrier's vocal cords snipped. Which sounds awful but it was either that or get rid of the dog and she and the dog were too attached to each other.
Posted by: traditionalmod at February 6, 2009 3:38 PM
East New York, my brother is a veterinarian and highly recommends the anti-bark collar-uses it for his own dog.
Posted by: ilikeslices at February 6, 2009 7:53 PM
No way they would give a ticket to the building owner, The LL is not responsible for the criminal behavior of a tenant. Do you realize how many tickets would be issued to LLs if noise complaints were written to the owners.
Posted by: modsquad at February 7, 2009 12:17 AM
True, but the landlord is an interested party in other ways.
The OP says that this is a good tenant who pays on time and is otherwise quiet.
If the tenant keeps getting tickets, she's going to feel compelled to move. This is bad for the landlord--good tenants are worth keeping.
Posted by: vanburenproud at February 7, 2009 7:32 AM
Tenant has not received any tickets and the likelihood is next to zero given that there is no corroborating witnesses.
Posted by: modsquad at February 7, 2009 9:20 PM
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