Noisy Neighbours

RockOnZombies

Hi there,

A little bit about us, we're long time lurkers first time posters who are after a bit of advice for our tenancy agreement.

The story . . .
We moved into a two bedroom first floor flat in February of this year, which was to be our first home together. The first 6 months was hell due to the people who lived above us who were just the noisest people ever. We were often kept up until 2 or 3 in the morning during the week, fortunately two months ago they moved out I suspect because we involved the environmental health department at the local council.

We had two months of peace but now we have new neighbours and it has become apparent that our previous problems were not an isolated incident. In a nutshell there doesn't appear to be any sound insulation between our flat and the one above, as I write this I can hear our neighbours conversation and its not even loud!!!

Ohh yeah and we have 6 months left to run on our AST.

Questions.
Does anyone think it is reasonable to be able to hear someone else regular conversations from the flat above or even if it is normal in flats?

If not is this grounds to try and terminate our contract early without penalty as the flat is clearly not suitable accommodation?

If you could give me any pointers/advice we would be very grateful

R.O.Z

pickle140584

have u spoke to the neighbours, perhaps they dont realise or maybe they have the same issue as you.

It does seem extreme though if you can hear talking when not loud.

I would speak to the letting agents in the first instance or email a complaint so you have a log, if they fail to assist you wil have a paper trail and more chance of getting out of the lease

Fire_Fox

But if you put in a complaint to Environmental Health then you may end up getting the new tenants a bad reputation with their landlord when in fact it's the sound insulation at fault. I agree with the paper trail.

clutton_2

"" is this grounds to try and terminate our contract early without penalty as the flat is clearly not suitable accommodation?"

in a word - no

there are thousands, if not millions, of properties in this country which have poor insulation / sound-proofing - as it is only very recently that Building Regs insisted on better quality insulation/sound proofing materials in the building of flats - or even the conversion of houses into self-contained flats

Just because you do not find it "suitable" does not make it uninhabitable and is no reason to break your contract - you have signed a legally binding document to pay the rent for the fixed term. Since this is your first time of renting, this may be a shock to you.

if i were you i would invite the LL down in the evening to hear for him/herself what the problem is - and have a civilised adult conversatoin about the insulation/soundproofing

it is possible that there may be some grants available for insulation .... do some research - if you can find some grants and it means a lower outlay for your landlord to try to fix the problem for you s/he is more likely to want to help

jaffacakes82

Noisy neighbours are taken pretty seriously by the council these days. Where I live it's 90% family orientated and we've managed to get 3 lots of tenants evicted in under a year because of noise and anti social behaviour (students).

But if the current problem with the tenants above you is purely hearing their voices, then it may be hard to complain about them, unless you can hear music, tv, or excessive loudness after 11pm. If they're staying up to the early hours of the morning most nights and you can hear their voices, perhaps first have an informal chat, in most cases, neighbours are unaware how loud they're being especially in the dead of night.

Can the people below you hear your voices? It might be worth checking with them. If they can it's definitely a sound proofing issue. But if you're already 6 months into your let, there's usually a get out clause in the lease 6 months plus where you can get out of the property with 1-2 months notice.

But when you look for your next property avoid converted buildings/houses like the plague and go for a purpose built property instead. A couple of years ago whilst I was viewing a ground floor property in a converted house, with the agent, we could hear the people above, the tv and their kids running around!

phil1873football

Join the club!!

Unfortunately, its been 2yrs now, with the council doing absolutely nothing about it.

I'm afraid you might just have to put up with it or find another place to live.

Sorry for sounding so blunt, but I am in entirely the same situation as you, however, you at least have the option of moving properties a lot easier than me as I pay a mortgage on mine.

If you do like the property though, your landlord could invest in putting a second ceiling in place with sound proofing properties...you would lose approx 100mm in height maximum and would cost approx £800 - 1200p/room dependent on size of your room.

I did this in my bedroom (fortunately I got it cheaper as I knew a builder and a supplier of the materials and got it done on 'friends rates') it hasn't solved the problem 100% but this along with ear plug...I can now sleep ok even though the earplugs are uncomfortable at times.


Hope the above can help in some way

phil1873football

Oh,

If you want some advice on the materials used and installation process for the sound proofing...give me a shout...Not too loud though, the neighbours might hear

PasturesNew

I had the same problem, poor sound proofing. I now let them know that I can hear every detail of their sex life and they stop inviting their friends over and then move out as soon as their AST is up. It doesn't help that I have to do this every 6 months, but it is proving effective as they are mortified

phil1873football

PasturesNew wrote: »

I had the same problem, poor sound proofing. I now let them know that I can hear every detail of their sex life and they stop inviting their friends over and then move out as soon as their AST is up. It doesn't help that I have to do this every 6 months, but it is proving effective as they are mortified

I do the exact same thing when the couple upstairs have that ONE special moment every week for 5mins:rotfl:...and I aint joking about that. Usually a sunday night around 23.30/00.00hrs. Very entertaining really...I have since been able to reduce my Sky subscription:p...if you get me:D

woody01

then it may be hard to complain about them, unless you can hear music, tv, or excessive loudness after 11pm

Where did you pluck 11pm from?
There is no law regarding timeof day at all (although many think there is).

Whether its 2am or 2pm, it is a fundemental right to leave in peaceful enjoyment of your property, and the local council/environmental health WILL enforce this.

Fire_Fox

woody01 wrote: »

Where did you pluck 11pm from?
There is no law regarding timeof day at all (although many think there is).

Whether its 2am or 2pm, it is a fundemental right to leave in peaceful enjoyment of your property, and the local council/environmental health WILL enforce this.

11pm is stated in many ASTs, and is often council policy for acting on certain types of noise complaints. For example, construction noise in a residential area.