No Soundproofing in New Council Property: I'm living in a prison!

lauroar

Geez louise!! If you need to dry your hair, dry your hair. If you want to go on your elliptical in the day, go on it. If you want to have the radio playing on a weekend morning whilst you potter about the house, do it. If you want to have headboard rattling s*x on a Sunday afternoon - go ahead! Why are they in the house all day every day and why do they require complete silence? They could be living next to a school playground, or on a main road, or any number of locations where you have to put up with a bit of noise.

The council can't/wont do anything about noise created by day to day living (I think between the hours of 8am and 11pm though I could be an hour out either side). Maybe remind them that if you move out, the council could house much much louder tenants than you who wouldn't be as considerate as to their needs. Or a couple with a newborn who screams through the night. Or someone with a pet who doesn't feel that they have to rehome it.

AFAIK for any complaint to the council/environmental health to have any action taken, they'd need to keep a diary for a period of time, as well as possibly using some sound-recording equipment - at which point the relevant authorities would realise you are not being unreasonable by just living your life (quietly!).

In terms of atmosphere - sometimes you get on with your neighbours, sometimes you don't. I had a neighbour wrongfully accuse me of breaking his bike light and demanding payment for a new one - that ended any pleasantries between us but I didn't give a hoot, no-one says you need to have any more interaction with the people you happen to live above than any person you pass in the street.

Don't feel like you can't live your life for fear of upsetting them downstairs - if this has been occurring for 7 years and you've done everything you can to minimise noise then sorry, it's not really your problem.

lauroar

ps

kawaii-lobster wrote: »

What do I do when they come upstairs complaining though? I can't just ignore the knock, they know when I'm in.

Oh yes you can, as plenty of people on this thread do - especially if they live alone https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4131407

moneyistooshorttomention

lauroar wrote: »

ps


Oh yes you can, as plenty of people on this thread do - especially if they live alone https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4131407

I remember that thread.

I'm guessing that OP and I operate on the same principle, ie that it's rude not to answer the door when it goes. So, yep...there are times when it's fair to be rude and that is when you know exactly who it is calling for you and that they want to use the good manners you have shown by answering the door against you by taking it as a chance to hassle you.

So - yep...go with good manners...but don't give someone "a stick to beat you with" in the process.

woosey_2

It does sound like they are being unreasonable. I would be polite to them, yes and no in the right places, but get on with life as is reasonable in flat living. That does include not always answering the door to them.
I would get some biker freinds to come round, stomp up the stairs and talk loudly about wondering why you want an exchange and how much they would like to live there.
Of course you could change biker freinds, to people with small babies or noisy children.
They ought to be pleased to have a quiet neighbour.

GDB2222

There's a fair bit that can be done to deaden the noise. Start off with hardboarding all the floors. Maybe something foamy under the hardboard first. Then a top quality underlay, and a heavyweight carpet, around 50 oz. The plastic laminate flooring has to go.

Of course, that's going to cost a fair whack, maybe £50/70 a sq m including laying.

We are getting a flat conversion done, and the architect advises that the only way to meet current sound regulations is a new ceiling under the present one, PLUS renewing the carpets upstairs!

pulliptears

I'm with the unreasonable camp as well. Who was the previous tennant? If it was someone with a sedentary lifestyle then the neighbours could have been a bit shocked by the sudden change.

I wouldn't necessarily believe all she says either, most people use a hair dryer so its not a stretch is it? I had a dispute over noise with my neighbour many many years ago, she claimed she could hear us flush our toilet. Now, we can't hear her flush the loo so I very much doubt she ever heard us. We are friends now and I've sat in her lounge while my TV has been on loud and on the surround setting and I can't hear it. It was just something she'd made up for a little extra effect.

You can't live your life like this. If the neighbour complains to the council then noise equipment will be issued. Its win win for you at that point because if its noisy you can prove that there is a problem with the sound proofing of the flat, if its not then you prove the neighbour a liar.

ruggedtoast

kawaii-lobster wrote: »

The thing is, I'm a very timid person. I can't stand up to people like that. I really, reaaaalllly don't want their to be any animosity between us as we're going to be meeting each other on the stairs regularly and outside. It would create an uncomfortable situation between us that would also be difficult to live with.

I don't know what to do. It doesn't seem fair on them, but then it also doesn't seem fair on me.

Is there really no way I can get the council to do something? I mean, surely if the soundproofing is so inadequate that there is a legal issue here?

I dont think the council have a legal requirement to ensure no one can hear their neighbours, but if you both beseech them for some thicker carpets you might get somewhere. Who knows, you'll need to ask them I'm afraid.

