Leasing Law experts

[Shooms]

Calling all wiggy ones....

Does anyone know if a Leasing Agency has liability for any lessees they place in a flat ? Any precedents been set for sueing for undue stress & anxiety etc ?

I'm currently living in ASBO hell from the neighbours in the flat above & am writing to the Leasing Agency spelling out what's what.

Thanks

[Ed]

Originally Posted by Shooms

Calling all wiggy ones....

Does anyone know if a Leasing Agency has liability for any lessees they place in a flat ? Any precedents been set for sueing for undue stress & anxiety etc ?

I'm currently living in ASBO hell from the neighbours in the flat above & am writing to the Leasing Agency spelling out what's what.

Thanks

Any lawyer worth his salt will have removed all liability for the agency. Whoever has the head lease (the freeholder probably) is the person you want, unless theres an association involved in which case it'll be a shared responsibility. Have a good look at the lease you signed, there should be clauses in there related to noise/nuisance etc....

Have you spoken to the people upstairs?
Your local council will also have rules etc in place, but basically unless they are playing stuff really loud at unsociable hours, there won't be much they could do.

Thought you wanted to get on the property ladder anyway....

[Mr Radish]

Originally Posted by Shooms

Calling all wiggy ones....

Does anyone know if a Leasing Agency has liability for any lessees they place in a flat ? Any precedents been set for sueing for undue stress & anxiety etc ?

I'm currently living in ASBO hell from the neighbours in the flat above & am writing to the Leasing Agency spelling out what's what.

Thanks

Sorry to hear you are having problems mate.

This may be of help to you?

Welcome to the Leasehold Advisory Service

Good luck fella.

[Shooms]

Originally Posted by Ed

Any lawyer worth his salt will have removed all liability for the agency. Whoever has the head lease (the freeholder probably) is the person you want, unless theres an association involved in which case it'll be a shared responsibility. Have a good look at the lease you signed, there should be clauses in there related to noise/nuisance etc....

Have you spoken to the people upstairs?
Your local council will also have rules etc in place, but basically unless they are playing stuff really loud at unsociable hours, there won't be much they could do.

Thought you wanted to get on the property ladder anyway....

The owner of the flat above me bought it as an investment & rents out via a 3rd party leasing agency. Never had a problem before until these ASBO scum moved in.

The block is 4 flats, 2 of which are owned by residents (myself & another couple), we pay ground rent to the freeholder bi-annually.

The current occupants of the leased flat are taking the piss big time:

Here's a note in draft

Dear Beals,

I am writing to you in sheer desperation & frustration at the people you have leased Flat 3 St Josephs Court to.

Ever since they moved in there has been a constant barrage of unacceptable noise (music, shouting, screaming & doors slamming, full scale parties) at all times of the night.

I had previously written to the residents as per the attached email & it had some short-term effect & a letter of apology from Amanda however Friday night just gone was the final straw.

From 8 PM onwards there was a full scale party going on with screaming / shouting & the whole building was vibrating to music. The owners of Flat 4 had asked them to keep the noise down & recieved a mouthful of attitude from Amanda saying that 'she knew her rights'.

I arrived home late on Friday night but went upstairs at 11.45 PM to ask them to turn the noise down - I was met with an agressive & belligerant attitude from a very drunken lad (Ben ?), I called & left Sherri a message letting her know that once again her property & the neighbours were being abused.

They left the flat about midnight but came back about 2AM & again started up with extremely loud music & shouting. This seemed to turn into an open house with the front door left open & people running up the stairs shouting & screaming - in fact I heard one person shout "The neighbours have complained so he said to be as loud as you can". In addition to the music & general rowdiness there was also the sound of slamming doors, breaking glass & screaming between Amanda & Ben.

I went upstairs after this & again asked Ben to turn the music down & again was met with agressive & drunken attitude as he seemed to think himself untouchable with a houseful of his friends (who were also very drunk) but he did turn it down to a lower level but as soon as I went downstairs he turned it up full volume again. Once again I went upstairs to ask for the music & screaming to be turned down, once again met with drunken agressiveness from Ben.

