Noisy Father of Family Below

tesuhoha

svain wrote: »

Since when is shouting at children an offence??

It might not be an offence but it is a form of bullying if it is part of day to day life. However, the occasional annoyed shout is understandable.

Guest101

professor~yaffle wrote: »

Well, OP can always go check her own tenancy agreement. I've been renting for decades and have yet to see a contract which does not specify that you're not to cause noise nuisance to neighbours.

And how would her tenancy agreement help?


And how is the LL to enforce it in any case. I appreciate you're trying to be helpful, but these clauses are largely impossible to enforce.

professor~yaffle

Guest101 wrote: »

And how would her tenancy agreement help?


And how is the LL to enforce it in any case. I appreciate you're trying to be helpful, but these clauses are largely impossible to enforce.

Housing Associations can and do take action against tenants who break tenancy rules. Private landlords don't seem to care so much, as long as they get their rent money. OP mentioned an agency, and I know for sure that agencies can be very punitive.

With any luck OP will come back and update us.

KateySW

Not to fill you with dread, but we ended up moving for this very reason once upon a time we had neighbours upstairs who would scream at each other until stupid o'clock - their living room was right above our bedroom and it drove us crazy. They were so loud it felt like they were right there in the room, screeching at each other over bills that hadn't been paid, laundry that hadn't been done etc...

So not a good ending for us, but a few things I learnt along the way:
- The council (at least in my case) seemed to be able to do very little about shouting. You can call them round and try to get them to investigate but it is a long and slow process. If you do go down that route, it won't be solved quickly by a longshot. Not sure where you live but I was in London and my council weren't that helpful unfortunately.
- If you do decide to report it to your LL or whoever, make records of when noise begins, times etc. That way if they intervene, they know how long it's been going on for and such.
- Don't call the police or social services unless you are sure you have proper cause to, no matter how desperate you are. If they go round, find nothing and the neighbours know it was you, any bridges will have gone down in flames before you've even spoken to them.
- Do try to talk to him first. DON'T leave a note as your first contact. This is the worst mistake me and my old flatmate made. My flatmate was sick so left a note because he couldn't face having a potential shouting match with someone when he had a sickness bug. It did not go down well. We had a note back which basically told us to get stuffed, try being human and talk to them directly instead. We did try next time but because of the note they already hated us by that point and thought we were passive aggressive.

Which leads me to my main point: I know it's horrible (I hate confrontation) but please go and talk to him before you do anything, and be as calm and unemotional as you can be. Hard, believe me I know, but it really is worth a try. If it doesn't work, you can either try to go through a process to sort it or just move. But it might work and will be so much easier that way. As many people have said, he might not even realise. Reporting them would be a long and drawn out process and the aggro it could cause might make the situation feel even more horrible for you. Hope you manage to sort it out.

Primrose

If you find him intimidsting , yiu could always try a different approach. Why not try knocking on his door, taking a bottle of wine to show you come in peace and ask if you could have a chat about noise because you're sure he doesn,t realise how bad the soundproofing in your flat are.
Tell him the noise is very bad at night when there are no other background sounds, so could he please try to be quiet because you can,t sleep and need to go to work.
If you don,t want to take wine, maybe some little Easter eggs for the children?

If things don,t improve after a friendly approach, you needn't feel guilty about taking a stronger approach. Maybe the children are wetting the beds or something which is what has caused all the nighttime commotion.l

Guest101

professor~yaffle wrote: »

Housing Associations can and do take action against tenants who break tenancy rules. Private landlords don't seem to care so much, as long as they get their rent money. OP mentioned an agency, and I know for sure that agencies can be very punitive.

With any luck OP will come back and update us.

1: Housing associations have no extra powers over any other LL, whilst they may wish to take action it is up to the courts what happens. And courts aren't going to evict a family, thereby passing the problem on to the local council, for some shouting.


As for your comment 'agencies can be punitive' - no, they cannot. Agencies have zero power and act solely on behalf of the LL

Chlorine7

I've only semi read these replies as the property managers contacted the LL who has spoken with him. So far no middle of the night screaming & shouting.

I think a lot of what has been said has been taken out of context and incorrect conclusions have been made. I have no intention of calling the police or social services unless he has done something to warrant those things, which IMO he hasn't.

His screaming and shouting has little to do with culture. I would say there are some cultural aspects in that the male is the head of the family but this is not him speaking on the phone or having an over-animated conversation. I do know the difference. He can speak at normal level (loud for me but normal for him I suppose) it is when he is clearly angry does the screaming start.

Should the screaming start in the middle of the night, I guess we'll start having house parties and see how he likes it

professor~yaffle

Chlorine7 wrote: »

I've only semi read these replies as the property managers contacted the LL who has spoken with him. So far no middle of the night screaming & shouting.

Result :beer:
Let's hope it stays that way.

professor~yaffle

Guest101 wrote: »

1: Housing associations have no extra powers over any other LL, whilst they may wish to take action it is up to the courts what happens. And courts aren't going to evict a family, thereby passing the problem on to the local council, for some shouting.


As for your comment 'agencies can be punitive' - no, they cannot. Agencies have zero power and act solely on behalf of the LL

That's not actually true. Nuisance tenants are not as unanswerable as you seem to think. There are ways and means of enforcing tenancy rules.

Guest101

professor~yaffle wrote: »

That's not actually true. Nuisance tenants are not as unanswerable as you seem to think. There are ways and means of enforcing tenancy rules.

Yes through the courts.... which is what I said.


And no judge is going to evict a family over some shouting. It's just not going to happen.