Noisy student neighbours...Should I buy soon etc - urgent advice please

HighContrast

Not too sure where this belongs as it covers many different things, but anyway this is both a request for practical advice and perhaps suggestions about life choices too! BTW It's a long read!

So...I live very close a big university in a midlands city (a former polytechnic not an established one) and being a former poly its gotten bigger and bigger and basically taken over the city in the last 20-25 years, a familiar story im sure and similarly it has  completely changed the makeup of the residential steets.

Being in such an area as you can imagine is a constant nightmare, every term is noisy with anti social behaviour

Now I’m an adult living with my mum...this living situation is obviously not ideal , it's a long story but it's basically down to some poor life decisions, plus simply not seeing “any” value in the housing market, especially in the last few years. Additionally the set up/arrangement worked for me (i.e. have no real issue with it).

Anyway the house is a terrace, I’m surrounded basically on most sides, the front and the back by rental properties mostly taken up by students. Now next door house on one side is a bunch of working girls, now they can occasionally be noisy but generally ok.

The problem is the other next door house which we share all adjacent walls with, the stupid landlord decided to make it open with wooden floors and bare wall so you hear everything! Even normal conversations.

My old lovely neighbours (a professional couple) from that house moved out in about May this year and it basically caused me so much stress knowing I’d lost these lovely neighbours and not knowing who was going to replace them...that it almost made me quite ill 

I bumped into the landlord (well his proxy), he said it was going to be students moving in...can you imagine my horror? 

 

Anyway obviously medium term I want to be out of here one way or the other, but I also have to take into consideration my mum who I obviously can’t leave here either, So I need your advice and tips please,

The obvious answers is "just move dammit!" Yes...I know, however there a few issues:

1)      My mum does not want to sell the property for sentimental reasons so she would probably want to rent it out. Her house, her choice. However this is not a quick thing either (or is it?)

 2)      I can't buy just yet as a) lost my job due to corona right at the beginning of pandemic and b) I have investments(shares) that are tied up, but in the matter of a few months this might change and I could become cash rich, and possibly have enough to buy a modest place outright. But at the same time I could be selling up my potentially life changing investments too soon just so I can buy a house to get away!

3)      Personally I think it’s possibly the worst time to be buying, but staying here is more unbearable

4)      Another option is to rent somewhere else temporarily but again, right at this moment i cannot afford to atm - was made redundant right when corona kicked off...I’m getting by on income support atm. Plus paying 2 x sets of bills plus rent is not practical.

 

So most importantly I need some immediate practical advice in the meantime about the noise, how to get the landlord to sort out some sound deadening etc...Absolutely any advice greatly appreciated.

The students have moved in today and my nerves are pretty ragged already

In the past ive written to the university admin as well as their security team to complain about their students having crazy loud parties or just playing their music too loud. I've also got the local council involved although due to Covid they are restricted atm.

So far, for this term i've written a pre-emptive email to the university saying that im dreading their students moving in next door and if they could speak to letting agency to at least lay downs some carpet and wall coverings to deadening the sound at least.

So what are my short term options both immediately RE noise...and also what can i do RE the next few months? And leading up to Christmas "if" my investments come in, should I buy outright?

Also due to previous noisy neighbours i find it very hard to be civil...I tend to go in all guns blazing saying i'll report them left right and centre.

Also what is reasonable noise? Sadly due to all my years here I have a very low threshold.

68ComebackSpecial

Don't forget that because you have raised complaints your mother will now have to disclose these neighbour disputes to any potential buyer when she comes to sell her house.

Ashworks

I'm sorry this is happening, however it''s not the University's responsibility how their students behave in private rentals, and they won't contact the landlord for you. If you do actually end up with a problem you need to go to the landlord or letting agent. However why not try and talk to the students first? Not all students are selfish, they just might not realise how noisy they are. You might also get some quiet ones, you never know..

