Am I a bad neighbour? :/

[GM99]

I have recently bought a top floor flat in a victorian conversion in London. When I moved in, the previous owners left me a lovely note with really useful information including that the original floorboards were still in tact if I wanted to rip the carpet up. There was carpet in the hallway, on the stairs, on the landing and in the study. The carpet was pretty gross so I made the decision to have the floorboards reclaimed and someone came to rip out the carpets.

In the meantime, I met the neighbours downstairs - a couple in their 30s, no kids, he works from home full time and she works in an office full time. I've only had conversations with him. He's taken a couple of parcels in for me while I have been at work. He came across fairly relaxed and relatively friendly but I noticed he kept asking questions about what I was planning to do with the flat...which I did find a bit annoying because I got the feeling he was only talking to me to see, basically, how annoying a neighbour I was going to be rather than genuinely being friendly. He told me that the previous owners were a couple with a son with learning difficulties and the son used to bang and stamp really loudly on the floor which they found very difficult so they liaised with the neighbours who agreed to get carpet and some kind of soundproofing. I only found this out after getting the carpets ripped out. I asked him if I was noisy and he was like 'oh no no, everything is fine'. I said I didn't want anyone to feel uncomfortable and that he should let me know if there were any issues.

Anyway, this morning I got a text message from him and his partner asking me to come round for drinks to discuss the flooring as they said they had noticed that it was much more noisy since I ripped the carpet out. I've agreed to go over but I'm not sure how I feel about the whole situation.

Firstly, I'm single, in my late 30s and live by myself and live a quiet lifestyle. I'm not running around having a rave every night so even though I understand they can probably hear me when I'm walking around, is it unreasonable of them to start interfering in how I decide to go my flat up - ie getting the floorboards reclaimed? What is a reasonable amount of noise for them to deal with? Given the nature of the flats and how they have been built, it's highly doubtful that all noise can be eliminated. I'm concerned they are going to try and persuade me into getting soundproofing which I can't afford. I work from home 2-3 days a week. I can understand it may have been a bit noisy recently as I have just moved in and have been getting people over to provide quotes on flooring, painting and decorating etc.

Any thoughts/opinions would be greatly appreciated :)

www.gov.uk/government/news/new-fire-safety-guidance-comes-into-force-on-1-october-2023

Nope. That poster might live in London so only be posting from her experience. But the following poster was correct in saying that the majority of flats in England are leasehold. And the few that aren't may well have covenants that have the same rule abut hard floors.

This.

It's interesting that the seller who encouraged you to take the carpet up to enjoy the wonderful original floorboards... had carpet.

It’s your flat, if they don’t like it then you can signpost them to the nearest estate agents….
The cheek of some people! I mean I could understand if you were have flat parties every weekend but you’re not….
I hate nosey Norris’ and Normas like this!

Carpet tiles are your friend.

Short pile, bitumen backing that dust can't penetrate, polypropylene so that wool moths can't eat them and you can clean them with Milton bleach solution in your carpet cleaner, and if you loose lay them with a patch of carpet tape on each corner then you can lift individual tiles for cleaning up spills.

😂

thanks I'll look into this.

I lived in ground floor of a Victorian conversion. The sound of the couple’s 2 year old running up and down their sanded hallway was much louder than you’d imagine. At 6am it was particularly annoying. Their other rooms were carpeted and much quieter for us below

Carpet tiles are grim. They're too grim even for most offices. For a domestic living room they're a horrible texture, and rock hard. Nothing remotely comfortable or cosy about them.

Despite discounting rugs earlier, a large and very thick one would do more to mitigate sound travel than wall to wall carpet tiles.

People like you make me profoundly grateful I don't live in a flat.
I wouldn't like you next door either, mind you.

I didn't know what carpet tiles were but having looked at them, don't think they are for me! My preference would be to have wooden flooring with thick rugs x

Two of my DC share a bedroom directly above our bedroom. It used to be carpeted, we renovated and did wood floors as easier to clean. It’s…loud. If their toe grazes the floor during the night, it wakes me up. Would drive me bonkers living below that in a shared housing situation!

