noisy neighbour wooden flooring

[moemaccy]

Hi again all!,

I started a thread on this in 2013, and I am still living with the noise I am encountering from my upstairs neighbour, due to her sanding the original house floorboards.

I have tried to speak with her regarding this, a few times since my original post ( as i had just about had enough) and asked politly one evening,

at 9pm, as I heard her coming in our shared hallway ( i live in a ground floor conversion, my neighbour the flat above).

This particular evening it was very load footsteps across my entire flat ceilings, as she has sanded the entire flat, her attitude was to ( as soon as she realised what i was about to talk about, as she is on occasion, depending on her mood, friendly, turned her back on me in her climb of the shared hallway stairs, say very rudely, wait for it.........." I have a migraine " really, is she taking the p**s. Which infuriated me, and I did tell her exactly what I thought of her rude manner.

To explain this further, my neighbour also rents a room out in her flat, directly above my bedroom, I am having different people there often ( i know she can have visitors, of course), but she is renting the room out, she has also rented out the entire flat to a family, a year back, for 3 months. The family were two heavy built people, with a small child. They were a lovely family, and apologised for the noise, as they knew how bad it must be, and probably because they can also hear me downstairs too, I'm guessing? ( can you hear the people on the ground floor too?) They also explained to me that they had never even met or knew my neighbour, only through a friend, they had come to rent the flat, for a period of 3 months, and was paying over a grand a month for it ( sorry forgot to add, we are both southwark council tenants).

I did end up making an appointment to see a representative of southwark council, regarding "some issues" that they could help me with. I explained my neighbour was away, and the noise I was encountering was really bad, but no fault of the people staying there ( i never went as far as saying what they had told me, as i really didn't want to make this situation worse) I was told that they would set up a mediation meeting to help, this never happened, as when my neighbour returned, she apologised about " it not being a good idea, a family above me", and that she would get some rugs ( she has not) this is now two years later, so i took her word and told the council I didn't need them to help any further,as we had sorted out our differences.

Then we had a tenancy check with our housing officer, earlier this year, and I explained that we are having a breakdown in communication, about the flooring, and i would like the council to help, as there was still no resolve, regarding the noise from the flooring, the reply i received in person, did not show any empathy at all to me, and i was told" oh well she can just get some rugs, i might add the housing officer and my neighbour are quite pally.

Now she is away again, another new person is staying in the room above my bedroom, who is a lovely guy, and much quieter than my neighbour, but still very loud, I suppose because I only have one set of footsteps, instead of two or sometimes three above!

So please please, I need help with, what I can do to make sure southwark council deal with this problem, and make my neighbour properly sound proof the flooring or lay carpet. To add, my neighbour sanded the floorboards about 5 years ago, I have lived here for twenty years, and never had this problem before, when the previous tenant was here with carpets throughout ( wishful thinking! ), she never got planning permission from southwark council, nor did any sound proofing. Although this is a new part of southwark councils tenancy agreement, i think for the last 3 years, you now have to have permission, although I'm not sure if this has always been the case, and i never knew, hence why I have been living with this, for this, long.

I just want to feel like I'm living in my own home, as i am sure she does too, as she must be able to hear me too????

We can both enjoy our homes with less noise.

HELP😢😢😢

[KidKruger]

If spoken to tenant above about the noise with no improvement, I'd google similar issues within council tenancies, but also private occurances.

See what successes other complainants in similar situations have had and how they tackled this dilemma.

Notwithstanding the above, it was IMO a mistake to advise the council that the situation was resolved when it was not.

I would raise again, by letter, with council as a noise issue and be clear about impact on you as a tenant.

Do the leases on these flats allow tenants to sand their floors ?

My final (though a negative) and last response would be to tell council the property is being let with as much evidence as I could muster.

It's a shit situation and I think whilst checking other's experiences you should also try again patiently to discuss with tenant upstairs including letters (you keep copies) to evidence the efforts you have made, before moving onto further action.

[LadyDeliah]

If a council tenant requests permission to rent out a room, most council tenancies say that permission cannot be unreasonably witheld, so perhaps she has permission.

[Blah Blah]

But if she is away for long periods of time it could be said that it is not her primary place of residence, another condition of a council home tenancy.

A friend of ours wanted to laminate her council home floor and had to get permission (because the council want to make sure you use underlay to minimise noise). So if they have that policy (worth finding that out for sure I would think) then I can't see how they can fail to take the noise from sanded floors seriously too.

[aquarius moon]

I used to live in a top floor Southwark council flat and they told me when I moved in (over 10 years ago) that we weren't allowed wooden floors and HAD to have carpets. I would've thought they'd be stricter now.

And as LadyD says, you are normally allowed to rent out a room in council property, but you can't sublet and live somewhere else.

[Blah Blah]

Yes, hence the tenancy requiring a primary place of residence?

[Salsaboy]

They may be in contravention of their tenancy agreement by having hard floors, regardless of whether they are original floorboards or not.

[uncleglen]

http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200517/tenants_handbook/3493/5_looking_after_your_home

see page 78 of the pdf download

[moemaccy]

Hi, thank you all so much for your advice, i did tell my housing officer when she was here, doing our tenancy check ( where i said the lady is much more friendly towards my neighbour for some reason), that my neighbour never asked planning permission, nor has made the flooring sound proofed, and the reply i got was, that " she has had the floors like that for a while, she can put some rugs down". This is what I'm unsure about, as it came across that the " home improvement section" on the teensy agreement, as it's new, would not apply to anyone that had the floors like this before that became part of the tenancy?

Thanks☺

[*Tee*]

Hi moemaccy,

I feel your pain as I also suffer with this and like you live in a ground floor Victorian flat. The top flat is also owned by Southwark council.

Please complain to the council and ask them to install soundproofing.

Really these flats shouldn't be let without full soundproofing because now if the council builds a block of flats, they are always with concrete between them not floorboards as the regulations have since changed.

I think the law should change for the council to protects people's right to quiet enjoyment of their own homes by installing soundproof. I may start a petition on this for the government to discuss at least!

Is anyone else suffering with this noise nuisance?

[IlonaM]

Hi, having had issues with noisy neighbours in the past I really feel for you.

I suggest getting some legal advice as the Housing Officer does not appear to be assisting both of you to resolve the issue in this situation.

Cambridge House Law Centre (tel: 0207 358 7025, http://ch1889.org/our-work/law-centre/) is very good, but you could also contact the Shelter Advice line (tel:0808 800 4444, http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/how_we_can_help/housing_advice_helpline)- they can take on cases as well.

[karen s]

Hi,

Just seen this thread. I live on ground floor of Victorian house conversation. Yes you guessed it belonging to Southwark Council.

I am sick to death of the noise from my upstairs neighbour. School holidays and nearly every weekend he has his partner and their two children over to stay ( it is a one bedroom flat). The children have no set bed time and are still making banging noises and making my Windows rattle badly 11.30 at night. I love children but this is really getting me angry.I can even hear their conversations most of the time. I also hear every movement in the bedroom.

I am stressed out about it. I suffer anxiety and depression. Is it any wonder.