Neighbour driving me mad!

coinxoperated

Hi all,

Just after a bit of advice really.

I live in a 1 bedroom ground floor flat in a old listed property.

I have a lady who lives on the floor above. She works in a local pub and comes home late at night and leaves late in the afternoon.

Now, when moving into my flat, I was aware that there would be some noise.

What I didn't expect was to listen to explicit banging and screaming like a banshee at 3am 2/3 work nights a week!

Not only is she generally a 'heavy footed' larger lady, her bed needs some serious reinforcement as it really squeaks and bangs when she's bouncing on it..

I generally keep myself to myself and don't interact much with the neighbours above as they change so quick and are normally quite dodgy characters.

How do I sensitively ask her to stop humping so loudly? I don't want to get into a 'who can make the loudest noise' battle and she must know I can hear her as she once commented she heard me coughing one night.

Last night I waited for them to 'finish' an went back to sleep... But I was on the edge of going and banging on their door. I didn't as I would rather be a bit calmer while trying to resolve this sort of situation....

Any advice?

olias

earplugs?

Olias

marleyboy

Nothing like cold water over a dog on heat by banging the cieling and shouting "shut the f*ck up!!!"

Followed by the earplugs

coinxoperated

Haha! Ear plugs don't block it out! Seriously! it's as if a elephant is trying to headbutt his way through her floor / my ceiling.

I'm gonna have to talk to her - would you suggest face to face or a letter?

coinxoperated

And I honestly don't care about her being embarrassed, and I don't mind discussing the issue in person.... I just worth I won't be able to be very polite about it!

20400keith

Sorry to hear your problem Noise can really ruin enjoyment of your home, can't it?

I'd be tempted to start with a nice note - sorry to bother you, when you and your visitors come home at night you wake me up, sound seems to travel between the floors and I can hear every sound, be really grateful if you could keep the noise down because I have to be up early for work...

If this doesn't work I'd then have a face to face meeting and be a bit firmer.

There might be a simple solution to improve things, like carpeting and underlay, wearing slippers instead of shoes, or WD40 for the bed springs (!).

It doesn't sound like she's doing it on purpose (no blaring music at 3am) and although she heard you cough, it might not have dawned on her that you can hear her 'activities'.

BertieUK

coinxoperated wrote: »

Hi all,

Just after a bit of advice really.

I live in a 1 bedroom ground floor flat in a old listed property.

I have a lady who lives on the floor above. She works in a local pub and comes home late at night and leaves late in the afternoon.

Now, when moving into my flat, I was aware that there would be some noise.

What I didn't expect was to listen to explicit banging and screaming like a banshee at 3am 2/3 work nights a week!

Not only is she generally a 'heavy footed' larger lady, her bed needs some serious reinforcement as it really squeaks and bangs when she's bouncing on it..

I generally keep myself to myself and don't interact much with the neighbours above as they change so quick and are normally quite dodgy characters.

How do I sensitively ask her to stop humping so loudly? I don't want to get into a 'who can make the loudest noise' battle and she must know I can hear her as she once commented she heard me coughing one night.

Last night I waited for them to 'finish' an went back to sleep... But I was on the edge of going and banging on their door. I didn't as I would rather be a bit calmer while trying to resolve this sort of situation....

Any advice?

I would certainly approach this problem in a friendly manner, this is your neighbour after all, not a very considerate one who is very aware that she can hear you, so vice versa applies.

She maybe is a little intoxicated when she arrives home and goes bump in the night and is not in a fit state to realise that you can hear these noises, or is she?

Maybe she thinks that you are enjoying being entertained by her antics and while she does not hear you complaining she will carry on.

Approach as previous post suggests a 'nice note' and follow it through as 'suggested' face to face.

I am sure that you are the type of person who will find this problem a bit awkward to approach but I am sure that you will get your point across.

Maybe they should reschedule their passion to a more considerate time.

I wonder what the other neighbours think;)


Good Luck...
__________________

Yolina

What I did when faced with the same issue a quite few years back, and after a polite request was totally ignored, was to get some friends round and do a loud running commentary during the "activities", then at the end clap for an encore that did the trick :rotfl:

Mozzanov

coinxoperated wrote: »

Hi all,

Just after a bit of advice really.

I live in a 1 bedroom ground floor flat in a old listed property.

I have a lady who lives on the floor above. She works in a local pub and comes home late at night and leaves late in the afternoon.

Now, when moving into my flat, I was aware that there would be some noise.

What I didn't expect was to listen to explicit banging and screaming like a banshee at 3am 2/3 work nights a week!

Not only is she generally a 'heavy footed' larger lady, her bed needs some serious reinforcement as it really squeaks and bangs when she's bouncing on it..

I generally keep myself to myself and don't interact much with the neighbours above as they change so quick and are normally quite dodgy characters.

How do I sensitively ask her to stop humping so loudly? I don't want to get into a 'who can make the loudest noise' battle and she must know I can hear her as she once commented she heard me coughing one night.

Last night I waited for them to 'finish' an went back to sleep... But I was on the edge of going and banging on their door. I didn't as I would rather be a bit calmer while trying to resolve this sort of situation....

Any advice?

I totally empathise with you. Over the past ten years, I have had quite a few neighbours from hell, unfortunately. I was young and stupid, didn't know what to do or how to deal with the situation (one even tried breaking in my flat, left me terrified of retribution). Later I learnt, some can be reasoned with, but others can't. You wrote that the neighbours change a lot, so it sounds like rented accommodation (obviously the following is useless if it's privately owned by her). If it's the council or a housing association, then there will be a complaints procedure, such as make a police report*, get a crime number and then inform them about it. This helped to get rid of two very crazy and noisy neighbours (like until 5am and I work shifts, for half of them have to get up at 5.30am) who couldn't be reasoned with. Ear plugs don't really work that well. I guess it depends on the person (some people have different sensitivities to various types of sounds), but I found there is certain types of noise it doesn't help to block very well (such as people shouting at each other, loud TVs, and similar, but did help with traffic). If it's privately rented, then contact the letting agent (or landlord) as there is probably something written into the contract about reasonable behaviour and regard for neighbours (or similar). They might take a bit more pushing than with social housing, but nothing gained if you don't try.

Good luck!

*Yes, the police will do nothing about noise complaints, but local authorities and housing associations seem to like official reports.

hazyjo

Depending on what other flats are around you, I'd play some really naff music loud. Am sure a bit of The Cheeky Girls, Mr Blobby or Chas n Dave would put them off their loud 'antics'.

Or you could play the William Tell Overture and do your best commentator impression: "And they're off...!" At least you'd get a laugh out of it.

Jx

poppysarah

Football rattle and whistle for when she's finished?