Noisy neighbour upstairs

wolfpawnat

Not sure if this belongs here. Mods move if you need to

I live in an apartment complex, my apartment is privately owned and I rent off the owner.

I have people living above me that are hell on earth to live under. They have wooden floors and between the hours of 9pm and 2am they are shifting furniture on near a nightly basis. They dont seem to have any felt under their furniture so I would hate to see the condition the floor boards are in!

They blare their television so loud we can hear it over our own, we always make sure to keep it at a reasonable level as we have a toddler and like to keep an ear out for him when he is asleep, also if our tv was too loud it would wake him.

After about 5 months of living under these people, my housemate (my ex) decided to write them a very polite letter saying that they may not be aware of the noise they are emitting and that we have a young child so please could they not be so noisey at night. They responded by upping the noise levels!!!!

They had a party a few weeks ago, we asked them to turn down the music as our son could not sleep. They didn't! They were partying til 3am and started it up again the next day!!!!

We have contacted the management company in charge of the apartments and though they were sympathetic on the phone, the email correspondance since then have been useless, they keep saying they are attempting to contact the landlord, and that they would be contacting other occupants. Then they said the other occupants confirmed our complaints but then withdrew them again! I was talking to our next door neighbour ( the apartment above is a penthouse so it above both of ours) she stated they have it very bad too with all the noise and that the management company has NEVER contacted them regarding the noise.

Next door has had trouble with the apartment above, they too have a young child and one night (at midnight) it was crying because of teething. Upstairs came down and demanded they get the child to stop and if it was that sick why did they not bring it to the hospital. They said the child was crying judt below their bedroom and they were trying to sleep. They stated they paid for their apartment during the boom (what this has to do with the situation I will never know) so they demand silence! I don't think they have ever gone to bed that early!

But this information clashes with what I was told by the management company, I know it is 2 women living there as I have seen both and my neighbour confirmed this, but the management company told me that they were trying to contact the man that owns it!?! But the woman said she and her housemate/partner (I don't know the situation exactly there) own it!

What can I do, we are sleep deprieved and p!ss off to the last!

Smcgie

Move out?

wolfpawnat

Why should I?

-It costs money to move.
-It means I have to spend ages looking for a place.
-I break the terms of my lease if I move out before I am meant to.
-I losing my deposit, which I would need to move elsewhere.
-It means paying a small fortune for a moving truck.
-It means uprooting my son.
-I am a nice distance from a Dunnes and a Tesco.
-My complex has a gym with a swimming pool.
- I am right next to a bus route and next to the soon to be opened Luas Line.
- I would have to reroute my mail costing more money!

Why should I move out, that means they win!!!

Quandary

wolfpawnat wrote: »

Why should I?

-It costs money to move.
-It means I have to spend ages looking for a place.
-I break the terms of my lease if I move out before I am meant to.
-I losing my deposit, which I would need to move elsewhere.
-It means paying a small fortune for a moving truck.
-It means uprooting my son.
-I am a nice distance from a Dunnes and a Tesco.
-My complex has a gym with a swimming pool.
- I am right next to a bus route and next to the soon to be opened Luas Line.
- I would have to reroute my mail costing more money!

Why should I move out, that means they win!!!

You've tried asking them in a reasonable way to keep it down - they did the opposite.

The way I see it you have 2 options

1 - Rally the neighbors together and make a joint official complaint to the management company. You will probably have to be the driving force of this if you want to be sure it will work.

2 - Move out. Just be glad you dont own the place or you would be well and truly screwed!


If option 1 fails then you have no choice really...

seamus

Get a copy of the house rules. The vast majority of leases state that you cannot fit wooden flooring in an apartment block for exactly the reasons you're describing. Their TV in fairness may not be *that* loud, but carpets prevent sound from echoing so the wooden floors can make it sound much louder than it really is.

Continue complaining to the management company. It's not your problem if they can't get a hold of the landlord.

Quandary

seamus wrote: »

Continue complaining to the management company. It's not your problem if they can't get a hold of the landlord.

Evidently it is her problem unfortunately - she's the one who's getting personally affected by the noise. At 5pm the people in the management company can probably go home to quiet houses/neighborhoods

The only way to proceed is to get the neighbors together and start peppering the management company with complaints - at least that will put more pressure on them.

