neighbours

[mr fish]

harrassment by neighbours in leased accomodation

[Numbers]

And your question is?

[cheyenne]

see your landlord,or do you mean you own your property and you have a long lease,if so get in touch with the council.if you live in a block of flats then there will always be noise,or is that not the problem??

[mr fish]

The flat is owned by us and leased to tenants. The neighbour downstairs complains about noise from our flat purely because we lifted the carpets and sanded the floorboards last year. The noise is normal background noise which is less than the street noise from the town traffic. The neighbour is harassing our tenants to disrupt our business. The behaviour is unacceptable and the tenants are now considering leaving the flat at the end of the six months period. The previous tenants alos complained about the neighbours behaviour and both groups of tenants are willing to sign statements to this effect. Recenet confrontations have been recorded for prove to prosecution under Protection of Harassment Act 1997. Question is whether anybody has experience of this type of situation and what is the best way of handling the neighbour legally?

[Sylday]

When you say you "own" the flat, do you mean you have a long lease? If so, I would advise you to look at your lease, and ensure that you have kept within its terms. For example, does the lease allow you to sublet the flat; to lift the carpets; and does it say anything about not causing a nuisance (including noise) to other lessees. Only if you are quite sure that YOU are on firm legal ground, should you consider going to law. Otherwise, you may find you have bitten off more than you can chew.

[mr fish]

The property is owned by myself and rented out to our tenants on a short assured term lease. The noise levels that the neighbour is complaining about are ridiculous as our tenants make every effort to make no noise even wearing stocking feet whilst in their flat. The background street noise is far louder than any noises from the flat. The neighbour is hell bent on upsetting our tenants by persistent harassment. What can I do?

[FTVS]

Some people complain about noise more than others - some people are more disturbed by it than others: whta you may consider reasonable may not be reasonablein their view. Have you sat in the downstairs flat and listened with them? Clearly your best bet is to get a idea from them as to what they feel you can do to solve this problem.

[buchanan]

Mediation is something you might want to suggest to both parties before going for the legal approach. Your local council will have an obligation to investigate whether a there is a statutory nuisance caused by the noise - 9/10 this isn't the case and what you have is a dispute between neighbours. Often the best way to sort is for those concerned to talk it through, a good tip for this is NOT to do this in the heat of the moment. If its gone beyond that, an independent mediator might be useful. The CAB and / or council should have details of local schemes.

[undercovers]

put a carpet down, the noise from people walking above on bare floorboards is quite loud and more likely to disturb that traffic sounds (as these can form a background noise that is easy to ignor after a while). If you really don't want a carpet in there you could always see about getting the floor sound proofed, it involves lifting the floorboards and filling the space with special rubber clippings - i think it can be quite expensive though, so carpeting might be the best bet. Good luck i hope you can come to an amicable solution with the neighbours

[Mich]

This is a shame for all parties involved. I feel sorry for your tenants having to put up with their downstairs neighbours making their life hell, but equally I feel sorry for the downstairs neighbours listening to upstairs - consider a large rug. Trouble is once your ears pick up noise it's very hard to stop listening out for it! I live on a very busy road above a very noisey shop - the traffic you get use to, the constant noise from below is harder to accept - probably compensate by being noisey myself! Good luck

[georgie11]

i am a tenant myself but I am getting harrased by both sides of me and finding it very hard to cope with and so are my two young children. Tenants arent always the bad ones. I feel that I am beeing victimised by both sides and have reported this to the police but they dont seem to be doing anything. I am scared to go outside.