Moral dilema - do I put my neighbour's interests or my own first ?

Somerset

Thanks everyone

The opposing views here, ignore it vs do something, are exactly what are going through my mind. cpu, I liked your post, it was balanced. Yes, in hindsight it was a mistake putting down a wooden floor, I didn't anticipate this problem but people 'in the know' would have realised. Tbh if I were going to sell I'd probably just leave things as they were, but I'm not selling so I have to 'get on' with my neighbour. I'll take on board the going down to his flat to listen to the noise. I'll ask the neighbour to live with it for a month or two to assess whether it improves ( rugs etc ) with the proviso I'll put carpet down if it remains a problem. But it stops there - the rooms will not be switched back round. I'll do everything in my power to eliminate the problem ie carpet but that's it, you can only bend so far before ....

Thanks again everyone.

cpu

Somerset wrote: »

I'll ask the neighbour to live with it for a month or two to assess whether it improves ( rugs etc ) with the proviso I'll put carpet down if it remains a problem. But it stops there - the rooms will not be switched back round. I'll do everything in my power to eliminate the problem ie carpet but that's it, you can only bend so far before ....

I think that's a good compromise with the rugs thing and a promise of future changes if need be, it shows that you are taking his concerns seriously. That in itself may be enough for him to feel less uptight about it and time will tell if the problem remains. Pat on the back for being willing to help resolve the situation. :T What goes around comes around in my book and you never know when you will be glad of some consideration off others in the future.

Btw, I wouldn't have expected you to go so far as to switch the rooms round again, it IS your house and you can live in it whichever way you want (almost ).

Good luck.

barrymoney

hi -
I'm with 'cpu' -- I've lived below flats a couple of times (never again!) and the noise can become very stressful. The worst thing is probably the knowledge that the person above does not care at all about it. So, chatting with the neighbour is a very productive thing to do.
Personally, I would put a nice rug/carpet down, which would still show off your new floor around the edges. Then, you have at least made a big effort to fix the problem (although no-one can expect silence in a block of flats, I agree).

Bargain_Rzl

lynzpower wrote: »

Many leases also prohibit musical instruments, mine did and I know bargain RZLs does as well.

No it doesn't. Back when I was buying I was merely wondering whether it did or not - but the actual wording of my lease is that I'm not allowed to sing or play instruments in such a way that it's audible outside my property. As I sing and play the (digital) piano on a regular basis, I have checked with my neighbours on numerous occasions that I am not disturbing them - and they all say they can't even hear me. I always close the living room door and my windows when I sing, which provides pretty good noise insulation to the rest of the building - and if I fancy playing the piano after about 9pm I always use the headphones.

I'm quite lucky in that the insulation is pretty good in my building (the concrete floors help!) and the only noise I get from the neighbours is when somebody is hammering something. Oh yes, and of course my next door neighbour's marvellous boyfriend, whose hour-long torrent of verbal abuse the other week (completely audible from the OPPOSITE side of the building with all intermediate doors closed!) led to me calling the police as I feared for my neighbour's safety :rolleyes: :mad:

Edit: Oh, and by the way, I live on the lower of two floors (am in a first floor flat but downstairs is non residential) and although we all have laminate flooring, I never get "floor noise" from my upstairs neighbour. But as I say - that's thanks to the concrete based flooring

Massive_2

Wear slippers.

Melissa177

Slightly different situation but...

A colleague of mine has just bought a top floor flat in a conversion - the neighbour below is a grumpy old man. He is always complaining about the noise and gets a broomstick and bangs on the ceiling regularly! My colleague and his fiance are not exactly hell-raisers.

The man below has offered to go halves with them on floor insulation. It's about £1000 total. My friend is in a quandary as he wants to be reasonable, but also knows that the floor isn't causing him any problems, and he's also benefitting from the heat from the flat below rising in the winter! He's still thinking about this, but will likely plump for the floor insulation option.

Would floor insulation work for the OP?

I think the neighbour below the OP is totally out of line for complaining about switching the use of two rooms around - it's your flat and you can use the rooms as you wish! I could understand it if you were playing loud music all night, but it sounds like you're being very sympathetic.

bap98189

All those who are saying the OP should do nothing have clearly never lived in a flat. I have, and have also experienced an upstairs neighbour who took up a carpet and put down laminate flooring. Laminate, floorboards, they all conduct sound especially footsteps and conversation. Removal of a carpet can turn a relatively quiet neighbour into an elephant, and in my experience is the cause of more neighbourly disputes than anything else.

I honestly believe it should be a legal requirement of some kind to have carpets on the floor in an upstairs flat.

Somerset

bap98189

When I posted this thread I was genuinely looking for other people's opinions, To be on page 2 already it's obviously an issue that's fairly common. The lease on my old flat stipulated no wooden floors, I didn't understand why at the time, but do now. The current flat has no such clause. I'm a reasonable person so I'll do what I said above which will hopefully solve the problem. In my old flat, despite the clause, the guy upstairs took up the carpets and polished the floorboards. I didn't complain but I just assumed it went with the territory of living in a flat. You live and learn.

It does seem very unregulated though. I mean with more more conversions and the popularity of wooden floors, my situation is going to come up again and again. It seems the deciding factor is the type of person involved.

Rimo2021

Get a friend to walk around while you check out how it actually sounds yourself before you do anything. Some people are so grumpy they convince themselves there is going to be a problem so firmly that even if the anticipated problem doesn't happen they still complain...

Zoetoes

Do you have people round all the time? I mean is there a few people walking round the flat talking etc often?

If not then just take your shoes off of a night, I wouldn't put carpet down, the floor is already done & is more hygenic anyway.

If he's that bothered why doesn't he switch his rooms round so his bedroom is under yours? Then you both get what you want, less noise for him & you keep the floor.