Shocking impact of noisy neighbours *Content warning: mentions suicide*

Soundproofing in so many homes is shockingly bad.

One of my friends lives in a HA place and the soundproofing is so bad that you can hear the “hi this is X, leave a message” from her neighbour’s answering machine. There are four of them in the building and they all joke that the basically live together as they have zero privacy from each other.

No But british housing stock needs sorting out- prerraced and semi detached houses need to disappear.

where i come from in mainland europe every house is detached with garden all around the house, wth were britis lh thinking building terraced and halving houses,like wth?

Noisy neighbours have such a massive impact on mental health. The only effective solution remains to move ASAP.
Reporting people often gets you nowhere, except reprisals. I genuinely feel sorry for those who have no option to move.
Soundproofing/building standards should have been altered to ensure homes are well built. Yet another policy successive governments have failed to implement properly, which causes the most vulnerable the greatest impact.

Suffered to an extent myself. Had a horrible family living above, the "mother" and her partner would drink all Friday and/or Saturday night which 90% of the time resulted in physical fights at 1am. Every morning she screamed at her child to get up for school and all evening when they got home. Complained a lot to the HA which did nothing but enrage her. Resulted in her (and her 14 year old) assaulting me and breaking several bones! HA did nothing as they couldn't til it went to court. Was a year and a half ago, still waiting on that court date. Won't ever live in social housing ever again.

That poor man. Some people are vile and have zero consideration for others. Neighbours noise does contribute to your mental health, no question. I will never live in a flat or terraced house again.

I think the blame lies squarely on the HA. There needs to be better regulations in place. While the government are pushing greener homes (which I do agree with) they also need to look at the countries housing stock and put in some regulations that all homes need better sound proofing. The majority of homes in this country are attached and small. We are only going to get more crowded. It needs sorting.
We have a detached house. Our son is autistic and loud, very loud sometimes. No way could we inflict our families noise on other people. But we are fortunate to be able to afford it. What if we couldn't? It doesn't bare thinking about!

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/03/family-of-tenant-who-killed-himself-housing-firm-clarion

It says that music was being played at all hours and light fittings were shaking.

Neighbour noise made me suicidal, I have posted on here before about my vile neighbours who made my life hell, including the time they played wall shakingly loud music on xmas day during covid lockdown, I could no go anywhere, I was trapped. I wanted to end it all. I believe I now have some form of PTSD from them.

This story is so, so sad. Landlords need to step up but more importantly there needs to 100% be harsher punishments for noisy neighbours AND easier ways for them to be prosecuted. They are untouchable and they know they can get away with it.

I used to live in a flat which had zero soundproofing. It was just a big house that had been split up. My downstairs neighbour could hear every tiny movement we made and spent their time banging on the ceiling and screaming at us. It got to the point where I was so severely anxious that we had to leave the city we lived in because I was so scared of living in a flat again. We tried everything to silence the noise down to living with duvets all over the floor, never having anyone round, going to bed early and trying not to get up too early and being too nervous to use the toilet during the night. I can really see how something like this affects both parties and not having the option to leave must have been awful.
A few years later I know live in a detached house but still panic when I hear a bang or someone speaking loudly.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/03/family-of-tenant-who-killed-himself-housing-firm-clarion

It's really sad and the HA have failed on several counts. But I'm not sure the neighbours were really to blame, being housed in an non-sound-insulated un-carpeted upstairs flat with children. It shouldn't have happened.

Have you got a link to news article?

It may not have been deliberate on the neighbours part though.

The report I read stated clearly that the issue was the total lack of soundproofing between flats.

Perhaps the neighbours were just, you know, living a life with children. Maybe on the noisy side but nothing actually unreasonable, in a properly built property.

IMO the housing association bears the ultimate responsibility, for their shoddy build quality and refusal to deal with the issue.

Oh that’s so awful, I hadn’t heard about that.
Noisy neighbours made my life hell. I was under psychiatric care, on tranquillisers and suicidal. Even now, several years after moving to a detached house, I still brace myself for noise to start up the other side of the wall sometimes. My MH is still awful and my anxiety is horrendous. I don’t think it will ever leave me. I’m sorry you’ve also suffered from noisy neighbours, it really is hell.