Noisy Neighbour...

[Cei]

So, this is a bit of a convoluted story...

I moved in to my new flat in London last August, leasehold, in order to study medicine on a 4-year course. So the long and short of that bit is that I am studying basically every day.

Within a few weeks of moving in, the upstairs flat decided to have a party, with very loud music. My temper snapped at 3:30am and I called the council's noise team who came round, agreed it was ridiculous and issued a noise abatement notice. This went to upstairs' landlord and the tenant, who came round and apologised, and also said that if they are too loud in the future to just ask them to turn it down.

Great, I thought, somebody who actually realised they were being inconsiderate!

A month back, I was treated to an absolute racket for about 5 hours during the afternoon, immediately prior to my progress exams. My other half went round and asked for it to be turned down, and explained why. To be fair, they did.

Last Sunday, more music during the day time for another 4-5 hours. By music, I mean incredibly bass-heavy rap or similar. I had friends round, and we basically watched a film to drown it out. We've then been treated to the same nearly every day of varying length, but always at least an hour. I can hear the bass over my own, moderate volume, music that I put on to take the edge off the noise, and it's audible enough to hear lyrics as well as the actual 'music'.

On Saturday, it ran from 14:00 - 19:00. I went up at 18:30 asking for it to be turned down, and was treated to a diatribe about how we were picking on the lady in question, that everybody else was noisy, that she didn't "need this **** right now", that she always turns it off at 19:00 to put her kid to bed, how she's gone through domestic abuse recently, the works. Basically, she didn't care that I have to study, and that her music is disturbing me regularly. She also tried to claim that because it's during the day she can do whatever she likes.

Oh, and she's a "music and performing arts" student, so that makes it alright apparently.

The council have said that on the next occurrence I need to ring them, get the noise team around and issue another notice. This will cause problems, as her landlord was distinctly not impressed last time, and from her bad attitude I can gather she is going to probably come banging on my door and give me a whole lot of abuse - and the other half as well. Frankly, I don't like confrontation, and the idea of being hassled is not an appealing one.

To clarify, I don't mind the noises of normal living. London is tightly packed, and I expect to hear the odd bang, washing machine, even a bit of music.

So, any advice good citizens of Bit-Tech? Do I just call the council and get a notice issued to the ignorant and selfish child upstairs who is likely to then cause a whole host of problems? Do I try another discussion? Ignore it? Invest a small fortune in soundproofing?

[KidMod-Southpaw]

Calling the noise team again in the only real way to get her to stop properly. Can you see who is coming to your door? Because if she comes back after the noise team have issued another notice, just don't answer to her, she's bound to go away eventually, after a lot of banging.

[Picarro]

Call the noise team.

She has had repeated warnings from you and still doesn't give a damn. The only way to make her realise that it's actually an issue is to threaten her with something she needs - her appartement.

Listening to rap/bass heavy music is very inconsiderate when living in an appartment!

[Cei]

Yeah, we do have a spyhole in the door so we can look to see who is there. The idea of having somebody hammering away/kicking the door doesn't appeal though!

I do agree that the threat of being evicted is the only likely thing to make her turn the damn thing down, it's just the period of time that the whole process takes before she's gone that worries me.

[Fantus]

We had a similar issue with the girl living next door to us a while back. She had a habit of having a party every couple of months which would run until 3-4 AM. Fortunately for us, a letter from the council had the desired effect. Apparently she was mortified when she spoke to my wife and was most apologetic She hasn't had a party since. (She was young and experimenting with freedom; lesson learnt, I'd say).

As others have said, involving the authorities is the only way to resolve this. Ultimately, she's already had a warning and knows exactly what the issue is and what she shouldn't be doing. It's not your problem if she ends up being evicted as she's had every opportunity to stop.
If she does bang on your door, notify the Police. Even if they won't come out straight away it'll be on record.

[docodine]

Not even a question, just call who you need to and get her kicked out.

