NOISY NEIGHBOURS

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I'm furious.

The last noisy neighbour I had upstairs, left. And now this motherf*cker of a landlady has taken in yet another noisy tenant, but who's FAR worse.

I am flipping. I'm going stark raving MAD.

I don't want to go upstairs to face them as I'm in such a terrible mood.

This noise is awful, it sounds like a thunderstorm up there. In fact when I woke up the other day, I really did think there was thunder outside.

Note that the landlady who privately owns upstairs does not give a flying sh!t.

What can I do as a council tenant? Please help me.

I've tried slamming the doors hard, throwing books at the ceiling etc. All the other neighbours can hear it except the couple's noisy TV (the thunder sound), and they heard this couple having LOUD sex the other night too. It sounds funny, but it isn't when you're woken up at 2 and 5am in the morning.

The night before that one, there was lots of banging which sounded like DIY, and there was shouting and someone had apparently broken down a door (I could hear their conversation very clearly). The other neighbours could hear that too. This was at 10pm.

OK, what I'm asking is...can someone here help me compose a letter of complaint to the council? I'm no good at writing letters. And if you have any other advice on my situation, please share it. Thank you. This is awful for me.

I've been in a similar situation and my advice is: move. People like your neighbours don't change, no matter how hard you pressure them. Tell your landlady that its either them or you, but I wouldn't expect any results there.

I'm in a council flat. How do I know that if I move I won't face more noisy neighbours?

http://www.superdrug.com/superdrug-earplugs/invt/869727

Seriously, these help.

By being diagnosed with aspergers, you could argue that this noise is affecting your health, and your rights as a tenant are being trampled on. Therefore, unless something is done, you will refuse to pay rent/block its transfer until it is. State that, of course, you are willing to pay rent when normal living conditions are resumed.

This would be the crux of a letter to a landlady. Slightly different situation, I know - but you need to talk to the council. I'd also visit the doctors and have the medical effects documented, and mention that in the letter, too.

Or go through the 'proper channels'.

https://www.gov.uk/browse/housing/noise-neighbours

I couldn't tell you that much about the proper channels; I've never had much faith in them, but if you follow them, at least if you did the above refusal to pay rent, you could argue that you did 'all that you could' before getting to the stage that you had.

Or call the police, and tell them that it sounds like violent domestic abuse is happening, as there is loud shouting and banging, night after night. And then get a neighbour to do likewise on another night. I mean - how do you not know that this is not the case? This would embarrass most people into calming down. There are also plenty of other things that could be done, of a somewhat morally questionable nature.

Myself - these days, I'd probably stick to the ear defenders, and wait until somebody else complains. I couldn't be bothered with the drama. But I wouldn't move because of this.

A. Cut a hole in your ceiling and put in a hidden trap door.
B. Cut a hole in your floor under the trap door.
C. Below that, install a plastic swimming pool.
D. Put in some sharks.
(put lots of salt in the water)

After they get eaten by the sharks, latch the trap door so that when the cops come they wont fall through and will just find the apartment empty.
Tell any potential new neighbors that ghosts of dead people live in that apartment now. And that they are hella noisy ghosts too.

Or you could try getting the guy thrown in jail so the girl'd get bored and maybe have noisy sex with you!
Then you could fall asleep afterwards.

A cunning plan, 1401b. A plan as cunning as a fox that used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University but has moved on and is now working for the U.N. at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning. (c. Blackadder)

Here's another one, of the same ilk: Learn to play these



Well, everybody needs a hobby! Before long, your neighbours will equate sex to horrible bagpipe sounds and they will end up having the sex drive of a dead pot noodle. HAPPY CHRISTMAS!! !

Beware the RSPCA don't turn up on your doorstep, convinced that the sounds emitted are actually you murdering cats.

Or - This on repeat - ALL DAY AND NIGHT:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyhrYis509A[/youtube]

Thanks guys, you've made me laugh!

My mum had a word with them. I should've done it. I will in future. And I'm logging everything in case I need to escalate it.

I think I know what to do really, I just needed to vent it as well.

I had to call the police for the previous tenant. When I told the landlady, she really wasn't bothered. I just don't get how people can't feel the slightest bit of shame about these things. I would be embarrassed to say the least. She has said before (to someone else) that she was only concerned about the money.

As I recall, in the UK you can contact the environmental health dept and they will first of all advise you to keep a diary of when the noise is happening, for how long and a description of the noise. You can use this information to escalate and they will provide some noise monitoring equipment which will record how many dB the sound is and when. They will then write to the noisy neighbours telling them to keep the noise down and even take them to court over it if they don't comply. In a council house situation I've heard they sometimes evict residents too, though I'm not sure what happens if they are renting privately from your landlady.

^ Thanks.

I have contacted the Environmental Dept. before for the previous tenant. They're not normally very useful unless you get a bunch of neighbours to back you up. They've managed to evict a noisy council tenant before.

I'm not too sure if they can do a lot about private tenants either.

My friend has a similar tenant living upstairs at his place. She's some sort of crazy, babbling woman (sounding very much like the Crazy Cat Lady from The Simpsons), who flings things around and deliberately makes loud noises until she's reported to by the police. Then starts making the noises when they disappear from the scene.

He's recorded enough evidence (even filming her on several occasions), logging all the proof too, but to no avail.

With a child on the way, it doesn't look like they're going to move out anytime soon, despite putting themselves out there.

The prospect of getting the rest of your not-so-noisy neighbours on your side seems promising. Do they hear them just as much as you? (Because you're obviously below them).

I always thought there should be apartments for the quiet who just want to listen to the birds and have apartments for the party types and loud people.

Maybe choosing neighborhoods that have mostly families or old people.

As a Diagnosed Aspie, I expect you must be on the Radar of the N.H.S.?
Noise drives me mental, I just cannot stand it, it is a recognised aspect of AS, an extreme intolerance to noise.
Maybe if you went to your doctor and asked him for something really drastic, like a referral for voluntary euthanasia because the noise is ruining your life so much that you cannot go on, he would get the message and maybe put in place the mechanisms for you to be moved to more suitable accommodation?
Even if it was just a doctors recommendation, it might help sway the council.

I'm so sorry you're dealing with this, too. Your upstairs neighbors sound like mine, especially when they drink. What is a council tenant? (I'm in the US and haven't heard that term before. Just want to try to understand the situation before I try to offer advice).