Recently purchased flat. Noisey neighbours

Richdenman

Penelop26 wrote: »

Corell. I'm the same as you, I have tinnitus too so ear plugs aren't a solution for me. I definitely need to leave. Everyone should be able to come home and relax in their own home or at least have neighbours that are considerate and willing to work together so that everyone can have a nice life

Part of the problem is that at night a lot of people go to bed so background noise such as road and animals aren’t there. This makes the noise you do hear seem a lot louder relative to the background noise, that your brain switches off to.

Have a look for a white noise machine. You can get them for about £15 from amazon. This creates a low level background noise that masks the noises from your neighbour. If you suffer with tinnitus, this may also help with that too. For the sake of £15 I would give it a try

ginger_chocolate

Part and parcel of living in a flat I'm afraid. It is reasonable to expect neighbours not to play loud music, or do DIY in the middle of the night, but they can hardly arrange to float from room to room or never drop anything. Just get some earplugs.

Okrib

I think some people are more sensitive than others to noise, or to perceived nuisance.

We live in a conversion of 3 flats. We constantly hear people from the other 2 flats thundering down the stairs and in the communal hallway as they leave the building. But it's just part of living in a conversion. Nothing that can be done, we could sound proof the stairs, but it's a big cost.

Whereas the girl in the middle floor flat complains about the people above her almost constantly. She seems to have a sense of entitlement, the reality is we could complain about noise from her, but I think once you start complaining you get in the mindset to complain more and to see things as worse than they probably actually are. We get odd bits of banging but no point complaining and letting it upset us. If it got really bad we'd just put in sound proofing.

Summary - your attitude towards it can make a big difference. Some people have unrealistic expectations.

pimento

Smoothies and washing machine at midnight? In a flat she knows has bad soundproofing?

That's not reasonable.

Norman_Castle

Okrib wrote: »

I think some people are more sensitive than others to noise, or to perceived nuisance.

We live in a conversion of 3 flats. We constantly hear people from the other 2 flats thundering down the stairs and in the communal hallway as they leave the building. But it's just part of living in a conversion. Nothing that can be done, we could sound proof the stairs, but it's a big cost.

Whereas the girl in the middle floor flat complains about the people above her almost constantly. She seems to have a sense of entitlement, the reality is we could complain about noise from her, but I think once you start complaining you get in the mindset to complain more and to see things as worse than they probably actually are.We get odd bits of banging but no point complaining and letting it upset us. If it got really bad we'd just put in sound proofing.

Summary - your attitude towards it can make a big difference. Some people have unrealistic expectations.

Have you considered that the "entitled" people with "unrealistic expectations" are being forced to tolerate far more than the odd bit of banging which is why they are complaining.

There are people who are unrealistic about minor noise from neighbours but from experience there are far more people who are unreasonably noisy and selfishly dismiss their behaviour as normal.

DoaM

Murphybear wrote: »

We lived in a converted house and the girl who lived above us used to practice lap dancing :eek:

Edited to show what I thought I first read. :rotfl:

robatwork

Penelop26 wrote: »

The noise is constant. She makes smoothies at midnight which sounds like someone is drilling, her dogs yap constantly, she has her washing machine on late at night, often spinning around midnight or 1/2am. All of her floorboards creak loudly, I could go on. Given the building has clearly not been soundproofed surely common curtousey would be expected. E.g. maintain the floors, don't use machinery at night etc but the lady doesn't care and has literally communicated so. She's also said her dogs don't bark yet I've recorded them barking for three hours when she was out. I end up having to leave my property because it's so annoying.

This is horrible for you and you have my sympathies. However this is part and parcel of flat dwelling. Pimento has said that making smoothies and washing at midnight isn't reasonable. I think it is. She may be on a cheaper electricity rate during the night.

Getting up for a pee during the night even 20 times isn't unreasonable and I can't quite believe you implied that it is.

The dog barking is unreasonable however, and you may need to go down the road of a formal complaint to the council, but at that point you would need to declare it when you sell your flat.

Put yourself in the neighbour's position. You are going about your normal life, you don't hear your annoying little dogs yapping as they only do it when you're out, and you make yourself a drink before going to bed. You have a weak bladder and need to go for a wee several times at night, which you hate doing as it ruins your sleep.

Then the downstairs new neighbour has moaned at least twice about you doing your washing, making drinks, and walking around your own flat. The cheek!

Norman_Castle

robatwork wrote: »

this is part and parcel of flat dwelling. Pimento has said that making smoothies and washing at midnight isn't reasonable. I think it is.

I suspect your opinion would change if you were woken repeatedly at 2am by a washing machine spinning. In flats you will hear the neigbours but some people are unreasonably noisy and appear incapable of doing anything quietly and then refuse to adjust their behaviour in any way or even accept they are noisy.

Living in flats is a compromise and if the only noise was the neighbour using the toilet at night which is unavoidable its unlikely the op would be complaining but combined with all of the other noise and a refusal to show any courtesy to their neighbour and do what they can to help suggests the complaint is justified.

Then the downstairs new neighbour has moaned at least twice about you doing your washing, making drinks, and walking around your own flat. The cheek!

The new neighbour has explained your noise wakes them up repeatedly, night after night but you don't understand the problems you are causing or care.

Slithery

I thought that this was a money-saving site?

The most economical thing to do if you are on on dual-rate is to have all of your chargers/appliances on timers so that they run during the night. Personally I wouldn't have a problem with anyone who did this as that's what I've always done in the same situation.

Norman_Castle

Slithery wrote: »

I thought that this was a money-saving site?

The most economical thing to do if you are on on dual-rate is to have all of your chargers/appliances on timers so that they run during the night. Personally I wouldn't have a problem with anyone who did this as that's what I've always done in the same situation.

I bet you wouldn't buy a home knowing you would be repeatedly woken throughout the night in this way.

I suspect most people who defend noisy neighbours are viewing themselves as on the receiving end of the complaint or defending their own past or present behaviour. If you had been in the op's position you would understand the problem.

The op would save a lot of money by not having to sell their home and buy a new one.