Bin that din!

On our staircase (of six flats), we had been extremely lucky with five careful full-time owner-occupiers and one flat rented out by a careful landlord. The construction of our 40-year-old block, like a number of blocks built at the same time in this area, has one serious deficiency: solid concrete floors at each level provide very little sound insulation. Our luck finally gave out late last year when a first-floor flat, that had just changed owners, was rented to three young men who wanted to live a party lifestyle.

Continuously. After spending just one day settling in, the next four days - and nights - were a barrage of noise; shouting, yelling, loud music, slammed doors; with groups of their mates arriving and departing noisily, some in an intoxicated state; this happening in the flat, on the stairs and out in the road. The severity of the noise and nuisance was such that the occupant in one flat left for a few days to stay with relatives. He recognised if these disturbances continued for any length of time, his health would be badly affected and he would have to move out permanently. The directors of the block management company wrote to the flat’s owners then phoned our managing agent. The agent advised it would use its complaints procedure and relay complaints to the owners by phone. When we suggested this should be done in writing to provide a paper trail if legal action had to be taken, the agent refused, insisting on handling matters by phone. Our current managing agent was only appointed in 2006 so this was the first time we’d asked for this kind of help, so we were unfamiliar with its complaints procedure. We waited for something to happen. November rolled into December with no improvement. While the drunken disturbances out in the road had stopped, they were still going on in the flat. Further complaints were relayed to our managing agent by letter and phone with still no response from them or the owner. It was only after a blunt letter was sent to the agent that we received a reply saying they were forwarding all our complaints - by phone - to the owner and tenants. They advised that while they would intervene in neighbour disputes, these could be better handled by external authorities and suggested we contact ‘the council or the police’. We contacted Environmental Health in early January. With no sign that the owner would take any responsibility, this seemed the next best option but it also carried with it the likelihood that the matter could drag on for some time, so the resident who’d been staying with relatives decided to look for a small flat to rent. Another resident did speak to tenants twice about keeping the noise down and on the second occasion received a threatening gesture from one of them. While we knew of the ‘nuisance and annoyance’ covenant in our leases, none of us had any knowledge or experience of leasehold property law or Landlord & Tenant law, so one of our directors started a search for information using the internet and also consulted a solicitor. Having examined our lease the solicitor advised that the management company could sue the tenants or the owners in court and at the same time apply for an injunction ordering compliance with the lease. When he said that this action could cost anywhere between £5,000 and £10,000 and take up to nine months, that possibility suddenly evaporated. It would wipe out our reserve fund completely. The work of the noise abatement officer continued on through February and March including installing a noise recorder in an adjoining flat and in March our distressed resident moved out into a small rented flat. The noise abatement officer contacted both our managing agent and the owners but no improvement was forthcoming. The owners seem to have been able to convince the officer that, as the tenants were leaving in June there wasn’t much point in taking any further action... and to our surprise the officer appears to have agreed with this! The tenants did finally leave in June. Recently some new tenants have arived. They are somewhat quiet at the moment. We are beginning to start relaxing again. In one call to the management company we asked about the possibility of taking legal action. The response was ‘...the money [in the reserve fund] isn’t available for that purpose.’ Not knowing what was meant by this comment, the caller took it at face value. The caller assumed there was some legislation that prevented management companies using reserve funds for legal activity. It was several months later after having found out about the use of the LVT in adjudicating breaches of covenant that our director consulted another solicitor and found out that no such legislation exists.