2 kids one and one 16 months in top flat making noise running about during the day,parents constantly telling them to be quiet as new neighbours are in downstairs. So at 16:30 downstairs neighbour goes to door and asks if the kids could keep the noise down.
So I get home to an upset wife pissed very pissed of, as we are the ones with the kids ,what are you ment to do tie them up. I know it would be annoying but wee own our flat and are not renting like down stairs and it was half four in the afternoon.

children playing cannot be a statutory noise nuisance.

talk to downstairs neighbour and find out what the issue is (do they work nights?).

I’d just say you’ll keep any noise to ‘normal’ waking hours and hope they’ll be doing the same.

There’s little that can be done really. Kids is kids. What sort of floor coverings do you have?

Got carpet?

If you don’t have carpets down, that might help ?

If you do, and the “noise” is during normal daytime hours. I guess they will have to live with it, or move.

That’s one of the perils of living in a downstairs flat.

I don’t think it’s a particularly unreasonable request in itself, although I don’t know what your neighbours tone was when they made the request. Have you been downstairs to find out how noisy it is? We live downstairs from some people who don’t have carpets down and it sometimes sounds like a herd of elephants are upstairs!

Sounds like some discussion is needed to attempt to find a compromise.

PS. It doesn’t matter if they rent or not – an individual’s rights are not dependant upon their financial position or their home ownership choice.

My neighbour is like that. I hear every time he flushes the loo, takes a shower, walks across the floor, his workie mates trample all over my garden to put up his pirate TV dish. I hear his TV, his gf whining at him. Do I care ? Not, its a block, one has neighbours, live and let live.

He gets home one day 1700, few drinks after work, and yells at me and bangs on my door for the music from my turbo trainer, which wasn’t that loud.

Some people are just selfish and mean. And grumpy and unpleasant. Not much you can do, if they get nasty keep records of all exchanges and speak to the police.

Noisy kids are up there with barking dogs in the nuisance noise stakes IMO

From our old flat, the worst noise by far was hearing our neighbors rutting!

We used clap and cheer when the deed was over, then a knowing whink when we crossed paths the next morning 😉

They used to do the same to us mind!

Having had a problem with a neighbour who seemed to spend 23 hours a day shouting either at her kids or down the phone I’ll say this, just hope your neighbour doesn’t have access to some 700w Cerwin Vega speakers if this turns into a more drawn out dispute.

Having previously owned said speakers and also having access to some Grindcore I can tell you this, that was a battle with only one winner.

does it make a difference then that they’re renting? Would they have more rights to complain if they owned their flat?

Sorry you have kids , kids will be kids.

If they dont like it they can move .

Ill never willingly move into another flat ! Hateful things unless your top floor 😉

In my old house, neighbours had a newborn that kept us awake NON STOP as well. Mrshora had to be told repeatdly that she couldn’t go round to tell them off 😆

…But then again, I wouldn’t live in a flat with two small children. I’d be looking for greenspace for them to play out in.

It’s a laminated floor in the living room with a big rug on it which is not ideal for a flat but it was like that when we moved in. I think she was polite enough about it when she came to the door and I have been in the flat and the one below it painting them and I know the noise is bad in both just even someone walking across the room Is bad. And the only renting comment I made was because they told me it was only probably short term, the last 2 tenants never complained. They both work days.

I think it was quite unreasonable of them to ask you to be quiet at that time. I suggest you going to speak to them and explain you will do what you can to stop your children being too noisy but that they *are* children and they *will* be noisy sometimes. Then remind them that, at 4.30pm, it isn’t an unreasonable time to be making some noise.

Well that’s kind of what I thought, it’s the smallest one makes most noise and he is in bed by 19:30 ish and not much running about after 18:00.

just hope your neighbour doesn’t have access to some 700w Cerwin Vega speakers

Frankly amature.

We stuck some Martin Blacklines in our basement for a ‘party’

thisisnotaspooon – Could only work with what I had access to.

They seemed to do the job of transmitting 240bpm of looped blastbeat well enough to get the message across though.

well done sootyandjim – do you do any martial arts?

…..do you do any martial arts?

Odd question but…. no, not anymore.

I dealt with it by simplying saying if i had a remote i would turn the volume down and I would also set it to pause

F all you can do but it would be annying to be your downstairs neighbour.

2 kids one and one 16 months in top flat making noise running about during the day,parents constantly telling them to be quiet as new neighbours are in downstairs. So at 16:30 downstairs neighbour goes to door and asks if the kids could keep the noise down.
So I get home to an upset wife pissed very pissed of, as we are the ones with the kids ,what are you ment to do tie them up. I know it would be annoying but wee own our flat and are not renting like down stairs and it was half four in the afternoon.

Bit tough, I’ve been the downstairs neighbour and it’s not fun – coming home from a hard days work to a continuous din is not pleasant and can really raise stress levels. In the end I had to just accept that during the day the sprogs were likely to run around and I offered them the run of the garden and made it kiddy safe instead. At night it was much quieter and the only issue I had was the occasional loud film that I can deal with.

