AIBU? Noisy neighbour thread. Advice please!!!

[Witchtower]

I’m going to try my hardest not to drip feed but there is A LOT of background to this.

I live in a share of freehold. My neighbour directly below me uses her flat every couple of weeks, usually when there is a protest on in London.

Almost 6 years ago, on the day we were moving in, my neighbour knocked on my door and explained that the previous neighbours were quite noisy and could we keep it down. We were very polite and said no problem. There was me my partner and my 3 month old.

My flat already had underlay with laminate flooring.

A few days later I met her in the garden and she began slagging off the rest of the owners in the building. My first reaction was that she must clearly be the issue as 5+ people cannot all be the devil.

The first complaint of noise came a few months after moving. To be honest I sat on my arse during that time as I was either BF (daughter attached constantly as I was not producing enough milk, but that’s another story) or my daughter was asleep. There really was minimal noise at this point. We currently spend 5 days a week at work/school/nursery, we arrive home at around 5.30 and children in bed at 7. We tend to be home at least one day of the weekend.

I read my lease and it was quite vague. It was along the lines of ‘floors must be covered with underlay or felt’ I was quite adamant that I was adhering to my lease. At this point there really was no noise.

Fast forward a few years and I now have 3DC. We decided to put the flat on the market as we had outgrown it. As soon as we told our freehold we received a solicitors letter from the neighbour downstairs. This was after years of back and forth complaints. So put an obstacle in our way to sell. I read the lease again and hidden at the back of a 30 page manual it said I needed carpet. So I decided to have a chat with my partner and agreed that we should invest in some soundproofing as the sale of our property fell through.

We emailed neighbour and asked if she’d be happy with soundproofing and a hard floor. We explained we had a few professionals quote us on various flooring. All said that due to the age of the property a carpet would have a very minimal affect and the best option would be to sound proof. She shut this compromise down and demanded a carpet. We paid £2000 for a very good quality underlay and carpet. Now after 18 months the complaints have started again.

Where do I stand legally? We made it very clear a carpet wouldn’t be sufficient but we were so sick of her complaints we agreed to it.

Just a bit of background. This lady has-

•Accused the freehold of stealing her post
•Refuses to support anyone e.g. her door needed fixing, she demanded we sort it but we made it clear it was her job and she ended up roping in another neighbour to sort it for her.
•Accused me of entering her property
•Accused me killing her plants
•Stolen my plant pots
•Treats us all like PA’s
•Made fun of my dyslexia
•does not believe we have carpet
•sent a really weird email to the freehold complaining that another tenant destroyed her front garden.
•everytime she visits this property she sends the freehold an email complaining about something, anything. Recently she requested a meeting and the truth is no one wants to sit in a room with her.

The list really does go on.

[wowfudge]

It's possible she's letting the flat out on Airbnb or elsewhere and noise from the neighbouring flats is or has affected her ratings/feedback. Minor noise is 'amplified' for some people when they are paying to stay somewhere. Someone who lives in a house will notice more noise from neighbours when they stay in a flat.

If that is the case, she may be in breach of the lease herself.

[Witchtower]

@wowfudge definitely not air bnb. When she complains via email she cc’s her friends who have been staying at the flat. I google them and realise they have some sort of connection to her.

Also, this should make you laugh. She rented the place to ‘family’ before, I’m assuming distant as they didn’t seem to know each other very well. I’d chat with the tenants every so often. One day they informed me they were moving out as my neighbour turned up when she wanted to and stayed over, she apparently didn’t understand the set up.

As I’m writing it, it sounds absolutely crazy, but it was confirmed by my neighbor. Who of course blamed them.

[floribunda18]

May as well be hung as a sheep as a lamb. Buy everyone clogs. When she visits, pull the carpet back and hold meetings of the Lancastrian clog dancing appreciation society.

[Witchtower]

Tbh all these threads regarding my neighbour were originally written when I felt upset and anxious. After a few conversations it had reminded me of some of the seriously crazy shit she does and has done. Things I probably wouldn’t believe if a third party had told me. I guess that has made be laugh. It probably shouldn’t as I’m the one dealing with it but if I don’t laugh I think I’ll go mad.