Valuation impact of noisy neighbour/ threatening behaviour

lesalanos

davilown said:

f.castle said:

davilown said:

If you’ve got laminate than I think this may be a case of you make noise, so I’ll make noise.

Being a conscientious neighbour, I’d put carpet down with a decent underlay. That way, as mentioned before, you’ll reduce their noise as well.

Also, it may be worth rechecking any lease you may have for that hard flooring clause.

How about you explain to the flat below you’re going to do this, and could they possibly reduce their noise output?

Sorry just to refocus again, do I need disclose any police involvement? 

He’s approached this completely the wrong way in a hostile and threatening manner, I do not feel comfortable now speaking to him. 

Will I need to disclose reporting him to the police?
will this impact the value of my home?
I’ve just informed the landlord as have a few other residents about his antisocial behaviour. Is it in the hands of his landlord to simply not renew his contract?

It’s not about me doing anything different, I was actually sitting down when he came to my door and I already where padded/foam footwear. So please focus back to the question not what I could do.

thanks

There’s no need to refocus as the issue now includes the noise you make.

Yes you’ll have to declare and, potentially, it may cost you in sale price.

And the noise which the OP will be making with laminate flooring will be contributing to the anger and attitude of the person downstairs 

JuanBallOfWimbledon

Many years ago, I rented a top floor flat which had wooden flooring. After about 6 months, the neighbour below started to complain about me ‘stomping’ around. This was shortly after id asked her to stop parking in my allocated spot, so I assumed she was just trying to get back at me. Also because she’d not mentioned it in 6 months, I never wear shoes indoors, nor do I allow guests to, and was hardly a big guy at the time. Some months later I had some friends round and left them at the flat while I nipped to the shop. On my way back she was struggling to get her new TV upstairs (TV’s were much bigger back in the day - no flat screens then!) so I gave her a hand and decided to help her unpack it and get it into position. I was honestly so shocked by how much noise my 2 friends were making just walking across the floor in their bare feet! I went out the next day and bought big rugs. I didn’t have to, but it was clearly every bit as disruptive as she said it was.

Anyway, I know you only want to talk about the value aspect, and I’m sorry for the lack of ‘focus’. However, this *could* read a little like ‘I should be able to do what I want in my flat and not consider my neighbour, but if he’s being inconsiderate I’ll email his landlord and hope his lease isn’t renewed’. That may be why people are mentioning the flooring issue so much. 

Either way, his approach is totally unacceptable and I think you have to report it to the police for your safety. Feeling secure in your home is more important than potentially limiting your pool of buyers should you wish to sell. Good luck with it all. 

[Deleted User]

@f.castle, you already have to declare a neighbour dispute so regardless of price that would put me right off buying your leasehold. I imagine it will put many others off too which means less interest in your property and therefore less money. 

The TA6 form requires you to give details of any disputes and complaints so I’d say the addition of a police complaint is going to reduce your pool of buyers even further. 

Gavin83

f.castle said:

davilown said:

If you’ve got laminate than I think this may be a case of you make noise, so I’ll make noise.

Being a conscientious neighbour, I’d put carpet down with a decent underlay. That way, as mentioned before, you’ll reduce their noise as well.

Also, it may be worth rechecking any lease you may have for that hard flooring clause.

How about you explain to the flat below you’re going to do this, and could they possibly reduce their noise output?

Sorry just to refocus again, do I need disclose any police involvement? 

He’s approached this completely the wrong way in a hostile and threatening manner, I do not feel comfortable now speaking to him. 

Will I need to disclose reporting him to the police?
will this impact the value of my home?
I’ve just informed the landlord as have a few other residents about his antisocial behaviour. Is it in the hands of his landlord to simply not renew his contract?

It’s not about me doing anything different, I was actually sitting down when he came to my door and I already where padded/foam footwear. So please focus back to the question not what I could do.

thanks

Yes you’ll need to disclose this and yes this is extremely likely to reduce the value of your property.

