Neighbours showering at 1am - what can I do?

lookstraightahead

3 unis - are you in Birmingham op?

MoonChild91

MovingForwards said:

Small consolation is you rent and don't need to worry about selling.

Rearrange the bedroom furniture, even if the room feels smaller and things are placed in odd locations.

Bang on the door when the person is slamming around, tell them to keep it down.

Keep a noise diary and contact the council.

3 months will soon fly and then you will hopefully be in your next rental. Don't look at areas where there's student's, it may be convenient for work, maybe the next one's won't be as bad, but do you think it's worth the risk? Although there's a risk any neighbour, owned or rented, will do exactly the same or worse.

Believe me, I would never live in a student area again and didn't choose to when I did move in here. I'm not that stupid! In the last 2 years the area has shifted dramatically from being a good mix of families, young professionals, and students, to now being over 75% HMO student properties and has just declined so much. 

Would a council respond to noise like this? Many people have suggested that this is just standard living noise, but I'm not sure screaming down the stairs and slamming about at 2am is normal behaviour. I'm also not sure if the shower would count as excessively noisy, even though it seems to make a good deal more noise than I would have thought normal and is loud enough to keep someone awake. 

MoonChild91

ic said:

Earplugs.  You can get ones that fit within your ear so that you can still lie on your side if that's how you sleep.  They'll take a few nights to get used to, but they can make a massive difference.  I was on holiday in NYC and there was a building site across the road, that fired up every day at 6 am - earplugs solved it for me.

Otherwise switch rooms so you're adjoining another room - however you might find you're just having to contend with other nocturnal noises instead.

I can't switch rooms as there are no spare bedrooms, and cannot wear earplugs on doctor's orders as mentioned in the OP. I had previously been sleeping in them nearly every night to contend with the noise of the neighbours and streets, but using them so much has damaged the skin in my ear canal and I'm now dealing with a chronic infection which is taking months to treat. If it was a one off event I may risk using them, but I can't use them on a regular basis to deal with this noise. 

MoonChild91

lookstraightahead said:

3 unis - are you in Birmingham op?

I'm more northerly but good guess!

MovingForwards

All you can do is live sufficiently far away from any uni so the students think it's too far for them to go each day.

Screaming at each other would get the council's attention as it's antisocial. Problem is the delays getting everything through the system, possibly repeatedly, before anything is done. The students will probably be gone by then.

Are you in Scotland or England / Wales?

ic

MoonChild91 said:

ic said:

Earplugs.  You can get ones that fit within your ear so that you can still lie on your side if that's how you sleep.  They'll take a few nights to get used to, but they can make a massive difference.  I was on holiday in NYC and there was a building site across the road, that fired up every day at 6 am - earplugs solved it for me.

Otherwise switch rooms so you're adjoining another room - however you might find you're just having to contend with other nocturnal noises instead.

I can't switch rooms as there are no spare bedrooms, and cannot wear earplugs on doctor's orders as mentioned in the OP. I had previously been sleeping in them nearly every night to contend with the noise of the neighbours and streets, but using them so much has damaged the skin in my ear canal and I'm now dealing with a chronic infection which is taking months to treat. If it was a one off event I may risk using them, but I can't use them on a regular basis to deal with this noise. 

In that case play white noise - the sound of wind, crashing waves, etc, something that you can sleep through that helps to mask the noise from them.

Otherwise I'm with the others and the option is you must move, and ideally to a detached house.  You can't ask people not to wash, irrespective of time.  If you live in an attached house, you will have to deal with the noise of neighbours, it's just part and parcel of it.

MoonChild91

MovingForwards said:

All you can do is live sufficiently far away from any uni so the students think it's too far for them to go each day.

Screaming at each other would get the council's attention as it's antisocial. Problem is the delays getting everything through the system, possibly repeatedly, before anything is done. The students will probably be gone by then.

Are you in Scotland or England / Wales?

I'm in England! Our council is usually good with things like environmental health complaints, out of hours noise etc, but I've never had to complain about sustained noise before. 

SallyDucati

MoonChild91 said:

lookstraightahead said:

3 unis - are you in Birmingham op?

I'm more northerly but good guess!

My vote goes to Manchester!  

OP - if there is only one gobby one try talking to the others, my may at least stop shouting up and down the stairs with her at 2am.

MovingForwards

There should be a link on your council website about noise complaints.

chasingfreedom

I don't think you can stop people from showering in their own homes even if the time they are doing it seems to be odd to you. My stepdaughters are uni students and definitely are nocturnal, especially with the lockdown and everything now being online. I can imagine showering at 1am wouldn't be seen by them as being odd.

I wonder if they realise their bathroom is right next door to your bedroom? I know you've spoken to them about noise from parties but maybe they genuinely don't realise that you can hear them so clearly from next door? I definitely would go and have a friendly chat and say look i appreciate your lifestyle is different to mine but my bed is right next door to your shower cubicle etc etc. In my experience most uni students aren't purposefully trying to disruptive they are just very much in their own little bubbles and not always thinking about other people. (There are of course always exceptions to the rule who may not care)