Jadek

I think you are being quick to tarnish these students. I currently live in a ground floor flat and the upstairs flat is a student property. We are on our fifth set of students since moving here. One lot were horrendous (lots of noise, left cigarette butts littered everywhere in the front garden, vomited out a window into our back garden/down our bedroom window), but every other lot have been fine. There is the occasional late night party but normally these have been on weekends and nothing too late. We make an effort to say hello and introduce ourselves to them when they move in and that always seems to make a difference. I even once discussed smoking with a new student after the bad ones, said I had no problem with the smoking but could they please tidy up their butts as the previous tenants hadn’t and they were very understanding and we never had a problem. If you’re rude to them from the outset you’ll only be setting yourself up for a self fulfilling prophecy. 

Also I would say that neighbours don’t have to be students to be awful or noisy. Our next door neighbours have blazing rows which go on for hours and they are a couple in their 40s... I find that much more disruptive! 

Comms69

HighContrast said:

Not too sure where this belongs as it covers many different things, but anyway this is both a request for practical advice and perhaps suggestions about life choices too! BTW It's a long read!

So...I live very close a big university in a midlands city (a former polytechnic not an established one) and being a former poly its gotten bigger and bigger and basically taken over the city in the last 20-25 years, a familiar story im sure and similarly it has  completely changed the makeup of the residential steets.

Being in such an area as you can imagine is a constant nightmare, every term is noisy with anti social behaviour

Now I’m an adult living with my mum...this living situation is obviously not ideal , it's a long story but it's basically down to some poor life decisions, plus simply not seeing “any” value in the housing market, especially in the last few years. Additionally the set up/arrangement worked for me (i.e. have no real issue with it).

Anyway the house is a terrace, I’m surrounded basically on most sides, the front and the back by rental properties mostly taken up by students. Now next door house on one side is a bunch of working girls, now they can occasionally be noisy but generally ok.

The problem is the other next door house which we share all adjacent walls with, the stupid landlord decided to make it open with wooden floors and bare wall so you hear everything! Even normal conversations.

My old lovely neighbours (a professional couple) from that house moved out in about May this year and it basically caused me so much stress knowing I’d lost these lovely neighbours and not knowing who was going to replace them...that it almost made me quite ill 

I bumped into the landlord (well his proxy), he said it was going to be students moving in...can you imagine my horror? 

 

Anyway obviously medium term I want to be out of here one way or the other, but I also have to take into consideration my mum who I obviously can’t leave here either, So I need your advice and tips please,

The obvious answers is "just move dammit!" Yes...I know, however there a few issues:

1)      My mum does not want to sell the property for sentimental reasons so she would probably want to rent it out. Her house, her choice. However this is not a quick thing either (or is it?) 

 2)      I can't buy just yet as a) lost my job due to corona right at the beginning of pandemic and b) I have investments(shares) that are tied up, but in the matter of a few months this might change and I could become cash rich, and possibly have enough to buy a modest place outright. But at the same time I could be selling up my potentially life changing investments too soon just so I can buy a house to get away!

3)      Personally I think it’s possibly the worst time to be buying, but staying here is more unbearable

4)      Another option is to rent somewhere else temporarily but again, right at this moment i cannot afford to atm - was made redundant right when corona kicked off...I’m getting by on income support atm. Plus paying 2 x sets of bills plus rent is not practical.

 

So most importantly I need some immediate practical advice in the meantime about the noise, how to get the landlord to sort out some sound deadening etc...Absolutely any advice greatly appreciated.

The students have moved in today and my nerves are pretty ragged already

In the past ive written to the university admin as well as their security team to complain about their students having crazy loud parties or just playing their music too loud. I've also got the local council involved although due to Covid they are restricted atm.

So far, for this term i've written a pre-emptive email to the university saying that im dreading their students moving in next door and if they could speak to letting agency to at least lay downs some carpet and wall coverings to deadening the sound at least.

