Noise coming from upstairs

ajp166

I wont be offering to do that because I dont feel I have to.. the lease clearly states underlay and carpet should be fitted.

mildredalien

I feel your pain, we live in a terrace with paper thin walls and our student neighbours on one side are noisy all the time! Enjoying a couple of weeks of peace at the moment, they must have gone home over the Easter hols..

Anyway, it's a tricky one. Is she the owner of the flat or renting? We had some success contacting the letting agency for next door, as there is apparently a clause in the rental contract not to make undue noise/disturb neighbours etc. so they wrote a letter. We got an apology from our neighbours and to be fair they have reigned it in a little in the night.

If not, you really need to try and speak to her when you AREN'T crazy frustrated and angry at her noise. Wait until a time you know she is in, hasn't just stepped over the threshold from a long shift and you aren't wound up. Lay your concerns out, express how you feel and how you are being affected by her behaviour, make some suggestions for compromises etc. 4am when she's boozing with her mates is probably not the time to try and have a conversation about noise levels, particularly given that it seems she doesn't really care about the effect she is having on you.

Have you contacted the council? They were pretty unhelpful to us as they considered the noise fair use of the property, but if she does have uncarpeted floors and is having parties at 4am they may send some noise officers around. Keep a diary and make recordings if appropriate.

bouicca21

OP, it's fairly simple. You either go down the confrontation route and make life miserable for yourelf, or you try to reach a working compromise, which will probably involve a few rugs and slippers. The reality is that you are unlikely to be able to force your neighbour to put down carpet no matter what the lease says and the process of trying to do so will sour relationships forever.

nickyg2000

I know how this feels as ive been in the same situation.

Sell, it won't get any better until she moves out and by then you will probably be sensitive to nosie. Just sell and buy a top floor or house.

westernpromise

Screw some very large speakers to the ceiling, pack soundproofing around them to direct the sound upwards, then turn on a rap CD, or perhaps something like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pull-My-Finger-Fart-CD/dp/B00000JHFQ

- at full volume whenever you leave the house or whenever she is trying to sleep.

More rationally, all you do is complain to the freeholder about breach of the terms of the leasehold. If the lease says carpets and she has floorboards, then there is no dispute that she has breached the lease. What will then happen is that the freeholder will take action and if he fails to do so then he has also breached the lease. So you'd have to take action against the freeholder to make him take action against her.

In practical terms, someone who breaches the lease can forfeit it meaning it reverts to the freeholder, who can then sell it again. So potentially if she fails to toe the line, he can change the locks, annul her lease, and sell the flat again for another £100k or whatever it's worth. She gets none of it because she welshed on her lease.

In practice all this does is make the place unsellable so if it were me I would sell up and go. It will never get better.

ajp166

The managing agency is not helping. They told me to make a diary and a letter and they will then pass to freeholder.... Even now she is stomping around and moving furniture across the wooden floors...

anselld

Pixie5740 wrote: »

I had a noisy neighbour problem years ago. Complaining to the LL got me nowhere but Glasgow City Council were brilliant and after threatening my neighbour (trainee teacher) with an ASBO the noise stopped.

A good example of how the authorities want to pass on expectation to the Landlord to deal with such issues but it is the Council who actually retain all the enforcement powers.

The L could not have issued an ASBO in such a case. He could threaten to evict but would require Court authority to do so which would probably not be granted during a fixed term.

It is environmental health and the Council who have enforcement powers when it comes to noise and anti social behaviour so really they should be the ones to deal with it.