New neighbours & too much noise, wanting to move

edinburgher

Noisy neighbours were one of our top 2 considerations for moving from a tenement flat (top floor) to a semi detached house. It got so ridiculous at times that I thought we were cursed!

• Next door = DJ. Music so loud you could feel the floor move. Moved out after 2 years to become a landlord, absolute bliss with friendly and polite replacement tenants
• Downstairs = broken? family of 4-6 depending on who had broken up with who. Smoking rotating 'parents' and borderline sociopathic children who loved to set fire to things and then throw them out the window. They moved out after 3 years, flat empty for 6 months. We started a family and went for a quick sale (gut feeling as)....
• Downstairs replacement = singing teacher!!!! :rotfl: Cue surreal scenes of pupils huskily singing the first 2 verses of Scottish folk songs 30 times in a row as you tried to relax in the bath :eek:
• Bottom floor = skunk smoking English chav scaffolders who liked to fight each other...
• Across the road = cannabis farm dismantled by the police on more than once occasion

I'm surprised we got a really good price for that flat

Edit: we moved to a 70s semi with paper thin walls/air vents etc. We still hear our neighbours, but now it's just TV rumbling and occasional late night phone calls. It strikes me that we live in quite a crowded island, I dread to think how much I'd need to pay for a detached house that could actually deliver the privacy from neighbour noise that most of us would love

Smodlet

Totally feeling your pain. Semi-detached houses are no guarantee whatsoever of any improvement on a flat. This place was fine with the last tenant next door, now the neighbours from hell have moved in. Semi-detached SUCKS!!!! Yet something else we have to blame Prince Albert for, it seems, German "efficiency". He suggested the idea to Queen Vicky, I believe.

Best solution (when will it be mine?) win the lottery and move to a huge, detached house in at least 20+ acres of grounds. Given this is unlikely, is there any way you can record the noise they make? Keep a diary of what kind of noise happens when and for how long and complain to the local council's environmental health department; noise is pollution too.

While I loathe the idea of sinking to our neighbours' level, if all else fails, try paying them back in kind? They get up early, maybe try making a load of noise late at night to disrupt their sleep?

Ultimately, building regs regarding noise insulation in England are pants and it may be that they really are being quiet. Far higher standards in Scotland where, I believe, they actually test how much noise is audible in neighbouring properties, or used to. What they fail to realise is that what sounds like the slightest sound to them is magnified ten-fold + by the building acting as a giant amplifier. Noise insulation is available but hideously expensive and utterly unnecessary if your neighbours are quiet. Living next door to a rental is awful and I do remember what it was like when the noise was coming from above; even worse, very oppressive. Plus, why would you even contemplate paying for that unless you own your place?

Save up and move, while getting your debts down as fast as possible to give you the best chance of getting the most credit, is my advice. Just beware of wasting your money moving to a place that is just as bad, if not worse; that is our dilemma right now.

Norman_Castle

My most recent noisy neigbour is in the room directly underneath my bedroom. He comes in late, between 10pm and 5am, bangs the doors and puts the tv on. I've found with earplugs I can still hear some of his noise but with earplugs and Radio 4 I cannot tell if its his noise or the muffled radio so I can sleep.
Having the radio on all night also !!!!es him off which I think is a bonus.

I've lived in flats for years and I am still amazed at how moronically ignorant some people are with regards to the noise they make.

DoctorDooLittle

I suspect it's the design of the flat that's the problem. I doubt your neighbours wake up early for work and deliberately make excessive noise, just to annoy you.

JessyRM

DoctorDooLittle wrote: »

I suspect it's the design of the flat that's the problem. I doubt your neighbours wake up early for work and deliberately make excessive noise, just to annoy you.

Yes I agree, If they didn't work shifts it would be bearable. Unfortunately waking up at 4am every morning is annoying whether intentional or not.

sniggings

glasgowdan wrote: »

Top floor is the LAST place I'd move after seeing what our old neighbour on the top floor went through every few months! Not only noise from the side and below, but the constant rainwater issues. She was utterly at the end of her tether with it all.

so rain v stomping on the floor, evertime someone walks on it...think I'll take the rain.

[Deleted User]

I think the radio idea is a good one. In my last place I lived next to a family with two dogs who barked constantly (they worked long hours). Besides feeling very sorry for the dogs, I used to wear wireless head phones all the time and listened to TV programmes on my pc. If noisy when I needed to sleep I found general background noise on my headphones distracted my ears from sudden noises next door.

So a radio would work as well I think .

cadon

JessyRM wrote: »

I have been thinking about moving somewhere bigger as I got a promotion at work and wanted more space for family and friends to stay, however I am currently paying off debts and putting my energy into that (I owe about 5K in total).

You should never plan your rent payments or mortgage around the off chance of people visiting - it'll probably work out cheaper to put them up in a local B&B for a few nights every year than to pay for an empty spare room all year round!

Given you have debts, your focus should be on clearing those, not paying for extra space for people who have their own homes already.

JessyRM wrote: »

Unfortunately now some new tenants have moved in upstairs and are making my flat unbearable. They wake up at 3am and 4.30am every day for work and make so much noise it wakes me up every time. I have spoken to them, wrote to them and the landlord. It seems to just be the building as they say they are only getting up and ready for work and can't be any quieter.

Has anyone moved because of neighbours? Has it been worth it? I don't know if I should try and stick it out until I've paid off my debts or move and live in peace!

I'm sure other (cheaper) devices do this too, but with a FitBit, you can set a "silent alarm", which basically means your watch vibrates against your wrist and wakes you up. Something like that would work a treat if you were worried about ear plugs blocking out the sound of your alarm on your phone/clock. I was sceptical about silent alarms until I tried them - they are very effective.

Given neighbours can and do change, I would be tempted to try to find a solution rather than move. They don't sound malicious, rather it sounds like you live in a badly designed building. I would give a pair of ear plugs and a silent alarm a go first before writing off the place.

I do sympathise though, their desire to get up for work and your desire to have a decent night's nip are both equally valid.

glasgowdan

sniggings wrote: »

so rain v stomping on the floor, evertime someone walks on it...think I'll take the rain.

But it's not flooding vs noise. It's flooding PLUS noise. Seeing the integrity of your home being ruined and regularly trying to get large sums of money from your neighbours to fix something that doesn't affect them. No thanks.

JessyRM

Thanks, I already wear ear plugs but last night I tried some 'sleep sounds' I settled on 'summer nights' which seemed to be mostly rain and crickets. I only briefly woke up in the night. Not straight through but much better!

I think I've decided I want to move anyway as I would like more space for myself as well as people staying. But I'm going to try and stick it out to save up/pay off a bit more first.