Can I ask next door’s landlord to consult us?

[bobkit]

We’ve lived in our terraced house for 20 years - exactly the same length of time next door has been owned by a landlord.

Over this time he has adapted the property to maximise profit with little regard to the inconvenience caused to us - eg dividing the bedroom with which our bedroom shares a party wall into a bathroom and a small bedroom. This means we get woken up every time one of the neighbours uses the bathroom late at night or when one of them gets up at 5am (including loud throat clearing!)

Ive just found out the current renters (an extended family) are moving out next month. Is it reasonable to approach the landlord to ask him to advise us of any further changes he intends to make or AIBU? Do we have any legal recourse? TIA

The fact that he's a landlord is irrelevant really, it's the lack of soundproofing you need to address from your side.

There's nothing to say that legally you can't have a room for any particular function adjoining a wall. Flushing a toilet or clearing your throat is not going to count as a illegally high volume of noise any time of night, so you could put in a noise complaint, but the council would tell you it was fine. You could tell the landlord and if he wanted to be nice and could easily change the position of the rooms, he might, if not he wouldn't and that would be perfectly fine too!

I doubt you have legal rights. I would look into sound proofing for your bedroom.