>On 18 March 2021, he again told the landlord he was feeling suicidal but shortly afterwards, a Clarion employee new to the case told him that “as he lived in London he should have no expectation of silence”. Internal emails showed landlord staff also felt the tenant was “whining”.
>In mid-April, one landlord official agreed it was noisy and that the ceiling cavity should be insulated. But another part of Clarion decided the floor insulation was adequate; the landlord would take no further action.
Having lived with noisy upstairs neighbours (both the intentional and unintentional sort) it is hell. It does severely impact your MH when you’re always anticipating bangs or thuds from above, and having sleep disrupted makes people ill.
If the supply of housing was not artificially constrained, this man might have received more suitable accommodation and might have lived.
The Green Belt enablers are responsible for this.
>Blakeway’s account of the case shows the tenant repeatedly asked for noise insulation to be installed in the **converted house** in north London, or for him to be rehoused.
>
>His first noise complaints came around Christmas 2020, with “banging and hammering and children jumping and stamping” on **a new wooden floor**. He said he suffered with poor mental health and was stressed and not eating or sleeping.
Rented a flat in a converted Victorian house, life became a misery when the flat above ripped-up the carpet and underlay and replaced it with laminate flooring. Got out as soon as I could but it left me far more sensitive to noise than I ever used to be.
Even if he made a noise complaint do we think anything would happen? I lived in a block of flats with some neighbours that had a similar complaint and 6 years of constant noise complaints later and the council still did bugger all
It’s Clarion, quite honestly they have a history of negligence towards tenants. I know of one of their tenants who, along with her children, was harassed repeatedly until she had to leave her home of 9 years following an assault.
Even though she documented everything, involved Solicitors and had video evidence, Clarion were simply not interested.
The deceased tenant sounds like they were seriously disturbed and was viewing every noise like it was a personal threat to them.
I’m going through this right now, noise cancelling headphones and earplugs help but why should I even have to wear them all the time at home in the first place?
Can 100% empathise with this guy’s struggle, going through something similar but I have light at the end of the tunnel.
Excuse my naivety but don’t you contact the council or a noise issue.
I live in a flat with my partner (he owns it) where there is zero insulation between the upstairs flat’s floors and our ceilings. Last year a couple with a 3 year old moved in to the flat where their kitchen/living room was above our bedroom. We spoke to them about it so many times, but they let their kid stomp around at all hours, screaming his head off and they would run their washing machine late at night.
For the 6 months they were there, my life was hell. Earplugs and a noise machine don’t work when it’s impact noise right above your head, coming down the walls and making your room shake. I got so mentally and physically ill from the lack of sleep, so I’m not surprised this poor man killed himself because of it. I was kept awake late every night, and woken up around 6am by their horrible kid. I felt so anxious about going to bed, I often just slept on the sofa to try and be away from it. We looked into soundproofing but it would have cost about 2k which is not something we can afford. Luckily they moved out and the landlord moved in who doesn’t have kids and we haven’t had issues since.
I used to live below a floor that was extremely creaky and had cheap laminate and paper thin underlay…it was HELL!!
Noise above me drives me mad but there is really nothing that can be done about it. In my old place I would regularly ask my neighbours to keep it down but ultimately there was nothing that could be done especially when it comes to kids noise. Constant music and ear plugs at night and eventually moved out and vowed to only live on top floor flat from there on out.
It’s really expensive to have underfloor insulation fitted and obviously a massive upheaval for the people living in the flat. Also as it’s not illegal noise, could the landlord or housing association really enforce the upstair neighbour to have it fitted?
I have empathy because I lived in the same situation and couldn’t sleep at all. At some point you start feeling suicidal. Unless you experience it yourself you wouldn’t know. For the landlords “it’s normal”. Imagine trying to sleep and hearing your neighbour snoring or having oral sex and hearing the “mouth wash”… that’s what you’re dealing with it here.
I can sympathise with the guy. I live in a flat and my neighbours have young kids.
The complete lack of effective anti-social legislation and enforcement in the UK is mind blowing. Its not just renters either sadly. Just another factor in the UK’s poor quality of life vs more enlightened/regulated societies.
I know some people have little or no choice, but I’d never live in a flat ever again after experiencing this – people stomping around at 6am getting ready for work, then proceeding to stomp down communal stairs. It’s way worse in these converted houses which are not really designed to be split into flats with thin walls and wood floors.
I had non-existent insulation above me in an old flat which caused me to just get pissed to fall asleep everyday. There’s a difference between occasional footsteps above you and feeling like you’re in the same room as your upstairs neighbours 24/7. The fact that developers can get away with poor soundproofing is criminal.
Why is the LL guilty of a third party being horrible?
Better sound insulation would help, but can’t prevent these issues. Someone might install a DDR arcade in their living room (read in Reddit…)
White noise is a godsend if you live in a flat.
My flat is assailed on all sides by people making noises.
* Kids playing football outside and kicking their ball against my wall
* Neighbours walking around in high heels on laminate floors in the flat above
* Neighbours jabbering away until 3AM and then snoring the rest of the night
* Constant slamming of front doors
* A bathroom fan that sounds like an outboard motor
Just don’t get one of those white noise machines, they all run the exact same software and the white noise actually loops and you can tell where it loops because it beeps. Instead, get a cheapo bluetooth speaker and find either a podcast on Spotify or a video on YouTube to play white noise.
