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?

I had someone young live above me when I lived in a city centre flat after finishing uni. I could hear them entering sometimes but other than that never heard them.

I don’t think I’d risk buying somewhere with someone above me though. Its probably 50/50 wether you can hear them and I wouldn’t risk it.

I'm not sensitive to noise, so it wouldn't bother me. But I've lived above people who were sensitive and they made my life a misery with complaints. The people after them weren't sensitive and never complained.

Given that I'm not very noisy, I assumed that it was down to those particular individuals. If you know noise bothers you, don't do it.

This is DP's issue - upstairs neighbour noise. He WFH and we ended up moving to a house for several reasons, but the noise from the flat above was one of them! A woman lived there with her parents and a small dog, she was pleasant but grew frustrated at his insistence that they were dragging their furniture around - she said they had felt pads on the chair legs anyway. I think some of the noise transferred from other flats around us. When we retire, we are moving into a 7th floor flat in a block of 12 storeys and he is already stressed about the potential noise (it's not even begun construction yet!)

I lived in a GFF in a Victorian conversion and never heard my neighbours upstairs.

I have literally never heard the people above me!

I can recommend some clogs

Don't do it, you'll regret it.

I live in a flat with people above and below. Very occasionally hear the small child upstairs run across the floor. Other than that it’s very quiet.

I’m in a ground floor social housing flat , the people upstairs aren’t great . There is a lot of running up and down stairs and shouting.

My neighbour lives in a Victorian house and her life is an absolute misery with people upstairs if they are noisy .

Victorian houses are NOT well insulated for sound.

Can you not move to a cheaper area?

My friend bought a garden flat and had to move into a shed in his garden as the noises were so awful above.

Kids running around like maniacs, heavy footed adults, music-

No way would I do it

A soft footed 80 yr old, maybe- but they can have TV up loud if deaf-

Noise pollution is grim.

Why is it cheap?

This would be my concern.

Noise could be a reason.

I couldn't live in a flat now unless it was the top floor but I am very noise sensitive.

We live in London suburbs in a detached house now and it's amazing! 30 minutes commute to work too.

Any chance you could move out and not get a flat if neighbour noise is important to you? I think you'll always get noises with flats - I hate it, always made me feel hemmed in.

Went to see it. It's amazing. All wooden floors, massive storage, fireplaces in every room. Upstairs have bunches of flowers in their windowsill, which I'm going to use as an omen of niceness.

So, going to make a bid

I’ve lived above people twice and both times they complained about noise - just the noise of walking about in slippers. Similarly, I lived below someone and the noise drove me mad - walking about, dining chairs being pulled out etc etc. I could even hear sockets being used in the walls and cutlery being dragged on plates. I lasted five months then moved out - luckily it was a 6 month rental. A friend bought a flat which was a Victorian house conversion and the noise from above made her move out. However, in some flats which are purpose built, they are soundproofed and you don’t hear anything. I think the main issue is houses converted into two flats.

@RogueFemale Told ya so!!

The ££££££££ health and safety exploitation industry.

Which proves the point ive been making. Its about £££££££ not safety.

ours has the self closer on the top and self closes straight away. Also fire retardent letter box. Still not good enough Still has to be replaced.

I used to live in a ground floor house (converted house). As annoying as people upstairs were it was nothing compared to people slamming the front door all day and night. It drove me to distraction

Good luck. Hope they're nice, quiet and never move out. I would knock on their door and ask them how the soundproofing is before offering.

I've had a mixed bunch of upstairs neighbours in the last 35 years. From a virtually silent old lady to constantly changing crowds of airbnb tourists who clattered around the flat, vastly over occupied it, and shrieked on the stair. Fortunately covid put an end to that. Since then there has been a very quiet middle aged gent and long may he stay!

I have lived in new build flat with neighbours above and it was such a dark time in my life! Washing machine spinning at all hours, footsteps banging across my bedroom, even knowing when they've used the loo as it would flush through the down pipe in the walls. Hearing them cough or sneeze, or argue. Awful experience. I felt like I was living with them.

I have also lived in a top floor Victorian conversion and didn't hear any noise from below then. But could somehow smell cooking smells and cigarette smells filtering through from the flat below. Which was almost as bad.

I would never live in a flat again - just felt I couldn't read this without sharing my experience

I’d be very surprised if they weren’t required to make adjustments to the existing front doors at the very least. Assuming they’ve actually been inspected. If they aren’t being inspected then the Responsible Person could get into a lot of trouble in the event of a fire.

What are you going on about? Why would these doors be a problem?

There is no problem with the doors in the photo you've posted as they lead onto the street. The new fire door regulations apply to front doors that open onto internal communal areas within blocks of flats, e.g. a corridor or a stairway.

Thank you. Not sure why irrelevent doors are being discussed in this thread at all, OP said quite quickly it's a Victorian garden flat, converted house. Oh well.