Noisy Student Neighbor Dispute 

Mediator: 

This is a dispute between two students that live next door to each other.  One complains that the other keeps him/her awake at night.  The other complains about a barking dog.  You need to mediate the situation and help the disputants come to a solution.

 Initiating Party

 This is a dispute between you and another neighbor who happens to also be a student like you at a local university.  You rent a house and go to classes from 8:00- 3:00 and then go onto a job.  You normally get home around 7:00-8:00 p.m. and go to bed between 11:00 and 11:30 pm.  As far as homework, you try to accomplish this after you get home from your job.  You enjoy a peaceful, quiet atmosphere so you live alone, except for a faithful dog. 

Recently, a new neighbor has moved in.  Your houses are separated by 10 feet of yard.  The neighbor loves to invite people over and cranks the music up pretty loud.  It seems this student doesn’t go to classes until after noon time, so he/she is up until the wee hours of the morning, partying.  Upon arriving home about 8:00 p.m. each night, the neighbor begins the partying atmosphere just when you are sitting down to begin studying or going to bed.  When the party-goers arrive at the neighbor’s house, they park all over the lawn, including your yard, which is leaving tire pits.  You know your landlord won’t like this and will blame you for it.  

You’ve tried to politely ask the neighbor to turn down the music and limit the number of party-goers, but nothing has changed.  When your requests were ignored, you decided to take this to mediation.

 Responding Party 

You have just moved into a rental house.  You are not a morning person, so you schedule your classes for the afternoon and evening.  You love music and are very social.  You like to invite a lot of friends over to party.   You crank up your music full blast and keep the action going until 2:00-3:00 a.m.  This is your way of relaxing and forgetting about the pressures of college.  So you don’t get to bed until almost dawn.

Every morning around 6:30-7:00 a.m. the neighbor’s barking dog awakens you.  The barking continues for approximately 30 minutes until your neighbor leaves for school.  You’ve been asked to turn down the music and limit the number of visitors to your house, but you don’t feel like complying when you have to put up with the barking dog every morning. 

You have agreed to mediation.