Its a sh1tty situation OP and i feel for you, best of luck...

Victor

Mention it to your own landlord that it is making it difficult to live in your own home.

You can make a compalint via the council or the district court.

stiffler123

Is it possible you might just have really thin walls?

wolfpawnat

stiffler123 wrote: »

Is it possible you might just have really thin walls?

It is an apartment complex built during the later years of the boom................... of course they are paper thin and shodily done!!!!!

Thank you all for your replies, and for the more polite thread name

I got onto the management company again today, they said that the owners of the other apartments in my complex have written to them saying that the apartment above me are NOT making any noise. I asked did he question the tenants next door to me regarding them. He said no he had not Surely they should be questioned what with them being the only other apartment directly affected by upstairs. What good is there contacting owners, they should contact the tenants!!!

As regards my landlord, since the day I rang to view this apartment the only things I know about her is her name and bank account number, she has never dealth with me and all communications have been through the land agent, I have contacted her several times but according to her the land lady has not once contacted her back regarding this matter. Leading me to think she is friendly with our riverdancing neighbours!!!!!

Victor

wolfpawnat wrote: »

I got onto the management company again today, they said that the owners of the other apartments in my complex have written to them saying that the apartment above me are NOT making any noise.

That is one of the stangest statements I have ever heard. Nobody would ever write such a letter (unless put up to it).

Tape recorder, video recorder or similar the next time theres a party. Wander up to their apartment door to prove that its them. Make usre the date and time is set correctly.

tara73

I would go to every neighbour around and ask if they really don't feel disturbed by the noise.

I would set up another letter regarding the noise issues, let it sign by the other tenants (who hopefully agree and the management company is just wrong with their statement the others not feeling disturbed) and send it to the management company. Put as much pressure on them as you can, it's an absolute disgraceful behaviour from the noisy tenants, the landlord and the mc.

I'm not completely sure but isn't this a case where the prtb could get involved as well?

wolfpawnat

Victor wrote: »

That is one of the stangest statements I have ever heard. Nobody would ever write such a letter (unless put up to it).

Tape recorder, video recorder or similar the next time theres a party. Wander up to their apartment door to prove that its them. Make usre the date and time is set correctly.

Have taped the last party! from my balcony and at their door when we politely asked them to reduce the noise as our son could not sleep.

Apparently he rang all the owners in the block and asked them to put in in writing. But in one of the previous emails he told me that others had agreed with me but withdrew their statements

I smell a rat really! And I am the kind that IF I need to leave I WILL make sure they do not get away scot free!!! (in legal ways of course!!!!!)

seamus

If it's a small apartment block, I know of a couple of instances where the guy in the penthouse apartment is a complete wanker and therefore the chairman of the management committee and runs it like his own personal fifedom. The other residents leave him at it for the sake of a quiet life.

alanacadia

send your complaint to the PRTB.
yOUR LEASE SHOULD BE REGISTERD WITH THEM AS WELL, SO THEY WILL KNOW THE CONTACT DETAILS OF YOUR LANDLORD AND ALSO THE CONTACT DETAILS OF THE LANDLORD ABOVE YOU.

Im a Landlord, and really there is very little that we can do regarding noise above our propertys, but you as a tennant do have rights to peace and quite, and this is where the PRTB comes into play, you dont have to get involved with a face to face confrontation with your noisey neighbours, let the PRTB do all that work, they can take the Landlord of the property above you to court if he /she fails to act on thier complaint.

Trust me as one of the good landlords I would not wish that sort of crap on any good paying tennant whether they be private tennants or welfare tennants thier all entitled to basic peace and quite enjoymnet of the property ther are renting.

All that failing , my best advise is to move to a better location, they dont win in that situation, you actually win hopefully by getting a quiter place for you and your family to live, I understand the cost to do all this, but peace of mind in the end, is worth a lot more than being stressed out all the time.
I hope I helped somewhat.
Cheers and good luck

athtrasna

Technically you need to make the complaint to YOUR landlord. As a tenant you would have no recourse to the Management Company or Management Agent.

If your landlord doesn't succeed in sorting the problem, you may have a way out of your lease.