Bedsit - noisy neighbour

Manchee

What kind of noise is it? If its is just every day living noises, like people talking or walking around, even though it seems quite loud because of the lack of soundproofing, the council wont do anything about it. Tbh, if it is that kind of noise (everyday living noises), speaking to the tenant above you prob wont make any difference either, she has to live her life too. If I were you, I would look for somewhere else. Even if the tenant above is deemed to be making noise that the council can act upon, it would involve months of investigation, recording devices and mediation, with no guarantee of anything being enforced. And thats if you're lucky. Give your notice and look for somewhere else, and like someone had already suggested, get some ear plugs.

Fire_Fox

phill99 wrote: »

Absolute rubbish. This is evidently a subject about which you know nothing. The problem doesn't lie with the landlord. The problem lies with the noisy tenant. Therefore the problem has to be addressed ie the landlord.

The Environ,entail Health department and subsequently, the courts can impose restrictions on the creator of oxide, not someone who happens to own the property.

"Having investigated, the EHO can then help in many different ways, for example by:
- giving you practical advice about dealing with the problem
- lending you noise measuring or recording equipment
- persuading the person or venue to improve its record on noise or being more considerate about times. Examples of what could be done include reduction of noise levels, building works to contain the sound better, and notices asking customers not to make noise when leaving the venue and placing limits on times when noise is made
-asking the person responsible for night noise to stop making the noise immediately and, if the noise hasn't stopped within ten minutes, giving an on the spot fine, or prosecuting. This method is only available if the noise is coming from a home or from licensed premises
- giving a noisy neighbour or venue a 'noise abatement notice', telling him/her to stop. If the venue continues, s/he may be prosecuted, and/or noisy equipment (eg sound systems), can be confiscated by the EHO
- closing a noisy venue for up to 24 hours
- working with your landlord to resolve the problem, or making your landlord take measures to deal with noise nuisance (eg installing sound insulation)
- working with the police if trouble or violence is occurring or expected at a venue."
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/neighbourhood_issues/noise_nuisance

pararct

Is there laminate flooring fitted upstairs? My experience of having in my dining room is it is quite loud to hear people walking across it and talking in there when I am in my basement room.

Even changing the floor covering from laminate to carpet can make quite a difference.

My basement ceilings have been well insulated and plaster boarded and plastered.

londonTiger

phill99 wrote: »

londonTiger wrote: »

the tenant upstairs is perfectly within his/her right to walk around their room. it's the landlord that need to sound proof the floors/ceiling.

Absolute rubbish. This is evidently a subject about which you know nothing. The problem doesn't lie with the landlord. The problem lies with the noisy tenant. Therefore the problem has to be addressed ie the landlord.

The Environ,entail Health department and subsequently, the courts can impose restrictions on the creator of oxide, not someone who happens to own the property.

Nope, you're in the wrong here. Obviously if the tenant is practicing his drum set at 1am in the morning or playing his electric guitar then the tenant will be at fault. If the tenant is simple walking arouind the house, doing their cooking, walking in between rooms and that's causing disturbance to the resident downstairs that is CLEARLY a soundproofing issue.

Where you want to accept it or not is a different matter. If this goes to the council. The council will almost certainly ask you [the landlord] to fit sound dampeners in the floor. Either way the landlord will have to sort the floor out EVEN IF the tenant is asked to make less noise. I doubt any tenant will live in a property where the council [and the landlord] is asking them to not walk around the house late at night.

That's just ridiculous. If the landlord wants to pass the buck onto the tenant, that's fine! He/she can go through 10 different tenants a year because everyone is moving out due to stupid rules about not walking around the house.

Mr_Pitiful

If the noise is caused by normal use of the property and is simply down to poor sound insulation, there's no statutory nuisance, and no action will be taken. It's a fact of living in a non detatched property that noise will happen. A landlord is under no obligation to make alterations to the property to improve sound insulation.

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/uk/cases/UKHL/1999/40.html&query=southwark+v+mills&method=all

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2005/2473.html&query=Vella+&method=all

missile

Give 1 months notice and look for somewhere else.

londonTiger

pararct wrote: »

Is there laminate flooring fitted upstairs? My experience of having in my dining room is it is quite loud to hear people walking across it and talking in there when I am in my basement room.

Even changing the floor covering from laminate to carpet can make quite a difference.

My basement ceilings have been well insulated and plaster boarded and plastered.

yes carpet provides sound damping however i think if the laminate is done with adequate underflooring it can dampen the noise, a lot of people use the cheapest underfloorig made from pulped cardboard. Denser rubber based underflooring provides better sound damping but it obviously more expensive.

N79

londonTiger wrote: »

Nope, you're in the wrong here. Obviously if the tenant is practicing his drum set at 1am in the morning or playing his electric guitar then the tenant will be at fault. If the tenant is simple walking arouind the house, doing their cooking, walking in between rooms and that's causing disturbance to the resident downstairs that is CLEARLY a soundproofing issue.

Where you want to accept it or not is a different matter. If this goes to the council. The council will almost certainly ask you [the landlord] to fit sound dampeners in the floor. Either way the landlord will have to sort the floor out EVEN IF the tenant is asked to make less noise. I doubt any tenant will live in a property where the council [and the landlord] is asking them to not walk around the house late at night.

That's just ridiculous. If the landlord wants to pass the buck onto the tenant, that's fine! He/she can go through 10 different tenants a year because everyone is moving out due to stupid rules about not walking around the house.

Just to give the definitive answer here, if the noise problem is due to a sloppy conversion where insufficient sound proofing as required at the time of conversion has been installed then the LL would indeed need to fix.

If the issue is that the building / conversion are old and the design met the standards when it was done then the LL does not have an obligation to update the sound proofing to modern standards. This is considered a feature of older properties.

The headline case for this is Southwark vs Mills. Summarising and simplifying a bit, Ms Mills sued Southwark Council because her old "high rise" council flat suffered from noise emanating from neighbouring flats. She demanded the court order the council to fit new sound installation. The House of Lords was sympathetic to her situation but basically said it was tough as "old" building standards can be expected in "old" properties.

warehouse

As has already been mentioned, get some ear plugs, (I've used foam ones from screwfix before with fantastic results), give notice and move on. It's a soundproofing issue and you canlook forward to being in a quieter place by Christmas.