Neighbour Overreacting About (Perceived) Noise

I know what it's like to have truly disturbing neighbours.

In the flat I lived in previously, I had a downstairs neighbour who repeatedly played loud music between 3 and 6 AM.

And in an apartment that I lived in previously in Brooklyn, I had upstairs neighbours who accidently set their apartment on fire twice (their next door neighbour's apartment was completely destroyed by fire as well, and ours was flooded, ruining our electrical sockets, after the firemen had to use water to put the fire it out) and flooded our bathroom so badly that our bathroom ceiling collapsed.

Which is why I am so pissed off at being spoken to as though I am in the same league.

I had a similar problem when I lived in Brighton, my friend and I had a nice flat and lived above a man and his family, a 2 bed flat there were 4 of them living in there, they complained about the noise CONSTANTLY, slamming doors, walking, the TV anything, we didn't play music around or have people over, they told my landlord that lots of different men came and went (not true) and implied we were on the game.

Because he kept complaining, eventually environmental health were dispatched and they came and did a noise study and found that we were NOT causing excessive noise, but the guy  still wouldn't stop, it got frightening because he had "anger problems" and was off from work to deal with them, he'd call our landlord every time we ran the washing machine or walked up the stairs and our landlord would pretty much ignore it because of the environmental health ruling. It did worry me though, one time we were watching eastenders (about 7:30) not loudly and he was banging on the door and effing and blinding, we just shouted at him out the window that we'd call the police and his wife dragged him inside - the ironic thing is he and his wife would have these blazing rows where he'd be screaming at her for hours, and she'd be sobbing loudly, and the kids would cry and cry  - eventually we contacted the council about that but I don't know what if anything social services did because it was when we moved out, we'd been too scared to do it before.

This may not be what you want to hear sweetpeach, but eventually I moved out as it was causing me so much stress but on the plus side, unless you're making noise which is audible from the street by environmental health, you're pretty much fine.

I’m concerned because we are renting and our tenancy agreement says that we can’t make noise after 11 PM (which I agree is reasonable). Can our neighbour, who is head of the  neighbourhood watch, get us in trouble with our letting agency or our landlord?

No. Your neighbor is being totally unreasonable and if they were to complain about your "slamming doors" to your agency or landlord, neither party would take it seriously. They might write you a nasty letter, but it is certainly not grounds to evict or even cite you. You won't get a bad reference, either.
You should explain to your neighbor that you will  be considerate of their needs, but that you have a right to live your life that is no less important than theirs.

The truth is, even if you were blaring music after 11pm, there would be little the agency  or landlord could do short of evict you, and if you paid your rent, the odds of that happening would be basically nil. So don't worry.

The truth is, even if you were blaring music after 11pm, there would be little the agency  or landlord could do short of evict you, and if you paid your rent, the odds of that happening would be basically nil. So don't worry.

That's not quite true actually. Most leases contain a clause about noise for one thing. For another, the landlord can just say at the end of the 6 month (or however long) term that they don't want to renew the lease. As long as they've issued a s21 notice they can do that, no reasons given and if the tenant doesn't move out then they can issue eviction proceedings.

No. Your neighbor is being totally unreasonable and if they were to complain about your "slamming doors" to your agency or landlord, neither party would take it seriously. They might write you a nasty letter, but it is certainly not grounds to evict or even cite you. You won't get a bad reference, either.
You should explain to your neighbor that you will  be considerate of their needs, but that you have a right to live your life that is no less important than theirs.

The truth is, even if you were blaring music after 11pm, there would be little the agency  or landlord could do short of evict you, and if you paid your rent, the odds of that happening would be basically nil. So don't worry.

In some cities, such as Edinburgh, noise wardens can also hand out on-the-spot £60 fines for noise after hours.

Noise-making nuisances, such as stereos, can also be confiscated.

I'm so sick of people and living round inconsiderate gits I'm starting to think long commutes, high petrol bills and living in the sticks is the only way forward.

I would very politely apologise for disturbing his wife who is ill, but then tell him that in a terraced property, there is likely going to be some noise that cannot be controlled - for instance, you using the toilet at night. Tell him you were not, nor have you ever, slammed any doors and that you are considerate of her condition, but if she heard you shutting the bathroom door in the night, then that cannot be helped. If they have such a problem with such small noises, then they should pack up and move to a detached house instead. You are going to hear some noise sometimes in a terraced house, that's just the way it is.

In some cities, such as Edinburgh, noise wardens can also hand out on-the-spot £60 fines for noise after hours.

I wish it was like that in England.

Noise-making nuisances, such as stereos, can also be confiscated.

I'm so sick of people and living round inconsiderate gits I'm starting to think long commutes, high petrol bills and living in the sticks is the only way forward.

The problem we have with noisy neighbours is all the students that live in our road. It's a very quiet cul de sac with about 50 houses, 4 of which are filled with students (4 per house). We gradually deal with them (and their shopping trolleys, which always seem to get dumped in front of OUR house) and their noise and 4am fights in the street and shouting and laughing and singing on the way to/from the pub. It takes months to clamp down on it all.

THEN, they all move out and we get a new bunch in September, rinse and repeat, for the last 7 or 8 years. It's infuriating.

