Noise-what does the law say?

whathavewedone

I suffered from this when renting a ground floor flat around 7 years ago. The guy upstairs used to come in at around 2am, slam the gate and then put on really loud music until morning and thump around above our head so it sounded like the ceiling was coming in.

We complained to the guy who was quite polite initially and said he would be more considerate. And then carried on as normal. So we complained again and he was a bit rude. So we complained again and he was even ruder. We complained to the landlord who said he would speak to him. And nothing changed.

We rang environmental health who had a word with him. So he turned his music down that night. 2 nights later guess what?

Rinse and repeat.

We moved out and told all the couples who viewed while we were there about the guy upstairs.

Helga14

In my lease agreement it gives me the right to the peaceful enjoyment of my flat. Also has the conditition that I don't disturb the peaceful enjoyment of the other tenant in the building. If upstairs are noisey, which occassionally they can be as they play football inside their flat! I ask them to keep it down and they are really polite and stop the jumping around. First step ask politely. I would keep a diary of noise. Complain to their landlord, your landlord, environmental health, anyone that will listen... that will be us then.

HH62

You have my sympathy. I had this problem for nearly 18 months when I lived in an apartment - the flat upstairs was rented and the tenants changed about three times in that period. The first ones had a young child and laminate floors and used to run up and down the hall slamming the doors, probably playing hide and seek or something. Fortunately that only happened in the daytime. Still it was annoying...

The second ones were ok, but would be a bit noisy sometimes when live footy was on TV..

The third ones were the worst of the lot - noise like you describe, went on constantly. I decided the best course of action was to talk to them about it first. The first few times I went up to talk to them, I felt sick with nerves. They didn't answer the door because the music was so loud they couldnt hear me knocking :rolleyes:

Eventually I spoke to them when it was all quiet, Sunday morning, they'd just got up.
They were really nice people who had no idea how much noise they'd been making, and kept it down from then on.
Point is, sometimes people dont even realise how much noise transfers to lower flats.

Talk to them first is my advice, rather than get the council involved yet. If talking to them does no good, put a note through their door and then start to keep a diary of noise levels and dates and times, and then contact the council.

Good luck. I know how this can make your life a misery.

littlegirllost

i really have to stress that you speak to neighbors, i play music every weekend, no later than 12am, but instead of speaking to us the flat above us just called the police instead of saying to me, if if they had asked nicely, i would have turned down, been in the flat i did not realize how bad it was. but now im just angry about it, i live in a bought house im turning it off by a reasonable time and its the weekend. So talk to your neighbors trust me its better all round

Gingernutmeg

Noise every weekend until 12am isn't reasonable. Sorry, but it just isn't, and I'm not surprised your neighbours have got a little annoyed with you. Yes, maybe they should have talked to your first but playing persistant loud music in itself could be construed as an aggressive act, so I don't blame them for not wanting to speak to you themselves. Would they have got a polite response or a fist in the face? You never know, and personally, it's not a risk I'd be willing to take. (I'm not saying here that this is what you'd do, but you really can't tell with people nowadays. I'm no hero, and I'd rather call the police or the EHO to deal with noise than potentially risk my own safety confronting someone. In my experience, talking to people rarely solves the problem.) I can only imagine how frustrated your neighbours must have been, getting to the point where they dread the weekend because they know it's going to mean hours on end of loud music AGAIN.

It amazes me how selfish some people are with regards to noise. If you live in a terrace, or a semi, or even any kind of house where you've got neighbours close to you, then it is a basic consideration to think about whether the noise you make might affect them, whether you own the house or rent it. I've lived in flats and I currently live in a terrace, and there are certain things that I just don't do because I've lived with noisy neighbours and I know how absolutely soul-destroying it is to be harrassed by constant noise, to feel that you can't get away from it and to feel that even your own home isn't somewhere you can get a bit of peace. I don't hoover or use the washing machine after 7.30pm, and I make sure that any noisy activities (like DIY etc) are carried out during the day, and I'd never play music loud enough to be heard by someone next door, and I certainly wouldn't do it every weekend until gone midnight. To me, it's a basic consideration of living in a crowded country that we can't all pretend that we live in bubbles and the noise we make doesn't affect anyone.

cowbutt

dad-of-4 wrote: »

i find these issues to be a rather sad refletion of the way society is, people who would rather put a note thru somones door, than talk face to face, people giving total disregard to who their noise might bother, living underneath, on top of, or next to people we dont know, and dont even bother to take the time to get to know or want too anyway.

