Started to rent, have complaint against me!

samtheplumber

Hello,

I am after some general advice as i am rather worried! I have moved into a flat on the ground floor and have had two complaints made against me from the women underneath.

The first was that i didn't close the main door to the building quietly enough so i apologized and use my keys to make sure i am not 'pulling it shut'. I seem to be the only one who took any notice of her but i appreciate that it can make a bang so don't mind!

Then last night i had 3 friends round for the first time, I had background music playing and we were drinking wine/beer and playing cards on the floor as i only have a small sofa. The whole flat has laminate flooring and i have no rugs at present (plan to get some when i have the money) at 8:45pm i have some very big knocks at the door which scared the life out of me, it was the women from below and for about 10 minutes she told me how i was making banging noise or playing a 'wii fit' and dancing. She did this in a threatening way and even mentioned how her husband will be home soon and he would not 'stand for any of it'. She mentioned how she used to come up every other day and have a go at the previous tenant and how she would make complaints against me etc etc...

Me and my friend sara stood their slightly shocked and just apologized as much as we could and that we didn't know about the noise and can only guess she could hear us moving about on the floor and putting our glasses down. I asked her if should could hear my music or us talking and she said she couldn't!

All my friends left by 10pm and i was asleep by 10:15pm. Today i had a call from my lettings agency that she had been in complaining that i was banging and and clattering about and she only managed to get a couple hours of sleep.

I checked my tenancy agreement and it states the noise levels should not affect other people between 12midnight and 7am (which is way past my bedtime anyway). It would be stupid of me to think i can make as much noise as i like between these two times and i respect other people. This women is worrying me though and i don't want any 'bad marks' against me if i rent again!

Sorry for the extremely long post, if you want to know any thing else then let me know, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Sam

myothercarisaferrari

I had a similar thing when I moved in my top floor flat - two days after moving in the neighbour moaned the decorating and banging was too excessive:rotfl:

I apologised.

If I were you, I would stick a note thru her door apologising:o

caeler

I don't want to panic you but sounds like she plagued the previous tennants too and whatever you do she will still believe you are making noise. I recommend you document your side of the story with your LA just so there is a record, assure them you are not making excessive noise, just living quite normally. As other poster says apologise, explain the laminate flooring probably does help and you intend to get some rugs, etc.

I really hope this suffices but definately protect yourself incase this woman keeps complaining.

I can sort of empathise with the woman downstairs, if she's seeings lots of tennants come and go regularly she probably has stereotyped everybody to being noisy and ignorant, so hopefully your apology and note will help put her mind at rest that you'll be a really nice neighbour.

Good Luck.

poppysarah

If you rent and the floor is laminate then ask the landlord/LA if it should be carpet and thick underlay to prevent the woman underneath being disturbed.

She sounds like she's at the end of her tether already though which isn't good.

pinkshoes

I would write back to the letting agent and inform them that you were in bed at 10pm, and asleep very shortly after, so you could not possibly have been responsible for any noise during the night.

The people in the flat below probably just like complaining so that no one lives above them!

Could you not buy a rug this weekend?

Enfieldian

Climb down the drainpipe, through her bedroom window, slit her throat while she is sleeping.

Problem solved.

RacyRed

Complain to the letting agent that the woman in the flat below has brayed on your door, threatened you and has admitted she complained to the previous tenants every other day.

Then ask them why you were not advised that the flat had a problem neighbour and insist they take responsibility for soundproofing your flat by a set date or you will regard them as being in breach of the letting contract.

I'd stop apologising, it doesn't look as if it is going to help you at all and helps confirm this woman's opinion that she has the right to dictate how you live in your own home.

MissMess

I definitely agree with blufuzzybug, above. Its so importnat that you keep a small "diary"of the instances that she has complained, and what you were doing at the time, in case she tries to escalate this with complaints to the police or local council. Although it wont be stand alone proof it will show that you are aware of the problem and if nothing else help jog your memory where unjustified complaints are made. I often have the problem where I am just so taken aback by something I dont know how to react and turn into a goldfish opening and closing my mouth, trying to think of something to say. This will help out next time...
L: "3 times in the past week, you have been keeping your neighbours up and they havent been able to sleep"
Response:"Actually, I had some friends round to play cards one night and they left by 10.".. rather than: "err.. what have I done? 3 times? I ... I guess .... I suppose I did have the radio on while I was cooking dinner..."

