What can home owners do about noisy tenants?

littlemissbliss

Hello - 

I have finally purchased my first property and now on the property ladder.

I moved in only a few days ago and already have neighbour problems.

There are tenants upstairs, with a young son running and jumping around and it’s so loud! Is there anything home buyers can do about this? (I know tenants have their own rights and wondered what rights home buyers have). This is not saying home buyers are more entitled, but for those who have spent such a lot of money, I would hope there was something they could do.

Normally I would be pretty relaxed about it, but everything is vibrating and it’s constant all day. The only quiet time I have is when they are at school. It’s really loud! It’s just a case of the parents not allowing their kid to jump around on the floor, I sometimes think they are going to come through the floor!

Thanks 

BungalowBel

It's more than likely just 'family noise'.  

I assume you are in a flat?  Many flats have this problem.

user1977

Why are you going on about you being an owner and them being tenants? It doesn't mean you have any more (or fewer) rights. It's a noise nuisance being caused by your neighbours - concentrate on that rather than whatever type of tenure you each have.

AskAsk

have you tried to speaking to them?  if you let them know about the noise, they may try to do something, but children are difficult to stop them making noise.

if they don't do anything once you have spoken to them, you could try to contact their landlord and raise the issue.  in the seller information form, there is a section where the seller needs to state if he is aware of issues that could cause disputes and so you could try to look at this as he would have lied that there is no potential of dispute when this problem was evident.

oldernonethewiser

littlemissbliss said:

Hello - 

I have finally purchased my first property and now on the property ladder.

I moved in only a few days ago and already have neighbour problems.

There are tenants upstairs, with a young son running and jumping around and it’s so loud! Is there anything home buyers can do about this? I’d say it would be pretty unfair tenants making life miserable for those who just taken out a mortgage.

Normally I would be pretty relaxed about it, but everything is vibrating and it’s constant all day. The only quiet I have is when they are at school. It’s really loud! It’s just a case of the parents not allowing their kid to jump around on the floor, I sometimes think they are going to come through the floor!

Thanks 

Would it be okay if they were homeowners making a noise then?

As suggested first step is to speak to them.

If everything is vibrating you might want to get a structural engineer involved.

Murphybear

These sort of comments make me cross . You make it sound as if tenants and homeowners are a separate species.  They are not.

Having worked in the lettings field for many years I’ve worked with a few thousand tenants and we only ever had one noisy lot.  The worst neighbours I ever had were homeowners.  They can be just as noisy as tenants.

rant over 

Mr.Generous

Wonder if they have laminate flooring - carpets are much quieter, many flats have a no laminate clause in the lease for this reason.

Newbie_John

Buy sound canceling headphones? Fix loose furniture that's vibrating? Move things around - put a sofa in the quietest part of the flat?

Now it's them with a child, in 10 years it could be you, there could be someone with a dog, new TV, praying or simply learning playing on instrument..
This is just normal life in flats - you need to get used to it really. Kids do follow patterns, sleep 21:00-7:00, then school 8:00-15:00.. just need to adapt.
At some point the kid will grow up and stop, you may also consider moving.

Also have a chat with the neighbour, maybe they let their son do certain things because they are unaware it affects others? 

Schwarzwald

The OP’s post comes across pretty entitled.
it doesnt matter that you own and they rent.
it doesnt matter that you took out a mortgage.

if you wanted to not run into situations like this, you should have not bought a flat with someone else living above, this is a v standard annoyance and therefore not surprising.

Either exercise patience and consideration, speak with them and make them aware, investigate if their flooring is carpeted or hardflooring, find ways to cope with it when the noise becomes to much (noise cancelling headset), last resort: formal complaints to their landlord.

propertyrental

* what material is the floor upstairs? Wood? Laminate? Carpet? Rugs? ......

* What does your (and almost certainly the upstairs) lease say about flooring? Many buildings have rules about this.

* what did they say when you approached them?

* As for the tenant/home-owner comment I agree with others; it's irrelevant. Some tenants are quite' some home-owners are noisy.

* the problem is you've bought (ie commited to) a flat with another flat above. If you can't handle flat-living, maybe a detached house would be a better choice (yes, yes, I know - big price difference!)

littlemissbliss

I am not sure why the negative comments. It was a question about a serious problem, which I wasn’t aware of when I bought the flat. It’s quite upsetting actually. I live down south where my work is, try buying a house. 

The noise is a bit more then family noise, it’s horrendous to the point of driving me mad, it’s constant. It sounds like the kids are playing and jumping off the sofa or bed onto the floor and sounds like the ceiling is caving in. No one should have to deal with that, whether you rent or buy. I rented for 20 years in a converted house, so I know what it’s like. Normal movements is fine, but this is bad. This is a persons whole body weight. 

I don’t feel more entitled, but saving for a deposit is hard and takes years, and when your taking out a mortgage the last thing you want to feel is that you can’t spend time in your new home because of the noise being so bad! I appreciate the headphone suggestions, but I can’t wear headphones all day every day. 

I have penned a very kind message in a card, and will see if that helps. If not I will have to take it further. At the moment I don’t know who their letting agency is, I am hoping my estate agents can help me with that.