Please help - noisy neighbours

[Charliechoco]

So me and my partner recently purchased a ground floor flat, we were told there were a young professional couple living upstairs and was not aware they had two children. They have been totally fine and we do not hear much sound, only in the evenings and weekends when the children are back from school. Which again is completely fine, the neighbours are very respectful.

However, one month after moving into the property, the neighbours have moved out and their family is now living upstairs for summer. It has honestly been a nightmare. I assume they are on vacation for two or three months. But there are at least four children and four adults. They make an insane amount of noise. We can hear everything downstairs. They put the washing machine on at 10 pm which is directly above our bedroom. They shout in the hallway next to the room I work. I can hear every footstep every sound, and they are home most of the the time.

Had we of known this before buying this place, we would likely of decided against the purchase.

I really need some advice as to what to do. It is incredibly disruptive and causing me a lot of stress as I work from home.

Do you have the contact details for the original owners? If so ring them and explain the problem

What do you expect them to do about it?

Tell their relatives who are borrowing their house to quieten down and be a bit more respectful of their downstairs neighbours?!

Have you tried talking to them about it? They may have no experience of living in flats and not be aware of quite how loud they're being from your pov.

@Greenqueen40 It's absolutely nothing to do with the old owners.
@Charliechoco the only thing you can do is go up and knock and ask them to quieten down or contact the new owners of the flat who's family it is and speak to them

Knock on the door and explain how the noise is travelling. Say the washing machine is above your bed so can it be used during the day .
They might be mortified about it
Finger's crossed it gets sorted

I think working from home is part of the problem. You can't expect silence. Can you rent space for the summer? Wear noise cancelling headphones?
I would ask them not to put the washing machine on at that time though if it's above your bedroom. Nothing else you mentioned sounds unreasonable.

I think PP have missed that the people living upstairs are family of the owners who are living there temporarily. I would definitely contact the owners about this. I would be mortified if it was me.

Did you miss the bit about it being their family who have moved in for the summer?

Other than the washing machine - and they may not realise that your bed is directly underneath - I can’t see they’re doing anything wrong; it just sounds like they’re going about their daily lives. It’s just that there are a lot more people and they’re home more than you’re used to.

Could you get noise cancelling headphones / play white noise / go out or into the office more?

They can be home all day? What's the issue with that?

You can't expect daytime silence!

Talk to them in friendly way first. They may not be used to living in a flat or an upstairs one.

10pm isn't unreasonable time for washing machine but they could pad under it or avoid a long spin cycle. They may need to use it after work/school/nursery.

Shouting in corridor is inconsiderate but very hard to keep young kids from doing it, especially if there's an exciting echo!

Good luck, try to speak with them.

Unfortunately, it's likely that people rude enough to make so much noise will care. It's obvious when you live in a flat that you have to be a lot quieter than living in a detached house. People know. Some just don't care and are antisocial wankers.

There's no excuse to make ridiculous noise, even with young children, if you want to, you can be civilised.

I think the only solution to this is to have concrete poured over the upstairs floor

You WFH bit is a quite irrelevant here. They can make noise during the day. Obviously it’s nice if they attempted to not be super noisy all day, but that’s part of living in a flat and more your problem to solve with headphones, working in office etc. The noise at night, like a 10pm washing machine cycle is really antisocial when living in flats. Absolutely ask them to stop that.

Or go back to the office!

When they are shouting in the hallway, I have asked once to twice if they could stop because it echoes through my flat. All I got was a nod and then ignored...

But it’s a flat and this is the risk you have when buying a flat :( same goes for a terrace.

all you can really do is contact the owners and tell them their family noise is horrendous. How do the children cope with sleeping with a washing machine going on at 10pm?

Are there no carpets anywhere?

I guess at least it’s temporary :(

It’s just for the summer? If so contact your actual neighbours and ask for no washing machine to be put on or to be running after 10pm. Ask for their summer guests to be quiet from 10pm to 6am or something like that so that you can sleep.

Yes at least it's temporary. By the sounds, it's very unlikely they have carpet. But maybe some rugs temporarily could be a good option... I would be happy to pay for that myself at this point

Good advice, maybe asking if they can be more wary of sound travelling between x & x time

What times?

Ignoring the 10pm washing machine what times are they shouting and being noisy? If it's during the day then there isn't much you can do. At least you know that it's only temporary...and there's no thudding bass music involved!

I live in a terrace and have had shitty neighbour after shitty neighbour but the walls are so ridiculous that even just 'normal' day to day household noise sounds awful.

I think prioritise them keeping quiet at night and not putting the machine on late. Ask them if they can do that.

As for the day, if the noise is just normal conversation, then you have to live with it. If it is more, record it and, potentially, complain to the council about noise nuisance.

To reduce the stress, if there is one of those work places near you, why not rent a desk for a couple of months and work from there.

It's so distressing, I really am regretting buying a flat. Lesson maybe learned here.

@Charliechoco check your leasehold agreement and see what is says about washing machines and carpet. The last time I lived in a flat we had rules to follow and no hard floors was one of them! So was no washing machines or tumble drying after a certain time!