Also ask the LA to put a carpet down because of the problems downstairs - though no guarantee of course that they will do this, they can be TERRIBLE about actually forking out any money.....

And dont apologise! It will vindicate her in her opinion that you are wrong, and she is right!

Fire_Fox

samtheplumber wrote: »

Hello,

I am after some general advice as i am rather worried! I have moved into a flat on the ground floor and have had two complaints made against me from the women underneath.

The first was that i didn't close the main door to the building quietly enough so i apologized and use my keys to make sure i am not 'pulling it shut'. I seem to be the only one who took any notice of her but i appreciate that it can make a bang so don't mind!

Then last night i had 3 friends round for the first time, I had background music playing and we were drinking wine/beer and playing cards on the floor as i only have a small sofa. The whole flat has laminate flooring and i have no rugs at present (plan to get some when i have the money) at 8:45pm i have some very big knocks at the door which scared the life out of me, it was the women from below and for about 10 minutes she told me how i was making banging noise or playing a 'wii fit' and dancing. She did this in a threatening way and even mentioned how her husband will be home soon and he would not 'stand for any of it'. She mentioned how she used to come up every other day and have a go at the previous tenant and how she would make complaints against me etc etc...

Me and my friend sara stood their slightly shocked and just apologized as much as we could and that we didn't know about the noise and can only guess she could hear us moving about on the floor and putting our glasses down. I asked her if should could hear my music or us talking and she said she couldn't!

All my friends left by 10pm and i was asleep by 10:15pm. Today i had a call from my lettings agency that she had been in complaining that i was banging and and clattering about and she only managed to get a couple hours of sleep.

I checked my tenancy agreement and it states the noise levels should not affect other people between 12midnight and 7am (which is way past my bedtime anyway). It would be stupid of me to think i can make as much noise as i like between these two times and i respect other people. This women is worrying me though and i don't want any 'bad marks' against me if i rent again!

Sorry for the extremely long post, if you want to know any thing else then let me know, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Sam

The letting agency cannot do anything without evidence, the silly cow is complaining to the wrong organisation! You might turn it around on the agency and ask if they are aware that the previous tenants were harassed by someone in the block?

I had this with a previous neighbour, I wrote a reply to the letting agent's letter and said the music was off by 10pm for Big Brother and we were out every weekend. I pointed out the clause in the AST about the hours as you have done. After this our neighbours contacted Environmental Health, who knocked on the door one evening and asked us politely to turn the music down. It was conversation volume, so I asked if it was penetrating next door - the EH woman said she could barely hear anything and admitted she had been over before to listen and there was no complaint to answer. Basically they were trying to mediate.

The point of that is not to be afraid of getting EH involved yourselves as they may mediate with this person, also if the soundproofing is particularly poor EH can test for this and possibly enforce on your landlord to install additional soundproofing. Also just do not bother to answer the door, someone in our block had a party starting at 2am on Wednesday morning and they simply did not answer the door - there is then nothing that can be done.

Hermia

I agree with the poster who suggested keeping a diary of these complaints. Also make a note of what you were doing at the time of these complaints. I would also keep the landlord/letting agency informed if you get a lot of complaints.

I live in a block of flats and the woman below me makes frequent complaints about all the flats that neighbour hers. She is disabled and stuck at home all day so I wonder if things just play on her mind. Half her complaints are just nonsense. She once claimed I woke her up by doing the hoovering at 3am. I have never hoovered at 3am in my life and am always fast asleep at this time. The rest of the complaints are just unreasonable. For example she complained that the noise of us starting our cars to go to work was waking her up. Well, if you are going to rent a town centre flat you should expect to hear cars! Oddly enough the delivery lorries that thunder past at 5am don't seem to wake her up!

dacouch

Suggest she buys a detached house