Lease and carpet

tiny_jackal

In the flat I am trying to buy (leasehold with a share of freehold) the lease states that every room except kitchen and bathroom must be kept at all times covered in carpet and underlay.

I understand this clause is to protect the neighbours downstairs from noise and it makes total sense. However, I abhor carpet. Are there solutions that allow to wooden floors the same amount of noise reduction that carpet has? Excluding those really high-end that I couldn't probably afford -- I was looking at cork underlays. Are them any good?

mrschaucer

Google sound attenuating underlays. But you do realise you will be in breach of your lease?

tiny_jackal

Thank you for the advice. I am aware that it's a breach of the lease, but I believe it's unlikely to be enforced as long as there are no noise issues. On a side note, how do people who are allergic to dust or asthmatic can possibly comply with such clauses?

It might be that I end up having to live with carpet, but obviously I want to explore every possible avenue before I resign myself to this.

Gloomendoom

tiny_jackal wrote: »

Thank you for the advice. I am aware that it's a breach of the lease, but I believe it's unlikely to be enforced as long as there are no noise issues. On a side note, how do people who are allergic to dust or asthmatic can possibly comply with such clauses?

They probably wouldn't take the flat. I'm surprised you did as you knew that you hate carpet yet the lease required carpet in all rooms but the kitchen and bathroom.

EssexExile

Gloomendoom wrote: »

They probably wouldn't take the flat.

That about sums it up. There are plenty of stories, some on this forum, of people in flats claiming they are as quiet as mice while those below them are being driven mad by the noise.
Go with carpet or look elsewhere, preferably ground floor.

katejo

EssexExile wrote: »

That about sums it up. There are plenty of stories, some on this forum, of people in flats claiming they are as quiet as mice while those below them are being driven mad by the noise.
Go with carpet or look elsewhere, preferably ground floor.

When i had a leasehold flat the same rule applied. I did have carpet all the time I was there but I had a very noise sensitive neighbour underneath who used to bang a broom handle against the wall or ceiling and shout loudly. I couldn't have been quieter in socks on carpet. After i sold up, the new buyer got rid of the carpet and had laminate laid. i still wonder whether she has had complaints. The original neighbour has moved on.

tiny_jackal

I haven't taken the flat yet -- I am negotiating the purchase currently, well, my solicitor is.

I have reasons to purchase that particular flat, as my budget is very limited, and that one is the best of a bad bunch. It's my intention of course to find a solution that works for everyone, not to deafen my neighbours each time I walk around or the cat is scuttling from one room to the other.

If I have to keep the carpet so be it. I hate it but I hate even more living on a ground floor. It's just I can't believe that in 2018 there aren't technologies that similarly dampen the noise but dispense with the unhygienic fabric and fuzz.

pmartin86

tiny_jackal wrote: »

I hate it but I hate even more living on a ground floor. It's just I can't believe that in 2018 there aren't technologies that similarly dampen the noise but dispense with the unhygienic fabric and fuzz.

As established, there are, but their not cheap.

chrisw

I really don't get why you are buying a property you don't like and is incompatible with your lifestyle.

It can only lead to misery and unhappiness in the future. Surely even renting somewhere more suitable would be preferable.

Gloomendoom

tiny_jackal wrote: »

It's just I can't believe that in 2018 there aren't technologies that sivmilarly dampen the noise but dispense with the unhygienic fabric and fuzz.

You could always adapt the TopTip that appeared in Viz magazine back in the late 1980's...

"When out shopping, glue carpet tiles to the soles of your shoes. They make Sainsbury's feel like your living room."

tiny_jackal

chrisw, I think I probably didn't explain my situation properly! I don't hate the property, in fact -- give me a free hand and I would make almost my ideal home out of it. After more than a decade of renting, and with the ratio of my earnings vs house prices never so favourable before, I really think it's time to buy.

It's just that I am a foreigner, and where I come from there's no such concept as leasehold. You buy a house -- it's yours to keep and do whatever pleases you with it, short of requiring planning permission from the council. You buy a flat -- it's commonhold, but again, what goes inside your four walls concerns you and you only. None of this malarkey of leasehold extensions, permission to alter fixtures and so on. I love Britain but the housing situation here is dire. I thought I was out of the worse miseries by buying, but I am discovering that, unless you're stupidly rich, it's just a moderate improvement on the servitude of being a tenant.

The property I am buying has much going for it, unfortunately it was set up on the cheap. It's my intention to do my best to smarten it up, but one has to be realistic: that's the best I can afford right now, in the area I want to live in. I hope that, if not the carpet, at least the cheap, nasty mismatched radiators can go. Or the 80s melamine built-in shelving. Or the mouldy bathroom. Or...