Bought a flat from hell. What now?

[LeonieLondon]

I changed name and posting here to get more advice. Sorry long post
I recently bought what I thought was my dream flat in Kensington. For the past 14 years i have worked hard and saved most of my money. finally got on a property ladder with my dp (soon to be dh). We were renting a very similar type of place for the past 3 years (a flat in a mansion block) and had a very good experience- no noise from neighbours, no disasters in the flat, no leaks, generally no problems.
Turns out my new dream flat in a ‘sought after and prestigious mansion block’ has got zero sound insulation, there are not only every day neighbour noises (tv, chatter, laughing) coming from right, left and below (we are top floor, i insisted on a top floor flat because i thought i wouldn’t hear the neighbours…)

• I can hear my neighbours boilers from every direction, imagine constant very loud amplified humming in your ear
• below neighbours are fans what seems to be drum and bass and i hear bass noise coming from their place every day
• said neighbours make my floor and walls shake when they walk- is this a structural fault? I can be sitting in my bed or on a sofa and it literally shakes
• i am pretty sure they can also hear us stomp even though we are quiet

-there is a gas meter in a cupboard of one of the bedrooms which makes a very loud ticking/clicking sound every 2 seconds, again so loud and amplified. It would be impossible to sleep there or work while heating is on or someone turns hot water on (never even noticed this when viewing, but having lived in a bedroom with a boiler cupboard in it i wouldn’t even suspect that would be a problem) I am not even THAT sensitive to noise but i feel i am spiralling into paranoia.

• the fucking helicopters?!?! There is a heliport in battersea over the other side of the river…

We are meant to be putting new floor with sound proofing but given that neighbours play drum and bass i think the sound will travel through walls and chimneys anyway?
I don’t want to be here, it’s a complete disaster. I am now paranoid about every sound and movement
Any advice please? Move? Wait? Do i even bother changing the floors, spending £15k+ on new floors only to discover no noise change?
I feel like this mansion block compared with the one i lived is so flimsy.
I feel no joy from buying anything new for the house- it shouldn’t be like this :(

@GrimDamnFanjo the good points are:
-communal private gardens (so garden but no gardening)
-close to the river
-big and airy open plan living room, french windows, fireplaces, high ceiling etc looks really beautiful (but i don’t see it anymore)
-2 bedrooms, one with a balcony looking out to the communal garden where i dreamt of having coffees in the morning and wine in the summer, and an office (with the clicking noise)

• the street itself is quiet and only has a few cars going round it

I know helicopter noise is helicopter noise but what part of Kensington are you that you're affected by Battersea Heliport?

Are you sure it's not police helicopters you're hearing? It might reduce your anxiety if it is!

I'm also on the river but only unusually hear the police ones.

P.s it’s a purpose built mansion block so it’s never been converted- built as flats from the start. In 1909

Please don’t spend £££ on sound proofing. It simply doesn’t work. Cope or move. But def get to know your neighbours.

Request pictures are removed from rightmove and zoopla. Give it a quick coat of paint and list it for sale. If anyone asks you did it as a renovation which is why it’s back on the market.
We rented our flat before buying it, so we’re aware of any particular pitfalls.

It isn’t the flat from hell - even if it doesn’t suit you, it won’t be difficult to sell and you will be able to buy something else.

Take a deep breath, acknowledge that you made a mistake and move.

Lots of us have been there OP.

Pay for consultations from at least three acoustic engineers/sound consultants.

See if their recommendations match (they may not - there are some scams out there - a bit like damp). Pay for their time so you get honest predictions of what improvement you can expect.

I found that bringing in the engineer reduced stress slightly, see if it does for you.

When you have their recommendations you can make a decision. The hardest noise to eliminate will be the bass - I think only concrete floors work on that.

It’s hard and you are grieving for the dream right now. But you’ll get through this!

Sell up. It will probably have only increased in price so you will be ok.
There is more to life than this, sell, move on and be happy. The only worse thing than staying one year in the wrong place, is to stay 10 years in the wrong place.
Move on and good luck!

@Westfacing

I know helicopter noise is helicopter noise but what part of Kensington are you that you're affected by Battersea Heliport?

Are you sure it's not police helicopters you're hearing? It might reduce your anxiety if it is!

I'm also on the river but only unusually hear the police ones.

They are police and sky doing a figure of 8 over Westminster usually I think.

Before you spend any money try and live with it for a few months first, I work for a company that retrofits acoustic and thermal insulation, if you can pull up a floorboard - have a look if there’s any insulation between the ceiling below and your floor - if there’s none this can cause a ‘drum’ effect and sound can bounce around the place! Soft furnishings also make a huge difference, i totally sympathise with you as I speak to customers daily with this issue in the London area!

Really don’t want this to sound snobby- a mutli bedroom house in a commuter town is no use for us- we are a couple with no children and won’t be having any. Our life and jobs are here.

Then you need to learn to put up with neighbour noise if living in a house isn’t for you.

I moved out of flatted property as soon as I could afford it and long before I had a child. Having normal neighbour noise all around me wasn’t for me and you couldn’t pay me to do it again no matter how “exclusive” the property was.

@doublemonkey

OP, you'll get a stamp duty refund if you sell within a certain timeframe.

Do You?

Evidence?

You get a 2nd home stamp duty rebate if you sell your original property and so only own 1.

Either speak to your neighbours or sell.

TBH if the flat below has been recently refurb-ed to a high standard and they have little noise issues I would investigate cost-effective ways to sound proof your own. Like you said it's where you want to be and makes sense to improve it to the best you can afford even at the expense of furniture (which you can always upgrade down the line). I would start with soundproofing the ceiling and floors at the same time on a room by room basis

I agree with buyer's anxiety making the situation seem worse. I have bought and sold many homes and quite a few of them have given me the horrors for the first six months.

Some noise you get used to after a while - boilers, gas meters etc. If I really focus on it, I can hear my boiler and the clock in this room but I don't notice at all normally when I'm concentrating on work or even MN.

Neighbour noise is often part of living in a flat, though. I had some really good experiences of flats and then a nightmare experience in a beautiful Victorian top floor conversion - it was unbearable, so I do understand.

Do the neighbours own their flats or do they rent? Either way they might move away and be replaced by quieter neighbours, but it is also worth talking to them if you can just to see how they experience noise from other flats. Some people might not realise how much the noise carries and others don't care as much but if you are going to live there, it's worth seeing if you can change anything.

Personally if you're feeling this miserable already, I wouldn't waste anymore money investing into the place and just cut your losses.

I just remembered that when we requested to come and measure the rooms for furniture etc (about a week before getting the keys AND the owners had moved out at this point) they refused this request- i suspect because they were worried we would hear all the noise🙄

@leonielondon

And that didn't raise a red flag????

@DisappointingCaramel they said they had boxes everywhere. In hindsight yes, it was a red flag…

Sell now while the market is good, otherwise you're just sticking a finger in the dyke, wasting money on soundproofing etc.

[quote LeonieLondon]@DisappointingCaramel they said they had boxes everywhere. In hindsight yes, it was a red flag…[/quote]
Just out of interest, had you already exchanged?

Noise is an absolute pain but I wouldn’t call it the flat from hell

I hate noise, so I would cut my losses and move.

@Emerald5hamrock

Sell now while the market is good, otherwise you're just sticking a finger in the dyke, wasting money on soundproofing etc.

The Market for flats is very poor?