Advice needed - neighbours

Maxwellcomp12

Hi all,

We moved into our new rented upstairs maisonette property 2 weeks ago, we have settled in and love our new home... until yesterday.

My partners parents were over and the lady from down below stopped as they went to leave to tell them how "awful" my little boy is. It also came to light that she had already been to our letting agency as well as contact our landlord and has spoken to our neighbours about us, before she had even thought to contact us!?

The property we have moved into has laminate flooring in the hallway and the lounge and she was complaining that all she can do is hear my 2 year old son running and walking around. He gets up every morning between 7.30 - 8ish and is in bed by 7.30 at night.... during 7.30pm and 7.30am he is not out of his cot. I have 2 long runners in my hallway which she claims she can hear my son run up and down and a large rug in the lounge, he also wears soft little slippers....

After she had spoke to my visitors, I went to speak to her and she was moaning that my son is loud and she cant live with it. She invited me in to listen to him which I said no to. When she also spoke to my visitors she made stupid comments about when we would be moving out.

I have spoken to my landlord and it seems he is not going to do a thing about the problem. He has said he has had lots of problems with her and to ignore her, but I hate to cause upset to people.

I now feel like I am unable to enjoy my new home without telling my 2 year old to be quiet and make him sit down at all times which isn't right.

Can anyone give me advice?

notanewuser

Do nothing. Your son will run about, his hours aren't unreasonable by most people's standards, and I can't imagine it's actually that loud to be honest!!! Your neighbour probably just liked to find something to moan about.

anselld

Sounds like you have already done all the sensible steps, i.e. minimise the noise with rugs etc, make sure the LL is aware. Then you do just have to ignore. What else does she expect you to do?

cynicalgit_2

She won't have to wait long before your son is at school/nursery during the day.
Buy her some headphones.

JimmyTheWig

From what you've said it doesn't sound like there would be much noise.
From what the landlord's told you it doesn't sound like there would be much noise.
But would it not help to put your mind at rest?
What if there is something that he is doing that honestly is unreasonable that you haven't thought of? or if there is a flaw in the structure of the building which is magnifying the noise?
If your neighbour has invited you in to hear the noise then why not take her up on that? If you go and she says "isn't it terrible" and you hear almost nothing then your mind can be at rest. If you agree that it is terrible then it is time to think about what can be done.

Is it an elderly lady downstairs? The reason I ask is when my nan has her hearing aid switched on it seems to pick up more background noise than what she is trying to listen to. Makes things very difficult for her to hear anything specific at a large family gathering. I wonder if the lady downstairs has a hearing aid for hearing the TV, but all it is really doing is amplifying the noise from upstairs?

Maxwellcomp12

She wants my landlord to put carpets down, apparently she told him to do this when he bought the property. The property was not liveable so my landlord ripped everything out and put everything new in it.

I asked her if me buying more mats would help, the soft type ones for my little boy to play on, but she refused that as a option. My landlord will not put the carpets down and as a tenant its not my responsibility to, nor can I afford the costs at all to do this.

She is not a old lady, shes middle aged. She also told my partners grandma that a old man died in my sons room.. Its given me the creeps!

princeofpounds

Well I can already see a couple of mistakes you are making here.

Firstly, do not dismiss her complaint. Yes, it is rudely-made; children run about and as long as that is in the home and not, for example, in a restaurant or library, then that does not make your son 'awful'.

However, noise travelling thought floors can be exceptionally loud if the building is badly designed.

I lived in a flat with a small child above. This flat also had runners in the hallway (which were ok) but not in the sitting room, which was a wood floor.

My god, he sounded like a little elephant. But the worst was when he played with small hard objects like matchbox cars or marbles. You wouldn't even notice it in the flat above, but in my flat it sounded like he was tapping a hammer on the floor. At 7.30am on a Saturday, the TAP TAP TAPTAPTAPtaptaptap of a bouncing marble was like Chinese Water Torture.

It may have been a good idea to accept the invite to listen to the problem. You might have increased your understanding of the noise, and thought of one or two things that might help.

As it is, you will have just left them with the impression that not only do you cause a lot of noise, you don't care what effect it has on the neighbours and won't even try to understand.

Perhaps they are unreasonable and a bit mad, but frankly you don't know what they are suffering as things stand. And if they are suffering, they are not going to be happy with you, that's just how it is.

But, ultimately the problem here is the floor material that the landlord has installed. Many flats ban hard floors for this exact reason.

As you are just performing normal living activities in your house, the right thing to do is to refer your neighbours to your landlord, reminding them that you cannot put down carpet or make any alterations. Then keep the landlord informed so he does not think you are doing anything out of the ordinary there.

moneyistooshorttomention

Agreed...laminate flooring is not particularly suitable for those with adjoining neighbours and most definitely NOT suitable for people with downstairs neighbours.

Noise can very readily travel through to downstairs if floors aren't carpeted properly. I can sympathise with the neighbour, as the other day I was in a shop (B &Q) where it was quite obvious a young child was being allowed to run around madly by his parents. I'm assuming they wouldn't have actually had any idea that the noise of their child running riot was clearly audible and distinctly distracting to a customer in the downstairs floor and trying to make decisions about what to buy.

Mojisola

Maxwellcomp12 wrote: »

After she had spoke to my visitors, I went to speak to her and she was moaning that my son is loud and she cant live with it. She invited me in to listen to him which I said no to.

Why on earth would you refuse to go into her flat and assess the problem for yourself?

Your neighbour might not have gone about her complaints in the best way but you are new to the situation and it sounds as if it's a long-running issue for her.

tBagpuss_2

I agree that it would be sensible to go in and hear or yourself - that way, you have some idea of how serious a problem this is. I do sympathise with the neighbour as noise does travel and it can be very stressful if you are the one having to listen to it.

That said, the fact that she rejected your suggestion to put down more rugs and that she has complained to other people including your in-laws but not said anything to you directly does suggest to me that she is determined to be annoyed about this - it may well be that it would be better if your landlord put down carpeting - laminate floors in an upstairs flat or maisonette are not ideal, but that isn't your fault, and you're trying to help by offering to put the extra rugs down.

I would document anything you do o any contact you have with her, and let your landlord know about your offer to put down extra rugs and her response.

Prothet_of_Doom

cynicalgit wrote: »

She won't have to wait long before your son is at school/nursery during the day.
Buy her some ear defenders.

Edited for comic effect:beer:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/search/filter/ear-defenders/type/any/module/shopcategory/page/1