Can Anyone Help With Advise on Noisy Neighbours?

[karen09]

Myself & hubby have been living in a middle floor village apartment since October. The neighbours above are so noisy.

At first, I wrote a note asking if they could not leave their door open, and not shout down the stairs to one another, as well as slamming all the doors in the block. I have a dog who I might add is VERY well behaved, but if anyone ever comes near the door, she will bark.

They totally ignored my note even though I know they can speak English. I ended up having words with them one time when they had literally 10-15 people in there and were talking very load with the door open again which was making my dog go crazy and I told them I also had neighbours to consider. I think they have the whole family over every day so you can imagine the racket when they are all talking and shouting to one another. I was ignored again. Inevitably it has got worse. The police have been called and logs have been made but the police won't do much, they just stand outside the block looking up and listening. The sound though, is from inside my flat. They have now started thumping on the floor and walls. It went on till 11pm last night, so yes... they are obviously well aware of the laws. I was wondering if there could be a possible breach of human rights in this case, as I have been researching the bill of rights in HK. below is what I found...

Article 14

Protection of privacy, family, home,

correspondence, honour and reputation

(1) No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

[cf. ICCPR Art. 17]




Thanks in advance

Kaz

[Claire ex-ax]

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights wasn't drawn up by the United Nations to deal with noisy neighbours.

Do you own or rent?

[karen09]

We rent.

We are wanting to move but we can't until October, otherwise we will loose our deposit.

It is obvious now that they are doing this on purpose. They have started to come into the stairwell making as much noise as possible and mimicking barking noises to aggravate my dog, although I am managing to train her not to bark at that certain noise. They then go onto their balcony and whistle down to her so I have had to lock the balcony doors.

[kimwy66]

The joys of middle-floor village life. My recommendations:

1. Insulate around your door with foam tape. Put up a heavy curtain over the door frame.

2. Get noise cancelling headphones

3. get a noisy aircon - drowns out noise.

4. Make up a wall-chart to count down the days until you can get out of your rental contract if you rent. Get in touch with a good estate agent if you don't and either put the place up for rent or sell.

5. Reflect on the lessons to be learnt:
a. Middle floors are always noisy
b. Local villagers always have lots of visitors / family / maids coming and going and making noise
c. never, ever rent or buy somewhere unless you have visited several times at all times of day to check for noise.
d. the police will not do anything
e. in case you skipped it, go back and read point a again. Building standards are non-existent, there is no noise deadening insulation, there is no insulation, the doors never fit, and sounds leaks through every pore and crack in village houses.

[karen09]

The joys of middle-floor village life. My recommendations:

1. Insulate around your door with foam tape. Put up a heavy curtain over the door frame.

2. Get noise cancelling headphones

3. get a noisy aircon - drowns out noise.

4. Make up a wall-chart to count down the days until you can get out of your rental contract if you rent. Get in touch with a good estate agent if you don't and either put the place up for rent or sell.

5. Reflect on the lessons to be learnt:
a. Middle floors are always noisy
b. Local villagers always have lots of visitors / family / maids coming and going and making noise
c. never, ever rent or buy somewhere unless you have visited several times at all times of day to check for noise.
d. the police will not do anything
e. in case you skipped it, go back and read point a again. Building standards are non-existent, there is no noise deadening insulation, there is no insulation, the doors never fit, and sounds leaks through every pore and crack in village houses.

Yes we are making plans for the door insulation, but that unfortunately wont help with the ceiling and wall noises. I think it makes it worse because we were in a middle floor village apartment for 3 years and it was great, no noise at all, the whole village was pretty quiet. We only moved because we had plans to relocate back home, and I left for the UK, but now I'm back because those plans have changed.
I never saw this apartment as I was in the UK. 'Le Hubster' rented it. But yes, as you say, you live and learn I suppose. Kinda makes you miserable though :0(

[Claire ex-ax]

Sadly there are times when one has to consider cutting one's losses.

Have you approached the landlord?

[iliketurtles]

Do you know if they are renting? If so, start harassing their landlord.

If they're deliberately banging around, you should video it and send it to the police.

What the arsehole in me would do: affix a few speakers to the ceiling, pointing up, at 3am blast out a medley of your favourite tunes. Rinse and repeat each night.

[karen09]

Yes I rang the estate agent after my note was ignored, he said he would call the Landlady. The police option was the last thing I wanted to do, but they haven't given me much choice. I thought at first it might be a cultural thing. We are used to the Chinese, but we have never been neighbours of the Indian community. I didn't expect though to be harassed like they are doing at the moment, it's terrible.

[karen09]

Do you know if they are renting? If so, start harassing their landlord.

If they're deliberately banging around, you should video it and send it to the police.

What the arsehole in me would do: affix a few speakers to the ceiling, pointing up, at 3am blast out a medley of your favourite tunes. Rinse and repeat each night.

We have even looked into the price of CCTV too LOL. The speaker thing would be great (being a Brit), but I would end up being in trouble if I did that at 3AM and I wouldn't want to give them the satisfaction. If I thought we could get out of this blooming contract we would move tomorrow, but we will loose $26000 and we can't afford that :0(

[karen09]

Im not sure if they are renting or not. My instinct tells me they own it.