InterRogerTory:
Dear Roger,
I know that living in a multi-unit building means that there will be noise. I have neighbors with dogs, and I am totally cool with the occasional barking. Getting to pet the pups makes up for the noise.
And I love my home. I have a really long hallway where my cats love to run and slide. But I think my upstairs neighbors built a bowling alley in the hall!
Can I make my neighbor invite me to compete in their bowling league?
Love,
Bowling Balls Keep Falling On My Head
Response:
Dear Bowling Balls,
You aren’t asking about the noise in your home, but I’m going to address that issue anyway. After all, I’m not a lawyer, but I’m as wordy as one! You ARE asking about your social relationship with your neighbor. I’ll take both of these issues in turn. For the noise question, I am assuming that you live in DC. If you live elsewhere, there will be different laws than those that I cite here.
Regarding the noise, take a look at your lease (if you’re a tenant) or your homeowner’s association rules (if you are in a condo or co-op). There will probably be something about noise, and there will also probably be something requiring a certain percentage of your floor area to be carpeted. At least, that has been my experience. I looked at the sample DC Housing Authority lease, in part because that is available online and in part because public housing leases are super complex and OF COURSE there would be terms about noise levels and other ways for the housing authority to trip up their tenants. (Sorry, I’m a bit cynical about large landlords like housing authorities. This is not a dig on the DC Housing Authority specifically.) But there was nothing about noise! The Resident Occupancy Manual is also silent (ha) on noise. Each property has community living standards which I wasn’t able to find online; my best guess is that those are where public housing tenants in DC learn what is required regarding noise. There probably are quiet hours where noise is more restricted, and non-quiet hours, when your neighbor’s bowling league can play, accompanied by a brass band, without consequences. At least not consequences under the law. A brass band playing in an apartment might be just cause for a glitter bomb. (Don’t Google that one if you’re at work or have children near by.)
Now, can you force your neighbor to let you join their bowling league? To begin with, this is not an issue of the first amendment’s protection of freedom of assembly (“Congress shall make no law …abridging …the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”). If, say, your neighbor’s bowling league membership was part of a federal government information system, and someone in or adjacent to the government used that fact to take some sort of action against them, that would be a different story. Sorry, I digress. A law that is closer to being relevant is Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which applies to public accommodations. If the bowling alley were a public accommodation, the Civil Rights Act would apply, and your neighbor would not be permitted to exclude you from membership in the league based on race, color, religion, or national origin. But the bowling alley is in your neighbor’s home, so, presuming that your neighbor doesn’t allow just anyone to come in and bowl down their hall, it isn’t a public accommodation.
What about private clubs? Are they allowed to discriminate? Technically, yes. Well, technically they are exempt from the Civil Rights Act, which isn’t necessarily the same as being allowed to discriminate. “The provisions of this title shall not apply to a private club or other establishment not in fact open to the public.” However, and this is a big however, a private club really needs to be a private club in order to qualify for this exemption. Courts will look at the totality of the circumstances when making this determination, and your neighbor’s apartment is almost definitely going to qualify as private. (Also? You’re not in elementary school anymore. You and your neighbor each get to decide who to be friends with. As long as your neighbor hasn’t opened their apartment to the general public except for some protected class that you happen to be a member of, they don’t have to invite you to join their in-home bowling league.)
I hope you find friends to bowl with, or your neighbor stops dropping bowling balls above your head.
Love,
Roger