Amanda's brother was also there to take her back to her parents house as apparently, according to Amanda, he had been physically abusive to her. On the way out she knocked on my door to apologise & told me that she wanted Ben out & had also called the police to attend Flat 3 midweek for a domestic as Ben had also been abusive to her then. However hearing conversation from Flat 3 last night it seems that they are back together again as both were in the flat together.

Speaking with the owners of Flat 4 on Saturday morning they confirmed that they had also had to call in both the police & the environmental health on a number of occasions in recent weeks (they are home more than me).

I understand from speaking with Sherri that she has contacted yourselves to instigate eviction proceedings, however I do feel you have let Sherri down in placing these people into her flat, they are not suitable or compatible with the lifestyle of the other residents, they neither seem to respect neither the neighbours or the flat they live in.

Can I ask you to provide me with a copy of the terms & conditions that your lessees sign up to as I find it hard to believe this type of behaviour is tolerated within your T&Cs

Original letter

Dear Flat 3 occupants.

I wanted to give you formal feedback following your move into 3 St Josephs Court about 3 weeks ago.

St Josephs Court is a quiet, residential block & every occupant has respected the fact that it IS a residential block with working occupants (& one with a small child). This means we respect noise pollution wherever possible; both within our flats & in the communal stairwell.

Unfortunately since the 1st night you moved in (on a Sunday about 3 weeks ago) there seems to been regular full house parties (or certainly sounds like a full house from my flat) during the week & well as the weekends, these tend to go on until at least 4 - 5 AM. The disturbances include:

Loud music
Shouting (including one lad who for reasons known only to himself shouts at the top his voice every 10 minutes 'OI OI !!', 'Are you Ready ?!' or just generally screams/howls !!)
Running up & down & shouting in the main communal stairwell at early hours of the morning
Shouting outside your front window to friends in the street below

Dates I can definately say this has happened apart from the initial Sunday party midweek were last Thursday 19th July (I was kept awake until 5.am) & last night Tuesday 24th July (kept awake until 4 am)... Fridays & Saturdays it seems to be the norm.

This would be bad enough on a regular basis at the weekends but to do this during week days when other residents have to get up & go to work is totally unacceptable & totally disrespectful to the other residents in the block.

I am writing this at work after having yet another disturbed night with approx 3 hours sleep, my work is suffering & my health is suffering through stress - I actually dread coming home.

I put the other flat residents on copy for awareness & copies have also been sent to Beales & the Flat Owner (whom I am in contact with).

Please rectify this situation forthwith

[Ed]

Then its the owner of the flat to go after first. If that doesn't work, then check the lease and warn him you'll go to the freeholder. He may be subletting against the terms of the lease in the first place.

You can call the police on them at that time though, and I wouldn't think twice about it.

In reality, property law is a shit show and its pretty much impossible to go down the legal route unless you're a billionaire.

Sorry to hear about that Mark, its fucking terrible. I have a lot of noise from upstairs sometimes, and for a year or so it was driving me to destraction. I've trained myself to not let it bother me, although if I end up letting this place I'm goign to get it soundproofed to the tune of 5 grand, just for my own peace of mind...

[Steve Williams]

Shooms,
You need to get intouch with your local Council immediately,they have a department Noise etc who deal with this and take it very seriously.Dont bother with the letting agency as they want the money.The council will send you an information pack hopefully and in my case gave me a link phone no to someone who would come out and help.You need to keep a diary of all the problems.It can be solved as ive been through it also. But its awful,the council will help,once youve got this in place the letting agency seem to take a different stance on the stiuation.

