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

Norman_Castle

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.

If you are in the communal hallway hammering, you may not be as quiet as you believe!.

olly300

Norman_Castle wrote: »

If you are in the communal hallway hammering, you may not be as quiet as you believe!.

Depends on the time of day.

When living in flats you have to give and take as long as noise like that is at reasonable hours.

That means for example if one of your neighbours is doing some DIY as long as they don't do it at a stupid time then you have to put up with it.

If you don't like it then go and buy a detached house with large grounds.

olly300

kawaii-lobster as adouglasmhor stated make a diary - it can simply be a piece of paper with a list of dates and times about them complaining about the noise. In the diary also write down exactly what you were doing when they complained to you.

Then use it to put in a complaint about them harassing you as their behaviour is anti-social and could turn nasty. If the council refuses to take it seriously you take your complaint to the police. One of the community officers should hopefully have a word with them.

I had a situation when I was slightly older than you when the couple below me in a flatshare complained constantly about the noise my flatmate and I were making as our living room, kitchen and my flatmate's bedroom was above their flat.

They even had the cheek to come up and complain when my flatmate dropped a glass on her foot, cut it and he could see it was bleeding.

They complained repeatedly to the letting agent and started to harass our visitors. The older visitors just ignored them and the ones our age mostly told them were to go.

I attempted to resolve the issue by finding out when they went to bed etc and found that we simply couldn't win because one of the couple worked random shifts. Under my own bedroom there was a different flat and the person in that did not complain at all about the noise I made. So we just decided to ignore the couple.

Luckily for us it was a private rental and to solve the problem the letting agent let one of the other flats in the building to a drummer. They moved out within a month of the drummer moving in.

The guy was actually good at playing and only practised for two hours at the same time in the day Monday-Friday.

Norman_Castle

olly300 wrote: »

Depends on the time of day.

When living in flats you have to give and take as long as noise like that is at reasonable hours.

That means for example if one of your neighbours is doing some DIY as long as they don't do it at a stupid time then you have to put up with it.

If you don't like it then go and buy a detached house with large grounds.

You're defending your situation in a previous home. The op has stated they are not making unnecessary noise, but within weeks of moving in a visitor to the flat is using the hallway for noisy repairs to his bike.
I live in a flat where noise is a problem and I can be noisy at times, but I understand and admit to being noisy. Some people do not realise or accept how noisy they are. There has to be tolerance in flats, but there also has to be limits on the amount of noise made.

adouglasmhor

Norman_Castle wrote: »

If you are in the communal hallway hammering, you may not be as quiet as you believe!.

Occasionaly doing a small job like that is entirely reasonable. From the sound of it they would have complained about the noise even if he had been French polishing the bike.

Norman_Castle

Occasionaly doing a small job like that is entirely reasonable.

It may or may not be reasonable. It depends on how much noise is made and how often. In the flat below me I've had five different tenants. Some have lived there without making any noise at all, others are incapable of doing anything without being noisy. In a flat with poor soundproofing noise will be an issue. The neighbours do sound very sensitive to noise, but the op may not be as quiet as she believes.

adouglasmhor

Norman_Castle wrote: »

It may or may not be reasonable. It depends on how much noise is made and how often. In the flat below me I've had five different tenants. Some have lived there without making any noise at all, others are incapable of doing anything without being noisy. In a flat with poor soundproofing noise will be an issue. The neighbours do sound very sensitive to noise, but the op may not be as quiet as she believes.

Obviously you missed the word "occasionaly" in my post.

sinbad182

Norman_Castle wrote: »

It may or may not be reasonable. It depends on how much noise is made and how often. In the flat below me I've had five different tenants. Some have lived there without making any noise at all, others are incapable of doing anything without being noisy. In a flat with poor soundproofing noise will be an issue. The neighbours do sound very sensitive to noise, but the op may not be as quiet as she believes.

All we have to go on is what she has told us - that she is nervously tip toeing around her own flat, and that her boyfriend once fixed his bike in the hall way.

From what she has told us, there is no reasonable basis for her neighbours to be complaining like they are. Simple as that really.

shirlgirl2004

adouglasmhor wrote: »

Occasionaly doing a small job like that is entirely reasonable. From the sound of it they would have complained about the noise even if he had been French polishing the bike.

I imagine the hall is uncarpeted and probably concrete steps. The sound of him hammering would reverberate around the hall. He isn't a tennant so shouldn't be doing his repairs there. If he needed to do it before going home then he should have done it outside where it wouldn't echo. If it's cold or snowing well tough!

Generally the OP doesn't sound as if she's making a lot of noise but I think there have been instances of being a bit oblivious to the level of noise.

starsandmoon

My job deals with this type of issue. You need to put every complaint to the council in writing so you have proof and dates. It could be a good idea to invole the environmental protection part of your local council as they deal with noise and if it is the building at fault then they can look into how to remedy this (if its possible). The neighbours have expressed their concerns and to keep knocking and complaining constantly is harrassment and needs to be stopped. If it is a building fault you need to all complain together otherwise it will look like a neighbour dispute and will be largely ignored.

Where is the 3rd flat located? Do they have any issues with noise?

I have lived in a flat and even when neighbours were considerate there was always noise. I had a noisy one above me but some of the noise problems were bad insulation of the building. You could hear everyones washing machines at full spin for example. I now live in a terrace house which is better but you can hear some noise from each side sometimes.