Noisy neighbours
Question
I live in a rented flat and my landlord lives above me in a separate flat with his wife and kids. The problem is, the children make a lot of noise. The noise is enough to drive me to tears.
I've only spoken to them once about it and made it clear that it was making my life really difficult. I told them that so much noise, day and night, was just too much for me to bear. But it's not made any difference and as we normally have a good relationship I haven't wanted to push it.
Is there anything I can do to make them stop being so noisy? It's just too much for me now.
Answer
Whether you can do anything about the noise from your neighbours depends on your individual situation. Before you can act, the noise must be so loud that you can't use your home in the normal way. This might be the case if you are woken up by the noise or you can't hear your own TV above the noise.
The action you can take in relation to the noise depends on:
- The type of noise;
- The time of day or night the noise happens;
- How often it happens;
- How long it goes on for;
- How it affects you;
- The type of building (older homes often have less sound insulation).
Noisy children in themselves are not a 'nuisance'. If your neighbour's children disturb you, for example, you're a shift worker who wants to sleep during the day, the only real solution is a conciliatory approach to the neighbour.
The first step in dealing with noise is negotiation. Talk to the person causing the noise, explain how the noise is affecting you and try to reach a compromise. Do this as early as possible before the problem gets too serious. There may be mediation services in your area that could help you negotiate.
If the noise problem continues, keep notes describing:
- How long it lasts;
- The time it occurred;
- How loud it is;
- Whether anyone else heard it;
- The occasions you spoke to your neighbours about it;
- The effect it had on you.
If the noise continues, you could contact your local council. The environmental health department of the council has the power to deal with noise problems, and some councils have an out of hours service so maybe able to come out at short notice during evenings and weekends. An environmental health officer may visit you to monitor the noise. They may also be able to install noise-monitoring equipment to measure the noise over a period of time.
If the problem is serious enough, the council may take action to stop your neighbours making noise. For example, the council may send a formal notice asking the noise to stop by a certain date. In extreme cases the council might be able to take your neighbours to court.
But before taking any action you should consider (as your noisy neighbour is your landlord) if your landlord has the right to evict you without having to give you a reason because some landlords may prefer to evict tenants rather than resolve the problem. To find this out you should check what type of tenancy you have. Most tenants in privately rented property have an assured shorthold tenancy and, if this is the case, your landlord can evict you fairly easily if he follows the correct procedure.
If you do take action and your landlord causes problems as a result of you asking them to reduce the noise, he may be guilty of harassment. This is a criminal offence. Harassment includes things that stop you living peaceably in your home. But if this does happen there may be action you can take to prevent harassment.
Finally, you may want to get help from a local advice service that will be able to offer you further assistance with this situation.
Good answer? Bad info? Want to tell us what you think? We'd really like to hear what you've got to say about this answer so please click here to take the survey. Your feedback is confidential and as anonymous as you like.
