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Leaseholder causing DIY noise.

We own the freehold to a Victorian conversion of 4 flats. We are also the leaseholders to one of the flats.

The ground floor flat was sold in September and since then every weekend and 2 or 3 evenings a week DIY work has been carried out. The leaseholder has literally gutted the flat and started again.

We are getting complaints from other leaseholders about the noise and the management agents (that we employ to look after the day to day running of the freehold) have written to the leaseholder but they are still continuing with the noise.

All the leaseholders here work full time. So weekends is precious time and to have it constantly disturbed for the past 5 months is wearing thin. The leaseholder claims as they are doing the work themselves this is the only time they have free to do it as they also work full time.

They are now refusing to talk to us after we have tried the nice chat and tea and cake approach. What else can we do?
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Comments

  • bouicca21
    bouicca21 Posts: 6,751 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    My upstairs neighbours were doing noisy diy improvements for months. It never occurred to me to complain. Living in a flat is a form of communal living so give and take is essential, besides at some point it will be finished.

    Maybe you should be talking to them about improving sound insulation?
  • divadee
    divadee Posts: 10,609 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    bouicca21 wrote: »
    My upstairs neighbours were doing noisy diy improvements for months. It never occurred to me to complain. Living in a flat is a form of communal living so give and take is essential, besides at some point it will be finished.

    Maybe you should be talking to them about improving sound insulation?

    So you are more than happy to have every weekend disturbed in over 5 months with no end in sight from about 10am until 8pm every single weekend?

    Sorry but that is not acceptable to us and to the 2 other leaseholders in the building. We have a baby who naps during the day or should I say doesn't as the constant drilling and banging wake her up. Another neighbour works shifts at the weekends. And we get it in the neck from the other leaseholders as we are the freeholders.
  • lauraland
    lauraland Posts: 1,677 Forumite
    Unfortunately there is not much you can do, unless the noise is very extreme or is occuring outside standard hours 11pm-7am. Could you come to some arrangement that the work doesn't start before certain hours at the weekend, and doesn't continue late during the week?

    It is annoying, I know as the house beside me was renovated last year and went on for 6 months plus. Just be patient and know that it will soon come to an end. On the plus side, at least you know your new neighbours are invested in looking after their property.
    I got ham but i'm not a hamster.....
  • Pixie5740
    Pixie5740 Posts: 14,515 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Eighth Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic
    I take it you are the freeholder, if so what does the lease say about noise and DIY?
  • Have you gone around in a neighbourly way to ask them how the work is progressing & how long them anticipate the work to last?

    Apart from paying for workmen to do it in the week for them I don’t see that there’s much you can do.
  • davidmcn
    davidmcn Posts: 23,596 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    divadee wrote: »
    We have a baby who naps during the day...
    Another neighbour works shifts at the weekends.
    Well, I'm not sure what solution you'd be proposing - sometimes noisy work needs to be done, and if it can't be at night then it's going to be during the day. Residents who want to sleep during the day need to accept that.
  • divadee
    divadee Posts: 10,609 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    davidmcn wrote: »
    Well, I'm not sure what solution you'd be proposing - sometimes noisy work needs to be done, and if it can't be at night then it's going to be during the day. Residents who want to sleep during the day need to accept that.

    All as a freeholder and the other leaseholders have asked for is she sticks to the usual construction hours of 8am - 6pm mon-fri and 8am - 1pm on a Saturday. We felt this was a fair compromise.

    She refuses to as she works full time and wants to do the work herself. Last weekend we had 12 hours on both days of her sanding wooden floors. It was torture so we went and booked in a hotel.
  • divadee
    divadee Posts: 10,609 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Pixie5740 wrote: »
    I take it you are the freeholder, if so what does the lease say about noise and DIY?

    We have checked her lease this week and it just says about not causing a nuisance. Unfortunately very vague about diy noise.
  • divadee
    divadee Posts: 10,609 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Have you gone around in a neighbourly way to ask them how the work is progressing & how long them anticipate the work to last?

    Apart from paying for workmen to do it in the week for them I don’t see that there’s much you can do.

    We have been neighbourly and invited her round and discussed with her the plans. At the outset she said a couple of months. We put up with it for that time and longer. Now it's beginning to really grate and she now won't speak to us.
  • anselld
    anselld Posts: 8,714 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    divadee wrote: »
    She refuses to as she works full time and wants to do the work herself. Last weekend we had 12 hours on both days of her sanding wooden floors. It was torture so we went and booked in a hotel.

    Well if she is sanding the floors she must be nearly finished unless she is doing things in a very bizarre order.
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