Sound unfortunately typically travels really badly in Victorian conversions and as PP, for that reason usually this type of flooring isn’t even allowed.

It seems like the “lovely note” was unfortunately (likely) deliberately stirring things up, clearly the previous occupant was super aware of the problem.

I would gently tell your neighbours you’ve checked the lease to make sure your flooring was suitable, but also what you said here, ie you are a quiet person, intend to keep to yourself at home and will be wearing slippers.

Check if the slippers you have now are sufficiently quiet - do they make any noise at all when you walk? Are they rubber soled? New slippers may help and be a lot cheaper than new carpets!

Explain that you’ve been having workmen in and it’s been noisier because of the process of moving in.

Preferably notify them of dates of any planned works (so they know what to expect and realise it’s not actually ‘you’ making the noise). If possible, give them a date by when everything will be complete and things will quieten down and stick to it.

I would keep things friendly as possible. I’m sure it will be fine if they are reasonable about the above.

Are you stomping around with bricks tied to your feet?
As others say, check your lease, but some people expect complete and total silence when living in a flat and put unreasonable & unrealistic demands on others.

More than that, they clearly didn't declare a neighbour dispute - I guess they covered themselves legally because they sorted it? But don't you have to declare it even if resolved?

Their note to you was not kind and helpful, it was intending to cause unpleasantness for downstairs.

OP are you 100% sure there's nothing in the lease? You've read it cover to cover?

I once had a rental where upstairs took the carpets up. We complained, politely, about the noise, they said they could do as they pleased.

Then one morning I casually referenced a conversation I'd overheard them having. They got rugs PDQ. 😂

You are being a bad neighbour if you don't check the noise impact. You can get insulation but you'd have to take up the floors.

I live with wall to wall carpet tiles very well thank you, including in my bedrooms. I'm puzzled by how hardwood floors are deemed desirable despite being the least cosy and hardest (clue's in the name) surfaces available short of stone tiling, yet carpet tiles get slammed as "not cosy".

You can buy quite long-piled tiles these days, but I tried those and went back to short-piled. Dcat kept getting his claws stuck in the long loops and the robot vacuum cleaner just could not get the cat fur up off the longer pile. Plus moving the furniture for deep cleans is so much easier when the castors are rolling on short pile instead of long.

I have lived in a conversion flat which had an upstairs neighbours who had no carpet.

It was absolute hell. I could hear them walking around, sneezing, talking, watching TV. As time went on I became this angry person that couldn’t tolerate the tinest bit of sound as I never ever got any peace and quiet. The second I heard the neighbours come in, I became so anxious and stressed.

And I’m someone usually DGAF about a lot of things. So the effect the noise had on me was surprising.

It’s hard to explain how bad it is, but I completely understand your neighbours’ concerns. Do try and be neighbourly and install soundproofing or carpeting.

Huge difference between purpose built flats and a conversion of an old house.

Unfortunately you don’t have to be in this type of property, but it sounds like it due to the acoustics.

Keeping regular hours is helpful - ideally not up and about before 7pm or after 11pm.

Appliances can be really loud, especially a blender or hair dryer - but also need to make sure washing and dishwasher cycles ideally started after 9am and finished by 9pm.

Works noises like hammering and drilling can obviously be very jarring, especially if someone is having an online meeting or trying to sleep in on a Sunday.

A routine is helpful as OPs everyday noise can start to become background for her neighbours.

Tolerance is important but so is consideration if it’s going to work.

If purpose built and not old then they’ll be sound proofed etc. to current regs.
If not purpose built and are conversions then possibly not. Although technically they should be to get building regs approval.
It all depends on when they were converted

If there’s no sound issue and you have wood flooring then it sounds like there’s insulation

*7am, whoops!

You can also get underlay to go under rugs.
Lots of types but there’s a great insulating layer made of wool. It also stops rugs moving if that’s a problem.

Remember if there are gaps in your floorboards that will carry sound too. These can be easily and cheaply filled.

If your neighbours can hear you walking around then remember they can hear everything else aswel