Wot coffeeking said…

Though, tbh, unless any one of us is in the downstairs flat, we can’t really judge who’s being unreasonable.

As my neighbours on one side have demonstrated, one person’s idea of what is reasonable noise can be a million miles away from another’s.

I’d probably just invite her round for a drink to meet your kids and have a chat about it…maybe find out which rooms are causing the most annoyance. Living in conflict can be very stressful for both parties. Life’s too short.

Living in conflict can be very stressful for both parties. Life’s too short.

you are new here arent you 😉

Imagine you on a thread about kids I iwll let you finish that one

TBH all parents know their kids can be noisy and annoying we have to live with them to

Laminated floor with rug is not as bad as just laminated flooring but far from ideal in a flat imo. There are some great sound reducing underlays on the market now which with a decent carpet on top can make a big difference.

You are aware there is a problem & you are aware that your kids are the source. It would be unreasonable to make significant changes to your kids comings and goings, but it would seem reasonable to me to make very manageable changes to your fixtures and fittings to mitigate their impact on others. I guess it depends how neighbourly you feel. Plenty of keyboard warriors here would (in a virtual world) tell them to do one and carry on as before, but that’s not a world I want to inhabit. Even with a change of flooring and some good sound deadening your kids will still have an impact on your neighbour’s quality of life (i.e. it won’t stop everything) so I’d call that a reasonable compromise.

Convert +1, this situation calls for compromise and dialogue. There is NOTHING worse than a neighbour dipute, NOTHING.

Most of the issue though is not the kids is it ? Its badly built and poorly converted flats.

As long as you’ve taken some reasonable steps to minimise the impact to your neighbour – the rug would be one (perhaps a couple more thick cheap rugs on the main rugrat-runs?) – then I don’t see what you can do. Child noise isn’t something that can be entirely mitigated, and is a normal accompaniment to living next to families.

Laying new carpet throughout a flat ain’t that cheap, and has other disadvantages.

I think if child noise was a bugbear of mine, I’d be checking who the neighbours were before signing a tenancy agreement, and crossing off families with little nippers.

Not realy a dispute like I said I beleave she was polite enough about it. However if it does get unpleasant there are many more things they could be pulled up for.

You could buy a carpet and a few pairs of slippers to go along with your sense of moral superiority perhaps?

Not quite sure what their beef is at four in the afternoon though. Perhaps they could consider getting a job?

Not overly sure what there is to be “pissed off” or “upset” about either, if all they’ve done is gone “look, I don’t know if you’re aware, but it’s really loud down here.” Between that and the “many more things” you allude to, I wonder if we’re getting half a story here.

serious question what do the property deeds say about floor covering?Having worked shifts and lived in a flat under a laminate floored flat. The noise drills into your head. You think you can ignore it but eventually you can’t. It ended up with me putting my fist through their glass front door*, admitedly this was a 1am when i snapped, moved out a week later.

*it f***** hurt and was very very messy, luckily i didn’t cut anything major.

Heeeeeere’s mrmo

In my old house, neighbours had a newborn that kept us awake NON STOP as well. Mrshora had to be told repeatdly that she couldn’t go round to tell them off

If the baby was keeping you awake, imagine what it was doing to the parents! Very little point complaining because if the parents could do something about it, they would.

No any story to get half of, they have only been here three weeks and it was the fact it was half four in the afternoon she was pissed if about.

Oh and it’s only laminate in the livingroom the rest of the house has inch deep carpet.

Put largactil in your kid’s food.

Mr Woppitt – Or Picolax. At least they’ll stay in one place…..

In my old house, neighbours had a newborn that kept us awake NON STOP as well. Mrshora had to be told repeatdly that she couldn’t go round to tell them off

My boys have mainly slept through from 7 weeks old, however if they hadn’t, and I’d been up all night, for te millionth time, and you came round to ask us to button it. I’d be **** delighted.

…But then again, I wouldn’t live in a flat with two small children. I’d be looking for greenspace for them to play out in.

Because its so easy to just sell a property at the moment.

If the baby was keeping you awake, imagine what it was doing to the parents! Very little point complaining because if the parents could do something about it, they would.

While I see your way of thinking this isn’t always the case. We’ve had neighbours who thought it was acceptable to leave them wailing all night, just shut the door and told us we get used to it, he falls asleep after a few hours and we automatically filter it out anyway. Well I can’t so do something about it. When I was a kid I was rollocked for charging about the house noisily and told to go play in a park or the garden if I wanted to run around. Likewise if I wanted to play music loud I had to wear earphones instead. This is how my parents instilled a sense of responsibility and consideration for others in me and why I find it incredibly annoying that no-one else seems to do the same.

Having kids doesn’t remove your responsibility to be a decent neighbour and minimise other peoples inconvenience, it heightens it, but naturally there’s a limit as to what’s possible.