Neighbour has complained about my tenants!

bathgatebuyer

I have laminate flooring in a top floor flat (which was there when I bought the place) but have enough common sense to know to walk around in socks or slippers rather than clump around in shoes. I had to approach the people downstairs about their loud music and they said, "But these flats are well sound-proofed, we don't hear anything from your flat". So, it is possible to be quiet with laminate, it just requires a bit of sensitivity to those around you. If that means no shoes indoors, then so be it! It does peev off any visitors I have, but it's only out of fairness to those downstairs.

And the owner, as landlord, has to take responsibility for the behaviour of the tenants. The lease as well as the title deeds will almost certainly contain a clause about the conduct of residents in relation to noise and deemed nuisance to others.

pogofish

poppysarah wrote: »

The landlord is responsible for making sure the tenants don't cause a nuisance or disturbance.

Nope, not in England:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/renting_and_leasehold/rights_and_responsibilities/landlords_responsibilities

Environmental Health/ASB unit directly would be my advice.

poppysarah

pogofish wrote: »

Nope, not in England:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/renting_and_leasehold/rights_and_responsibilities/landlords_responsibilities

Environmental Health/ASB unit directly would be my advice.

At which point they will want to speak to the landlord to get them to also act...

pogofish

If they do, they are copping-out then, because by the time they have enough evidence to approach the landlord, they will almost certainly have enough to raise an action under their own antisocial behaviour powers.

An English landlord's hands are very much tied on matters of antisocial noise - They are in most cases, limited to not renewing the let, or starting to look for action based on other more serious breaches of the agreement.

It would have to be a very serious & long term disturbance for an action by the landlord to succeed. The general responsibility is just not clear enough & the amount of interference a landlord is reasonably allowed is severely limited by the tenant's right to "quiet enjoyment" (which TBH says very little about noise).

janey_uk

What about clauses in tenant's contracts? There is one in the contract I have just signed about not being allowed any noise audible outside of the property and having to turn music/tv off by 10pm. Would this be unenforceable pogofish?

YO42

Edit - I've now posted this same question in my own topic http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1494537

I live in a 3 storey block of flats, on the 1st floor.

I own mine and have carpet fitted throughout, but the person above is a private tenant and had laminate flooring fitted from new.

These flats were built new in 2004, which is when myself and the other owners purchased.

Now, the tenant above stamps around almost 24/7 with shoes on, TV playing, washing the dishes, hoovering etc etc.

We can hear coughing and sneezing too.

Now, we've been awoken by the noise between 12 midnight - 5/6am almost 2-3 times a week.

We normally retaliate by banging the ceiling during the middle of the night when we are awoken.
We honestly feel our health has been affected due to lack of sleep and stress.

We've spoken to the tenant, with no luck as it normally ends in a heated argument.

Where do we stand?

From a very tired, weak and defeated member...

mlz1413

I know of a flat that was a new build in 2005 or 2006 and that had to have sound proofing to a really high level - I'd contact NHBA and ask what the regulations are that cover your year of build, as it is less than 10 years old there should be some come back on the builders if it hans't been insulated correctly.

rogerdodger007

Do you pay the letting agent to fully-manage your property? If you do, I'd have thought it's part of their responsibliity to place that phone call and find out if the tenants they found for you are causing a noise problem.
If not, phone the environments agency and see what they have to say - and what evidence they have gather to substantiate the claim.

janey_uk

I had a problem about 6 years ago with a downstairs tenant playing music so loud that glasses would rattle on my coffee table along with the bass. The local environmental health offered to put recording equipment in my flat to capture and measure the disturbance so they could take action.

(It was a renovated house with three flats all owned by the same woman, who let her teenage son live below me and told him he was allowed to have 'disco's' on the weekend... I let her know I would be taking up EH's offer and the noise stopped immediately. That was when the verbal harassment started and we moved out!)

ipod_killed_the_musicshop

janey_uk wrote: »

I had a problem about 6 years ago with a downstairs tenant playing music so loud that glasses would rattle on my coffee table along with the bass. The local environmental health offered to put recording equipment in my flat to capture and measure the disturbance so they could take action.

(It was a renovated house with three flats all owned by the same woman, who let her teenage son live below me and told him he was allowed to have 'disco's' on the weekend... I let her know I would be taking up EH's offer and the noise stopped immediately. That was when the verbal harassment started and we moved out!)

I take my hat off to you!:T Just out of interest would they have offered the same for out of hours noise, and would they have offered it regardless of whether it breached allowed daytime decibles?