As far as your neighbours go, its a tough world out there. Unfortunately you need to stand up for yourself sometimes, no one else is going to.

kawaii-lobster

Thank you so much for your support every one.
I've just come back from the council, and I believe I was fobbed off entirely. The girl I spoke to I knew as she was the lady who went through my tenancy agreement with me and gave me the keys. She did say that there has been a record of problems coming from the neighbors flat below us for some time and that they were "aware" of the issue, but that nothing could be done because it's up to the tenant to provide soundproofing.
I don't know how that works exactly, but when I asked she mumbled something about satellite dishes that I didn't quite get. I'm a shy person so I just left it, but I think she was under the impression that she thought I was talking about the council buying me carpets, which I'm not. I thought that, if the neighbors were having that rough of a time, that the council could organize to build a ceiling a few inches below the current one to reduce the noise coming through as I read that this is what can be done should the noise levels be proven to be above a certain limit.

She said that she would most likely have somebody contact them and go and speak to them, but I don't know whether that'll do much good. I don't want my neighbors to think I "tattled" on them or something, I'm actually trying to do it for their benefit but obviously as others have said, I'm not the one who should be chasing the council up over this since they're the ones with the problem.

Pulliptears, you asked who the previous tenant was and you're going to love this. According to the neighbors, when I moved in they told me that the previous guy was a man with Scizophrenia who would hear things in his head, so was constantly blaring football music all day in order to drown out voices. He also purportedly had 3-4 cats. Because the guy had a severe mental illness I'm assuming he didn't work which means he was likely inside his flat all day which means he would have been so much more noisier then I am. You would actually think that my neighbors would be grateful to have somebody very quiet move in.

I was a bit tentative when I first made this thread because I believed that maybe I was at fault somewhere although I couldn't figure out how. Here'e the part where I feel stupid, because I have to admit that I lied in my initial posts. When I said I can confirm that there is a problem from going into their flat, that wasn't true. I actually haven't heard any noise from them, I most certainly do not hear walking around, or frequent talking.
The most I've ever heard is a low hum of their television once, and the ladies husband snoring loudly at night, and even then it wasn't that bad.

Sorry, at first I was trying to make excuses for them because I didn't want to look like a bad neighbor and was afraid of being patronized, but your support has gotten me to toughen up a little bit.

The thing that I really don't understand is that they claim to be able to hear, and I quite "every conversation word for word. When you open a drawer, when you dry your hair", how is it that I can barely hear them?

I don't know what to do. I'm only expecting to live here a few years as I'm still studying and intending to travel abroad in the near future so I don't want to drop a load of money on expensive underlay, carpets or replacing lino when that's money that could go into savings.

I get the feeling that this is going to continue until somebody boils over. I just hope it's them first because I'm only able to get tough and tell somebody to f*** off when they're being directly aggressive. Urgh I'm such a mouse.

I'm sad because I was hoping that my partner could move into the flat with me soon and the other night they came up to tell him to stop talking on the microphone whilst he was playing an online game on my laptop because they couldn't sleep because of his talking. I could see how irritated he was by all of it. It was 2 weeks ago he was fixing a bike outside the flat door on the landing and was using a hammer when the husband came up and had a word with him. My partner didn't tell me everything he said because he was visibly angry about it but he said the guy was very rude and blustering, shouting "What are you doing!" at him. I know it's putting him off moving in, even though he's supporting me through this completely and keeps telling me that it them that are the problem.

EmmaHerts

Ignore them- simply put, ignore them.

aileth

I admit I haven't read it all fully, but have glanced over it, do you or do you not have an 'ok' relationship with them? I did see that you have had discussions with them, but then your boyfriend and the husband having a bit of a stand-off.

If you get on ok-ish, in the mean time while something more long-term gets sorted out, could you not agree a couple of hours a night where you can do everything you want? Lovemaking, your exercise machine, online games, fixing bikes etc? It will lift the burden a lot and they might be easier on it if they 'expect' it at a certain time. Tell them if it bothers them during the couple of hours to whack their TV up, and of course that this will only be temporary until you've dealt with the Council as no one should live like this.

Sounds to me really that unless there's a massive difference in soundproofing between you and them, and you and your upstairs, they are very sensitive, or simply embellishing for added effect. They may be overly sensitive due to their past neighbour. I know I had very, very noisy neighbours and I would twitch each time I heard even a patter because it normally was a signal to them starting noise.

However, I think a good general rule is if you can't hear them, chances are they can't hear you!

Edit: My parents have a grade 2 terrace which has exactly the same soundproofing either side. The woman on one side is a bat and will kick and throw herself at the wall if my dad shouts that breakfast is ready, she even did it when my sister sneezed, and told my dad to bring the recycling box into the house to put glass in as putting 1-2 bottles in on a Sunday afternoon was too 'disruptive.' However, the other side can't hear a thing, nor can they hear them, despite it bordering living sections.