I live in a flat, in a Victorian building (wooden floors) and all used to be fine until recently, when the neighbour above moved out and decided to let his flat.
The new tenants that moved in are really heavy footed and are keep dropping pretty heavy items on the floor (no idea what’s going on above). I could put up with that as it’s kind of a delicate matter to ask them to “walk in a way that does not cause any noise”. But then the young lady above started wearing heels in the flat and it is very disturbing to say the least. I went up to ask her kindly to be more mindful with the steps given the wooden floors and her reply simply put was that she does whatever she wants to in her flat and that where she is from “it is customary to not change the shoes when coming back home from the outside”.
Now, I agree that one should be able to do do whatever they please inside their property but this surely has some sensible limitations - up to the point when your actions start affecting the people outside your flat.
The freehold of the flats here is shared between the leaseholders, so a share-of-freehold system. In the lease, there is a clause about the Tenant’s obligations to the Landlord and tenants of the other parts of the Property: " To ensure that nothing is done in the Premises that is nuisance, annoyance or inconvenience to the Landlord, the occupiers of other parts of the Property or neighbouring properties or which would reduce their value". Given this, can I or should I get in touch with the landlord above and require him to sort this out? Does this make him obliged to? I am pretty sure that since the tenants above are renting the property, there also must be a clause in their lease tenancy agreement about not causing nuisance to the neighbours. What can be done in this situation basically? Any advice would be appreciated.
Had similar issue with noise as tenant used flat for a crèche ! Imagine 10 kids one bed flat. Had contact freeholders who wrote to tenant as noise was causing a nuisance and anti social. You need evidence, recordings, dates, proof you tried to solve issue amicably etc, then they can be served notice to leave. Noisy shoes on wooden floor may not be enough as cd b build issue.
please. this is a victor meldrew parody, surely? you can’t stop people “walking heavily”. you have been lucky with the previous occupant, you are now unlucky with the current ones, it averages out.
I was about to say the same .A flat I bought for my daughter has a clause in the lease that said the flat had to have carpet and underlay. Save for the kitchen and bathroom. It was on the first floor… So I used 10 mm underlay and carpet
There is actually a clause under “Tenant’s obligations to the Landlord and tenants of the other parts of the Property”: To cover the floors of the Flat with carpet and an underlay or sound absorbing tiles or properly sound-insulated hard flooring.
I am not sure what is considered “properly sound-insulated hard flooring” but judging by the noise I am getting there is zero sound insulation. Now I guess this makes the landlord obliged to do something, right? Honestly, I’d prefer not forcing any extra costs on the landlord but if the tenants refuse to be slightly considerate then I see no other way.
I kindly asked them to be a bit more considerate given the Victorian building and the wooden floors. They are walking with hard soled shoes in the flat all the time. My floors are also wooden and the neighbours below never complained. It’s not a massive sacrifice to mind their steps and/or shoes vs the nuisance they are causing - been woken up every single day in the mornings for the past week.
LL is in breach of the terms of the lease. The consequence is causing you issues. I would approach LL and gauge response. The freeholder is obliged to enforce the terms of the lease.
Depending on LL response you could remind them of the terms of the lease.
You can’t really expect tenants to “tread quietly.” The fault is with the landlord.
the landlord may be unaware of this clause. The tenant almost certainly will not know or care . I would contact the landlord. .( Do not glue your sound system to the ceilling and turn it on)
Every tenancy agreement as I understand it has a clause about nuisance to neighbours but in this case it sound like the landlord needs to make the flooring more soundproof. You should make a case to the landlord for this and if he/she is reasonable then it comes under maintenance and should be dealt with. eg. carpets.
If the landlord is unwilling or unable to spend money on carpets which sounds like the obvious solution, then you could offer something but really you shouldn’t have to.
But I think here the responsibility is unclear but the landlord has the power to have a carpet fitted and he gets rent to cover that.