Noisy neighbour upstairs, help

seven-day-weekend

We lived in a council flat many years ago and had neighbours downstairs who complained about us hoovering (at a reasonable time) because they could hear it - or playing music because they could hear it - or having friends round because they could hear them laughing - it got to the stage where we found ourselves creeping around and never having friends come round!

Then we realised that the downstairs people were just being unreasonable.

In most flats, especially old ones.,or conversions, you will hear noise. This is just part of flat living.

Try insulating your ceiling.

ooobedoo

In another flat we lived in, the neighbours played music really loudly in the middle of the night, so I got the most antisocial album I had (guns and roses), placed the speakers on the floor, facing down, put it on repeat, cranked it up and then went out shopping for a few hours. They didn't do it again, and I didn't need to

Turnbull2000

Reminds me of my old student days living in a terraced house with seemingly no insulation whatsoever in the dividing party wall. Never mind hoovering or music, you could hear the splash of the neighbours toilet and every detail of their conversations :eek:

Pinklepurr

I used to live in a modern 3 bed terrace and the noise from one side was horrendous. They used to do shift work so would be up at 4am but they'd do the washing and we could hear the washing machine on full spin, kitchen cupboard doors being closed, footsteps up and down the open tread staircase, cars being started up right under our bedroom window. I wouldn't have minded or noticed so much if it was at a normal hour, but 4am was terrible, especially as we were knackered from being up in the night with a baby. The worst bit was that their en-suite bathroom adjoined our bedroom and we knew their toilet habits - yuk!

We moved as soon as we could afford to and have a detached house - bliss!

thelawnet

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD wrote: »

Recently we were upgrading a flat and the 2 kids were I guess jumping from the setee onto the floor and running up and down the hall, the racket was something else, I went upstairs chapped their door and said " excuse me but I'm working downstairs and I can't hear my own hammering for the noise your making "

ROFL, perhaps your hammering was what set the kids off....

u114487

As of last night I have a personal interset in this post. My parents who live on the top floor of a three year old block, help me out with my kids age and 7. Kids are there afer school on Tuesday and Fridays with the occassional normal grandparent sleepovers. Admittedly they have been there a litte more over the last two weeks as it is the school hols where I live.

Lat night we all stayed. We were out until 8.30ish and then we came home. My 4 year old was watching a dvd and rearranging books and my 7 year old was watching the wrestling on TV. At tenish we heard almighty thumps from downstairs. The building was shaking and it went on for a minute at a time for at least two or three times. On first hearing it I wnt to make sure my kids were not jumping about (though god knows how they would have made that noise!), but the little one was with me byt hat stage on the bed and the big one was on the couch tapping his feet on the floor which I told him to stop doing.

It happended again, and My dad and i were concerned something was happening to the guy downstairs who is a 30 ish police oficer who lives on his own. Big guy, heavy set.

When we went down to see if everyhing was OK - my parents have always got on well with him - he starterd shouting at us. See how you like eh? Your kids are out of control runnign riot all over the place for the last 3 months (they have been going there for three years and he has never mentioned it). So much so stuff has falledn out of my kitchen cupboards. We were really taekn aback and told him were were not disturbed by him, only concerned everything was OK. I told him my kids were watching TV. " You are a pair of liars" he shouted. Well my dad walked off and I stayed to state that my kids did not live there, and there were rarely there in the evenings anyway and that we had only come down to see if he was OK. If it was that bad then maybe he could have had the common sense to mention it to us before. This met with deep sarcasm and I walked off.

I was not able to sleep at all and the way he has behaved has made me fel awful -he has insulted me my kids and my parents all in one go. And I have no idea what to do.

My kids are boisterous-sure they are. But if they are jumping about too much I know my folks tell them not to as it will disturb him downstairs. he reacted in a total rage to what I consider normal family life last night and that worries me. especially as he is a policman supposedly trained to diffuse and not inflame situations.

Sp please consider how you are making other people feel when you class them as ASBO neighbours. I am quite certain they are not and are feeling now very uncomfortable in their own home

Sorry for any spelling mistakes in this. Had to get it off my chest

inmypocketnottheirs

u114487 wrote: »

As of last night I have a personal interset in this post. My parents who live on the top floor of a three year old block, help me out with my kids age and 7. Kids are there afer school on Tuesday and Fridays with the occassional normal grandparent sleepovers. Admittedly they have been there a litte more over the last two weeks as it is the school hols where I live.

Lat night we all stayed. We were out until 8.30ish and then we came home. My 4 year old was watching a dvd and rearranging books and my 7 year old was watching the wrestling on TV. At tenish we heard almighty thumps from downstairs. The building was shaking and it went on for a minute at a time for at least two or three times. On first hearing it I wnt to make sure my kids were not jumping about (though god knows how they would have made that noise!), but the little one was with me byt hat stage on the bed and the big one was on the couch tapping his feet on the floor which I told him to stop doing.

