To feel muderous thoughts about my downstairs neighbour.

[strawberrycake]

He's so F**king noisy. He's been away and I've enjoyed it, but now they're back with a vengence.

Firstly it's a two-bed flat (one box room, on double) and him, his wife, MIL, baby and three year old are all squeezed in so that alone equals a fair amount of noise. Plus I don't think MIL and wife get on so they argue loudly whenever he's out, sometimes making such odd noises you wonder about their mental state (they're fine). IT's stupid as half a mile away they could rent a bigger place for less anyway. He seems DIY obsessed and thinks DIY is something to be done when it's dark outside.

Right now I just put my 8 week old in his cot, settled happily for 5 min before he started bloody drilling multiple holes through the outside wall just below his window. WHY?! Also random banging. Everyone does it occassionally, and I'm used to loud neighbours. But it's so damn often with them. They were back last night after two months away and the noise was instant and into the night. We have concrete floors so I didn't even hear the last lot even with their baby so god knows why they have to be so damn noisy. It's rented so why are they always banging anyway? Are there any supporting walls left under us?!

They have a fusebox outside and if they go past 10-11pm with the powertools I think I may remove the fuses from it. BU? BU unreasonable to think they should rent a bigger cheaper place nearby? Not a bad area at all and same school area anyway, just not this one road that's a bit more because of pretty views.

Surley if they can rent a bigger place cheaper so can you ?

We don't rent, we bought it as the mortgage is less than the rent. And we fit in the place.

very good point, 2boys.

x-post so shifting yourselves is not an option.

Talk to them?

Go to environmental health?

Start keeping a diary of noise?

Whilst they attract very good rent for landlords they don't sell for that high a price in comparison. Transport links for renters good etc.

Go to the managing agent for the block?

Write to their letting agent? Or their landlord if you know them?

That many people in a two bed is ridiculous. I am surprised the landlord has allowed it to be honest.

who are they renting from?surely it cant be ok to let a 2 bed out to a family of that size?we looked at a 2 bed house a few years ago with seperate lounge and dinning room and said we could use dinning room as bedroom.letting agent said they couldnt let it to us as theyre are 5 of us.

Do you know that landlord? Can you tell him that there is a lot of drilling etc going on? I wouldn't be too happy if my tenants were doing anything to the structure of a rental flat, so that landlord might book an inspection and them ask them to stop doing Diy.

They don't speak english, tried the talking approach.
Thought they'd moved out to be honest as gone nearly two months. They just don't seem to have a grasp of common decency. WIth the market as it is the area has hugely changed in a year with many flats being bought cheaply and rented out for good rents, it's becoming a general problem.
I've never been to the council over anyone before, just wondering if the fuse removal (then posting them through the letterbox) would grab attention. The children are still away btw.

I'll find out who landlord is, been a succession of tennants since we have been here. All normal some noise but as I said concrete floors so no worry. I'm a pretty laid back neighbour in general, don't even mind parties as long as it's not too often.

update: I've just popped out and seen two blokes entering with suitcases, said 'hi'. Little english but said hello and told me they his brothers. I asked 'You live here now?' and they nodded. ARGHHHHH.

phone the council asap.find out where you stand and what can be done!

I'll go to residents association, I believe there's a covanent on the flats restricting them to one family unit. Just why? I admit I used to live in a squashed house to save money when we first arrived in the UK, but the whole point was to buy a BIG place and then get lots of people in to save rent. Why a small flat with higher rent. It's stupid. We'd rent a big house for little more and at least keep in to 2 people for each room.

Definitely talk to the landlord and the council. Just read in the paper that a council somewhere in the south has the police investigating the noise that frogs are making and they are going to round them up and destroy them for

a) making too much noise
b) not being native

Not suggesting they do this with your neigbours of course, but should be worth a phone call. Special if there are more people moving in. There must be a limit for a rented property surely?

Can you speak to the landlord or freeholder (if it's leasehold)?

Ring the council environmental health dept and ask them to monitor the noise. They usually come around pretty quickly and may issue an abatement notice.

Also contact their landlord and the freeholder for the block, this is bound to be a breach of the terms of the lease.

Otherwise think about installing sound insulation. I just spent £1.2k doing it and it's made a big difference.

Don't pull out the fuses, you'll look completely unreasonable and it won't solve the problem.

Definitely go to the landlord. If it was my place I would want to know that there were so many people living in it and I'd certainly want to know what was going on with the DIY!!!!

Hopefully they'll turf them out and you'll get some new, more reasonable, neighbours.

In the meantime, why not get the local paper and put big red rings around all the cheaper properties and shove them through the front door!!