To think having people live above you is awful

[2025ohdear]

I'm hoping people say IABU and I'm overthinking

I live in London and every place I've lived there have been noisy people living above me. Music, heavy footsteps on wooden floors, parties. I think I'm now tuned into it and overly sensitive.

Here is my dilemma. I have the opportunity to buy a flat. It's beautiful, in a nice area, walk-in condition but it's on the ground floor. It has a main door and access to small private garden. An absolute find. I can't afford a house and only going for top floor flats is limiting.

Any advice? Anyone got people above them and all fine?

Its the people below me that are the noisy pricks, don't know why I bother trying to keep quiet.

So tempted to strip out my thick carpets and underlay, replace with wooden floors, start wearing clompy shoes and get a little yappy dog and throw footballs round my house all day.

We once had a neighbour living in the flat below ours who was so sensitive to noise she resented every time someone came into our house wearing shoes.
The floors were wood and though we had a couple of rugs, there was nothing in the lease requiring to fully carpet and we would never have done that anyway because it gathers dust and moths.
She complained so frequently about normal levels of noise (ie people walking around in their socks between the hours of 7am and 8pm, bedrooms were a further floor up so never any night noise) we ended up moving out, she was the biggest pain in the a**.
But we heard from other neighbours that the family that came after us had three extremely active boys… so she was served a portion of karma I believe.

All this just to say that you never have control over who chooses to live above you and if you feel the noise could poison your existence then don’t do it!

Can you get a sense of likely noise? My mum is in a new build and no noise whatsoever

In the '80s, I lived in a flat where the soundproofing was so poor that if I and the upstairs neighbour didn't have music or the tv on, I could tell when they were eating their dinner by the sound of the cutlery hitting their plates.

The bit in the bathroom where the pipes were all boxed in seemed to work like a speaker cabinet. You could hear people farting and shitting on all 8 floors of the block, ffs, and in the morning when everyone was showering, it sounded like Niagara Falls. Shagging had to be carried out in utter silence and the sound of voices travelled so well that I felt that I couldn't speak freely in my own home.

I was mighty relieved when my tenancy was up and I moved out, into a big ground floor converted flat. It was much quieter.

We’re in an upstairs flat and often on edge because downstairs neighbour is super sensitive to noise and has complained about the kids ‘thumping and jumping’. It’s ordinary family noise, shoes off, carpets throughout with extra insulation, no running or jumping indoors… I think she’s really lucky to have us and she’s just pushing it.
so I think it really depends on how sensitive you are to noise?? And how relaxed you are with neighbours?

Also @LakieLady thats a hilarious description!

I could never have anyone above me again. But sounds like your used to it and have your heart set on the flat?

I’ve lived with people above me (and on either side of me) for many years. It never bothers me very much. From your OP, you are “sensitive” to noise and have been bothered a lot by it in the past. Based on that, I think this is not a good idea for you.

I can't afford a house and only going for top floor flats is limiting.

Unfortunately OP, this is precisely what I did, accepting that my choices would be more limited and it might take longer to find a place.

Not for all the tea in China would I ever buy a flat below anyone again. The hell of living below a Scottish BTL tenement flat with stripped floorboards for ten years cannot be borne again. I'd end up doing 20 to life for murder.

A victorian conversion is unlikely to have great soundproofing. Noise travels down more than up and so does water from leaked showers and baths. I absolutely love a Victorian garden flat, all the beautiful big downstairs rooms and generous windows, but the noise can be miserable.

Ugh, YANBU! Best thing you can do is look on Zoopla and check the property timeline to see how many times it’s been sold. Check the timelines of the other flats too. I once bought a second floor flat in a beautiful grade 2 listed building and it was nothing but a bloody nightmare and I couldn’t wait to get rid. I sold it again after six months of being there. Neighbour in flat above me stomped about like an elephant. Neighbour below me played loud video games late a night. And the stench of their cooking coming into the flat was revolting 🤮! Communal doors being slammed at all hours. And to top it all it was bloody freezing in the winter. Never again!

The difficulty is retrofitting soundproofing is notoriously costly & not all that effective. Also you have no way of knowing how well built any conversion is. I lived in & owned a ground floor Victorian conversion & it was terrible. Shared front door & upstairs flat had daily & nightly upstairs & downstairs traffic that sounded like a herd of elephants every time (when they weren't actually especially heavy footed or pounding up & down just the interior walls were just paper thin). And I'd lived in lots of Victorian conversions prior (never on the ground floor). I hated it & found it oppressive. Their nightly bathroom visits sounded like they were peeing into my bedroom!! It was grim.

