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Please no. Regulations should exist for safety and dealing with externalities. Regulating sound-proofing is neither of those and would expand government overrea

by pilom 10y ago

Please no. Regulations should exist for safety and dealing with externalities. Regulating sound-proofing is neither of those and would expand government overreach without enough benefit.

ericd 10y ago
The idea there would be that it's one of those things that's hard for consumers to evaluate in the time they have to evaluate it, because a walkthrough doesn't provide a representative sample. For example, you probably won't know how frequently ambulances take the road next to that apartment in the middle of the night. Dealing with information asymmetry is one of the big functions of consumer protections laws, and is one of the useful functions of government.
hx87 10y ago
Codes mandate minimum insulation levels and fireproofing between neighboring units already, and the same measures for both also tend to reduce sound transmission. Requiring insulation between neighboring units isn't much of a stretch.
aninhumer 10y ago
The externality is on the customer who didn't factor the noise into their value calculation, because it's hard to judge before you live there for a while. So because they don't bear the cost of inadequate soundproofing, developers will tend towards the cheapest option.
- pilom 10y ago
  I'm still not convinced by this or either of the other replies. Safety issues I should be protected from by the government. "It's loud" is something I should walk away from after my lease is up without the government ever being involved. Some people appreciate cheaper options even if they are louder and there isn't a good reason to have the government prevent them from being allowed to take those options.
  - aninhumer 10y ago
    I wouldn't object to some kind of noise rating system instead. The point is just that soundproofing is not something people can judge effectively during viewings, so it doesn't get priced effectively by the free market. Maybe a noisier property will have slightly higher turnover, but the rental price will probably not be noticeably affected.

by pilom 10y ago

Please no. Regulations should exist for safety and dealing with externalities. Regulating sound-proofing is neither of those and would expand government overreach without enough benefit.

ericd 10y ago

The idea there would be that it's one of those things that's hard for consumers to evaluate in the time they have to evaluate it, because a walkthrough doesn't provide a representative sample. For example, you probably won't know how frequently ambulances take the road next to that apartment in the middle of the night. Dealing with information asymmetry is one of the big functions of consumer protections laws, and is one of the useful functions of government.

hx87 10y ago

Codes mandate minimum insulation levels and fireproofing between neighboring units already, and the same measures for both also tend to reduce sound transmission. Requiring insulation between neighboring units isn't much of a stretch.

aninhumer 10y ago

The externality is on the customer who didn't factor the noise into their value calculation, because it's hard to judge before you live there for a while. So because they don't bear the cost of inadequate soundproofing, developers will tend towards the cheapest option.

pilom 10y ago
I'm still not convinced by this or either of the other replies. Safety issues I should be protected from by the government. "It's loud" is something I should walk away from after my lease is up without the government ever being involved. Some people appreciate cheaper options even if they are louder and there isn't a good reason to have the government prevent them from being allowed to take those options.
- aninhumer 10y ago
  I wouldn't object to some kind of noise rating system instead. The point is just that soundproofing is not something people can judge effectively during viewings, so it doesn't get priced effectively by the free market. Maybe a noisier property will have slightly higher turnover, but the rental price will probably not be noticeably affected.