Depends whether it sounds from their shouted conversations whether one thinks said noisy neighbours are drunk and/or coked up enough to resort to violence when challenged about their behaviour.

Also, whilst I've always introduced myself to my new neighbours when I've moved into a new home, no-one has ever done so to me. One introduction was courtesy of an intoxicated neighbour trying to break into his own home at 3am on a Sunday morning using a combination of running kicks and abusing the fire extinguisher as a battering ram. Until that point, I'd assumed the property was vacant.

PasturesNew

littlegirllost wrote: »

i play music every weekend, no later than 12am,

You sound like a right annoyance. Midnight is later than the standard cut off time of 11pm.

I wouldn't want to come knocking on your door. What if you're an aggressive sort, or big built, or scarey with tattoos and rings through your nose?

Also, what Gingernut said in #16

Noise pollution: http://www.castlemorpeth.gov.uk/services/environment/pollution/noise_pollution/Pages/default.aspx

Including "the noise is prejudicial to health and is an unreasonable disturbance to your lifestyle"

littlegirllost

i have lived in my flat for serveral years, my neighbours knows me, i have also spoke to all of my other neighbours and not one of them have a issue with my music. when the police were called i was on the phone at the time talking to my mum who is in her sixtys having a normal conversation so my music is not blaring, you cant even hear it from outside. All i was saying if she had addressed the issue the music would have been turned down, how am im meant to know. Its also the weekend i dont see what the issue if im not playing music during the week.

rachyrach2k

Littlegirllost, the issue is that more people are at home during the weekend who hear your music

littlegirllost

You sound like a right annoyance. Midnight is later than the standard cut off time of 11pm.

I wouldn't want to come knocking on your door. What if you're an aggressive sort, or big built, or scarey with tattoos and rings through your nose?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hi, listen my girlfriend is the one who was saying talk to the people involved
she is not big and all the other stuff said.
what she did not say is that the people are two up from us and as we have already had a talk with all of the people around us regarding the music ( by the way same loudness as my tv and thats what the police who came to my door also thought as well, as he did not disagree with me ) next door even thinks that we should seek legal advice as she does not see a problem and this is a middle aged women who has lived with us for a while, i have letter from straight above us saying the same!!! i am a reasonable man who prides himself of the fact that i was brought up to respect others and treat them the same way i would want to be treated, having said that if they had came to me explained what they felt like i would have no problem in coming to an arrangement. the first week the police came i asked all of the people round me that i could and i mean all the people bar two at the top and three people said sorry they had party's and know that i do this every week and not caused a problem so thought must have been them!! because of this we did the same that weekend again and were surprised when police arrived again.

if they had only asked their neighbors about us they would have found out that for the past twelve years we have got on great and never had any probs with any of them and could easily approach us.

the lesson here is as most people have said is give them a chance speak to them see if there is some way of sorting it if not you are just as bad as them and causing conflict that might not be needed

when we did ask them about the music ( no one else to ask ) they explained the problem we agreed and not to confront them again sent a little note asking if maybe eleven was ok, no reply, meet them on the stair last night asked if they got note and all hell broke loose saying im harassing her???

so please dont post such nasty comments about my partner until you know the facts and if you dont know them ask she was only trying to stop the situation that we are in the now and that is the feeling of screw them as nobody else has a problem.

again unfortunately brought up to well for that :A

sorry for the long post lost off sleepless night over last week and a half worrying about neighbors