19 comments
>On 18 March 2021, he again told the landlord he was feeling suicidal but shortly afterwards, a Clarion employee new to the case told him that “as he lived in London he should have no expectation of silence”. Internal emails showed landlord staff also felt the tenant was “whining”.
>In mid-April, one landlord official agreed it was noisy and that the ceiling cavity should be insulated. But another part of Clarion decided the floor insulation was adequate; the landlord would take no further action.
Having lived with noisy upstairs neighbours (both the intentional and unintentional sort) it is hell. It does severely impact your MH when you’re always anticipating bangs or thuds from above, and having sleep disrupted makes people ill.
If the supply of housing was not artificially constrained, this man might have received more suitable accommodation and might have lived.
The Green Belt enablers are responsible for this.
>Blakeway’s account of the case shows the tenant repeatedly asked for noise insulation to be installed in the **converted house** in north London, or for him to be rehoused.
>
>His first noise complaints came around Christmas 2020, with “banging and hammering and children jumping and stamping” on **a new wooden floor**. He said he suffered with poor mental health and was stressed and not eating or sleeping.
Rented a flat in a converted Victorian house, life became a misery when the flat above ripped-up the carpet and underlay and replaced it with laminate flooring. Got out as soon as I could but it left me far more sensitive to noise than I ever used to be.
Even if he made a noise complaint do we think anything would happen? I lived in a block of flats with some neighbours that had a similar complaint and 6 years of constant noise complaints later and the council still did bugger all
It’s Clarion, quite honestly they have a history of negligence towards tenants. I know of one of their tenants who, along with her children, was harassed repeatedly until she had to leave her home of 9 years following an assault.
Even though she documented everything, involved Solicitors and had video evidence, Clarion were simply not interested.
The deceased tenant sounds like they were seriously disturbed and was viewing every noise like it was a personal threat to them.
I’m going through this right now, noise cancelling headphones and earplugs help but why should I even have to wear them all the time at home in the first place?
Can 100% empathise with this guy’s struggle, going through something similar but I have light at the end of the tunnel.
Excuse my naivety but don’t you contact the council or a noise issue.
I live in a flat with my partner (he owns it) where there is zero insulation between the upstairs flat’s floors and our ceilings. Last year a couple with a 3 year old moved in to the flat where their kitchen/living room was above our bedroom. We spoke to them about it so many times, but they let their kid stomp around at all hours, screaming his head off and they would run their washing machine late at night.
For the 6 months they were there, my life was hell. Earplugs and a noise machine don’t work when it’s impact noise right above your head, coming down the walls and making your room shake. I got so mentally and physically ill from the lack of sleep, so I’m not surprised this poor man killed himself because of it. I was kept awake late every night, and woken up around 6am by their horrible kid. I felt so anxious about going to bed, I often just slept on the sofa to try and be away from it. We looked into soundproofing but it would have cost about 2k which is not something we can afford. Luckily they moved out and the landlord moved in who doesn’t have kids and we haven’t had issues since.
I used to live below a floor that was extremely creaky and had cheap laminate and paper thin underlay…it was HELL!!
Noise above me drives me mad but there is really nothing that can be done about it. In my old place I would regularly ask my neighbours to keep it down but ultimately there was nothing that could be done especially when it comes to kids noise. Constant music and ear plugs at night and eventually moved out and vowed to only live on top floor flat from there on out.
It’s really expensive to have underfloor insulation fitted and obviously a massive upheaval for the people living in the flat. Also as it’s not illegal noise, could the landlord or housing association really enforce the upstair neighbour to have it fitted?
I have empathy because I lived in the same situation and couldn’t sleep at all. At some point you start feeling suicidal. Unless you experience it yourself you wouldn’t know. For the landlords “it’s normal”. Imagine trying to sleep and hearing your neighbour snoring or having oral sex and hearing the “mouth wash”… that’s what you’re dealing with it here.
I can sympathise with the guy. I live in a flat and my neighbours have young kids.
The complete lack of effective anti-social legislation and enforcement in the UK is mind blowing. Its not just renters either sadly. Just another factor in the UK’s poor quality of life vs more enlightened/regulated societies.
I know some people have little or no choice, but I’d never live in a flat ever again after experiencing this – people stomping around at 6am getting ready for work, then proceeding to stomp down communal stairs. It’s way worse in these converted houses which are not really designed to be split into flats with thin walls and wood floors.
I had non-existent insulation above me in an old flat which caused me to just get pissed to fall asleep everyday. There’s a difference between occasional footsteps above you and feeling like you’re in the same room as your upstairs neighbours 24/7. The fact that developers can get away with poor soundproofing is criminal.
Why is the LL guilty of a third party being horrible?
Better sound insulation would help, but can’t prevent these issues. Someone might install a DDR arcade in their living room (read in Reddit…)
White noise is a godsend if you live in a flat.
My flat is assailed on all sides by people making noises.
* Kids playing football outside and kicking their ball against my wall
* Neighbours walking around in high heels on laminate floors in the flat above
* Neighbours jabbering away until 3AM and then snoring the rest of the night
* Constant slamming of front doors
* A bathroom fan that sounds like an outboard motor
Just don’t get one of those white noise machines, they all run the exact same software and the white noise actually loops and you can tell where it loops because it beeps. Instead, get a cheapo bluetooth speaker and find either a podcast on Spotify or a video on YouTube to play white noise.