leasehold - noise from neighbour

Leo2023

Good evening,

I live on a higher floor with neighbours downstairs insisting on running their TV with the balcony door open - forcing me to hear it. (I have my balcony door open to lower the temperature and get air in.)
I would appreciate views on the lease clause shown on the snip below. Am I correct thinking that it requires residents to stop any noise at any time when it annoys the neighbours, i.e. not only between 11 pm and 7 am?

Thanks!

elsien

If you need the doors open to let cool air in then why should your neighbour not wish to do the same, whether their TV is on or not?
I wouldn’t take kindly to someone telling me I had to turn my TV off after 11pm. 

FWIW think that clause would be hard to implement because it’s so vague. 

As an example, their TV could be at a perfectly normal level and you could be an extremely intolerant neighbour. 

So how is “annoyance” to be quantified? 

BarelySentientAI

Leo2023 said:

I would appreciate views on the lease clause shown on the snip below. Am I correct thinking that it requires residents to stop any noise at any time when it annoys the neighbours, i.e. not only between 11 pm and 7 am?

I guess technically it does.

Allowing you to open your windows at will whilst forcing others to be silent if they do so is unlikely to be its intent though. 

DullGreyGuy

These sorts of things come down to how much of a pain in the !!!!!! you are considered by the freeholder/ their agent. 

One of our neighbours makes weekly complaints to the freeholder and all leaseholders receive frequent letters about what you can use your balcony for, throwing things off balconies etc etc. Tell the freeholder that that person has 5 dogs despite the lease saying no pets allowed and the freeholder says you have to cover the cost of any investigation and enforcement action.

Leo2023

Thanks to BarelySentientAI for their views on the clause and to others re enforceability and their experience. As an aside, I do close the balcony door when watching TV or listening to music.

Bigphil1474

OP, The clause itself is clear that noise from your (or any other flat with the same clause) shouldn't be heard outside after 11pm, and shouldn't cause a nuisance to neighbours the rest of the time. I would take nuisance to be judged by the man on the Clapham omnibus.

It also basically reflects what the law says under the Environmental Protection Act, although the law doesn't specify a cut off time. If it causes a nuisance, it causes a nuisance. Council noise staff will assess the nuisance based on what a reasonable person would call a nuisance, not on what a sensitive person might accept or not.  

Southend_2

I read it as: between 11pm and 7.30am not to play sound so as to cause annoyance or so as can be heard outside of the building. So outside of these hours, using the TV with the balcony door open on a hot day would seem reasonable.

LinLui

So you are entitled to open your doors when  you want to let air in, but the neighbours aren't becuase they watch TV?  Unless they have it on very loud then I think it is highly unlikely that you will get any further than having really annoyed neighbours. If I open my windows or patio door people could hear my TV - and I definitely don't have it on loud. 

Earplugs? They won't get in the way of breathing fresh air and you won't hear the neighbours. It is unreasonable to expect silence.

Danien

I doubt just being able to hear the TV because the door or windows are open would be considered a nuisance unless it is between 11pm and 7am. It would be different it was blaring and incredibly loud, but that doesn't sound like what you're saying. You might as well say that you don’t want to hear your neighbours talking on the balcony.

As has been said, there is a difference between expecting silence and something being a nuisance.

I had neighbours who basically 'lived' in their garden most of the year, had a patio heater, covered patio and watched TV, listened to music/did karaoke out there. Even though we could hear it during the day, it didn't become a nuisance until during the nighttime hours when you expect quiet to sleep (and weirdly when our neighbours ramped things up terrorising the rest of us).