Living in a first floor flat with kids

[Hdiw747]

Follow up from a previous thread.. Moving into a first floor flat with a five year old. Feeling nervous and concerned about downstairs neighbour's.

We currently live on the ground floor and no one has ever complained. However, I know the downstairs neighbors have complained about previous tenants making noise. The flat is already carpeted.

It's by far our best option at this point. It's close to schools, great transport links and is cheap but am concerned about living on the first floor with a kid. Any tips of how best to manage it?

If its reasonable household noise then the downstairs neighbour hasn't a leg to stand on. Kids playing/laughing etc is normal noise in any household and the council probably has the measure of them if they were complaining about things like hoovering or footsteps as opposed to partying or arguing. I think as long as you try to be considerate by wearing slippers/ being tidy/ using headphones/ not hoovering at 2am as pp have said, then if they complain repeatedly and its not upheld then you can issue a counter complaint for harassment because you have the right as a tenant to enjoy and live peacefully in your home. Hopefully previous tenants were throwing ragers and they'll love you by comparison! The process for any noise complaint involves them keeping a diary of all noise and then the council installing sound measuring equipment. So if they ring up saying you're being really loud, that will need to be backed up with recordings to prove it so it would need to be quite loud.