Need to move to escape noisy neighbours - but no deposit

davver79

Hello. I'm in a bit of a mess.

I bought my flat nearly a year ago for £127k. It's a ground floor flat with another flat upstairs. There is no insulation between the floors, and the noise, footsteps, tv etc. is driving me crazy.

I put my house on the market about a month ago, had a couple of offers of around £118k.

If I sold at that I would make a loss. I've put an offer in on a 2 bed terrace for £145k and if I can get it for that it would be a bargain, the owners want to move fast so they don't lose the house they want, so I'm in a good position there.

But... I can only get a 90% mortgage and can't afford the £14k deposit.

Am I making a big mistake? Is there any other way to get the funds for the deposit, eg. loan? I'm not very clued up in this area, as you can probably tell.

The whole thing is making me really depressed and stressed out and effecting my work. I don't know what I can do.

Thank you.

Procrastinator333

If it were me I would take the £118k of whoever can move fastest - You are in danger of getting stuck in that flat for a very long time...

Penny_Rich

I sympathise with your predicament. If you are really that desperate to move, is it possible that you can borrow the money from your parents?

If you find that you can't move, then perhaps there is a way to address the noise situation. Is the noise at a reasonable level, or is it that your neighbours behave unreasonably? If the latter, try contacting your local council - environmental health i think, as they can be quite helpful on these matters. If the former, then perhaps you could talk to the property management company, see if anything can be done re insulation.

Speaking as someone who has lived in a ground floor flat for quite sometime, i used to hate the sound of the neighbours walking about, their tv noise and so on. But i have got used to it now, and dont actually like it when they go on holiday - the quiet is too spooky!

Mum_of_3_3

Hi!

You have my total sympathy imho there is nothing worse than noisy neighbours, it can really get you down.

If the only thing bothering you is the noise form upstairs, have you thought about installing some soundproofing?

After Googling soundproofing I came accross this info http://www.domesticsoundproofing.co.uk/soundproof_ceiling_help.htm

It may prove to be a cheaper way of escaping the noise!

M_o_3

barnaby-bear

davver79 wrote: »

Hello. I'm in a bit of a mess.

I bought my flat nearly a year ago for £127k. It's a ground floor flat with another flat upstairs. There is no insulation between the floors, and the noise, footsteps, tv etc. is driving me crazy.

The whole thing is making me really depressed and stressed out and effecting my work. I don't know what I can do.

Thank you.

Have they got hard flooring, laminate, wooden floors or floorboards - most flats have a clause in the lease (check your lease) that have a covenant disallowing such things for this reason. If you can't move it may be worth checking your lease for a prohibiting clause and if you suspect such flooring you can complain to the leaseholder/management committee who can enforce its removal. If the noise is excessive for such reasons you may also be able to get supporting evidence via the councils environmental noise enforcement department.

davver79

Thanks for all the replys.

It's not that the neighbours are being overly noisy, it's due to the poor conversion, and they do have wooden floors. The lease does say they must have carpets down, but does this apply to their kitchen? Their kitchen is directly above my bedroom, where the noise is worst.

I have thought about installing soundproofing, but I've heard after all the disruption and money spent the reduction in noise level is quite minimal.

I did think about asking my parents for a loan but i think £14k would be pushing it...

thanks

~Beanie~

davver79 wrote: »

I put my house on the market about a month ago, had a couple of offers of around £118k.

If I sold at that I would make a loss.

How much of a loss, how much is outstanding on your mortgage? How would you repay the shortfall - you wouldn't be able to sell unless you had the money to repay the difference between what you sell for and what you owe on the mortgage.

barnaby-bear

davver79 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replys.

It's not that the neighbours are being overly noisy, it's due to the poor conversion, and they do have wooden floors. The lease does say they must have carpets down, but does this apply to their kitchen? Their kitchen is directly above my bedroom, where the noise is worst.

I have thought about installing soundproofing, but I've heard after all the disruption and money spent the reduction in noise level is quite minimal.

I did think about asking my parents for a loan but i think £14k would be pushing it...

thanks

Check the lease - if it doesn't exclude the kitchen then it will apply, if they really want hard flooring rather than well insulated cushiony vinyl or alike then they should put in a floating floor type insulation set up - if the layout is such the kitchen is over a bedroom sounds reasonable to expect non-hard flooring. My mate lived in a flat and never had any noise from above until someone ignored the covenants it's was like a herd of rampaging elephants.

davver79

Beanie - I would make a loss of £4k. I need to sell for £122k to break even.

Barnaby - Good to know that it may not exclude the kitchen. I'll dig out the lease and get in touch with them. I'm never any good at addressing situations like this though...

If I did decide not to sell, would I still have to pay agents fees? The flats been on the market for 3 weeks.

wymondham

Why not buy them comfy slippers for Christmas?

Seriously, have a chat with them and discuss - they might be more open to things than you think!

barnaby-bear

wymondham wrote: »

Why not buy them comfy slippers for Christmas?

Seriously, have a chat with them and discuss - they might be more open to things than you think!

You probably have the power to force them to rip up *all* their hard floors, but if the kitchen is the main issue you could be quite nice and accommodating by offering to let it stay elsewhere if they sort out the kitchen... this is why there are such clauses because living under hard floors when the insulation wasn't designed for such (hence the covenants) is very noisy and unpleasant. I imagine vinyl and underlay was the original setup in the kitchen....