Nightmare neighbours

Hi all,

Thanks so much for your advice a couple weeks ago, I thought I’d give a bit of an update.

We are still living in the flat, and got a large rug, but unfortunately we are still having problems with sound.. Not so much with the guy upstairs slamming doors, but other sound issues keeping us on edge.

It’s been really weird here, last night for example at about 2:00am there was a hammering sound, lasting about for 20mins! We had no clue who or why, but what are they doing at such a late time?!

We have decided we need to speak to the landlord about leaving. We keep a record of the sounds with details, but the question is what’s best way to start to discuss this with the landlord.. Our contract doesn’t have a break clause, so if we do want to leave early we are liable to pay “reasonable costs” to find a new tenant, and to cover the rent until the next tenant moves in (assuming they do).

Obviously, we don’t want to have to pay 3-4 months extra rent if we are not living here, nor can we afford to, but this has been such a huge problem for us both and it is having a detrimental affect on our health, so we don’t feel staying here until the tenancy ends officially is viable either.

  Looks like you'll just have to reach some kind of agreement with your landlord, but I wouldn't expect him to give any consideration to your complaints about noise.  If I were your landlord I would treat the matter exactly the same as if you had said "we just don't like living there" since you haven't told us anything that sounds like a real problem about the noise.  Drilling at 2 am isn't a good thing but it's not the landlord's problem and certainly not a personal attack on you.   I would avoid seeking any special considerations for health complaints or panic attacks in order to not damage your credibility.   It's not necessary, "we don't feel comfortable living here" is as good a reason as any to ask the landlord to break the contract.  Just don't feel entitled that the landlord should take the financial hit.  It sounds pretty reasonable to me that you you should pay any reasonable costs of finding a new tenet and any lost rent while you move out. 
 

Just keep in mind that this is the worst time of year for landlords trying to fill rentals.

I wouldn’t take on a new contract until you *know* this one is over!

Tbh this just sounds like life in apartments with shared walls. It will have sounds at inconvenient times, smells you don't like, and so on. This is why we are in an end of terrace place - it was what we could afford with the least number of shared walls/entrances. I still have days where I need earplugs/noise cancelling headphones and cannot wait until we have a detached house, but that isn't the landlords fault. I hope you are either able to find a way to cope, or to get into a new place that is quiet without too much added expense.

Are they even still allowing house moves where you are? I can't imagine your landlord is going to get a replacement into your place with any great ease.

You do have my sympathies on the noise. We had a family upstairs from us who had a dog (we could hear it's nails on the floor, and the barking , and had to dive back into our flat more than once because they let it out into the close without being on a lead when they were taking it out back to crap on the common children's play area grass and it would growl and lunge at us), two kids who stomped around like mad and had some really epic fights, one kid who was taking step-dancing, and a teenager with a new sound system. All on laminate floors. And then there were the times the kids left the water on in the bathroom, so that it came out of our hall light fixtures.  It wasn't particularly pleasant, but at least it was the neighbor above them who pretty much handed the teen his head over that bass.

Have you considered noise-cancelling headphones? No, you should not have to buy them, but on the practical side, they do work and if your mental health is being damaged by the noise, they might help..