Sai Kung neighbor noise (The Mediterranean) - suggestions please

[duncan67]

My wife and I moved into the Mediterranean in Sai Kung in September. It's an upmarket group of apartments in three towers, guards at gates etc. (At least, we thought it was).

Our immediate neighbour's door closing mechanism is broken and his door slams shut like a bomb/gunshot. Recently the door has been slamming shut 2,3 4 and 5 times a night between midnight and 6AM, jolting us awake. Yes illegal, we know.

The management have 'inquired' if he can hear any noise at night as a tactful way of highlighting others are awakened. This has clearly irritated him and now he just opens and closes the door (albeit not letting it slam as before) throughout the night without leaving the apartment, to wake us. We are almost monastic in our noise levels, ourselves.

Sai Kung or other SAR residents, what would you do now? He's aggressive. The management are super nice folk but don't have a plan. We can't get out of our lease and the location is convenient for the uni (HKUST). Our property agent is also wonderful and is chasing the management, as apparently is our landlady but again, the management seem caught off guard by this behaviour.

We are pursuing custom ear plugs, have the Watson's silicon ones and also contacted a noise reduction company (will post any updates on these fronts).

Suggestions welcome - thanks :-)
(We don't want to escalate or start slamming ourselves, tempting yes ... but would make us the bad guy to our other neighbours)

P.S
Tower 2. And I meant "neighbour noise" in the title but didn't spot the type until too late.

[chuckster007]

Have a talk with the fucker and if he ignores, then start getting petty and do things to seriously piss him off also, cook some holy fucking awful smelling food, open door and point fans at his house FFS.

ITS TIME FOR WAR!!!!!

[aw451]

This is kinda hard. Usually if it's continuous noise you can call the Popo and they will give them an ultimatum to either shut up or get fined. Usually the noise maker chooses the former.

For this type of complaint you are going to have to keep a record of the noise at first instance and build up a case against your neighbour.

[Eva C]

You said upmarket apartment. Would the management not have maintenance people who could check his broken door closing mechanism?

[JAherbert]

IF it is the apartment front door, that is regarded as a fire door and requires self closing device..... perhaps another approach would be to remind the management and the fire services department about the unsafe condition,

although unlikely, FSD can issue enforcement notice, perhaps worrying about enforcement notice might be enough to get it fixed

[shri]

FSD can issue enforcement notice, perhaps worrying about enforcement notice might be enough to get it fixed

On both or all apartments... ? Doubt they'd issue a notice on one apartment and ignore everything else on the floor or building?

I'm also filing this in the learn something new file. "Front / main doors are considered fire doors".

[bdw]

IF it is the apartment front door, that is regarded as a fire door and requires self closing device..... perhaps another approach would be to remind the management and the fire services department about the unsafe condition,

although unlikely, FSD can issue enforcement notice, perhaps worrying about enforcement notice might be enough to get it fixed

I thought this rule was for kitchen doors, not front doors. They must self close and cannot be left open (even though I pulled the self closing mechanism off my kitchen door after moving in). But anyway, even if I am wrong and it applies to front doors as well, the rule is they must self close, nothing in the rule about how hard they close or how much noise they make whilst closing.

[Elegiaque]

Our immediate neighbour's door closing mechanism is broken and his door slams shut like a bomb/gunshot. Recently the door has been slamming shut 2,3 4 and 5 times a night between midnight and 6AM, jolting us awake. Yes illegal, we know.

The management have 'inquired' if he can hear any noise at night as a tactful way of highlighting others are awakened. This has clearly irritated him and now he just opens and closes the door (albeit not letting it slam as before) throughout the night without leaving the apartment, to wake us. We are almost monastic in our noise levels, ourselves.

Sai Kung or other SAR residents, what would you do now? He's aggressive. ..................... contacted a noise reduction company (will post any updates on these fronts).

You came in September. I wonder if you're doing something that disrupts him. Do you have a baby or small children? Are you leaving shoes out in the common area? Is it something to do with parking? Or how you're using common facilities?

I highly doubt someone would be so aggressive they would wake up themselves in the night just to slam their door for the sake of making your life miserable (unless you're unwittingly doing something that really upsets him).

Could you offer to fix his door at your expense?


What noise reduction company are you referring to? Curious to learn more.

[duncan67]

"You came in September. I wonder if you're doing something that disrupts him. Do you have a baby or small children? Are you leaving shoes out in the common area? Is it something to do with parking? Or how you're using common facilities?"

It's a fair thought - are we unwittingly upsetting them? Our UK neighbours call us "angels". No kids. No shoes in hall. No pets. No musical instruments. No stereos and in bed by 9pm for an early start. Maybe they just hate quiet people!

But seriously, we've heard a lot of (insane) shouting from the lady there recently, and the door slamming throughout the night started soon after. We've seen it's the husband. Then there was a day of terrible crying and wailing from the poor lady, so we're guessing all is not well in their household. She's now closing the door quietly, and he's dropped it down to once a night at most. But it varies.

[duncan67]

IF it is the apartment front door, that is regarded as a fire door and requires self closing device..... perhaps another approach would be to remind the management and the fire services department about the unsafe condition,

Thanks, I didn't know about legal requirements for self-closing doors. The closing device is perhaps the issue at heart. It's super strong and appears to have overpowered the spring in their latch mechanism. So the self-closer works 'too well". (The whole building can sound like the Somme at times, bang ... bang ... distant bang ... loud bang - something for potential future residents to consider).