Selling apartment - noise from apartment above

xred5x

My wife and I are in the process of selling our ground floor apartment. We have one very interested party would have asked a list of questions. One was about hearing noise from the apartment above.

This is a sticking point between my wife and I. While we both agree there is noise from above I would only hear isolated instances whereas she car hear the TV, walking etc.

How much should I disclose to any buyers asking this question?

KRB2725

I would say something like 'Only what you would expect when you have an upstairs neighbour, nothing exceptional and certainly nothing that has affected our enjoyment of our apartment'.

moneyistooshorttomention

Noise is something that, to some extent, is down to individual perception.

That is - everyone would agree that top volume parties is "noise" (except those holding them:cool:).

Beyond that - it does depend, to a certain extent, on what our personal norm is.

Our "norm" is probably set as we grow up. So - to me personally - that means there isn't ANY outside noise AT ALL in someone's home. That being because I've been used to my parents detached house in quiet area - and the norm to me is therefore (and has remained) there simply won't be one single decibel of sound ever apart from what my own household generates basically. So - I went through years of housing that was far from satisfactory according to my own personal "norm" partly for that reason. I have finally - many years later - got (in the main) back to my own personal norm and that is what feels appropriate to me.

But other people will have been brought up in big families/terrace houses or flats throughout/etc/etc and may not even notice noise that would be driving me personally up the wall.

So - there is some element of subjectivity in what we personally perceive as "Unfair/too high level of noise" and the bar will be set differently according to the person concerned - bar those noisy parties/DIY noise in the middle of the night/etc.

So - I would personally come out with some comment to that effect to would-be buyers and let them judge for themselves how the sound level would fit in with their own personal perception of "Normal - and over that level up with that I will not put".

Translation = I darn well wouldn't buy your flat personally - as my "norm" is quiet - but those whose norm is different might well do so. I can understand why some people might regard my personal norm as "quiet as the grave" and upsetting to them and have witnessed people being scared stiff of the level of quietness I personally regard as "how things should be" - but that's MY norm - and some of us are in the category we honestly do not expect to hear ANY noise at all ever in our homes (apart from something like bird song/rain/etc).

Tell them exactly what the state of play is and let them judge for themselves whether it matches what they personally are like. There are people who will "blow" and hate it if they literally cant hear anyone else "going about their business" and those people might quite like a flat (provided there aren't those noisy parties)...and then there are people like me who just assume that, of course, things will be quiet and get very upset if they aren't...

westv

Don't say anthing beyond you aren't bothered by any noise.

Annie1960

Be honest, and explain that you don't notice the noise but your wife does. You have set out the true position in your OP, so why tell them anything different?

Hoploz

Any flat will be affected by some degree of noise from neighbours, it simply cannot be avoided. It has to be accepted if someone is buying a flat. All you can do is invite them for further viewings for their own satisfaction. It is pretty well impossible to describe exactly how much noise can be heard. What one person notices another person doesn't. It's noise out of hours which would be considered unacceptable.

I have had problems with a downstairs neighbour. She complained that my young children were noisily running up and down, and I was always paranoid, feeling awful if they ever jumped out of bed or stepped any louder than a mouse.

Then when we rented the place out she complained to us that she could hear the couple renting. She complained she could hear their alarm, walking about, using washing machine, flushing toilet.... This made me feel a lot better, as clearly we were much less noisy than this couple going about their normal day to day routine. My kids are not feral after all! So I replied to her that there was nothing we could do about it. Haven't heard anything from her since.