Noise from wooden floors of flat above

LOLAF

Hi there
we bought a ground floor flat in an old conversion. Flat above was empty for a while and now new tenants moved in. The entire flat is wooden floor and all day long we hear foot steps. Our neighbours wake up at 6am and now we do as well:-( they don't even take their shoes off most of the day and it drives us INSANE.
The entire block is leasehold but I do not have a copy of the lease of flat above.
I have approached the upstairs owner.
Do I have any legal grounds to force them to properly insulate their floors/put carpets at least in the bedroom?

Thanks

Annisele

Chances are your lease is pretty similar to theirs - does yours say anything about flooring?

You say you've approached the upstairs owner, but you don't mention speaking to the tenants. Do they know there's a problem?

LOLAF

Annisele wrote: »

Chances are your lease is pretty similar to theirs - does yours say anything about flooring?

You say you've approached the upstairs owner, but you don't mention speaking to the tenants. Do they know there's a problem?

no - but it mentions no alternations without the freeholder's consent...

Dimey

Might be worth a very nice visit to the tenants to make them aware of the problem. Make it amusing for your first attempt. Just ask if there's anything they think could do.

Maybe they could wear soft granny slippers.

pinkshoes

Flat + conversion = noise!

Write to the freeholder and ask if wooden floors are permitted in upper floor flats.

phill99

The fact that it is an old conversion is the key. It's would have been undertaken with the noise insulation requirements in force at the time of conversion. Thes would be much lower (if any) than modern day standards.

It would therefore be impossible to get them to insulate via the building regulation route.

The lease may have covenants concerning transmission of noise so you would need to refer to the lease.

Providing their noise is just regular 'living noise', it would be very difficult to take action via Environmental Health ( who are responsible for dealing with noise pollution).

A polite word maybe the best course of action.

dinofabio

pinkshoes wrote: »

Flat + conversion = noise!

Write to the freeholder and ask if wooden floors are permitted in upper floor flats.

It is probably the Landlord / freeholder who installed it!

TrickyWicky

LOLAF wrote: »

they don't even take their shoes off

How very dare they! The very thought of it.. bl**dy cheek eh?

Tennants these days.. I don't know why they'd think they can keep their feet warm. The poor don't feel the cold right?

dinofabio

I have every sympathy for the OP but it's not the fault of the tenants above it's just that the property was never originally designed to be converted.

They are just going around minding their own business and probably not making that much noise in reality but unfortunately the OP can hear everything.

I visit a friend who lives in a conversion and I can hear EVERYTHING going on upstairs, even when they go to the bathroom! It drives my friend nuts too but she realises it's not their fault

ruggedtoast

Your ceiling is their floor unfortunately.

Grylls

I could have written the original post myself. In June I purchased a ground floor flat in a Georgian property that’d been converted into flats in the 1980s. Initially the flat upstairs was empty, but now someone has just moved in. Downstairs I have carpets but upstairs there’s wooden floors and I can hear everything. I don’t know what to say or do either - so can’t offer any advice, just sympathise with you. Didn’t realise before this happened how poor building regulations from the time must have been -especially compared to the stringent requirements regarding noise today.