need landlord advice

[sungirltan]

i have a flat in a block of 8 that is let to a girl in her 20's atm. she has phoned because the couple/occupants i'm not sure in the flat below are fighting all the time and are very noisy.

what can i advise her? other tennants in the block have also complained. is this anti social behaviour? can she justifiably call the police?

Wtf are you meant to do about it? Send them to Relate? Tell her to tackle it herself.

are you part of an owner's association? can you bring this up at a meeting? do you own shares in a company that owns the freehold for example, as that company is supposed to have an annual meeting.

we had an issue with next door being infested with mice due to their filthy habits unique lifestyle choices. our landlord, bless him, knocked on their door, found out they were tenants, got the name of the managing agent and made a complaint to the legal owner.

magically, all changed nearly overnight. the landlord sent a crew to tidy up what turned out to be a load of crap left over from the landlord's occupation, and the tenants seem to be making more of an effort.

this won't help if they aren't tenants. if they are owners, can you make a complaint through the building association? otherwise, i am afraid it's the council/police.

lalalonglegs - she phoned me and politely asked for my advice. i'd like to think when my dd is that age and living alone for the first time that a landlord might be kind/understanding and at least try to help!

microserf - yes to owners meeting and i've brought it up already but will ocnsider contacting the landlord personally to ask for co operation. sound advice thank you

I'd like to think my daughters would know better than to turn to someone who has absolutely no influence or say in the matter. It is not a landlord's obligation to sort out the neighbours. Fortunately the joy of renting is that if it bothers her that much, she can give notice and move away (unlike the poor sods who are owner occupiers and living with it).

ffs lala i know its not my obligation but jesus i am a human being and like i say she politely asked for my advice!

I had this exact situation a few months ago - my tenants emailed me in despair as their neighbours were noisy all night in the next flat.

Following the great advice given here, I called my agents who said they didn't deal with the next flat, and any issues with noise had to be dealt with by the person affected i.e.my tenant would have to call the council etc.

I then called the management company who were horrified at this (snazzy new flats) and wrote to the flat in question the very same day to remind them of their obligations to be neighbourly and keep the noise down.

I told my lovely tenants that it was up to them to ask their neighbours to shut up, and/or keep a noise diary and contact the council, and that their neighbours were being personally written to that day. Haven't heard anything since, so hope it is cleared up now.

jeez, lala, it's a dark and unfriendly world, the one you live in!

good luck op, and it is kind of you to help her out if you can as the owner.

the OP does have an interest in sorting this out otherwise, she has a risk that she will lose this tenant, and quite possibly the next one.

tell your tenant to contact environmental health who will send the noisy neighbours a warning letter. if the noise persists then she should keep a diary and go back to environmental health who can then take further action if they can be arsed

thanks everyone , i will advise my tennant (who is very sweet, pays on time and would like to keep! lord knows the bloody problems i have tennanting this flat- so yes i have a vested interest as well as just wanting to help if i can) to contact environmental health and keep a diary. glad i posted here - thanks again

Right, so ultimately you told her to tackle it herself .

well lala unless i go and stay with her I can't keep a fecking diary of noise can i??

Well, she must be very comforted knowing that you have gone to such lengths to help her. You were so sanctimonioius as well - I hope your daughter's future landlords put themselves out to the same degree.

Kind of proves my original point that there is very little that you can do.

Gosh, calm down everyone!. No need to give someone such flack for wanting to help. Yes yes, we know you're an experienced property renter-outer lala, point made about how efficient and businesslike you are, and all that....

Suntangirl good on you for wanting to help your tenant - it's nice to know there are at least 2 humane landlords out there (we have one of them).

lala - the fact that it transpires there isn't much directly i can do to help her (except oh wait i'm on the directors board of the building so i can take it up at the next meeting as kindly advised upthread) is beside the point. i have bothered my arse to find out if there was anything i can do on her behalf in my position as landlord.

i don't really think that spending a few minutes posting a thread on here was even putting myself out in any way.

how depressing though, lala, that you think that way. do you only do things that you are legally obligated to do? do you hold open doors for the person behind you even?

naramada - thanks! didn't realise just being kind would be so contraversial!