Neighbour complaint/ tenancy advice

[Sienna7657]

Hi All,
So I am currently living in an upstairs converted flat with 2 kids under 3. My neighbour has been complaining about us to my agency for the past year on numerous occasions saying that my kids are too loud, stomp way too much, extreme crying blah blah blah. She has been saying that it keeps happening past 9pm which is not acceptable.
So far I have already confiscated their toys past 8pm but unfortunately my kids dont go to sleep until 9:30pm. So until then, they are walking around (which can be heard because the walls are quite thin), laughing with each other and falling as they walk.
My neighbour has complained saying that she will complain to my agency again. She has told them that she has already complained to the council months ago but I havent heard anything from them.
My tenancy here is finishing in august because landlord is selling. So I have a signed contract until then.
My question is this- can my agency do something I.e. kick us out immediately if we have already recieved a section 21 notice saying that we have to leave?
And am I being an unreasonable neighbour?

If your tenancy ends in august then I highly doubt they will begin the eviction process. They may give you a section 21 notice from your next payment date but that gives you two months to leave anyway. Do you plan to leave at the end of your current tenancy period?
With noise from children though, I'm not sure that legally constitutes a noise nuisance. I know environmental health don't generally consider it as such.
I would speak to your landlord/letting agent. If you're wanting to renew your tenancy in august then they may be reluctant to renew it as they don't need any kind of legal reason to not renew it, it's at the landlord's discretion, they only need a good legal reason to evict you/give you notice.

I privately rented for 19 years so I'm quite familiar with tenancy terms, however general noise from young children is a bit of a grey area as some noise from young children is to be expected. I know that a Landlord wouldn't have a leg to stand on in an eviction court hearing on the basis of a baby/babies crying for instance.

Like I said, have a word with your Landlord/Agent and see what their view is on the situation.
For your sake and for the sake of less stress, I would make an effort to try to reduce the noise if you can. However, and I'll probably get flamed for this, but if your neighbour is complaining excessively for reasons beyond your reasonable control, then I would make a complaint to the Landlord/Agent about them on the basis of harassment!

Edit: 'they only need a good legal reason to evict you/give you notice DURING a tenancy term'

Hi,
So I received my section 21 notice in February. Am at my notice period right now.
I was wondering if its possible that they could evict me next month instead of august (as planned?) Because of my neighbour's complaints?

@Sienna7657

Hi, So I received my section 21 notice in February. Am at my notice period right now. I was wondering if its possible that they could evict me next month instead of august (as planned?) Because of my neighbour's complaints?

Sorry I hadn't realised you had actually received a section 21, I thought you meant IF.

Well, to evict you they have to take it to court and it has to be deemed a legal eviction. I think there's a current ban on evictions due to Covid but even if that's ended now, I highly doubt that any court would grant an eviction on the basis of noise from children as young as yours.
Also, it takes months & months for an eviction to go through the various processes and costs them a fortune.

Are you actually planning on leaving in august or were you hoping to have your tenancy renewed?

Even if your landlord is selling, you could potentially stay until the property is sold. Has it sold yet?

The section 21 currently gives you 6 months notice due to Covid. I assume 6 months would take you to the end of your tenancy anyway.
They cannot evict you before this. Even at the end of the notice they would need a court order to evict you if you didn’t leave.

Hi thankyou for your replies.
I actually want to leave in August but I'm scared that I might get forced to leave with a section 8 notice within a month because of my neighbour's complaints

Property will only go on the market when we leave

I'd say it's highly unlikely anything will happen before you leave.
The agency will only act if the landlord instructs them to and the landlord is probably more concerned with selling the house.
As others have said, Covid restrictions have made it very hard to evict tenants and there is already a backlog of cases.

Is there anything you can do to reduce the noise - rugs, make the last part of the day a quiet time, on the sofa, reading in bed etc?

I wouldn't worry too much about it tbh.

I work in tenancy enforcement/antisocial behaviour and young children are classed as an "unenforceable noise nuisance" as children by their very nature make noise. So no, no action can legally be taken against you for noise generated by young children. You're in your notice period anyway so that cant be changed and environmental health wont be interested in any noise complaints of the type you describe