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 agree with OP and as a result I will only go for top floor no matter what.

Unless they have flowers in their windows, which makes it ok, apparently 😂

It applies to any flat with a door that opens onto an internal communal area, regardless of what floor it's on or whether it's a conversion or not.

I've always lived in flats. People used to be a lot more considerate of others though, ie no hoovering/washing machine/other noisy things past 8pm. We were also always told to keep it down as kids, no thumping around on the floor/someone else's ceiling, carpets down to try and dampen down any noise. Now a lot people don't seem to care about the noise they make and how it disturbs others.

Which is why it will become even more of a struggle to sell flats People dont want all the extra costs

After a few times living with people above me, I switched to top-floor only. People below and at the sides can be awful too, but above is the worst I find

I live in an old house and my daughter paces in her bedroom above my preferred sitting room.....check out the noise level carefully.

I would bring someone with me and ask them to knock on the door above to ask can you check it out.

Its too important to leave to chance.
Being at the mercy of others reasonable activity is no way to live.

I lived in a basement flat and had issues with one upstairs neighbour who seemingly was up and stomping around from 5am then never seemed to be in bed until midnight. There were lots of tears as it disturbed my sleep much. I ended up getting used to it… it was a rental so occupancy changed a lot. Next up was someone in bed a lot and there was a noticeably huge improvement in the noise levels. He lived there until I moved and i forget how bad it was with the stomper. I probably wouldn’t live somewhere with someone living above me again, it feels too risky. Of course, we don’t always have a choice… but I wouldn’t choose to as the impact in your life with a stomper above you is significant.

I live in an apartment with people above me and it’s great. No noise. Good sound proofing (I cannot even hear my loud door buzzer from
the bedroom.)

I cannot even hear very muffled sounds but that’s it. And I only hear that when sitting in silence in my apartment. I am also the Ground Floor right next to the entrance and it’s fine.

But if you are ultra sensitive to noise, apartment living may not be for you.

I don't think you can ever predict it. I moved into a gf maisonette and it had a one bed flat above and I thought great, will only ever be a couple or single person. The i am not even joking when I say a family of FIVE moved in and it was hell for 3 years they lived there! 3 kids running up and down throwing things, jumping all in a one bed flat.

I currently live in a flat and the twat upstairs has a big dog. I'm constantly having to listen to the dog run around. And he lets him shit in front of my back door and doesn't clean it up

But there can be noise anywhere. I lived in a detached house with a good thirty yards between me and the house next door. Then the house next door became an Air B&B and it was so regularly used as a party house which kept the whole village awake that the entire village wrote to the owner (who stopped letting the house out as a result). My bedroom overlooked the gardens and I'd be kept awake by the shrieking as everyone chased everyone else around whilst drunk at 4am. That was fun...

Glad that had an easy solution though.

Being extremely sensitive to, and not being able to do anything about the normal expected noises from a conversion flat above, is a different scenario entirely. I would never choose this, no matter how many fireplaces or nice cupboards a flat may have.

Not THAT easy, it went on for ten years before the village got together...

My last place was a ground floor flat and it was torture tbh I could hear everything and they purposely made my life hell just because they could , I was so lucky and got the opportunity to move and then ended up with another nightmare neighbour but in a house , they have now thankfully been evicted but I will say when there upstairs you literally can’t get away from the noise where as in a house you can move to the other side and I would never go back to a flat , if I had to have a flat I’d only want top floor , I think the fact your worries about it also means any little noise now you’ll be concentrating on always

Oh! Surprised it took everyone so long

I live in a lovely apartment with a huge patio, that’s right on the canal side. I have people above me and literally never hear a sound.

We had our ceilings soundproofed in a victorian conversion. We even could hear the guy fart.

It really depends on the building...

I've lived in flats where I've heard nothing (Victoria house conversion) and I've lived in flats where I've heard everything (footsteps, sex, snoring - purpose built flats!).

If it's not too much hassle I think I'd ask for a viewing during the early evening and/or times when the upstairs neighbours are guaranteed to be in, just to put your mind at rest.

I'd also consider having a contingency plan for insulating against sound in case it turns out to be a nightmare.