It happended again, and My dad and i were concerned something was happening to the guy downstairs who is a 30 ish police oficer who lives on his own. Big guy, heavy set.

When we went down to see if everyhing was OK - my parents have always got on well with him - he starterd shouting at us. See how you like eh? Your kids are out of control runnign riot all over the place for the last 3 months (they have been going there for three years and he has never mentioned it). So much so stuff has falledn out of my kitchen cupboards. We were really taekn aback and told him were were not disturbed by him, only concerned everything was OK. I told him my kids were watching TV. " You are a pair of liars" he shouted. Well my dad walked off and I stayed to state that my kids did not live there, and there were rarely there in the evenings anyway and that we had only come down to see if he was OK. If it was that bad then maybe he could have had the common sense to mention it to us before. This met with deep sarcasm and I walked off.

I was not able to sleep at all and the way he has behaved has made me fel awful -he has insulted me my kids and my parents all in one go. And I have no idea what to do.

My kids are boisterous-sure they are. But if they are jumping about too much I know my folks tell them not to as it will disturb him downstairs. he reacted in a total rage to what I consider normal family life last night and that worries me. especially as he is a policman supposedly trained to diffuse and not inflame situations.

Sp please consider how you are making other people feel when you class them as ASBO neighbours. I am quite certain they are not and are feeling now very uncomfortable in their own home

Sorry for any spelling mistakes in this. Had to get it off my chest

Should a 4 y.o. and a 7 y.o. be tucked up in bed by 10.00 pm? My 6 and 8 y.o. certainly are. If yours had been too, then this probably would not have happened.

Nicki

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

Should a 4 y.o. and a 7 y.o. be tucked up in bed by 10.00 pm? My 6 and 8 y.o. certainly are. If yours had been too, then this probably would not have happened.

Yet another person who wants to dictate how others live in their own house!

My 6 and 7 year old are usually in bed by 10.00pm too, however if they were visiting their grandparents, and it was a Friday night (so no school for the next two days) and they were playing quietly and happily, I wouldn't think the world would fall in if they were up at 10.00pm.

All this poster was trying to say was what many of us have also said - namely that there needs to be some give and take in communal living, and that if flats are of poor construction even very innocous and normal living noises will carry. It is not acceptable to retaliate in those circumstances and if you do so you will alienate and upset your neighbours (and also be at risk yourself of getting into trouble with environmental health for your (deliberate) noise nuisance)

I'm sorry u11487 that your first post has had such an intolerant and unreasonable response. Your point was a very valid one.

scrummy_mummy_2

I think this sort of issue will just get worse over the next few years...as more 'single' person accommodation is slapped together and sold to a burgeoning housing market, people are getting ever more crammedin together....it's just not right....people (humans) can't live packed in together, (even if it is 'Luxury') and disputes inevitably will ensue over the smallest issues which are caused by our everyday living...noise being one of them. In such 'cramped' conditions such as modern apartments, you just can't get away from it and, far from being luxury lving for £280, 000 for a 2 bed executive apartment (the modern word for flat!) it turns intoa nightmare.
Did the planning departments learn nothing from the high rise blocks of the 60's? Just because these were largely council properties, the social problems they perpetuated haven't changed, and just because you drive a BMW doesn't mean you make any less noise walking thatn a 15 year old Nissan Primera driver ......
I live in Bracknell and they have just redeveloped the Old Met Office sire into 'Executive apartments' costing upwards of £225,000...boxes stacked on top of each other with no escape.
In 25 years time there will be all sorts of social fall out from this hurried building with scant regard for social consequences.

Carter_2

I can see both sides here and the OP has my sympathy to an extent. I had nightmare neighbours where I used to live, it was not a flat but an old Victorian terraced house with virtually tissue paper for walls.

One side was an elderly couple, fantastic neighbours they were but he kept me awake most of the night with his coughing. In all other respects they did not bother me at all. The other side however was a different matter. They converted a small bedroom into two, to making it a crammed 3 bed house as they had two teenage boys. One played drums which we eventually got an agreement on as to when he would practice. The other teenager however had parties almost every weekend when his mum went out, playing music until 2-3am. When mum was home it wasnt that much better as she had her own parties - I remember one where two lots of music was playing in different rooms of their house. It was like living next door to a nightclub!

As I wanted to move (not just because of them) I didnt bother complaining but it was really hard coping with it. I became a bit of a nervous wreck, very jittery with noise, played havoc with my sleeping to a point I was off sick. Even now I am sensitive to noise in my new home.

Ok well my point is, to the OP, it does sound like normal living noise, as others have said. Fortunately for your neighbours - both above and below, you and your husband sound like very quiet neighbours. I think in these situations the best solution might be to move to somewhere that either you are on the top floor or somewhere with better insulation? I cant see how the situation where you are will get any better unless you are prepared to pay for additional sound proofing.