Noisy Neighbours

KittyCatticus

Hi I was wondering if anyone could help here.


To keep the issue brief. We have an ongoing complaint about our noisy neighbours. Although there is more to it, I would like advice on one specific issue.


The man who lives next door wakes up at around 4am with his alarm going off. He uses his mobile phone as an alarm clock. And we can hear this buzzing so loud that it disturbs us and wakes us up. This is probably due to their laminate flooring allowing the noise to travel and poor insulation.


I'm not saying he doesn't have a right to get up for work in the morning. I am however saying that I need to be able to sleep without being woken up at 4am. And that surely he could find a way to wake up without waking the neighbours (turn off the vibration, put the phone on a rubber mat etc)


I've tried white noise through speakers, earbuds and even used ear plugs. I just want to be able to sleep like a normal person in the house I've lived in for over 25 years.


What if anything can be done in this situation? We rent from the Council, theirs is a private let.

onwards&upwards

Have you tried asking him to turn off the vibration?

KittyCatticus

Hi Onwards,

Yes, originally we just thought it would be a case of having a friendly word but they aren't willing to do anything to try to minimise the noise.


Thanks for your reply.

Slithery

Short of asking him I'm not sure if there is anything you can do.

I highly doubt that a vibration from next doors mobile phone for a few minutes each morning will break any regulations.

Cakeguts

Not much you can do about it if the walls are this thin.

DrSpendLittle

Its not clear from what you say where the noise is coming from - ceiling, adjacent room, floor... but we have friends who had that problem and they basically built a new wall (plaster board with some insulation between) in front of the adjoining wall to solve the problem. It must only have been the width of insulation and you couldn't tell - they put new skirts in and everything. It was a really tidy job. I'm not sure you'd be able to do it with renting but if the council don't do regular checks, you might be able to 'fiddle' it.

jonnygee2

You could contact the council about the laminate flooring. If this is a block of flats, there's a high chance it is in breach of the lease.

KittyCatticus

DrSpendLittle wrote: »

Its not clear from what you say where the noise is coming from - ceiling, adjacent room, floor... but we have friends who had that problem and they basically built a new wall (plaster board with some insulation between) in front of the adjoining wall to solve the problem. It must only have been the width of insulation and you couldn't tell - they put new skirts in and everything. It was a really tidy job. I'm not sure you'd be able to do it with renting but if the council don't do regular checks, you might be able to 'fiddle' it.

I've looked into this but I'm not sure if it would definitely work. It's a semi detatched house and the noise is coming from the bedroom directly through the wall from mine, but it can also be heard in the living room (directly below my room) it seems as if his bedside table is up against the shared wall (not that I've ever tried to dictate where he puts that lol.)

It's possible we could get permission to put up the insulation but it's whether it would work well enough.

Thanks

KittyCatticus

jonnygee2 wrote: »

You could contact the council about the laminate flooring. If this is a block of flats, there's a high chance it is in breach of the lease.

It's a semi detatched and their agreement doesn't seem to state flooring type restrictions. Which is unfortunate as it's the cause of many noise issues. The alarm in the morning is just the worst of the worst at the moment in terms of disruption to our peace.

jonnygee2

It's a semi detatched and their agreement doesn't seem to state flooring type restrictions.

I'm guessing it does say all works need to be approved though, and laminate flooring requests are often denied due to noise. Might still be worth a speculative 'are these allowed' email?

Cakeguts

jonnygee2 wrote: »

I'm guessing it does say all works need to be approved though, and laminate flooring requests are often denied due to noise. Might still be worth a speculative 'are these allowed' email?

I read this property as being a semi detached house that is ex council but privately owned and let. In which case they would normally not have what you can put on the floor specified as this tends to only apply to flats.


It sounds to me as if there is just a very thin party wall between each property that allows sound to travel through. The only thing that anyone can do is to insulate that wall against sound but no one can force the next door owner to do this..