Noise

[Phasmal]

I'm not quite sure what to do here.
A few months ago I moved into my own place, last month, my upstairs neighbours moved out.
Now we have someone new in, never met them (never met the others either).
The floor is thin, so when they get in we can hear them stomp stomp all the way up the stairs, and they're quite heavy-footed around the house. But that doesn't bother me, the thing is- they play guitar. Quite a lot.

It's getting right on my nerves.
It's not massively loud, but you can definately hear it, pretty much all through my house.
So, I have no idea what to do. Should I say something?
I'm worried, because I know the floor is thin (and I'm hard-of-hearing), so they might be able to hear things from us too.
Should I bother, or just put up with it?

 

[Doclector]

I say talk to them. Ask them whether they've been getting any noise from you, just generally discuss the issue, see if you can come to an understanding.

After that, I dunno. I'd probably find a way to remind them that there's (most likely) something in their tenancy agreement saying about noise.

 

[White Lightning]

I shall present you with two options.

1. Talk to them and see if you can't come to a solution.

2. 3 kilometers south west from your home is a small plaza with a parking lot located on the east side of a building, there are 2 small garbage containers. The one on the left contains a small box with an image depicting wolf. Place this box outside the the door of your neighbors. Upon doing this get approximately 2 kilometers away from your home for approximately 27 minutes. After this time return to your home. Do not go to your neighbors door. Do not go back to the plaza. Do not check the garbage cans.

 

[Girl With One Eye]

Try and organise a compromise, like certain times in the day that they will play the guitar or ask them to at least give you a heads up first. I can't imagine anyone putting up with that to be honest. Hopefully you can sort it out between yourselves without needing to get the landlord invovled.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Sound insulation, you can get it incredibly cheap and it always works unlike neighbors self restraint.

 

[Hjalmar Fryklund]

You should definitely talk to them about it. Otherwise you might end up becoming less and less patient with them to the point when you finally decide to tell them to cut it out, you will be way to irritable to be reasoning with them.

Were I in your shoes I would ask them to turn down the volume in general, too.

 

[ReadyAmyFire]

If you're all in the one building, does that make it the landlords issue?

I'd have a word with them though, mentioning the fact it works both ways; your sound can come up as well as theirs down, and see if they'll agree to keep their noisiest activities to more reasonable hours.

 

[FilipJPhry]

First talk to them about it. Ask them if they could use headphones. Acoustic? Look at ReadyAimFire's post. If it continues, go to the landlord.

 

[artanis_neravar]

I'm not quite sure what to do here.
A few months ago I moved into my own place, last month, my upstairs neighbours moved out.
Now we have someone new in, never met them (never met the others either).
The floor is thin, so when they get in we can hear them stomp stomp all the way up the stairs, and they're quite heavy-footed around the house. But that doesn't bother me, the thing is- they play guitar. Quite a lot.

It's getting right on my nerves.
It's not massively loud, but you can definately hear it, pretty much all through my house.
So, I have no idea what to do. Should I say something?
I'm worried, because I know the floor is thin (and I'm hard-of-hearing), so they might be able to hear things from us too.
Should I bother, or just put up with it?

Can you also hear their TV? Is the guitar Electric or Acoustic?

 

[Phasmal]

Hi, thought I'd reply.
Still unsure of what we're gonna do.

Can you also hear their TV? Is the guitar Electric or Acoustic?

I'm hard of hearing, so I don't hear a whole lot from them except for footsteps (them going up the stairs is reaaaally loud) and guitar. Though I know the floors are thin enough to hear very raised voices (the people who used to live there argued a lot). It's acoustic, btw.
I don't really wanna get my landlord involved cause I've only met him the once and it's not like it's a massive problem.
I know it would be rude to say `stop playing guitar`- thats not what I want to say, I just want them to be aware we can hear it so maybe they do it in the middle of the day instead of in the morning or at night.

Also, I cant do soundproofing because my tenancy is one where you're not allowed to so much as hang a picture without the landlord's permission.

I think at the moment, we're gonna leave it because it's not too frequent, when I had posted it was at least once a day every day for quite a while but they seem to be laying off it for now.

Thanks for all the replies

EDIT: The minute I post that they start playing again. It's nearly 11pm.

 

[Launcelot111]

People with neighbors above them will always get screwed by the footsteps. I've had the people upstairs doing construction for the past 6 months and it's been so loud, it's knocked stuff off my shelves.

It's not going to go away without a bit of a construction project, but the best and simplest thing to do is to tell the neighbors about the noise and try to reach an arrangement for at least not playing guitar at certain times.

 

[artanis_neravar]

Hi, thought I'd reply.
Still unsure of what we're gonna do.

Can you also hear their TV? Is the guitar Electric or Acoustic?

I'm hard of hearing, so I don't hear a whole lot from them except for footsteps (them going up the stairs is reaaaally loud) and guitar. Though I know the floors are thin enough to hear very raised voices (the people who used to live there argued a lot). It's acoustic, btw.
I don't really wanna get my landlord involved cause I've only met him the once and it's not like it's a massive problem.
I know it would be rude to say `stop playing guitar`- thats not what I want to say, I just want them to be aware we can hear it so maybe they do it in the middle of the day instead of in the morning or at night.

Also, I cant do soundproofing because my tenancy is one where you're not allowed to so much as hang a picture without the landlord's permission.

I think at the moment, we're gonna leave it because it's not too frequent, when I had posted it was at least once a day every day for quite a while but they seem to be laying off it for now.

Thanks for all the replies

EDIT: The minute I post that they start playing again. It's nearly 11pm.

Ah at night and Early in the morning, that is something you can complain about. Try talking to them and saying exactly what you said above, and if it continues go to your landlord, they usually have their own "quiet hour" rules, or you could contact the local authorities. From what I can tell UK law prohibits night time noise emitting from a dwelling after 11pm.

Spoiler

The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 amended the Noise Act 1996 and enables local authorities in England and Wales to tackle night time noise emitted from dwellings and gardens between the hours of 11.00 pm and 7.00 am. To enforce these powers local authorities must ensure that an environmental health officer takes reasonable steps to investigate complaints about noise emitted from dwellings. If the officer is satisfied that noise exceeds the permitted level, a warning notice may be served on the person responsible. If the warning is ignored, the offender becomes liable for prosecution (which if successful carries a fine of up to £1000. However the local authority officer may issue a fixed penalty notice (which must be paid within 14 days and in which case no further action will be taken). Where the noise being complained about continues after a warning notice has been issued, the local authority officer may enter the dwelling and confiscate the noise making equipment (obstructing confiscation carries a fine of up to £1000). (In Scotland similar action can be taken under the Anti-Social Behaviour (Noise Control) (Scotland) Regulations 2005.)

I pulled that from here:

http://www.environmental-protection.org.uk/noise/neighbourhood-noise/nuisance/

Which also gives a good guide with how to handle such complaints

 

[Batou667]

The terms of your lease must have some kind of noise guidelines - such as acceptable activities (singing, dancing and practicing instruments are all banned in my estate, for example, though that doens't stop certain obtuse f*ckwads) and times of day when people shoudl refrain from nonessential noise. 11pm for guitar practice is pushing it by anybody's standards.

By all means talk to them - they may genuinely not understand how much of their noise is being conducted through the walls. But you'd also do well to check what the legal stance is, so you have something concrete to bring to their attention.