I am desperate to move out of town into a village but villages are just so expensive around here 

That's not quite true actually. Most leases contain a clause about noise for one thing. For another, the landlord can just say at the end of the 6 month (or however long) term that they don't want to renew the lease. As long as they've issued a s21 notice they can do that, no reasons given and if the tenant doesn't move out then they can issue eviction proceedings.

The lease usually has a clause that addresses noise, but noise nuisances can be difficult and take time to prove, especially if you want to take legal action. The sad fact is, if someone wants to break the rules of their agreement, they are likely to get away with it many times before anyone can or will take serious action.

And the landlord (or tenant for that matter) may be able to say they don't want to renew the lease, but they cannot easily end a tenancy before the end date unless there is a break clause in the tenancy agreement. Bear in mind that break clauses are by no means compulsory and many landlords and agencies try to avoid including them in the first place. If there is no break clause, the landlord will have to either evict or wait until the end of the lease as you said. What I was trying to say is that if someone is making disruptive noise on a sporatic to regular basis over a long period of time, it is unlikely they would face any serious reprecussions (i.e. eviction) from the landlord before the end of their tenancy agreement. The neighbours would be stuck dealing with it until the agreement came to an end.

And the landlord (or tenant for that matter) may be able to say they don't want to renew the lease, but they cannot easily end a tenancy before the end date unless there is a break clause in the tenancy agreement.

Excepting social landlords, tenancy agreements here are short-assured.  Even those for a longer period of time, I've never come across one yet that didn't state that it was actually only short-assured after the initial six months and notice can actually be served after 4 months for tenant to quit after the 60-day period expires.

I am desperate to move out of town into a village but villages are just so expensive around here 

We are renters so have somewhat more flexibility.

We're currently looking at a house located on a private estate and we're really talking the middle of nowhere with this one! 

As in kids will live far enough away to board at secondary school during the week.

At this point in time, however, we're definitely willing to consider it as we are just so damn sick of inconsiderate neighbours.

I've had them in every single flat I've ever lived in.

And I've moved a total of 19 times in the past 20 years.

Jeez, here we go again!

DH is in the attic, putting up an aerial, so hammering. 5 minutes to 7 PM - still daytime - when people are first coming home from work so it's their first opportunity to get things done, neighbour has knocked on the door asking what the noise is.

Told him he that DH wouldn't be hammering much longer. But seriously - complaining about someone who has just moved into a house doing work on the house during the day?

So 3 complaints from him (2 about me and DH, one about the guy across the road) in 3 weeks.

Also, now that I think of it, is it a bit odd that he asked me if the guy across the street's noise was bothering me - as if he needed someone to agree with him that there was, in fact, noise? Whenever I've complained to someone about excessive noise, I've just knocked on their door and asked them to turn it down; I've never felt the need to ask anyone else if they heard noise, too.

Wow...this person sounds really...bored...just needs something to complain about.

I think I'd just go straight to the landlord (or whoever) and make a point that HE is becoming a nuisance to YOU by complaining all the time about perfectly normal and acceptable noise coming from your apartment during non-quiet hours.  Then I would not answer the door if he decided to come back and complain again.

Truthfully, the only thing that you can do is start looking now for a new place to live.  Because there is no reasoning with people like this.  He will never stop obsessing about your noise and he will make your life a living hell just like he's done to everybody else who has ever lived next door to him.
We had horrible elderly neighbours when our big kids were babies.  They used to write us daily letters noting every time they had heard a baby cried.  They complained about the children touching trees in the communal garden,  they complained about the noise we made when we set our milk bottles out, they complained when we sang 'Happy Birthday' to one of the children, they complained when the children were in the hallway singing nursery rhymes.  And that's just the tip of the ice berg.  But because they were the 'complainers' and not the 'complainees' they mangaged to get the president of the residents assos. on their side - until she stood in the middle of my living room and admitted that their TV was blasting up though our floorboards and our toddlers were tiptoeing around. 
We moved and it was the best day of my life.  What a weight was lifted off our shoulders.  Just get out as soon as you can.

We are not moving. Except for this guy, this is an amazing, perfect house in an incredible location. We were thrilled to be able to rent it. DH was also extremely depressed living in our previous flat and he is incredibly happy to be here; I am not taking that away from him.

I'll think about speaking to the other neighbours or contacting the letting agency.

By the way, DH informed me that when neighour knocked, he had hammered all of 3 nails in the wall - it's not like he had been hammering for hours.

One thing I didn't mention is that after Mr. Complainer told us about the guy across the street making too much noise, we received a note through our mail slot from that guy, apologizing for the noise - saying that he was well out of order and it wouldn't happen again.

We don't know if he mistakenly thought Mr. Complainer lived at our address (most likely) or if Mr. Complainer told him that we were bothered as well - We didn't even hear anything.

I just threw out the note after I received it; we were so busy with moving that I didn't have time to deal with it. Maybe I'll find this guy and have a talk with him.

DH thinks that Mr Complainer has probably lived on the street longer than anyone, and that he must think he owns the street.

I'd basically just pay him lip service and um and hmm at all his complaints and just carry on living.

He needs to go move to the sticks by the sounds of it.

He's lucky he never got landed with neighbours like some of us have had or have!

How annoying!!!  He sounds like he has nothing better to do, or his wife is nagging him so much he has no choice.

I have to agree with WestHighlandWay.  He doesn't seem to know what real noise is.  Lucky him!

Good luck. x