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 :)

Some people have clearly never spent a night in a flat in a Victorian building. Some noise is to be expected in a flat. But hearing every step, every word, every appliance, every piss and flush? It's awful And I only had to put up with it for a week.

Anyone living in a flat conversion needs to expect a degree of noise. But equally anyone living in one needs to be at extra pains to be considerate neighbour.

I agree with this, it's very different to living in a modern flat or a different style building. Even with carpets you can hear a lot but it's a bit easier to deal with when it's slightly less noisy and you know the neighbours have been reasonable and attempted to curtail the noise. I lasted a few months before it became too tedious hearing every single conversation, hearing them poo etc- eurgh. Part of being in a flat is hearing some noise, but it quickly becomes unbearable in this style of property. I agree with a PP that I suspect the previous owners had complaints and had to put carpet down (otherwise if the flooring was so nice they'd have had it exposed, no?) and wanted revenge on people who rightly complained about living in hell.

I’ve lived in a conversation below someone with solid wood floors and if was pretty horrendous. They weren’t noisy intentionally but every little sound was amplified to a ridiculous degree, I could hear every step, them weeing in the loo, their alarm on their phone vibrating. Once they dropped a coin and I could hear it going round and round and then falling over so clearly! Do you really want the downstairs neighbours to hear this degree of personal stuff? And as for when they used the washing machine or dishwasher it was like being inside a cement mixer!

They did get carpets and it was so much better.

I also think your sellers had it in for the people downstairs.

In your position I would see what they have to say and maybe do a test- you stay downstairs whilst they go upstairs and walk about a bit. It might not be as bad as where I lived. If it is thought I would definitely agree to put carpets back, you could perhaps compromise and leave 1/ 2 rooms with floorboards or try vinyl flooring or soundproofing, but I suspect this won’t work and will be much more expensive than a nice wool carpet.

Just to clarify, the previous owners had left the living room with the original flooring (they used this as their bedroom but I will be using it as a living room). The Kitchen/Dining room has wooden flooring but not original wooden flooring - it looks like they have put new floorboards on top of the original ones.

You guys have definitely put me off buying a converted Victorian house! They shouldn’t be allowed to sell them as flats if you can literally hear people use the loo!

Our neighbours (halls adjoining terrace) have just stripped their stairs. The noise of their kids running up and down then is horrendous, especially at 6am each day. They knew this would be the case but don’t give a shit.

When we moved in there was no carpet upstairs in our place, and I couldn’t bear the noise when downstairs. Get carpet as rugs really don’t stop the noise at all. Be a good neighbour.

You can’t be expected to carpet a kitchen/diner.

In your shoes I would look at carpeting the living room or a very large rug that covers almost all the floor. It will be nicer for you in the winter as well as saving neighbour relations.

… and if you do go for a rug, get a felt underlay for it, really helps

Thank you. Having read everyones' thoughts I'm thinking I might re-carpet the bedroom and like you said, put a nice large thick rug down in the living room. I need to think about the stairs though.

Oh didn’t realise there were stairs. Stairs are the absolute worst for noise so I would start there.

Sorry, your vendors really screwed you over by (effectively) recommending taking up the carpet that was already there.

I live in a ground floor masionette the people above me have wooden flooring and honestly it sent me potty. They did have a child though. I complained and k complained as it’s down right rude. They did have a child too who would just consistently be really really loud and bang on the floor 24/7 not to mention be awake till gone midnight some nights and wake my child up who’s in bed from 7pm. Don’t be inconsiderate I don’t know how it’s not common courtesy to get something like carpet out down to make sure everyone’s happy and living peacefully. I wouldn’t like to keep listening everytime my neighbour moves thankfully the guy that now lives above rarely makes a sound.

The note about the original floorboards was one last Fuck You from the old owners to the flat below.

I also agree, stairs and hallway will be the worst as they often stretch the length of the building, and they’re high movement areas, and stairs you can’t really avoid a heavier tread.

The other alternative though is laying good thick acoustic underlay and then hard flooring on top- most of the problems here (certainly mine) will have been with the original flooring. If you can’t afford it now you could save up for the future.

(BTW it’s really eye opening, if you’ve not done it, to look at you tube videos about what old floors look like- it’s often literally one layer of wood (the floorboards) secured to a joist running the other way, a bit of a cavity with electrics in and then the ceiling of the room below, it’s really not surprising).

Oh Jeeze. I just realised about the stairs. The previous owners really did use you to piss of their neighbors didn't they? That was actually more spiteful to you than the neighbours, in that getting that carpet taking up and then replacing it will end up costing you a fortune.

Having said that, I don't really understand why you would remove stair carpet?

Good idea - thank you. I'll look this up. Will also look at getting acoustic underlay with hard flooring on top. This could be a good compromise.

If you get anything, make it a rug rather than carpet. Easier to thoroughly clean.

Yes, it's bad isn't it.

even if it's not in the lease, there's been enough court cases now that if I were the downstairs neighbour I'd be asking the freeholder to get it put in.

OP I'd be really tempted to go after them for the costs in the basis they failed to declare a neighbour dispute.

Wooden flooring is incredibly noisy put carpets down

Rugs are your friend along with soft bottom slippers. It's really noisy if you have people above you - we have a town house and the kids have the top floor, they sound like elephants!

You do need to put carpet down if you are anything but ground floor. The noise is absolute torture and I think only if you’ve lived in these flats, you realise the full extent of the noise and what it does to someone’s mental health.

It’s a very interesting split on this thread.

It’s either ‘I’ll do what I like and the people below me should suck it up’.
or ‘no one in an upstairs Victorian flat has hard floors.’

Also, purpose built blocks, tenements and flats in Mexico are not comparable.

And how many threads have we had on here where a neighbour has been making noise which has travelled and the advice has been to invite them around to hear what it’s like? As for it being a 2 against 1 situation, what are they meant to do? They are a couple, should one go out?

Haha the previous owner HATED them. It's the ultimate revenge.

Unless they get sued...this has got to come under failure to disclose, surely?

You might think differently if you were living underneath someone whose every simple move meant nothing to them but sounded thunderous in your home.

Noise is the only reason that I struggled hard to move from owning a flat to buying a house. When I lived in a flat my neighbours were truly lovely people but the soundproofing was shite and my life was a living nightmare. Noise can drive you bonkers. Equally, when I had a boyfriend the neighbours once wrote me a really polite but embarrassing note to complain about me doing diy as they heard “banging” sounds coming from my flat in the middle of the night.

I had to move out of a city in order to afford a detached house to get away from noise from neighbours in a flat. It drove me round the bend. Obviously some noise is to be expected I understand that. But I think unless you've lived in a particularly badly sound proofed ground floor flat you won't understand how much it can affect you.
I've always laughed at this jokey clip of upstairs neighbours. But honestly the noises you do hear sometimes you do wonder what on earth they're doing!! Trust me it doesn't sound like someone "just walking around" occasionally.