To complain about my neighbours noise at night?

[EagerTaupePlayer]

I live in a ground floor flat. I have a neighbour above me and one at the side of me. The neighbour next door is great, no issues at all. The neighbour above, however, is a different story.

I believe there are two people living there, a man and a woman, although I’ve only ever seen the man in person and he keeps to himself. About a month ago I had a leak in my flat coming from their flat. I tried to knock on their door and speak to them but they wouldn’t speak to me and instead sent me a note saying they are getting it sorted. Fine. Also had an issue with their dog peeing in the flat and the smell coming through as they don’t walk their dog. Mentioned this too and they said they’ll sort it.

Now for the past month or two they have been making a lot of noise at night to the extent that it’s waking me up when I’m asleep. I work in a high pressure job and I’m going to work knackered the next day. Most days between 4 and 5am the woman in the flat starts screaming- full on shouting, screaming and thumping on the floor. I would assume they are arguing but I never hear the man reply- it’s just her voice screaming and shouting so I’m not sure. She’ll be screaming and crying saying things like “I can’t do this” so maybe mental health related.

It’s extremely loud and it’s really affecting my daily life with the lack of sleep. She’ll scream and shout for about an hour and then it’ll stop but it’s happening frequently. My flat is a private rental, theirs is social housing. It occasionally happens in the evening but it’s mostly at night.

I’ve considered popping a note through the door but I’m not sure what to do as it’s not typical noise such as parties or music or children or even an argument in the typical sense. I’m looking to move from the flat but I can’t do so until August when my lease expires. AIBU to complain to the social housing?

I’d be calling 111 and asking for a welfare check that’s not ok.

I agree with the welfare check call. It could come from other flats so they won’t know it’s you.

And inform your landlord and see if they’ll let you break your lease earlier on this basis.
worst they can say is “no”!

If you're hearing screaming and banging why aren't you calling the police??

I would call police next time, when they turn up they can see what is going on in there and make the relevant referrals etc. this woman may need adult social care or hospital treatment.

I’d call the police too.

Call for a welfare check. That will put a stop to it.

Next time it starts, I would call the police - explain what is happening and that you are concerned for the woman's welfare. They should attend and can then make necessary referrals etc.

It does sound a very odd situation- have you never seen her at all?? That's strange in itself - even if she worked from home, she would surely go out at some point?!

Absolutely no point putting a note through the door if the issue is MH related. Is it a block of flats and if so, how many? I would only be calling the police if it’s feasible that another flat might have reported it and not obvious that it’s you, especially as you have raised other issues with them.

Do you know who their social housing provider is? If you’re renting privately, you should speak to your LL, and ask him/her to. contact the social housing provider. It’s in your LL’s interests to sort this out otherwise they are going to keep having unhappy tenants who don’t want to stay, which is a PITA for them.

I’ve lived in a block where one adjacent flat was a social housing rental and every tenant was a noise nightmare but the only good thing is that they do tend to get moved on within a year/18 months. Would you want to stay if those tenants left?

If you’ve already decided to leave, August is only a few months away, so I would just focus on taking the time to find a nice new rental and look forward to being rid of this nuisance in August.

Pop a note through the door.