However you seem completely unwilling to consider your contribution to this problem and the fact you’re being an inconsiderate neighbour yourself. It doesn’t matter how quiet you think you are laminate flooring transmits every single sound. For this season the vast majority of flat leases prohibit the use of laminate and I’d be surprised if yours didn’t as well. Did you check?

You went about this the wrong way. There isn’t really much you can do to correct the issues when you come to sell but you could reduce the problem at hand if you so wished.

saajan_12

f.castle said:

I’m allowed to walk about in my home, and I’m very conscious of any noise I make as I’ve experienced this before so just believe me when I say it isn’t me.

Just to refocus, my question relates to the person threatening me and any impact on my flat price- would reporting this to the police impact the value? The above indicates it may put someone off

You're allowed to walk on an appropriate floor covering. Laminate may be prohibited by your lease, as it can cause excessive noise, so it may indeed be you.

If you're concerned about impacting the value, then your noise is relevant. If they're that angry about it then they're likely also reporting, which already constitutes a dispute. A resolved dispute because you've put down carpet is likely to have a different (less) impact vs an ongoing one. 

If people are put off by this dispute, then there's many ways that reduces the value you actually get
- smaller pool of buyers; max offer from a smaller pool is <= max offer from a larger pool of buyers
- a buyer may pull out once they find out, so you go back to market, repeat and now the property has been on for a while, so less desirable
- buyers that are still interested want a better deal to 'make up for it'

So yes, there is a strong link from your noise / choice of flooring > ongoing dispute > buyers put off > lower sale price

Murphybear

Brie said:

and as an additional benefit if you put carpets down it will muffle some of the noise he makes as well.  

(my other half used to live in the flat below a stomper.  but it wasn't just stomp stomp stomp across the floor, it was stomp stomp pause stSTSTstomp STOMP etc.  when confronted it turn out the one upstairs was learning how to juggle)

We lived below someone who practised tap dancing.  Fortunately when we explained how loud it was she apologised and found somewhere else to practise. 

Greymug

What constitutes a formal noise complaint? What makes it formal?

For example, when I still owned my flat in 2 different occasions I sent an email to my council to complain about my neighbours making noise late at night. Although that's how far it went; since Edinburgh council are a bunch of useless lazy bums I never got a reply. I take it this didn't constitute a formal complaint, am I right?

[Deleted User]

Greymug said:

What constitutes a formal noise complaint? What makes it formal?

For example, when I still owned my flat in 2 different occasions I sent an email to my council to complain about my neighbours making noise late at night. Although that's how far it went; since Edinburgh council are a bunch of useless lazy bums I never got a reply. I take it this didn't constitute a formal complaint, am I right?

Going round and chapping on the door to ask your neighbour to turn the music down would be informal.  Making a complaint to the council or police would be formal.

As your flat was in Edinburgh you wouldn't have had to fill in a TA6 form declaring it although the missives usually have a clause along the lines of, "There are no current disputes with neighbouring proprietors or occupiers or any other parties relating to access, title or common property."

Greymug

Lover_of_Lycra said:

Greymug said:

What constitutes a formal noise complaint? What makes it formal?

For example, when I still owned my flat in 2 different occasions I sent an email to my council to complain about my neighbours making noise late at night. Although that's how far it went; since Edinburgh council are a bunch of useless lazy bums I never got a reply. I take it this didn't constitute a formal complaint, am I right?

Going round and chapping on the door to ask your neighbour to turn the music down would be informal.  Making a complaint to the council or police would be formal.

As your flat was in Edinburgh you wouldn't have had to fill in a TA6 form declaring it although the missives usually have a clause along the lines of, "There are no current disputes with neighbouring proprietors or occupiers or any other parties relating to access, title or common property."

Thanks.

So, since there wasn't any dispute at the time I sold the flat (I only bashed at their door a couple of times and they stopped the noise) and the since Edinburgh clowncil never bothered replying to my email, I assume nothing ever got to the stage of being "formal".

Cheers, for a sec I thought I should have disclosed something which I didn't.