So what are my short term options both immediately RE noise...and also what can i do RE the next few months? And leading up to Christmas "if" my investments come in, should I buy outright?

Also due to previous noisy neighbours i find it very hard to be civil...I tend to go in all guns blazing saying i'll report them left right and centre.

Also what is reasonable noise? Sadly due to all my years here I have a very low threshold.

Were they to post here, they'd be getting advice on reporting you for harassment. This is a you problem, and you are trying to make it everyone else's problem. 

The best thing you can do is move. 

Slithery

HighContrast said:

My mum does not want to sell the property for sentimental reasons so she would probably want to rent it out.

Having a sentimental connection with the property is one of the worst possible reasons to start a residential lettings business.

TBagpuss

Is the property just owned by your mum, or are you a jpint owner?

Assuming it is just hers, then if she doesn't want to sell, then your only options if you don't want to live there are  are renting or waiting until you can buy your own property. Does the noise bother your mum?

Short term, you could look into how you could cope better with the noise - there are some possibilities such as soundproofing within your property - you would need to get proper advice as to how effective these would be as it will depend to some extent on the structure of the property and how the sound is travelling. 
You may find that earplugs and/or white noise help at night (Speaking from experience having had noisy neighbours, I found white noise was very helpful, and for me, it worked best when the sound varied a bit,- I found a free app which let you pick 'oscillating' as an option , and for me recordings of waves on a beach were similar - a steady noise wasn't anything like as good for me, so it is worth trying different types of white  noise and see what helps you. If you can find earplugs which you find comfortable they can also be very helpful at night.)
Noise during the day is harder to shut out although you may find having noise you like , at a low level, helps - on a personal level, I found having classical music (no distracting words) or white noise worked fairly well for me - it didn't mean I didn't hear anything but it broke up the noise so I wasn't distracted by hearing what the neighbours were saying or watching on TV to the same extent.
If your mum doesn't want to sell then she could chose to rent the property out, but if her reasons for not selling are that she has a sentimental attachment to the property, would she feel comfortable with other people living there and making it their home? it might well need redecoration and other changes to be 'rent ready', especially if she chose to rent to students which might be the obvious choice if it's now in a student area. and of course as a landlord she would have a lot of legal responsibilities and a fair bit of financial risk .Also - if she doesn't sell, can she afford to live elsewhere? Rent is not guaranteed so she would need to have a 'cushion' of savings to cover her own rent during any void periods, and to cover upkeep / repairs on the house. 
Living with noisy neighbours is hard, but it doesn't sound as though your neighbours are necessarily anti-social, more that the properties are not very soundproof, which limits how much can be done. 
Maybe wait until the students move n, then pop round with some cake and introduce yourself, explain that they are welcome but that not everyone living locally is a student and that the houses are not as soundproof as they might be, and ask if they could bear this in mind and try to keep the noise down at night, in particular. Not all students are party animals , you may find they are nothing like as bad as you fear. 

Falafels

A lot of students are actually quite quiet and studious....

steve866

HighContrast said:

poor life decisions, plus simply not seeing “any” value in the housing market, especially in the last few years.........

3)      Personally I think it’s possibly the worst time to be buying, but staying here is more unbearable

I can understand why you think it is the worst time to be buying, but it sounds like you've always thought the timing was bad and potentially missed the boat and are hoping for them to come down again? It may well happen, but it might not. What shares do you have that might turn you into a cash buyer in a matter of months? Share the tips!!

BrownTrout

Sounds like coventry uni to me!
If students lived next to me id give them a chance,  if they were noisy id take action and soon put them back into line 

dimbo61

So how many students have or are about to move in ?
Is the property a HMO ?
Has the local council got an article 4 directive about limiting the number of rental properties in the area ?
Have you checked with the coucil or looked on its website.
Are you in a selective license area ?
Who owns the property ?
If you spend £3 with the land registry you can check and find out which company is the lender.