The people above me

[harold&maude]

have wooden floorboards. Rcently someone has moved in who waers shoes on them all the time. My boyfriend thinks I shouldn't say anything, even though it drives us mad, it is so loud. What do you think?

[Jaybee]

Check your rental/lease agreement. In some flats there is a condition that all floors must be carpeted to prevent this very problem.

[smudge]

It must be a real nightmare for you. It's bad enough when you stay in hotels with marble floors. All you can hear is clip clopping of shoes, kids running around, beds screeching the floor by the maids & that's only for a fortnight! My daughter had a tenant in the upstairs flat, not only did she stamp about, she used to go out every Friday/Saturday night, come home drunk with her mates & put the Karioke on - at 1.00 in the morning! It made our daughter's life a misery. Some people out there are so ignorant!

[Dave Potts]

Don't stifle your frustration - give vent to it! I find that banging on the ceiling with a broom handle, putting the washer-dryer on a fast spin cycle or mowing the lawn at 4 in the morning works wonders. Sometimes I even get bottles of wine and letters of apology left (quietly) outside my door....

[sft42]

Ok....there are several ways of skinning this cat.

Forstly you can approach your neighbours and ask them politely if they are even aware of this problem...they may be blissfully unaware...If this doesn't work, you next step is to get in touch with your local noise abatement officer (this may be a different name depending on which part of the country you live in).....they will then approach the neighbour on your behalf making a formal request for the noise to stop if they can determine that it is unacceptable....if all else fails you can go to court and with the assistance of your landlord obtain court orders banning them from continuing the noise which if the break they can be evicted.

Here are some links which may be of use to you:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/support/noisyneighbours
.shtml

http://www.lawyerlocator.co.uk/pages/articles/25/

http://www.findaproperty.com/cgi-bin/story.pl?stor
yid=5398

and remembering that Scottish Law is different http://www.lsa.org.uk/nnleaf.htm

[spinchimp]

Don't mess about - you have to nip this in the bud now. Knock on their door and as soon as they answer punch them very hard on the nose. As they clutch their face in pain say in a firm voice "that's just for starters sunshine - if you don't start to take off your shoes as soon as you get home I'l be back, and next time I won't be so reasonable". That'll do the trick.

[bluedolphin]

i moved into an apartment and the upstairs tenant was away.....had a brill two weeks and then @945 one evening clack clack clack slam clack clack umph ....was devastated at first but now its background noise. Took about two weeks to become unaware of it. By the way upstairs tenant wakes up at 5:45am every day does some chopping of vegetables?????and then goes mysteriously quiet for about 90minutes and then hoofs it around the apartment getting ready for work.....all this has blended into the background.....

[Cetti]

My son has just bought a flat and the solicitor brought to his attention that it is against the condition of the lease to pull up any existing carpet and replace it with just lino. The only exception being the kitchen and bathroom, so I agree with Jaybee and check closely your lease/rent agreement.

[harold&maude]

Thank you for all your answers! It has given me and the boyf food for thought. We are considering being scaredy cats and writing a nice little card so we do not have to confront them face to face, for fear of saying it in the wrong way. I only hope they do not respond by asking us to refrain from the loud David Brent, Alan Partridge and Chimpanzee impressions, as well as the terrible singing and hysterical guffawing that emanates from our flat.

[Tinker]

I think the card is a good idea! A neighbour complained about the noise my sister and I were making (we were unaware we were so noisy!), but he was really rude to us about it all, we said sorry but that seemed to annoy him even more! Whenever we saw him afterwards, it was always really awkward. If he'd just been a bit more polite, or left a short note, i think that would have been better for everyone! Alternatively, buy them slippers.

[Tinker]

Oh, and one more thing, I'd love to live above someone who did Alan or Brent impressions! "Smell my cheese you mutha!"