Rented Traffic Noise Nightmare

junkmanukuk_2

Hi i hope someone can advise us on our rights

We are in a rented end terrace property on a 12 months contract

The problem is our main bedroom faces a dual carriage way about 15 yards from our house the sound coming from the road is unbearable even my gf doesnt sleep in the bedroom now as its that bad.

Traffic really starts about 4-5 am till night time.

It seem that the wall is just a stud wall about 12" thick which is carrying the sound

Any help or advicewould be great

Thxs

ruggedtoast

Think yourself lucky you didnt buy it.

arbrighton

Surely the road was there when you looked round the property?
I don't see how it can be a stud wall if it's a house- can't build external walls out of stud work.

Ear plugs?

inatdeepend

Rights for what exactly?

You rented a house near a dual carriageway. Did you check what the traffic was like at different times of the day beforehand?

maninthestreet

http://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/shop/sleepsoft-earguards-product-h106.aspx

G_M

Clearly your first step is the council's 'Pollution Enforcement team'.

They should provide blank log sheets where you can record times etc when the noise is good/bad. Often also a machine to record the level of decibels which you add to the log at the relevant times.

Next step would be to take the log to the Highways Dept, with a formal request for the noise level to be reduced. They will review, and may

* close the road between certain night-time hours
* create a divertion to move traffic elsewhere
* enforce a maximum weight on the road to remove heavy lorries
* re-surface the road to reduce noise
* impose a speed limit
* ignore

nobblyned

White noise machine also good, you attune to the constant noise and don't get disturbed by the intermittent noise.

fairy_lights

How much longer do you have on you contract?

TBagpuss

I don't think you have any rights to complain or get out of the contract - the road was presumably there when you agreed to rent the property and the traffic was there when you looked around.

On a practical level:

- can you rearrange how you use the rooms, so you are sleeping in a different room
- how long have you been there? people usually get acclimatised to regular noises - give yourself a few weeks and you may well find you stop noticing, and only wake up if there is an accident or if the traffic stops
- consider a white noise generator. You can download free apps to a smart phone to give yourself a trial run - I've used 'simplynoise' which has options for oscillating white/pink/brown noise, as well as constant white noise (I found the oscillating ones, which sound a bit like waves breaking, to work better for me)
- try to identify what is disturbing you - if it actually the noise of traffic, is it the change from quiet to noisy at 4 a.m., is it lights or vibration? it part of the problem is light / vibration etc then things like moving which wall your bed is against, getting thicket curtains etc may help. If it is the start of traffic building up in the early hours then a white noise generator and/or earplugs may help.

bear in mind also that if you are stressed about the possibility of being disturbed, that in itself will make it harder to get to sleep, so trying to consciously relax before you go to bed may also help.

Some years ago, when I first went to university, I moved from a rural house with very little noise to a hall of residence which was next to bh a main-line railway station, and a motorway, not to mention several other busy roads, and pubs, and of course a tower block full of students all living away a from home for the first time. For the first few weeks I thought I'd go mad from lack of sleep, then I adjusted, and found I could sleep just fine. As far as I recall, it took less than 3 weeks the first time, and then it would typically take a day or two to re-adjust when I went home, or when I came back after the holidays. It was similar when I moved to my current house - the first could of weeks, I was woken up every day when the milk lorry went past at 4 a.m. Now I only wake up if it is late (and during the week when it had to reverse up, beeping all the way!)

I've never used any kind of sleeping tablets but as a last resort you could ask you GP about whether there is anything you could take for a short period of time to help you make the adjustment.

finally, you could of course try to negotiate an early surrender of the tenancy with your landlord, but they are not under any obligation to agree.

junkmanukuk_2

Sorry i didnt explain my self properly i meant the landlord doing something to the walls to try and stop the noise a bit

Would he have to fix it if the traffic noise is above a certain level

Thxs

lee111s

In short, no he wouldn't. I assume you visited the property during normal hours when traffic would have been present on the road? Did you not take into account the noise then?