Rented House - Law on sound?!?

mustrum_ridcully

Let us know how it goes.

Living in a flat I know just how easily sound can travel. The people upstairs have young kids and at times it sounds like they have baby elephants yes at times it can be a bit annoying but it never lasts for long and they're kids (I remember running around everywhere at 100mph when I was a kid). I could be petulant and ask them to stop their kids running around, but because they have kids they've never had a loud party, they don't come in drunk from a club at 1 or 2 am etc.

Living in a flat is a matter of give and take, and it seems that you're prepared to give (getting padding, turning the volume down) as well as take. So as people have suggested go round and find out just how bad the noise is (or isn't) and try and sort the problem out. What worries me a bit is that your landlord said he's not surprised at the complaint from your neighbour...

Have to say I was disappointed though not surprised at some of the responces (MSE sure ain't the place it used to be).

MercilessKiller

I agree completely mustrum! It's a real shame. One post was removed but incredibly bad! Used to be such a friendly community

Anyway the landlord said he expects as much from them lol! He was nice about it anyway and said he'd provide a thick rug to try and soften it.

lisred

I know exactly how you feel.
Our neighbours think we're the noisiest people on the planet . We are not even on speaking terms now. They would come to the door if we had friends round after midnight and be very angry. I don't mean a party either just a couple of friends and some wine.
They also used to bang on the wall if they could hear my children crying at night. They have kids themselves although older than mine and they are only a few years older than we are.
We got rid of our surround sound in the end because i was so paranoid, i still am. We were good neighbours for years but not anymore. I tried talking to them nicely...no good. I took 2 bottles of wine around one evening as we were have friends round for a birthday party. I said "i hope this helps and we don't mean to upset you" and all he did was snatch the wine out of my hands and say "it probably wont and you do!"
He now works shifts next door and i'm at home with 2 small children all day. I will go outside on a monday morning and check their bedroom curtains. if they're closed i make a point of going out all day with the kids, every day for the week. I'm so scared of them banging on the wall or knocking on the door. It's ridiculous.
We're not horrid people, both well educated (university) both have/ had good jobs. You'd think we were having drug fueled raves every weekend.
I get so paranoid when we have friends round and we've got 3 kids asleep upstairs so we're not really loud!!
We can hear them have friends round, d-i-y, arguments, having sex!!!! But it's just day to day living, nothing extraordinary, so we've never once complained.
I feel for you and your girlfriend. I've put up those canvas type pictures. They seem to absorb noise quite well. But only hammer the nails in when you know they're not in!!!!lol!
L x

MercilessKiller

We're the same. We can hear them doing DIY every weekend! The old hammer on the wall! Suzzi and I get scared crazy hahahaa! Every weekend its the same too! But never mind.

I'm glad some people understand the situation though. I can imagine them hear a slight bit of noise outside or something, so come round verey angrily saying its making their life misery... I couldn't believe she said that! 2 hours on a sunday afternoon and thats it. Ridiculous.

Anyway will see if this rug under the sub helps. I don't even like it that loud, but it's nice to use a present my girlfriend bought me

zebulon

mustrum_ridcully wrote: »

Living in a flat I know just how easily sound can travel. The people upstairs have young kids and at times it sounds like they have baby elephants yes at times it can be a bit annoying but it never lasts for long and they're kids (I remember running around everywhere at 100mph when I was a kid).

It was so funny when I had my nephew (4 years old) on holiday last summer.
he lives in a house - I live in flat
he's used to jump, run everywhere in his big house.

had to expain to him there were people leaving below - it was such a new concept to him
first time he entered the building, before going up the stairs, he removed his shoes :rotfl: he thought this was already my place (so well educated, he knows he can't keep his shoes in )

zebulon

lisred wrote: »

We can hear them have friends round, d-i-y, arguments, having sex!!!!

you could so use that :rotfl:

chappers

chardonnay wrote: »

how about explaining the party and explaining it will be a rare occurance but may get noisy

I would leave that out of the equation from now.

When I was a kid our neighbours used to have a few raucous parties, most of the neighbours were invited but they used to pay for the old couple(I say old probaly 60's)next door, to go and stay overnight in a hotel and buy them a nice dinner, they used to love it. Mrs stringer used to say " oh that Brian he's such a lovely man we had such a nice time last night", in fact thinking back on it now he was a bit of a wideboy chav, who like to show off , but maybe an option i don't know

cowbutt

MercilessKiller wrote: »

The sub is from a Logitech Surround Sound system so is prob as big as something like 2 xbox 360's next to each other... (only thing i can think of to compare it!)

If it's the X-530 or similar, the sub is disproportionately loud, even on minimum volume. I'm considering hacking mine now it's out of warranty and putting an additional resistor in series with the sub volume control.

MercilessKiller

I have the Z-5450 set so the box tells me

The default setting is about 15 out of 40. I turned it down to 2 but still got the complaint :x

MercilessKiller

LOL

Update guys.

Went over with a big apology and told her I found out it was part of my stereo sending vibrations though so I'll ensure it stops etc..

What did she do? She went for round 2!!!!!! started going mad with me again saying its made her life hell.. grr SUCH an exaggeration I mean really the vibrations aren't that much!

Either way I stayed friendly and polite, kept apologising, told her I'm aproachable and want to make sure it doesn't happen again.. She said she doesn't mind me popping next door to do testing anytime I want.

*wipes forehead*. Company went into liquidation today too! Least of my worries this.