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Noisy Neighbours
Hi I was wondering if I could get some advice about our noisy neighbours. We live on the ground floor of a house that has been converted into two flats and obviously didn't bother with any noise insulation at all when they did the conversion. The family upstairs have a fairly new baby and a ~2.5 year old toddler and while they're nice friendly people their racket is driving me insane.
Their older kid is absolutely massive and full of energy, they don't want to send him to school or creche yet and he will often stay in all day running back and forth and throwing what sounds like wooden toys and thousands of marbles onto the hard wood floor over our heads. I have a toddler too so I totally understand that they can't (and shouldn't) be made to sit still all the time but it's making it hard for us to use our flat.
My husband can't work from home easily (we were planning on him doing this once a week and weekends while our toddler naps) because it's too loud, I can never catch up on sleep during the day unless he happens to be out and it's just plain annoying to have constant hammering over our heads while we're trying to chat, eat dinner etc.
If I lived in any other country I'd just move to a better flat (there are other slightly annoying features of this flat too) but that would cost me 3 months rent here and we just can't afford that, but the thought of living with this noise for 3 years is driving me insane.
Is it reasonable for me to ask them to at least put a play mat down when their kid is throwing hard stuff on the floor? Or am I being a grumpy annoying neighbour? I assume there's no way of getting out of the 3-6-9 contract without stumping up the fee?
Talk to the neighbor and explain that it's making work impossible, and see if you can't all find a solution that works.
Hi,
Do not only try and keep the communication lines with your upstairs neighbours open: when you talk to them about the noise their children make and what effect it has on you, make sure you invite one of the parents to your appartment with you and your partner there (so you have a witness) and let the parent experience the noise for themselves.
However, judging from what you write about them, you may have a struggle to bring the message across. It is a well known fact that most house moves are caused by noisy neighbours. So far, all my house moves bar one, were caused by noisy neighbours.
I've been through the same thing. Child stomping and running around on wooden floors and throwing marbles the length of the room. The thing is, you could lose money moving only to find yourselves in a similar situation down the track. In my case, I knocked FREQUENTLY on their door and complained. Do not suffer in silence. It got to the point they stopped opening the door! But things did improve. If they didn't want me knocking, they had to take action. Thank god they eventually moved out. Hope these aren't your neighbours! Seriously though, take action each time, however tiring and irritating, because you have a right to enjoy your property.
Hi feel so sorry for you. I just wonder do they realise that they make so much noise? I live in Brussels quite a few years and had twice very noisy neighbours.. Funny enough they were both French. I know it is quite difficult to reason with them. The first neighbour got aggressive with me after I asked him politely if they would not mind to take their shoes off at home? Yes also the problem with the bad insulation, this is a real problem here. But if we all take each other in consideration then the living with these kind of bad works should not be that very bad. Unfortunately there are people who do not or are just too dumb and arrogant. That was the first over the top noisy neighbour, there were some more incidents with him. They stole my post for example. Had my gas cut off just because I dared to say something about the noise. Hope though that this was an extreme reaction and you will not have the same. I asked the neighbourhood policeman to intervene but he was changing jobs, so did not do anything. Anyway I moved, a year later new neighbours. The child cried every night and it went straight through the rather thick walls. This child has a very very loud voice and cries and screams. In the summer they spoil everything with their loud behaviour outside. The kid cries constantly and they shout over the top. Again maybe they do not realise it but they should do by now as people reacted, but they do not care. I hope they will move soon, luckily it is a rental property. But my advice is to talk to them and also try to see it from their point of view thus hoping that they do not feel attacked. Try to explain tactfully, or if they do not understand, invite them into you home so they can hear it too. Good luck.
http://www.bruxellesenvironnement.be/Templates/Particuliers/Informer.asp...
only in French and Dutch,
Reporting of noisy neighbours
I am also now suffering from noisy neighbours as a result of poor insulation, arrogance and wooden floors. I have lived less than a year in my apartment in WSP and so very often I have had to know at their door 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 in the morning on a weeknight or on a Sunday night (work Monday morning!) because they are CONSTANTLY walking around in their shoes, moving around furniture, dragging things across the floor etc.
I understand that if you live on a top floor with no one above you, you probably have no idea of the amount of noise you make but I would expect that if someone explains that it is not normal behaviour and that they are being disturbed, you would take care. The last time I went to him, 2:45 in the morning and he says to me, "in this apartment you have to wear earplugs". My response? "Be considerate! Earplugs do not work for everyone and nowhere in the world is it acceptable to be moving furniture as past midnight".
As a last resort I sent a note to my landlord - since the estate agent did NOTHING - and I'm not sure if they did anything but I notice a slight decrease. If I could move without the hassle, I really would because I suffer from insomnia white a bit, but...I will have to take the advice of one of the other posters - knock, knock, knock EVERY TIME I'm disturbed. Hopefully this will annoy them enough to stop.
Good luck!
