Noisy neighbours - any advice?

jd87

I posted a thread a while ago about the flats above mine being renovated and how I wasn't informed about this when the place was let out to me. Turns out there was nothing we could do but suffer. Well about a month ago the work was finally finished. The peace and quiet has been fantastic - we thought all our problems were over. Sadly not...

The renovation work has created a beautiful modern 2 bedroom flat which is being let out at nearly £2000 per month. We assumed our new neighbours would be the type of people who could afford that kind of sum, perhaps a nice "professional" couple (whatever that means) with no kids to worry about. We thought we wouldn't hear a peep from them because modern building regulations mean good quality sound-proofing.

Instead what we've ended up with is three people who stay up til 3am in the morning playing loud music with their windows open. We can hear every footstep, as if their feet are right on our ceiling. Our life has become hell from the moment these people moved in. Experience tells me that the only thing to do when this happens to you is to move out, asap. This isn't an option. We're trapped. Our tenancy has 16 months remaining. There's a break clause but it doesn't let us leave for another 10 months.

I assume the first thing I need to do is go and speak to them face-to-face? Perhaps they don't realise how bad the sound-proofing is? The problem is I haven't even seen these people yet; it won't make a good first impression if my first contact with them is to complain about noise. I'm also pretty sure they're not English, what if they don't speak English very well and we're not able to have a reasonable conversation about the problem?

Should I ask other neighbours if they think the noise is bad, and we can all go round together, or will that seem like we're ganging up on them?

What about the sound-proofing? Shouldn't it be better? I know about Document E of the building regulations. I contacted the council to tell them I thought that perhaps the sound-proofing wasn't compliant, but they just told me that the building control on this project had been done by an approved assessor and I'd need to speak to them. Aren't the builders, landlords and "assessors" all in on this together? Is there anything I can do from a building regulations point of view?

My own landlord (not the same landlord as the flat above) is never very helpful about anything. I don't expect any help from her.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom on my first steps to resolve this?

moneyistooshorttomention

First thought = 3 people but its a 2 bedroom flat.

Don't suppose there is any legal way to show the flat is obviously overcrowded - ie with one more person than there is room for????

jd87

I've assumed two of the people share a bed. That wasn't really one of my concerns to be honest.

MARTYM8`

I have been there OP - in my experience such people are usually inconsiderate by nature. Any decent people would not be playing loud music until 3am on week nights.

I would talk to your other neighbours - at least then you don't feel so isolated. Also do you have a communal notice board - you could put up a general note asking people to be quiet and helpfully providing the contact details at the council for noise complaints.

And in the end - you can hope they leave after 6 months.

PS At £2k per month's rent for a two bed flat I assume you must live in London.

HappyMJ

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

First thought = 3 people but its a 2 bedroom flat.

Don't suppose there is any legal way to show the flat is obviously overcrowded - ie with one more person than there is room for????

You could quite easily fit 6 people into a 2 bedroom flat. The living room counts as a habitable room too and can usually accommodate 2 people.

moneyistooshorttomention

HappyMJ wrote: »

You could quite easily fit 6 people into a 2 bedroom flat. The living room counts as a habitable room too and can usually accommodate 2 people.

I thought that was just when Councils are trying to "shift goalposts" in an attempt to make out that overcrowded accommodation isn't overcrowded and their reason for doing that is because there is nothing like enough Council accommodation to go round these days and hence they try and "fiddle things" and insist overcrowding doesn't exist, even when it patently obviously does?

I'm presuming this is a privately rented flat and hence "realistic" standards would apply - ie of one bedroom per person or couple.

kinger101

Just a thought, but what about knocking on their door and asking them to be quiet.

jd87

kinger101 wrote: »

Just a thought, but what about knocking on their door and asking them to be quiet.

Thanks. I have written an entire paragraph about doing that. I was hoping someone who's been in this situation in the past might be able to provide advice about doing this. It can be a very delicate situation which I imagine can make it 1000x worse if done the wrong way.

pinkshoes

I would just go round once morning (nice and early), introduce yourself, then ask politly if they would kindly mind turning their music down after 11pm as there is not much sound proofing between the floors.

If it plays beyond 11pm again then just go round in your PJs and ask them nicely to turn the music down.

If they still don't play ball, call 101 and out a complaint in with the local police. I would also suggest contacting their landlord if the noise continues.

warehouse

pinkshoes wrote: »

I would just go round once morning (nice and early), introduce yourself, then ask politly if they would kindly mind turning their music down after 11pm as there is not much sound proofing between the floors.

If it plays beyond 11pm again then just go round in your PJs and ask them nicely to turn the music down.

If they still don't play ball, call 101 and out a complaint in with the local police. I would also suggest contacting their landlord if the noise continues.

Exactly this. They may turn out to be really nice and totally embarrassed, they may not. Until you knock you won't know.

kinger101

jd87 wrote: »

Thanks. I have written an entire paragraph about doing that. I was hoping someone who's been in this situation in the past might be able to provide advice about doing this. It can be a very delicate situation which I imagine can make it 1000x worse if done the wrong way.

Well, you've written a whole paragraph explaining why you haven't done that. You either go round there when it's not happening and introduce yourself nicely, or go round when they're making the noise. It's your call.

If that doesn't help, find out who their landlord is and contact them. But it's not right to do this if you've not actually made a complaint directly to the tenants.