Feature: Common Challenges and Disputes
Noise Disputes
Written by Jodie Fraser, MD at Fraser Allen Estate Management
As a company, we often have to deal with disputes between residents, neighbouring properties, commercial issues or AirBnB. But the most common dispute that we come up against is noise nuisance.
It’s important to remember that everyone has different sensitivities to noise and what can bother one person, may not be a concern for someone else. We should also consider that noise nuisance such as constant arguing, banging doors, strange noises could be a bigger issue such as domestic abuse. Here’s a link to the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance and the amazing work that they do.
In general, noise complaints relate to heavy footfall, slamming doors, loud music, playing musical instruments or a general lack of consideration for those living within the block of flats. This can be very disturbing for the person experiencing the problem and at Fraser Allen Estate Management, we do all we can to try and assist.
In the first instance we would always try and make contact with the person/people causing the nuisance as they may not be aware of the distress that it’s causing. If this doesn’t help, we would send a more formal letter detailing that we may have to take action under the terms of the lease if the problem persists.
If the problem persists then we could look at taking formal legal action under the terms of the lease. This would involve getting permission from the RMC or Freeholder to instruct a solicitor. We have a wonderful relation with our team of solicitors, who are based in Cheltenham. They are wonderful at providing us with step by step advice. You can read all about them here.
Alongside Fraser Allen, the solicitor would do the following:
- Whether the issue is one that can be enforced and what is required for that (e.g. evidence, requirements, and process)
- Setting the grounds for any enforcement action including advising those affected on what the client will need to assist them in that action
- Raising the pre-action correspondence warning the offending party of the consequences of failing to comply with covenants that they have made to our client and, no doubt, the affected neighbours
- Conducting proceedings if pre-action correspondence has not obtained the desired result, and
- Seeing any proceedings through to trial and enforcing any order made against the offending party
Legal action can however become very expensive for the management company and we therefore always suggest that a noise log of at least 2 weeks is completed by the person experiencing the disturbance. This way, we can also assist with contacting Environmental Health who ultimately will have a lot more power over a noise disturbance issue than the managing agent. We always want to try and help, but we do find that without enforcing the lease, the local council would be a better option.
We will of course help and assist at every step to try and resolve any disturbance issues for you. To learn more about what we do at Fraser Allen Estate Management, please take a look at our website or contact us via info@fraserallenem.co.uk.
Fraser Allen Estate Management specialise in Residential Block Management and are committed to ensuring your needs are put first. We bring an innovative, organised and reputable approach to the industry with a friendly team who are on hand to assist you.