Alternatively, get her a pair of nice wireless headphones

[Malvolio]

The worst thing you could do would be nothing. Ignoring her and what she is doing would be akin to quietly advocating such selfish behaviour. So if she is unwilling to listen to reason from a one on one confrontation with those she is being obnoxious towards, then the only remaining course of action would be a legal back-hand. The only recourse she would have would either to be courteous in the future, or resort to retaliation getting herself further into legal troubles possibly leading to fines, or eviction. So what if she is upset that somebody dislikes her self-centred attitude and callous disregard for others well-being, it isn't something for you to be concerned about, as obviously she isn't concerned with your feelings either. What it really comes down to is that you're being wronged and your life is worse for her selfishness, so there is no excuse not to exercise your rights in this situation and use the facilities in place to correct this situation to satisfaction.


There is another solution to this though, which would be to get a couple well over the top sub-woofers (seriously, you know you want some 370lbs speakers), strap them to the common barrier between the two apartments, and show her just how bothersome loud music can be. This is obviously the adult way to handle the situation and is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, so I would suggest trying this first.

[Cei]

Mmmmm, ceiling mounted subwoofers.

[tristanperry]

Ring the council's noise team. Ignore them when/if they knock on your door.

You've given them enough chances, they clearly don't care.

[Tigernos]

Buy a shotgun.

Failing that, the noise team.

I'm quite partial to the noise warfare method myself, in my old flat I had a sound system that would put most smallish nightclubs to shame. On the times next door had too loud music on, I slid my speakers up to the wall and put them on a lowish volume, next door turned theirs up, I turned mine up. They maxed theirs out so I got my DJ equipment out including some dated but effective 1200w speakers.......

Things started falling of shelves......

[VipersGratitude]

1. Pump up volume & bass full whack
2. Click this link
3. Leave the house
4. Enjoy a lovely day out

[aLtikal]

Find their power cable that enters the house and take an axe to it. You'll get a few days peace before its fixed and if they do it again....Bring the axe out!

[DXR_13KE]

Go to her junction box, turn it off, remove fuses.

Or just call the noise team.

[C-Sniper]

Surprised this hasn't been posted yet....

[Throbbi]

Originally Posted by VipersGratitude

1. Pump up volume & bass full whack
2. Click this link
3. Leave the house
4. Enjoy a lovely day out

This, so long as there's a camera recording outside your front door Possibly replace hobbits with
Agadoo.

Seriously though, all the mentions of noise team are correct, it's the only way to resolve an issue like this.

[SuicideNeil]

The fact she has children with her makes that kind of behaviour all the more disgusting- it sets a terrible example but her children will end up thinking it's perfectly fine to be so ignorant & then act like they are the victim of bullying by their neighbours. I know conflict isn't very nice, but suffering in silence is not the right answer- she needs to wear headphones or deal with her 'issues' in a more grown up manner, not make everyone else suffer as part of her coping mechanism.

If you can sneak into their flat when everyone is out, just remove the fuse in the hi-fi's plug, carefully open it up and drop a little diode in there ( snug fit ); 240v DC should do a nice number on her audio equipment...

[thehippoz]

girl needs an ipod or zune.. maybe if you can convince your other neighbors, you all could pitch in and get her one used or something..

[BLC]

Noise wars aren't really the way to go; it might be fun, but when I tried that some years ago I ended up dropping myself in the poop with the council (and neighbours) along with the person that started the whole thing. I won, and killed my amplifier in the process, but that's not really the point; turns out that everyone else liked Manowar, Slayer & Megadeth et al even less than r'n'b/hip-hop/whatever-the-eff-it-was.

Sounds like you've been more than fair already. Get on to the council again and if you start getting harrased, get the police involved. No need to mess around with this sort of thing, just do it by the book. There are crude dB metering applications available for iPhone & Android; they're not 100% accurate, but it's a little bit more quantitative than "very loud" and may be easier for the council to understand when you contact them again.

[Lance]

Top tip:

Keep a noise diary.

Each time she plays loud music, take note of the time of start and finish and the date.

That way:
a) you can inform the noise guys when the times have been so they can inspect at their leisure.

b) you can provide evidence if it goes any further.

Thats the advice I was given to pass on from a eviction lawyer friend when I asked for a friend in the same situation.

[Cei]

As per the advice from you good people, I'm going to be keeping a nice noise diary to log her antisocial behaviour, and then next time it turns in to a 6-hour session I'll be calling the council.

If she then comes down to kick my door in, I'll be ringing the police.