Exibit A.

https://www.safelincs-forum.co.uk/topic/5714-fd-30-door-replacement-mandated/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIfWbxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHaPdnAK1XYc09ItLJ1mYu87cuFOmNji-MkZUHnnxwaJ-4ywZsZi0QDNX6w_aem_dJWoqrAjHmltVvNRY1o1Yw

From page 2.

Members
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Posted May 29, 2023
I'm in this situation, except it's really messed up... I am a leaseholder in a block of Council flats. The building is 3-stories, and ~9m tall.
Five years ago my block of flats had all of the doors replaced (£880 each) "in accordance with fire safety regulations".
They said that these refurbishment works included "replacement door and frame (door set) which are compliant 30 FD 4 panelled doors along with the associated ironmongery which includes door viewers, security chains, letter plate and numerals".
After they did the work, we looked at our doors and found that they are FD30S doors, in that they also include the intumescent strips and smoke seals.
That's all fine... but fast-forward to today, and now they are trying to replace our FD30S door sets again, this time... with FD30S door sets (again).
When we asked why, they said the following:
"The current doors to a number of flats within [REDACTED] are not fully certified FD30s door sets, and while I can see some of the components we would expect to see in an FD30S doorset, they have not been installed together and tested as a complete set to achieve at least 30 minutes fire resistance from both sides. For this reason it has been recommended that these doors are replaced with complete certified composite FD30s doorsets, as per current legislation."
Is it me, or is this insane?
We have in writing from the Council that all of our doors are FD30 rated doors, and were invoiced when these works were completed. We don't specifically have anything saying they are smoke doors, but you can clearly see that they are.
We have tried to get basic information from the Council regarding these works for a year. They have ignored all of our requests, both written and verbal, even thoughout the consultation period. To summarize these issues:
When the FRA was done
We don't have a copy of the FRA or know what's on it
We don't have a itemized breakdown of costs which explains why the works are 480% more expensive than last time (£4,200 per door set vs £880 5 years ago)
We don't know what regulation has changed requiring FD30S door sets installed as independent parts to be entirely replaced by composite FD30S door sets
The Council and their contractor continue to ignore all of the tenants and our requests, and are pressing forward with the works as of last week and intending to invoice us, and have us pay for these works. It's insanity!!
Can anyone help us to understand why our existing FD30S door sets are not adequate? Are there actually new regulations that require do FD30S door sets to be replaced like-for-like with composite door sets if they were not installed all at the same time?
If that is true and our doors are not up to current legislation, thus requiring replacement, aren't the Council thereby liable for a criminal offence having left all of the tenants here at risk of death from fire (The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 - clause 1.2)?
I also noticed that the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: fire door guidance - clause 6.5, states that since 23 January 2023 any Fire Risk Assessments must include checks on flat front entrance doors on both sides - we know for a fact that this has not been done.
Please Save Our Souls! 🙏🙏🙏 Any help of advice will be a God-send as they are undertaking the works now!

I had my ceilings soundproofed in a Victorian maisonette. I could hear the upstairs flat’s cat thumping its tail on the floor. The problem is that without adequate soundproofing (and there was none when I bought the flat) the space between the upstairs floor and my ceiling acted like a drum, with all sounds being amplified in my flat, including their creaky floorboards and them talking, opening their drawers, and all their footsteps. I could hear them saying “would you like a cup of tea” and I often shouted “yes please!” even though they were not talking to me. I had 4 inches of soundproofing put on the ceiling and it dampened the sound but didn’t completely remove it.

You only need a fire door on your front door if it opens into a communal space. And existing front doors may be nominal fire doors. You need a proper inspection by someone who knows what the hell they are doing. PM me if you want to find a proper qualified fire door inspector.

Have you contacted the manufacturer? There’ll be a label somewhere (if you can’t immediately see it, look on the top edge of the door) they will know what they supplied and if It was tested with smoke seals or not.

We live in a first-floor flat with 3 above us, 1 below but none either side (think Cell-block H). The building was erected in the 1960s and is concrete - all floors, ceilings as well as shell. We own but up and down are rented (sometimes just for a year) and we've had an assortment of neighbours with/without small dogs/children. Perhaps we've just been lucky but, in 25 years, we've rarely been disturbed by noise - the odd loud argument or dog barking on the stairs. I think it must depend on the construction of the block?

Thats not me. thats from 2023. Laws changed again last year so the poor fucker probably faces paying out yet again.