Had ongoing escape of water from their bathroom that repeatedly was put down by the managing agent as them ".just not using their shower curtain properly". Turns out their plumbing was generally terrible & even their washing machine was not correctly plumbed in & had been dripping under their kitchen sink for years . During interior cosmetic work to mine my builder uncovered severe damp & turns out both leaks over years had eaten away several of the joists holding up their property & it was at risk of collapse into mine!! The freeholder who owned both flats denied any responsibility & claimed I was trying to get him to pay for my own improvements (??). Thankfully my local council had a private landlord licensing scheme which allowed me to complain to them and for their own surveyor to inspect & to serve him with an order to improve the problem & to abide by all usual H&S regs for letting etc. This resulted in him ultimately carrying out remedial works but was massively drawn out with my whole property a building site in the process.
Never again!! From what my builder said Victorian houses were easy to convert cheaply back when there were hardly any real regs. People always say oh a full structural survey will tell you everything & while I'd always go for them any floor covering will deter most surveyors or sellers from being uncovered & you are literally buying blind.
If this flat is affordable & its own private garden - which mine did too & made it seem really appealing - I'd wonder if it's a bit too good to be true OP. If all you can afford is a flat then go first floor & no floors above as you will never be subject to the same level of noise or be vulnerable to leaks. If it's Leashold make sure it's got plenty of yrs left on the lease too!!

I lived in a flat next to a train station - minimal noise, either silence or barely audible.
I now live in a new build house and I have neighbours from hell. They have 5 children and a dog and the mother is the devil in 24/7 pyjamas.

Could you go for a viewing at peak “everyone’s at home” hours to have a slow stroll around to listen for any noise?
Or could you speak to the previous tenants/owner?

Not only noise from upstairs but noise every time the other occupants go in and out from the main door.

I’ve never had anyone live above me before but I don’t think I’d be too concerned if it’s purpose-built or if the conversion is done well. A couple of things:

I’d rather be on the ground with access to garden or courtyard or whatever there is. How would you have a cat otherwise?

Any kind of flat, terraced house etc you should probably expect to get some noise from the neighbours. I live in a new-build terrace and don’t often hear my neighbours through the walls, but of course there is noise when they are coming and going at the front, or if they’re out in the garden.

You don’t ever get to pick your neighbours. You could buy this flat because the upstairs neighbours seem really quiet, then they move and you get loud people. Or vice versa - don’t buy it because loud people are there, but then they move out. But also, you could be in a huge detached house and still have major issues with noise from neighbours.

I'm a former Londoner who's lived in numerous flats. The only guaranteed no-noise from above is in 20thC concrete construction blocks or 19thC mansion blocks. I'm guessing the flat in question is a 19thC conversion, which will generally have squeaky old floorboards on joists with zero sound insulation. If it's as nice as you say, then no harm asking the sellers about noise / building construction / any past experience of noise nuisance (though of course upstairs neighbours can change very quickly). Is there anything in the lease about flats having to be carpeted?

P.S. it is also potentially possible to sound-insulate your ceilings, if the ceilings are high enough.

Bollocks.

I’ve lived in lots of Victorian conversions (including a garden flat). It’s been a mixed bag. There was a woman above me who had laminate flooring in her kitchen. She used to pace around in her shoes before leaving for work which was quite annoying. There was also a young couple above my bedroom who clomped around a lot, and one time they left their TV on for two weeks while they were on holiday. That was really bad actually, I was tearing my hair out and had to contact the landlord to get him to switch it off. In another flat I could hear my pregnant upstairs neighbour howling in pain for about 16 hours while she had a home birth.

One flat in particular was horrific. The upstairs neighbours had bare floorboards. They were a very sociable couple who constantly had people round. They were always clomping and banging and I grew to despise them.

I don’t remember any excessive noise in the other flats, but I was probably more tolerant back then. I think it also depends on the quality of the conversion and what flooring has been put down.

I now live in a very modern flat with concrete floors. It’s much quieter than the Victorian flats in terms of footstep noise, but because there are multiple flats on each floor, I hear a lot of noise from the corridor which one neighbour in particular treats as an extension of their flat. Another neighbour has their grandchildren to visit, and one of them shrieks, throws full blown tantrums and plays her harmonica inches from my door. Occasionally she even tries to open it.

I’m extremely noise sensitive these days so it drives me insane but what can you do? Even if you had a house you could have neighbours from hell. It’s shit that people aren’t more considerate. If I had the money I’d live on a private island in a heartbeat.

You don’t necessarily have to pay for a new door but you do have to pay for adjustments at least. It’s happening in my block now. Everyone paid to have them adjusted after an assessment in 2023, everyone failed in 2024 and we are now all having to pay again.

I'm willing to believe this might happen in a 20th century block. I used to have an ex-local authority flat in a 1970s block for a few years, and we had to pay for, say, window replacements. But this sort of thing doesn't happen in 19th century buildings.

I’m not sure what you mean, what sort of thing doesn’t happen in a 19th century block? They are new regulations that came into place in 2022. As far as I’m aware they’re not necessary in GF or LGF flats as long as there’s a means of escape, but any flat 4.5 metres above ground has to have a fire door in place which needs to be inspected regularly to ensure it’s compliant.

I mean that I still have a lot of friends with flats in London, in mostly 19th century buildings, and not a single one of them has been required to change their front door.

Funny you say that as a guy came round my apartment the other month and asked me to open my front door to check it and asked if it had ever had a (whatever those things are called at the top, the metal bits....)
Never happened before and I've been here 18 years!

On noise, mine is purpose built and I hear very little from upstairs

Let us know what you think after your next viewing