I don't know about anyone else but I have always been a relatively law abiding citizen and respected other peoples right to a peaceful life, and that certain rules and boundaries are put in place for a reason.

I have just moved into one of the new apartments on the Norfolk Park development and, whilst I am more than happy with my apartment and the area, I am finding myself increasingly annoyed on a day to day basis with the obvious disregard shown by some people for the "rules" of apartment living. Our contracts for these new properties state clearly that only ground floor apartments and the upper floors of the duplexes are allowed to be laminate floored, yet the owner of the apartment above us has ignored this, and as a result the sound of the tenants through our ceiling is similar to that of a herd of elephants on a daily basis.
This weekend, our "allocated" parking was taken up by the guests of one of our neighbours who was having a party, so there was no-where to park and no way of sleeping, as sound travels through the apartment buildings really easily.

Does anyone else get really wound up by little things like this, or is this rant just due to my current state of sleep deprivation? Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this kind of situation, bearing in mind I am only small and scare easily!!!

ask them politely if they have considered the effect the laminate floor has on you.
Ask them to respect your parking space and to ask their guests to do the same.
If you are small and very scared, take a friend when you go to speak to them. Do it politely and calmly and don't get angry about it.

If nothing changes contact the building owners about the laminate floor.
The next time someone parks in your space you can call the council and ask them to remove it, get a trolley jack and a few friends and remove it yourself, block it in with your car, let it's tyres down, or go around and insist that they move it.

If the noise is only occaisional then put up with it, you migth want to have a party one day. If it's regular, ask them politely, next time call the police, after that contact the building owners and the council.

Cheers Cyclone, all very good points!!
I guess I'm going to have to become a braver person, now I'm out in the big wide world (normally I'd just ask my dad!!).

I sympathise with you, was woken up at 3am by blokes below me playing guitar, grrrrr
But Cyclone is right, stay calm and talk to them when you are not really angry about it, it will just make it worse.
I know it's so frustrating when things like this happen, but just try and remember that if you want the benefits of living in an apartment, you have to put up with the bad things too sometimes, unfortunately! (And yes, I know this can be frustrating when you aren't doing anything wrong)

It's funny all you people in these expensive modern apartments complaining about noise. Did you not think that living in flats is noisy? I would have thought that was obvious. If you can't get used to it you'll have to move into a old house instead with thick walls.

Whats even funnier is that I think I was at said party, and to be honest it wasnt particularly rowdy, the music wasnt particularly loud, and there werent all that many people there. In fact, it was a pretty good night.

Well slh73 rowdiness and noise are very subjective things. I have written before in another thread about the difficulty of living in a student area when you are not living a student lifestyle. And I believe that you are better out of it if you can't live the same as your neighbours. The strain is definately not worth the pain. Even just loud talking in the middle of the night is inconsiderate enough, it may be keeping someone next door awake, and especially if there is alcohol involved, thene the people who are making the noise tend to be making 3 times as much noise as they think they are making.

I can sympathise with you startingout :( .

I live in one of the new houses on Norfolk Park and we can hear our neighbours talking!.

We live next door to someone we know quite well but i still needed to go round complaining about the music almost every night. It took me a year to realise the music wasn't actually that loud, it is just the wall's that are thin:mad: .
Now our neighbour's son is older and he does not play his music much any more.

I think you will need to get used to the noise or complain to Gleesons.

first thing - don't ever buy flats - they are too many problems associated with them - it's ok if you have a good management company who will enforce the obligations but most of them just want your service charge but don't give you much in return

At least with a house you have some freedom in that you can walk and talk in your house without fear of upsetting people as long as you don't take the mickey.

second thing - speak to your managment company and ask them to enforce the lease where they are not allowed to have laminates

third thing - keep a record of all incidents in case you need to sue later on !!

I think your neighbours might the same people who live above us, because I think it was the same weekend that they had a party (although with so many people moving in at the moment, who knows?). The music wasn't loud, but sound does really travel in these blocks, especially when alcohol is involved and the volume tends to increase without realising. However, we had just assumed it was a house (or flat) warming party, and things have been quiet since so hopefully we were right. The trick to apartment living is a balance between respect for other people in the building, and a certain level of tolerance for one off events!

Originally posted by terrano
first thing - don't ever buy flats - they are too many problems associated with them - it's ok if you have a good management company who will enforce the obligations but most of them just want your service charge but don't give you much in return


Think this is a bit of a generalisation Terrano - as I said before, you have to accept both positive and negative aspects!

Saying "Don't ever buy flats" is a bit much, there are lots of good things about a flat! No grass to cut, better security (don't have to worry about my 3rd floor flat being broken into), communal gardens are all looked after, private parking etc. You are right though, that a good management agency helps.

Fortunately I am on the top floor, but of course have problems with my neighbours occasionally, I can even hear my neighbour snoring through my living room wall!!
But I had problems with noise in both terraced and semi-detached houses too.

Originally posted by muddycoffee
It's funny all you people in these expensive modern apartments complaining about noise. Did you not think that living in flats is noisy? I would have thought that was obvious. If you can't get used to it you'll have to move into a old house instead with thick walls.

It's odd but the old tower blocks that everyone hated didn't realy have a noise problem, a foot of concrete being a quite good sound insulator. I had neighbours above and below and to one side but never heard any of them.

I guess they built things better in the sixties :0)

Some friends of mine moved into a flat and had trouble with the neighbours making noise, particularly at night. They were just rude when asked to keep the noise down.

They soon stamped that out by making sure the neighbours got up for work at the same time they did (6am) every single day by blasting techno at obscene volumes. There were no other neighbours so nobody else was affected.

They very rarely made a sound after that.

Sell up mate think of your health, I went through the same thing in the same area, it's not worth getting in trouble for killing someone, big time palpitations.

Yeah had a problem recently with my (flat) neighbour too. His flipping bass unit means even at low volumes it was a nightmare. As if RnB isn't bad enough without it being forced on you when you want to sleep.

Got sorted after a hefty conversation. We had this after he discovered what it was like to be woken up by our washing machine at midnight (he would have his music full volume at 4am before then, and again at 7am).

Been fine since then, as long as I'm out during the day!