Lease

[natalie7]

I live in a basement flat of a converted victorian house. There are 3 flats in this building, top, middle and basement. We all own our properties. For a few years now I have been having a lot of problems with noise from the person who lives above me in the middle flat. Most of the noise is due to him having no carpets anywhere in his flat. Anyway, in the lease, it states that all floors must be covered with underlay and carpet or other suitable covering apart from the kitchen and bathroom. I have had many arguements with him and he has said that he is putting laminate flooring down. I have spoke to the local council who are totally useless and they can't do anything, (or so they say. They just can't be bovered to help.) Can anyone give me any advice about this? Is he breaking the law? I need some usefull advice as I am getting really stressed.
Thanks.

[buildersmate]

He appears to be in breach of the lease - but that is a civil breach involving the agreement between him and the freeholder. Get onto the freeholder - but you may not get any joy.
When was the property converted? - there are now minimum standards under Building Regs that define the annuation of noise that must occur between floors - just to stop this very situation. Can't remember when these came in - about 6 years ago, I think. Can be checked out, but pointless if the conversion is older than that since the requirements are never retrospective. If there is any mileage on this issue, it will be for Building Control (one of the departments at your local council) to take up with the owner of the building (freeholder).
The only other angle that I know of is the anti-social behaviour one, based on excessive noise. This again is a civil action but only the local authority can pursue such actions with the individual concerned. You are going to have to keep a diary with times etc. - initially try speaking with the Environmental people. If they are willing to pursue anything, Ibelieve they have a right to ask for money from you to investigate - often a few hundreds of pounds.

[themas]

If the lease was properly drawn up it should include provsions for the action that can be taken to enforce the liabilities it contains. These normally require the freeholder (or management company if there is one) to take action against the offending leaseholder.

The trouble is that such action can involve Court proceedings and become very expensive. And a lot of older leases don't include effective enforcement provisions anyway.

But you should study what your lease says on this and discuss it with the freeholder.