Neighbour has complained about my tenants!

archie9uk

I have today received an email from my letting agent about the property that I let out to tenants. The property is a first floor maisonette, and the tenants are a Polish family (parents and two young boys) who don't speak English.

The email says:
"Could you please call xxx xxx at Environmental Health as they have had a complaint from a neighbour about the noise the tenants are making because of the laminate floors and she wants to discuss with you what you as a landlord could do to improve things, she is going to send out a letter in Polish to the tenants as well."

I am not at all happy about this. We lived in the property for two years prior to letting it out (me, my husband and our dog) and never had any complaints from our downstairs neighbour (who is the only one who could be complaining). In fact the irony is that we found the downstairs neighbours to be very loud - their TV would be on full blast at all hours of the day and night. I get the impression that they may be suggesting I carpet the property, which I think is ridiculous. Surely the issue must be the tenants, rather than the floor?

Any ideas how to approach this with Environmental Health (I can't really see them being on my side)??

poppysarah

Put carpet down.

dannymccann

You really need to talk to the neighbour (find out who it is first) and ask them if its ok if you visit their property to check out the noise levels. We had this problem, the tenants above us were animals day and night with people stomping about and bassy music played almost 24/7. Say to them you will be getting EH involved, but wouldnt like to waste their time if you can ascertain what it is that is causing the problem and fix it asap.

naijapower

You dont have to put carpet down instantly. First the environmental agency would have to prove that the noise from your tenants constitute an unacceptable nuisance level to the neighbours. This done by them providing your neighbours with a device to record the sound from your flat.
out of interest, is the property a new build? if so you may have a sound insulation problem and you can complain to the builder/NHBC to investigate. Flats have to comply to a stricter sound passage standard as prescribed by Robust Details Ltd (RDL).

archie9uk

poppysarah wrote: »

Put carpet down.

I certainly won't be putting carpet down without very good reason. It would be an absolute last resort!

archie9uk

dannymccann wrote: »

You really need to talk to the neighbour (find out who it is first) and ask them if its ok if you visit their property to check out the noise levels. We had this problem, the tenants above us were animals day and night with people stomping about and bassy music played almost 24/7. Say to them you will be getting EH involved, but wouldnt like to waste their time if you can ascertain what it is that is causing the problem and fix it asap.

I know who the neighbour is, but I would rather eat my own eyeballs than ask to visit his property. I despise him with a passion. He is the reason we moved out of the flat in the first place. He is a rude, ignorant bully. Obviously I wouldn't say this to Environmental Health, but I hope the tenants keep him awake at night, like he did to us.

tomstickland

Are you sure that it's the same neighbour? Someone making a lot of noise wouldn't be likely to complain about someone else making noise.

Flats and laminate floors don't go together. Many leases prohibit it.

archie9uk

naijapower wrote: »

You dont have to put carpet down instantly. First the environmental agency would have to prove that the noise from your tenants constitute an unacceptable nuisance level to the neighbours. This done by them providing your neighbours with a device to record the sound from your flat.
out of interest, is the property a new build? if so you may have a sound insulation problem and you can complain to the builder/NHBC to investigate. Flats have to comply to a stricter sound passage standard as prescribed by Robust Details Ltd (RDL).

I agree - I'm not prepared to carpet the property without hard evidence of noise pollution (which I don't really believe anyway).
No - the property is not a new build. It is 1960s. The sound insulation is not brilliant, but sound travels both ways. We could hear our neighbour having a wee, and the bathroom is the only room that is carpeted, so that obviously really helps with sound insulation! Not to mention the fact that you can hear their TV from the street...

Anyway, why suddenly does the floor become an issue after the laminate has been there for years?

notlongnow_2

my 2 boys can make a horrendous amount of noise when they are racing around. If these two boys are running around all the time with shoes on then I can imagine it to be very noisy.

Gorgeous_George

Laminate floors are awful and so last century.

We all need to be able to live together in this world of ours. As a LL, I would be asking my tenants to choose some carpets and quality underlay if they were on a 12 months AST. Otherwise, I would choose some myself.

I'd listen to EH and ask what you can do if the tenant does not agree. You're probably limited to servig notice to quit at the end of the AST but I don't know (my BTL is an end-of-terrace and I do not have similar issues).

Happy neighbours = happy tenants = happy landlord.

GG

archie9uk

tomstickland wrote: »

Are you sure that it's the same neighbour? Someone making a lot of noise wouldn't be likely to complain about someone else making noise.

Flats and laminate floors don't go together. Many leases prohibit it.

I'm sure it's the same neighbour (and he's complained before). The arrogant so-and-so doesn't either know or care how much noise he makes.
I'm going to need to get a copy of the lease from my mortgage lender. I used to keep it myself before I changed lender last year, and I can't remember it saying anything about the floors (although I could be wrong). The neighbour in question has previously lied about what it says in the lease (he told us that it says the upstairs flats cannot have pets, which was an outright lie) so I wouldn't take anything he says for granted.