Tenant Approves of Landlord’s Rules

I want to express my absolute admiration for Donald T. Sterling, the Beverly Hills property owner who is the subject of a Page 1 story in the Westside (Times, Sept. 11).

Why on earth shouldn’t tenants be expected to pay the rent on time? We have always paid our rent on time. But in the apartment building where my husband and I have lived for so many years, the manager does not enforce his own rules.

The manager of this building has a rule that no person living here is permitted to play musical instruments in the building. But in the apartment next door to us, a young man persists in playing all kinds of instruments at various hours, often late, and the manager does nothing. I have complained to the manager, and he says he does not hear the music and that I should call the sheriff. I have complained directly to the tenant, and he says, “The manager of the building is not God. Nobody tells me what to do.”

The people living below us play loud contemporary music on their stereos until our apartment rocks with the vibrations, and in the next building, television sets blare until very late at night, and if you want to open the windows on a hot night, you cannot sleep because of the noise.

We are senior citizens on a limited income, so it seems to me we have only two alternatives: We can give up our lifelong “low-profile” status and call the sheriff, or we can win the California lottery and become rich enough to live on one of Mr. Sterling’s buildings. Apparently, he is the only property owner in Southern California who believes that tenants should show consideration for other tenants.

TERESA C. COLTEN

West Hollywood