I need to know who is being unreasonable here. We have lived in our flat in a beautiful detached Edwardian building since 2007. We love it here. We moved in when I was expecting my daughter and now, 12 years on, there are the four of us and our cats. Our flat is on the first floor - there is one flat downstairs, one upstairs and us...sandwiched in the middle. Last week, we had a run in with our downstairs neighbours which was really scary - they blow hot and cold at the best of times - one minute they want to be best friends and then when anything isn't as they want it, they get really arsey rather than trying to approach things maturely. So...we were getting a new Amtico floor installed in our bedroom last week. The workmen arrived at 8.30 to install it. within ten minutes, both she and her husband were banging on our door in their dressing gowns screaming at me - what the hell did we think we were doing, that it's unreasonable to have workmen at 8.30 am and that she didn't go to bed until late and was trying to sleep (the late bedtime has nothing to do with being a shift worker - she works in recruitment). I told her to come in and scream at the workmen who told her, quite rightly that they are legally contracted to work between the 'reasonable' hours of 8am and 6pm. For context we had given verbal notice to them which they say they don't remember. Anyway, my husband wasn't here at the time and I was trying to get the kids out of the door to school. I thought nothing more of it though I was shaking with nerves/ anger/ adrenalin - perhaps a combo of all three. Yesterday my husband informed me that he'd been bombarded with texts from 'her' all week. Saying we are selfish and how if we are going to be selfish they will be too. So they've been playing their music really loudly to the point the furniture in our lounge (which is very soundproofed - we picked up every floorboard and stuffed insulation in before laying a very thick carpet several years back). They're now choosing to complain that our Amtico floor which was laid in our hallway in 2014/15 is really annoying them and they hope that the workmen are installing carpet. Now the carpet we replaced was old, the underlay was thin and the floors were creaky. Now all the floorboards are screwed down, there is a layer of plywood, a levelling compound and the Amtico which is essentially a vinyl and nowhere near as noisy underfoot as wood floorboards or laminate. Also we don't wear shoes in the house and the kids are mindful of the fact we live in a flat. The people above us have laminate throughout and, though we can hear them - it's not bad noise - just people living their lives and part and parcel of living in a flat. The problem downstairs have is that their entire flat is wood floor throughout and no soft furnishings - shutters not curtains, leather sofas etc. You can hear everything echoing in there when you walk past their front door. It sounds like an empty house if you know what I mean. So they've got nothing in there to absorb noise. When we moved in here, we actually put a fake ceiling in the lounge and insulated that. My husband is a typical Englishman, starts every sentence with sorry - picture Hugh Grant. He's all for keeping people happy and is suggesting we lay rugs over our lovely floors. I don't want to do this, it's a slip hazard and also a pain to clean the floors if I've got to lift big rugs in order to mop the hard floors etc. Sorry this is a real rant (very therapeutic). I should also mention we are share of freehold and there is nothing in our lease which prohibits the laying of hard floors - in fact vinyl is mentioned as a permitted material and Amtico is a vinyl. Also in terms of us being selfish - it couldn't be further from the truth. Baring in mind they are two people in their 50s and one of them is semi retired - they've never done anything to contribute to the upkeep of the property. In comparison, we tend to the front garden, have painted the entire hall and stairway and front door, built a new side entrance door. We do all the research for new purchases for the building and pay for them then wait for the other flat owners to reimburse us. We also handle all the tiresome admin of the building insurance. We are not bad neighbours.