Dilemma - Is it right to rent out our noisy flat?

deadrobot

Hoping you can help us with some advice.

We live in a tenement block of 8 flats and our building shares a wall with a tenement block of 16 flats round the corner on another street.

For the past 2-3 years a neighbour has been running their washing machine through the night. The spin cycle and the noise through the pipes (which, for some reason, go through our bedroom wall) is intolerable but we could never figure out where it was coming from.

We asked neighbours in our close and we believe that it wasn't any of them. We are not familiar with anyone in the other building so did not feel comfortable knocking on 16 different doors to ask who it was, so we put up a polite poster in the close which was ignored.

Because trying to figure out who it was and not getting any sleep was driving us insane, we made our peace with not figuring out who was doing it, and have been using ear plugs to sleep ever since. Which is fine, as they work like a charm.

However, we are now starting the process of renting the flat out to move on elsewhere (negative equity so cannot sell) and don't feel right letting it continue as it will annoy our future tenants and could deter us from getting tenants.

I have contacted the city council and they say there is no legislation/ruling against running a washing machine through the night so there is nothing they can do about it.

I’m not sure we can in good conscience let out the flat with this washing machine noise problem. What would you do?

Give new tenants a big bag of ear plugs? Sure that will go down a treat!

Help!

Madbags

Can you not get soundproofing work done on the property? I'm not sure how effective it is, but my father has a similar situation the flat he's just bought from the Council and he is having work done on the ceiling to have it soundproofed due to noisy tenants.

pmlindyloo

I suggest that you be proactive and pop one of these letters into the letter boxes of any possible 'suspects'.

http://www.oxford.gov.uk/Direct/NeighbourNoiseletter.pdf

After all, if they don't know the noise is disturbing you they can't do anything about it!

davidmcn

deadrobot wrote: »

I have contacted the city council and they say there is no legislation/ruling against running a washing machine through the night so there is nothing they can do about it.

Nonsense, if it's causing that amount of noise/vibration they ought to be investigating the complaint.

Alternatively (or in addition) you can pursue legal action yourselves against the occupier of the flat, if you can work out who it is.

dannim12345

Maybe put letters through the door for each flat just saying your not sure which flat is affecting you but its really noisy and if they can refrain from using the washer/dryer after say 11pm. They might not know its causing a problem...

Mojisola

deadrobot wrote: »

I have contacted the city council and they say there is no legislation/ruling against running a washing machine through the night so there is nothing they can do about it.

There is no legislation about running a washing machine but there is legislation about noise at night. It doesn't matter whether your neighbour is playing loud music or doing DIY or using the washing machine.

Money_maker

They're probably taking advantage of ecomony 7. Either the noise would only last a half hour or so when on drain and spin or OP maybe have a look and see if anyone has their lights on if they are doing multiple loads.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm wondering how you have identified for sure that its a washing machine?

It seems odd to be doing washing at night and throughout the night every single night.

With that, I admit to wondering just what could be causing such frequent noise and at that time..:think:

deadrobot

Thanks folks.

Just to answer some questions..
We did put up a polite notice in the close but it was ignored, so I believe whoever is doing it knows it is affecting us.
The council said that the rules only cover hoovering, DIY noise and parties, not washing machines.
It's definitely a washing machine, you hear the water come on filling up the drum, then a spin and then water and then drain etc etc on and on for about an hour and a half.
I don't know what the heck they are washing so much of, they run it through the day as well so I can't see how it's a cheap electricity thing or you would think they would only run it at night.

The soundproofing is a good idea, might get someone out to see what they think. The pipes are behind our wood paneled window though so they would have to rip that out and the plaster too I'd imagine? Which tradesperson might do pipe soundproofing? Builder? Plumber?

davidmcn

deadrobot wrote: »

The council said that the rules only cover hoovering, DIY noise and parties, not washing machines.

As far as I am aware, they have a statutory duty to investigate complaints about noise, there is nothing in the legislation restricting it to particular appliances.

In fact, Edinburgh Council's website suggests:

If you are being disturbed in your home by noise you should contact the police when the noise is happening. The kinds of noise could be

• neighbours playing loud music or TV or having parties
• neighbours banging or shouting
• washing machines or DIY work late at night
• barking dogs.

I would pursue this further, try your councillors if you get no joy from the officers.

franklee

Can you get hold of plans of the building in any way? Old planning applications, old sales listings or just go in and have a look round the commmunal areas. Surely it can't be that hard to determine which flat you are adjacent to. Once you know which one it is you could see if it's the owner living there or if it's let. Are they running a laundry, goole the address.

There was a change in the law (don't know if that was Scotland too) about disclosing issues with a property recently, may be worth seeing what that does. Even so I'd suggest not letting without disclosure of the problem. Renting isn't cheap and you don't want to dump on someone and then have their complaints.