This article discusses how to handle excessive neighbour noise in strata living, outlining practical and formal steps residents can take when friendly discussions fail.
Question: We share a main bedroom wall with our neighbour’s living room. We hear their television, sometimes until 3 am. It disturbs our sleep. What can we do?
We have owned our unit in a hundred-unit complex for fifteen years. We share a main bedroom wall with our neighbour’s living room. Over the last couple of years, noise has become a problem. Maybe that is due to new technology, i.e. large smart televisions, sound bars and video games.
The neighbour’s television sits alongside our shared wall. We experience noise transfer, sometimes until 3 am. The base, in particular, is quite loud, as well as muffled voices, and it disturbs our sleep.
We mentioned this problem to the neighbour on three occasions over the last eighteen months, and they promised to install a soundproof wall. So far, this hasn’t happened. The noise disappears for a while, only to return. What can we do?
Answer: As friendly conversation hasn’t worked, you probably need to try a more formal approach.
This is likely to be a breach of by-law issue. Most body corporate by-laws start with a noise by-law. The default schedule 4 by-laws state:
- Noise: The occupier of a lot must not create noise likely to interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of a person lawfully on another lot or the common property.
Your by-laws will probably state something along these lines. If you don’t have a copy, you should be able to get one from your body corporate manager or the secretary of your scheme.
The by-law doesn’t mean that there should be no noise transference between lots – that’s not possible – but it considers whether the noise one person makes interferes with another’s ‘peaceful enjoyment’ of their lot.
‘Peaceful enjoyment’ is an interpretive concept; different people will have different standards regarding an acceptable noise level. Establishing a threshold for when an agreed baseline has been breached can make dealing with noise issues complex.
In this case, you have approached the neighbour, and it seems they have acknowledged the issue, albeit they haven’t done anything to resolve it. The onus, then, is on you to see if you can lead the neighbour to change. As friendly conversation hasn’t worked, you probably need to try a more formal approach. Maybe issue a letter to the neighbour or have a solicitor draft one for you. The letter should state the problem, what you expect they do to resolve it, and a timeframe for that resolution. Your neighbour isn’t obliged to respond or rectify based on a letter alone, but by issuing one, you are starting a formal process of notification and, hopefully, resolution.
Your correspondence doesn’t say, but have you approached the body corporate about the issue? You should, and if the body corporate agrees, it could issue a breach of by-law notice to your neighbour. To formalise the process, you could issue the body corporate with a BCCM Form-1: Notice to body corporate of contravention.
For its part, the body corporate may ask you for some evidence of the disturbance. For noise complaints, this isn’t always easy to provide, but you could keep a diary or make audio recordings via your phone. If the matter is serious enough, you could engage an audio specialist to take the recordings. This can be expensive, but they can help provide definitive proof.
If you raise the issue in this way, hopefully, your neighbour will take action to ease the situation – as they have indicated they could add some soundproofing or move the television, if necessary.
If not, you may have to proceed with the issue by making a complaint through the Commissioner’s office. There is some argument here that the body corporate should do this – it has evidence that its by-laws are being breached and should act accordingly. However, in neighbour vs neighbour disputes, I generally think it is best if the individuals pursue the matter. You are the person experiencing the problem, and you are the person best placed to demonstrate and argue for resolution. You are more likely to get a positive outcome by making your argument than leaving it to others.
If your neighbour receives a notice from the Commissioner, you would again hope that would prompt them to self-rectify. If not, the matter can be proceeded to a mediation and ultimately an adjudication. If you are going down this road, you must have as much clear evidence as possible – the diary and sound recordings mentioned previously. If you are having a he said, she said discussion, it can be hard to come to any conclusion.
This post appears in Strata News #669.
William Marquand Tower Body Corporate E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au P: 07 5609 4924