The neighbour complains about the air conditioning: handling neighbour nuisance in a rental property without taking sides

Tuesday morning, quarter past nine. A report comes in from the resident of number 14: the neighbour's new air conditioning unit has been humming all night and she hasn't slept a wink for a week. You pull up the file and see that no permission was ever requested for that unit. An hour later, the resident of number 16 calls you himself: he had the unit installed precisely because his attic bedroom couldn't be cooled down in summer, and he doesn't understand why his neighbour went straight to you instead of just ringing the doorbell.

Two tenants, two reasonable stories, and both expect you to sort it out. This isn't an isolated incident. The Netherlands is filling up with ever more outdoor units, and every late summer with a few warm weeks brings a new wave of installations. According to the Veiligheidsmonitor 2025 van het CBS, 20 percent of people in the Netherlands experience nuisance from local residents and more than 3 in 10 experience noise nuisance in their neighbourhood; 1 in 10 even suffers from it a great deal. And neighbour nuisance in a rental property almost always ends up on your desk, because you're the point of contact for both parties.

Neighbour nuisance in a rental property is never a single report

The pitfall is to treat this as a single complaint from tenant B about tenant A. In reality, you're holding two files, and each deserves its own track.

The first file is the nuisance report itself: a tenant reporting that her enjoyment of her home is being affected. You register that report, confirm it, and give an expected turnaround time, exactly as you would with a repair request. Neighbour nuisance in a rental property feels urgent to the person reporting it, so silence on your part gets read as taking the other person's side.

The second file is the change to the rented property: there's an installation on your facade for which no permission was requested. That's a business matter between you and tenant A, and you deliberately keep it separate from the neighbour dispute. The moment you mix the two, every step you take towards tenant A becomes, in the eyes of both parties, a judgement on the conflict.

That separation is more than administrative tidiness. It defines your role: you're not the referee between two neighbours, you're the one handling a report and assessing a change to the facade. Lawyers at Achmea Rechtsbijstand also always advise, when it comes to noise nuisance from an air conditioning unit or heat pump, that neighbours have a conversation with each other first. You can facilitate that conversation without taking it over.

The 40 dB standard gives you an objective framework

What makes this case easier than the average neighbour dispute is that for outdoor units there's a hard, measurable standard. Under artikel 5.14 van het Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving, an outdoor installation for generating heat or cold, such as an air conditioning unit or heat pump, may cause no more than 40 dB at a home that's attached to another home. That requirement also applies when the unit is installed at an existing home, not only in new-build.

That changes the conversation fundamentally. The question is no longer whether tenant B is "too sensitive" or tenant A is "antisocial", but whether the installation meets the standard. Have a noise measurement carried out, or ask tenant A to supply the sound power figures from the installer's specifications. If the unit stays below the standard and the installation can otherwise be put in order, you have an honest story for tenant B, backed by a source. If the unit exceeds it, you have an objective ground for requiring tenant A to make changes: vibration dampers, a sound enclosure, relocation or, as a last resort, removal.

In both outcomes the same advantage applies: you don't need to have an opinion. The standard already has one.

Direct the communication, don't stand in the middle

The biggest mistake you can make now is becoming the postman: tenant B complains to you, you pass it on to tenant A, and every reply runs through your inbox again. Within two weeks you'll be the face of the conflict.

Instead, work with a fixed sequence. Confirm in writing to both tenants what their report or situation is and which step follows when. Tell tenant B that the assessment against the noise standard is underway and what the outcome could be. Tell tenant A that the permission issue still needs to be properly arranged, and under what conditions that can happen. And send a status update at every step, even if nothing has been decided yet. In nuisance files, the lack of visible progress is almost always a bigger source of escalation than the outcome itself.

At the same time, record every agreement and every point of contact in the file. If it still escalates to court or the Huurcommissie (the Dutch rent tribunal), your demonstrable, neutral handling of the process is your best protection.

Turn it into a playbook before next summer begins

This report will come back, just with different house numbers. If you set down a fixed approach now, with a permission procedure for outdoor units that includes a noise requirement and installation conditions, a clear split between the nuisance file and the change file, and standard status updates to both parties, you'll handle the next case in a fraction of the time. And more importantly: both tenants will feel they've been listened to, without you ever having had to take sides.