A tenant who has issues with their neighbour - please help

Camel310

For context, me and my boyfriend have started renting a garden flat in London and signed a year tenancy agreement. We were very excited to move in as it’s a nice space with a garden and our first real home together.

Since moving in, we’ve had constant noise issues with the upstairs neighbour. He doesn’t work and from a month of living there, his pattern is watching tv all day and evening from 8am to 10:30pm. We can hear the sound of the tv in both the lounge and the bedroom the the point we can’t drown it out with our own tv. I work from home and the noise distracts me so I have to wear earplugs. I feel anxious all the time and have a feeling of dread when it starts and it’s a constant background noise we have to endure.

I decided to be proactive and we went over and introduced ourselves to the neighbour and bought him over some wine and got his details. As the noise persisted, we called him and politely asked if he could turn his tv down as it drowns out ours and we can hear it all over the flat. He said he would turn it down a bit but unfortunately that hasn’t been the case. We messaged him again politely saying we can still hear the noise and is there anything he could do, he went on to tell me that we clearly aren’t used to communal living (we have our flat and don’t share with him?) and the tv was a reasonable sound.

As there was no resolution, we decided to escalate the issue to the landlord (they own both flats) and factually let them know what has gone on and how it impacts us. They responded and were proactive and spoke with him and asked him to turn the tv noise down and we he have in writing that he agreed to do so.

At 7pm last night he started to play blaring music to the extend it was so loud you could hear it over the flat and was on full maximum, what was weirder was that it was the same song over and over again. The tenant had never played music loudly before so I fear he is doing it for a reaction from us. He played this for a few hours and continued to have his tv on loudly.

I messaged the letting agent today explaining what happened and that it gave me anxiety attack and it is just making us uncomfortable in our home and could we speak with the landlord. The landlord responded he isn’t offending anyone by playing loud music and why would I have an anxiety attack. 

I’m at a loss of what to do. I feel distressed and anxious all the time as does my partner and we have no peace and enjoyment. Any advice would really be appreciate

custardly

Realistically, there isn't really anything you can do about the noise. Being blunt, wait out your tenancy and find somewhere else to live.

If I were you I would work from an office / find one of those co-working offices for the time being.

anselld

A tenant who has an issue with a neighbour is the same as any other person who has an issue with a neighbour, with the one advantage that they can move after the fixed term.  There is nothing magical a Landlord can do even if they do own both properties.

Significant anti-social noise can be reported via environmental health at the Council but to be honest the TV would be classed as normal living and the hours dont seem unreasonable.

Some people find that a white noise generator can help or perhaps noise cancelling headphones.

pinkshoes

You could start by measuring the volume using a free decibel meter app on your phone.

If the noise level is beyond an acceptable reading then I guess you could keep a noise diary or contact Environmental Health. 

Unfortunately living in a flat means dealing with other people's noise. 

You are clearly living beneath a miserable g*t who is probably lonely so likes annoying other people to get attention. Just ignore him. Play your own nice calming music, go and work in the library, invest in some decent noise cancelling headphones.

When I need to work, I play music through my over ear headphones so I can't hear the kids!

Find somewhere else to live when the 12 months is up and let any future tenants know how annoying the upstairs neighbours our is.

theartfullodger

Try and negotiate with landlord to be released from tenancy early.

He's bound to know of the problems, and by not warning you has arguably misled you.

How long had the place been empty before you moved in, please?

Could be worse, you could have bought the flat before finding out about the charming neighbour.

deannagone

You could see if environmental health will help (but will have to take logs, keep records of duration etc and they will probably want to take noise measurements - and its not a quick process.  Or if the noise is really loud call then and see if they will send someone out that evening - but your neighbour might stop meanwhile.

I have worn decent noiseless ear phones to cover external noise (playing TV programmes, audio books etc).  Might not work completely but will help deaden the sound somewhat.  I don't mean this in a trite way.., I often find if I try and not think about loud noise, not allow myself to get stressed, with headphones blocking the worst of it, works better than anything.

Alternatively you could ask the LL if there is a way you could surrender the tenancy early.  This might involve paying their tenant finder fees.  You could also record the sounds you hear and send them to the LL.  He doesn't know how loud the sound is and might be more helpful if he did.  No guarantees either way.

I know none of this is 'fair' but its the options available.

andy444

Unfortunately there's no silver bullet to sort out your problem.

One of the advantages of renting is that it's a lot easier to move if you don't like where you live. If you only have a short minimum term tenancy, then you'll likely be best to wait it out and move when you can. 

canaldumidi

Options are

* convince landlord to evict neighbour. Could potentially use S8 (G14). Difficult to convince LL. Difficult for LL to convince court. Takes time.

* Persuade LL to agree an Early Surrender of your tenancy, and move elsewhere

* contact council and report excessive noise. eg see here.

* find a way to 'get back at' neighbour in a way he won't like so that he reduces noise in order to get you to reduce..... whatever.

* find a way to live with the noise till your tenancy fixed term expires

SusieT

Unlikely as you would have mentioned it if there was, but is there a break clause in the contract? If so you may be able to get out in a few months, and having an end date may help you relax. Otherwise you will need to follow the advice above to try and sort the problem or negotiate an early surrender.

Bendy_House

Hi Camel.

It's hard for us to know just how bad this noise is, how much of it is 'normal' noise pollution between flats that you just wouldn't get between detached houses, for example, or whether it's at a truly unacceptable - anti-social - level. But, we have to answer based on how you describe the situation. And it does sound as tho' this person is not interested in being considerate.

So, what to do? Start everything - a chronological log of the sounds, the times, the durations. Try and give a descriptive indication of how loud it is - can you recognise the programs that are on, for example? Can you - gulp - even make out what the TV-produced conversations are?

And, take decibel readings as mentioned above. Add these to your logs.

Also make some recordings in the worst affected rooms - set up your phone to video record you and your boyfriend having a normal-level conversation, so this acts as a parallel to the background noise of the TV and music.

Oh, the music... Definitely log all of this, and the titles of the songs - and how often they are repeated. This sounds as tho' it could be heading down the route of statutory harassment. There was a classic case a good few years ago of a flat dweller playing the theme to Titanic (I think it was), literally ad nauseam, to the intentional distress of their neighbour. The neighbour won their case against the tasteless person, tho', of course, this is very rare.

And then go through your AST and see what's written under 'Tenant's Covenants' (ie, the things you need to adhere to) which could include something like, "Use of premises: 5.32 Not to allow anything to be done on the Premises which is or may become a nuisance or cause a disturbance to the Landlord or owners or occupiers of any adjoining property."

If your AST has this, then almost certainly so will your neighb.

Contact your LL again, attach some recordings and a log of the noises being made, and bring to their attention this clause. Ask that they either (a) exert some leverage (and the threat of eviction is quite a leverage in these days of rental shortfalls and high costs) in order to make them more considerate, or (b) allow you an early surrender to your tenancy (and this might focus their minds on what sort of tenant they'd rather have in their properties).

Once you have accumulated enough logs and recordings, do involve Environmental Health since this should help make you case to the LL, even tho' the EH process itself might be drawn out.

Be prepared for your db readings and/or EH to say that the noise levels are within acceptable limits and part of 'flat life', in which case I'm afraid you may just have to bite t'bullet until you can move.

Please let us know how you get on - you certainly have my sympathy.

Bendy_House

andy444 said:

Unfortunately there's no silver bullet to sort out your problem.

One of the advantages of renting is that it's a lot easier to move if you don't like where you live. If you only have a short minimum term tenancy, then you'll likely be best to wait it out and move when you can. 

There could be - if the LL could be bothered.