Just moved to a basement flat, horrible soundproofing

8bits

Thanks for your answers. I will contact the agency to explain the situation.

At the moment for example I can hear the whole conversation and laughs that my neighbours are having.. Great, after a day of work when you want to rest!

The really bad thing is that what is upstairs of my basement flat is the whole living room and kitchen of the upstairs flat, so basically where most of people spend their time living.

I have just contacted my agency by email. I will let you know what they say. The flat itself is really great, but the soundproofing makes it impossible to live in really...

PhilE

On the bright side, its only 6 months. Some people BUY a flat and then find these things out. 6 months gives you enough time to find a more suitable place. As others have said, see if you can get out early. Doubtful the landlord will splash out on soundproofing, and the agency wont really care.

8bits

I know it's only 6 months, but it looks a lot. I will never buy a house based on a 10min visits. Yesterday I also hit the ceiling with my hand and you can actually hear it does not sound right. I will do that every time when I move to a new property now...

This is what the agency told me today.


"[FONT=&quot]If you wish to vacate you will still be liable for the rent until new tenants are founds. You will also be expected to pay the landlords fees that he will incur by putting the property on the market again."
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This does not really seem to be a mutual agreement with the landlord... ?
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

bowlhead99

8bits wrote: »

This is what the agency told me today.


"[FONT=&quot]If you wish to vacate you will still be liable for the rent until new tenants are founds. You will also be expected to pay the landlords fees that he will incur by putting the property on the market again."
[/FONT]
This does not really seem to be a mutual agreement with the landlord... ?

You have a contract that you signed which says you will pay the rent for minimum 6 months and can live in the property. So, at the moment the landlord is entitled to 6 months of your money, whether or not you choose to live in the flat, a nearby hotel, or emigrate to Australia for the winter.

You can 'mutually agree' that instead of you definitely paying the rent for 6 months like you promised, the landlord will try to market the property and get some rental income from it and you just cover the amount by which he is out of pocket until he gets someone in. Unless you 'mutually agree' that that's an acceptable course of action, you are still stuck on your original terms which you signed, which involve you having a tenancy of the property for no less than six months (unless there is a clause that says you can give notice to end it earlier) and paying the rent (and probably utilities and council tax etc) for that period.

You can try to come up with something else that is 'mutually acceptable' but will probably struggle to find anything because his starting poing is that you have to pay him for 6 months as you agreed and your starting point is that you would rather not pay for any months. If he really wants to sell out, perhaps he would agree that you can give up the tenancy earlier so he can start marketing it to sell on in early springtime instead of end of April or whenever the 6 months is up. But if he is selling it as part of a joint deal with the property above, there may be no advantage for him in having the basement empty a bit earlier.

Your problem with trying to get him to agree to let you move out early and remarket the flat is that he only gave you a short tenancy (6 instead of 12 or more) because he wants to eventually sell it. If he doesn't want the flat to be rented out beyond the end of next April (for example) because he's going to sell it, he may struggle to let it out to a new occupier on what is an increasingly short term basis as the days tick along.

So, even if you agree to move out and rent somewhere else from another landlord, you are going to be stuck paying rent for the basement flat (and his marketing costs) until he finds someone else to come in, which might be months rather than weeks. You would then have obligations for rent and council tax on two places which might bust your budget. But it would allow you to live in a flat with more peace and quiet.

If your upstairs neigbours are only making a 'normal' level of noise it is difficult to get them to do anything about it (they are not going to stop laughing in their living room) so the basic options are either:

- put up with it and keep paying until the tenancy is up,
- move out and keep paying until the tenancy is up,
- or mutually agree that you will move out and keep paying until a new replacement is found and you will pay him off more money on top of the rent for the hassle of going back to 'the market' and finding someone who wants to move in during November or December or January or whenever.

Sometimes when landlords are selling up it is them coming to you and saying would you mind if we end this deal early, I will give you some kind of a sweetener for it so I can get the place empty to make it easier to sell. However it sounds like, per the agency, he does not want it to end early and would only want you out if you pay rent until you can be replaced.

HOWEVER, you are hearing this from his agent and they may be thinking in their own best interest that you must fulfil the 6 months tenancy terms... because we get £x per month as a commission / service fee from the landlord and we don't want that to stop by the tenancy ending early as our income will dry up and he will sell then so our gravy train is over. They may not have consulted the landlord before suggesting that potentially mutually agreeable solution they suggested.

Your best way forward could be to cut out the middle man and deal direct with the landlord on what he would accept - you can get his contact details from the tenancy agreement (if it's not him that's living upstairs!). That way you might have a mutually agreeable solution that's better than what the agent suggested.

However, no guarantees that's a better route because he might be stubborn and just say tough, we have an agreement, you're paying, there's no talking me round, no deals, no remarketing I can't be bothered with the hassle. In which case it would have been better to approach through the agent who might say, hey, this happens all the time, if the tenant is willing to pay us to remarket it let's have a go and there's no real downside because if no tenant is found the current tenant is still on the hook for monthly rent.

Let us know what you decide and how it works out, it's always good to get a conclusion on these threads.

8bits

Thanks for your answer. I need to read it more carefully. In the meantime I wanted to point out a few things:
- I do not have contact details of the landlord, even the tenancy agreement was signed by the agency on his behalf. Not sure if I can ask to get his details... Probably not
- the landlord accepted my offer which had a lower rent and he also was willing to give me money to furnish the property (£500) as it was completely unfurnished and it was only for 6 months. So the landlord seemed to be flexible overall.
- the whole house is marked as 'under offer' on the website agency, which I find weird (unless it does take 6 months to actually sell a house of this type? I have no experience in this)

Smodlet

From what I remember of reading G_M's (or somebody's) brilliant information, you have a legal right to know the LL's name and contact details. If the agency has not given you this information, try telling them you want it. You will have to either go looking for G_M's/other knowledgeable people's posts or put out cake and hope you can summon this fount of wisdom to this thread... Did not work when I tried it but hey?

:bdaycake::bdaycake::bdaycake:

Failing this, try Citizens' Advice/Shelter's websites. HTH.

sammyjammy

8bits wrote: »

Thanks for your answer. I need to read it more carefully. In the meantime I wanted to point out a few things:
- I do not have contact details of the landlord, even the tenancy agreement was signed by the agency on his behalf. Not sure if I can ask to get his details... Probably not
- the landlord accepted my offer which had a lower rent and he also was willing to give me money to furnish the property (£500) as it was completely unfurnished and it was only for 6 months. So the landlord seemed to be flexible overall.
- the whole house is marked as 'under offer' on the website agency, which I find weird (unless it does take 6 months to actually sell a house of this type? I have no experience in this)

You may find the landlord thinks they've already been more than fair. I know its not ideal but if you live alone you might consider earplugs to make life a bit more bearable and thank your lucky stars your flat isn't below their bedroom!

AnotherJoe

Comfy wireless headphones? And be really thankful you didn't buy.

ProDave

Look on the bright side. You are only renting it. It could be worse that you had just bought it and found out about the noise issue.

8bits

Yes, well, as I said I will never buy a flat by staying in it for 10 minutes. I knew when I signed that it was only for 6 months so if something was wrong it was not going to be a long time. Still, I was not expecting the soundproofing to be that bad.

And yes, I live alone. I am not sure if it's better to have the living room or to get a bedroom upstairs... Anyway, the agency replied and the fees are quite expensive (£850) so essentially this does not give me much options. It's almost a full month rent.