Letters to the Editor
Negligence
Downtown News has received a number of letters and calls from LOFT 2 residents about the unbearable noise they have been subjected to by the renovation of the building’s façade, a construction project going on for the past 8 months.
One resident wrote: “It is like jackhammering on your wall all day long. Certainly, this level of noise is bound to cause permanent hearing loss, and the stress provokes other medical issues —I know, my husband had to have emergency treatment. And since many residents work out their homes during the pandemic lockdown, it has threatened more than one job. It is impossible to have a telephone call or a Zoom meeting. Imagine how bad this is for our dogs!”
The work in the building is necessary. That is not the point of contention. What is, observed another resident: “Neither management nor the HOA Board has conducted elemental safety measures such as a noise test inside a unit (noise travels through the wall and ducts multiplying the decibel level inside the units) to determine if it’s harmful to the residents’ health, and demand that the construction company employs different tools to reduce the level of noise. Residents have requested that such tests be done to no avail. The response from management and the HOA Board has been the same puzzling passionate defense of the construction company.”
The Science
A University of Miami Health News article by Ana Veciana-Suarez— Loud Noise might be Hurting your Health — notes: “A growing body of evidence shows that noise above a certain level, adversely affects both our physical and mental well-being.” Noise is measure in decibels, units of noise intensity. 95 dB (a power mower) can cause damage in 2 hours-time, and a 115 dB (a leaf blower) can cause irreversible damage to our ears in less than 10 minutes. Ms. Suarez adds: “Noise pollution has been linked to poor heart and cardiovascular outcomes, sleeplessness, hypertension, learning difficulties and, of course, hearing loss, according to numerous studies examined in a scholarly article, Auditory and non-auditory effects of noise on health.”
Grievances
Before the Pandemic, one resident said she had to work out of a temporary rental office, but “when the lockdown was enforced, I had no option but to endure this torturous noise and at the same time risk losing my job, as I had to cancel meetings at the last moment.”
Another complaint various residents expressed is the length of the project. “At the beginning, we were told it would be six weeks for each line (a section of the building.) Six months later I still have no access to my balcony. If you make a mistake of two weeks, we can understand, but going from six weeks to six months...?”
The balcony was one of the reasons a resident decided to rent the place. “I am paying outrageous rent and I can’t stay inside my home and have no balcony. Management recommended that I go to work at the clubroom. This is an enclosed room, the type of place authorities are recommending to avoid because of the Pandemic’s resurgence. They were actually recommending to place myself in harm’s way. Fortunately, my lease is over soon, and I am out of here. Owners are not as lucky.”
Sample Letters
1
“When moving into The Loft 2 I had no idea what was in store for me. My alarm clock every morning is the sound of a drill on the side of my bedroom so loud that my entire apartment shakes. This happens every morning at 8 am and continues until 5 pm. The drilling is so loud I can barely hear myself think, let alone work from home where all my coworkers are wondering why my background sounds like a war zone. On top of the fact that they have closed my balcony off to me for months and covered my windows with blue tape, there are men constantly on my balcony or outside my bedroom windows. My fiancé is an officer who works third shift and has to sleep through the unbearable drilling. We have no privacy or peace. It is upsetting that my home is no longer my haven, but a place that I now have to stay away from just to get a peace of mind”.
2
“When we received the email that communicated to us that the building was going to start the constructions on my side late May/June, I freaked out. As if it was not difficult enough living the quarantine locked down in my apt 24/7, now I was also supposed to experience “chipping and grinding vibrations and noises” from 8 AM to 5 PM every working day. At the same time, I was not going to be able to use my balcony, or ventilate the house during lunch or dinner time, because the balcony windows were going to be closed from the outside. When the construction started, I realized that the noises were much worse than my expectations, I was not able to attend an online meeting because, even with headphones, I was not able to listen to the speaker, and other people were not able to listen to me. So far, I ended all the construction days with migraines. The entire experience was unpleasant, and I cannot understand how the management was not able to arrange these works for other periods of the year! This experience made me really reconsidered if I still want to renew my lease at The Loft II when this one ends.”
3
“I’ve been working from home for the last 4 months now. The noises of the work in the building have been unsustainable. I have video calls meetings with my colleagues multiple times during the day, and sometimes I can barely hear them. When I have calls with clients, sometimes I had someone else present and talk for me, because they couldn’t hear me clearly. As for concentration, I have to use the headphones with the music on 100%, so I can focus on that instead of the noises. I asked myself if doing constructions while we are all stuck at home is the best solution”.
4
[This letter was sent to Adele Valencia, Director o the City of Miami Department of Code Compliance. Downtown News was copied. Downtown News summarized it.]
… I am writing to you because I have exhausted all other avenues. We have contacted repeatedly Management and the Home Owners Association Board, but their response has been the same defense of the construction company, which I believe does not use appropriate tools, nor have they conducted a noise assessment from inside the units.
Because of the Pandemic, I must work from home, and now I am facing the danger of losing my job because of the constant and insufferable noise from what can only be described as incessant jackhammering outside the wall. This has been going for over 8 months. Six months working on our line. I asked management why they were taking so long, the response was that the construction company needed a learning curb. Finally, after six months, they sent a letter saying that we were done in my line and my balcony was reopened.
For the last two weeks, however, they are back jackhammering without warning. They go for a couple of hours, and they return. It is impossible to conduct telephone meetings, and I have had to cancel meetings at the last minute. For instance, today the noise was unbearable from 9–11, then they went somewhere else but returned at 3 PM. It is close to 4 now, and they are still going on the same spot they were this morning and for the past two weeks. There seems to be no work plan.
At least in the previous months, I was able to work from a rental office. But now, because of the Pandemic, that is not an option. My livelihood is at risk.
I am not a lawyer, but there must be a law that prohibits the consistent nuisance that prevents the quiet enjoyment of one’s property, on which we pay taxes. I am a law-abiding taxpayer; we pay exorbitant homeowner association fees. We paid an assessment for millions of dollars to do the job; the least one would expect is an adequate work strategy, adequate tools, and a trained workforce.
This resident said Ms. Valencia’s office was sending an inspector to conduct a noise test. Two weeks later, she was still waiting for the test results, detailing the method he used, the decibel level measured, and from which unit he conducted the test.
Fearing retaliation, some residents requested anonymity. Not all.
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