[nics]

i feel sorry for your neighbours actualy.........having to put up with a wingeing old munter and having to endure hours of chinese porn on full belt on ur 20million foot widescreen thing projector

only joking shooms, tis a reet pile o shite when ya got tw@ts for neighbours......mine are 2 smackheads and to be honest im lucky......i dont hear that much noise from em and they see the the type of people that come to mine so they dare not give me and grief!!!

hope ya manage to get it sorted!!

oh by the way my fone was hoff all weekend but i noticed ya foned me......was that for back up for me to come n kick ur neighbours arse shawe on the wyth styleeeeeee

[Shooms]

Cheers for the replies

Ed, Ste n Chris - that was dead helpful - thanks

[Steve Williams]

Shooms,
Dug my pack out its under the Councils Enviromental Heath & Trading Standards Dept.
Enviromental Protection Act 1990 "Noise Nuisance" you will be given a case No & Pack hopefully
& A Statutoury Nuisance Investigation Event Log, with help it soon went away for me.
They can serve an Abatement Notice if it doesnt stop ,it doesnt matter about the leasing agent their still out before the lease date
Hope it works the same for you mate

[Shooms]

Originally Posted by Steve Williams

Shooms,
Dug my pack out its under the Councils Enviromental Heath & Trading Standards Dept.
Enviromental Protection Act 1990 "Noise Nuisance" you will be given a case No & Pack hopefully
& A Statutoury Nuisance Investigation Event Log, with help it soon went away for me.
They can serve an Abatement Notice if it doesnt stop ,it doesnt matter about the leasing agent their still out before the lease date
Hope it works the same for you mate

Thanks Steve - on the case now Appreciate the help

[Bob_Skipton]

Shooms sorry to hear of your issue........I hate bad neighbours......god it really pisses me off......


While we're on the subject. I live in a terrace of four houses, the previous neighbours we're fine, they sold their house and someone bought to lease....

We weren't happy when we heard this, anyway the first set of tenants kept themselves to themselves and we're OK, but they were well dodgy, you could just tell, they ended up doing a runner after about 4 months.

Anyway new tenants move in, they are noisy at times but it's not OTT and we haven't felt the need to say anything, but that may change as we have a new addition to our family imminent.......2 weeks eeeeek !!!


Anyway the thing is these people stink and they are what we call "Scratters"......it's just a middle aged couple who chainsmoke and seem to deep fry everything.

When we are sat in the garden if they open their door that's it we have to go inside, the smell is that bad, we have to close all our windows otherwise our house stinks (mostly of badly cooked food) but generally grime and cheap fags.

I know they aren't breaking any laws and I ain't going round to moan at them for doing something in their own home BUT.......is there anything I can say in a letter to their landlord ?

The other neighbours must smell it too but it could be the way the wind blows who knows......

Any comments please from peeps in the know would be most appreciative, it's a good job we haven't had a summer like last year otherwise we would have had to have our windows shut all the time........we would have baked.

comments or ideas welcome.....

Bob

[nathan]

This is awful and has touched a nerve.
I'd appreciate everyones advice on my situ as well. I moved into a place at the end of april. It's pretty noisy not really badly but we have noise to the right, left and below.

The worse is right next to our bedroom. A bloke basically has a mini recording studio. My girlfriend has peeped in and there is computers decks, tons of records etc. Now this bloke has either been worded or is quite clever. The music is very rarely after 10pm but it is always what I would equate with club sound levels. Really loud. Sometimes as early as 9am. Is he within his rights cause of the times? or are their noise levels no matter what time. Its stressing me out a bit. I thought about being nice and saying "got any old skool" as the music is mainly garage. It must drive a lot of people mad. I have seen him in the street and kind made and effort to smile etc and he never acknowledges me. There are a couple of people I could send round to have a "word" but not sure I want to go down that route as he looks a bit handy if you catch my drift. Just seems so selfish

[Steve Williams]

Bob,
You pay rates ,you have to involve your Council .Landlords dont care a stuff.Councils have depts you can talk to but you do have to find them as they arent really good at profile but if like me your paying them £1000 PA to empty your bin you deserve more...

[Bob_Skipton]

I don't pay shit.........lol


yes of course I do, 2 lots of 'em !!!!


So you think the council is the way to go ?

What can they do about people that make the air stink.........

What the charge ? Polluting the atmosphere ?

It's a tricky one in my eyes.

Bob

[coggledots]

Originally Posted by Bob_Skipton

It's a tricky one in my eyes.

Bob

Don't you mean 'nose'