A Massachusetts homeowner claims noise from a nearby country club's new pickleball court has kept his $1 million Cape Cod home from selling for eight months.
Judith Ann Lone Comeau put her Sagamore Beach home on the market expecting it to sell within 30 days, like other similarly priced homes in the neighborhood, but she was surprised to find it was still on the market more than six months later.
“It has beautiful views of the bay, beautiful gardens and is close to the beach,” Comeau said. He told Boston.com. “Something was wrong.”
According to the outlet, she had listed the three-bedroom, three-bathroom property for more than $1 million before being forced to remove it on August 10.
Comeau claims that the pickleball court at the Sagamore Beach Colony Club, a 100-year-old private tennis club, was “secretly installed during the pandemic” and placed 30 feet away from her property line, which is what's preventing her from selling her house.
Como said the home had been on the market for eight months and more than 60 people had come to view it, with many returning to view it a second time.
“No matter what time of day it is, someone is playing pickleball,” she wrote on Facebook.
“They refused to allow quiet balls or paddles (members don't enjoy them much), didn't put a time limit on it, and said they only had one court and now they've added another one,” she complained in the “Pickleball Noise Abatement” Facebook group.
The Facebook group aims to “connect families who are affected by the unintentional but significant noise pollution from pickleball courts.”
Comeau said he bought his house knowing the club was nearby and has never had any issues with the tennis players.
“I have never complained about tennis. I used to keep an eye on the court and chase away kids who were trashing it late at night. Now 16 people can play at the same time,” she said.
Comeau said she has been fighting and complaining about the pickleball courts for the past four years, but her requests for softer balls and paddles have been “ignored” and no one has done anything, including “every department” within the town.
When she tries to drown out the noise by playing music at home, she is often thwarted by pickleball players who complain about the noise.
“They're knocking on my door and emailing me asking if they can play my music on my deck for tournaments and events,” Comeau said.
“Imagine having the right to not care about what your neighbors are doing. Before we moved to The Villages, we always had very considerate neighbors,” she added.
Como started recording the noise levels from his deck, and they consistently stay in the high 70s to low 80s range.
Rob Mastroianni, founder of Pickleball Noise Mitigation, said it has become “a new phenomenon in residential communities.”
“This noise that people are enduring so close to their homes is really insidious,” he told Boston.com.
A real estate lawyer representing Como and two other residents said he has written letters to the club urging them to move to court.
“This is a real and growing problem,” Jonathan Polloni told the outlet. “As pickleball becomes more popular, so do the complaints.”
“I can't imagine there's a judge who would say it's OK that we have to deal with this,” Comeau said. “I just want this to be over and I can ban pickleball, put my house up for sale and ride off into the sunset.”
