Question: What can I do if the upstairs lot was meant to install carpet for acoustic reasons, but I still hear loud floorboard noise, and the body corporate won’t confirm whether the work was actually done?
I’m a lot owner living on the ground floor of a seven-unit building. The upstairs units originally had timber flooring, but all were required to have their floors repaired and carpeted with proper underlay to reduce noise for those living below.
The lot above me was supposedly repaired and carpeted. I was home the week the work was said to have been done, and I did not hear any installation. I’m still experiencing loud, squeaky floorboard noises constantly — every step is audible, my house shakes, and it’s severely affecting my sleep.
I asked the body corporate to confirm whether the flooring work was completed and requested proof of repairs and an acoustic test to ensure it meets the required standards. They’ve ignored my requests. The previous owner has since sold the lot, and a new owner resides in the upstairs unit.
What are my rights in this situation, and what steps can I take?
Answer: The starting point with any potential dispute within a strata community is to make sure you have all relevant information at hand.
The starting point with any potential dispute within a strata community is to make sure you have all relevant information at hand. This will help you understand who was supposed to do what, in what way, and by when. Only then can you formulate your position and what your next steps could be.
Some relevant documents may include:
- the community management statement (namely, the current by-laws applying to the scheme);
- meeting minutes (particularly for those meetings where any relevant resolutions were passed by either the body corporate or committee); or
- development approval conditions/requirements.
These documents should form part of the body corporate records.
Lot owners are entitled to access body corporate records, subject to a few exceptions (such as, if they are subject to legal privilege or contain defamatory material). Accordingly, if you do not have copies of relevant documents, you may make a records request to the body corporate pursuant to section 205 of the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (
A records request can be to either inspect the body corporate’s records yourself (or by a professional search agent), or to ask the body corporate to search its records and provide you with copies of specific documents. It will also involve payment of a prescribed fee, which is generally calculated in accordance with the regulation module applying to a scheme.
There might also be some relevant information which can only be obtained from inspecting a neighbouring lot. Lot owners generally do not have a right to access another lot belonging to someone else. A body corporate (by its authorised representatives) may enter a lot in limited circumstances pursuant to section 163 of the BCCM Act being:
- that the purpose of entry is to either:
- inspect the lot to find out whether work the body corporate is authorised or required to carry out is necessary; or
- to carry out work the body corporate is authorised or required to carry out; and
- that the required notice is given to the owner/occupier of the lot (specific notice periods for different circumstances are outlined in s163(2) of the BCCM Act).
Once you have gathered up all the information you can, you should try to answer (at least) these questions:
- What was required?
- What was actually required to be done in your neighbour’s unit?
- Was there a due date/timeframe for what was to be done?
- Who was responsible for ensuring that it was done? For example, was the work the lot owner’s responsibility or a body corporate responsibility?
- By what authority was the work authorised to be done? For example, were the works required in accordance with a by-law, order of the court/adjudicator, or development approval?
- Have all the requirements been met?
- Have the relevant by-laws, body corporate or other approvals, etc been complied with?
- Alternatively, are they in the process of being complied with? For example, have the works commenced, but further time is required to complete them?
- If there is noncompliance, then who is responsible for ensuring compliance? For example, is it the body corporate or a local government entity?
Once you have your (draft!) answers, make an appointment to talk to an experienced strata lawyer. Take, or send them in advance, all the documents and information you have collected. Doing that should make their job easier and thus cheaper.
An experienced strata lawyer will be able to assess the situation quickly and then help develop a plan to move forward, whether it is taking action yourself or seeking the body corporate to do so.
This post appears in Strata News #750.
Michael Kleinschmidt and Kimberley Johnson
Bugden Allen
E: michael.kleinschmidt@bagl.com.au
P: 07 5406 1280
My downstairs neighbours mentioned they could hear our grandkids ‘rolling & dropping marbles on the floor’. Nope, that doesn’t happen. A quick search on google reveals that this sound and others is common and comes from trapped air in water pipes.
i bought a unit in QLD about 5-6 years ago with wooden floors in it. i have been told by body cooperated that i have had noise complaints about scarping on the floors and the floor doesn’t meet code as its’s been sound tested now. but i was never the one who installed the floors in the first place i bought them like that. so what’s the go here? cause i believe this is a load of ***. test come back at 48 and they want 45
Hi,
It doesn’t matter if you didn’t install the floors – you bought the unit so you have responsibility for them.
Whether you have to rectify them is a different question. Your by-laws and the legislation will contain regulations requiring your lot not to impede the peaceful enjoyment of other lots. That includes the amount of noise your lot makes. In this case it seems that the body corporate has a standard and evidence has been provided to show that you are not meeting it. You now have a choice between a number of options:
– Rectify your lot to meet the standards of the body corporate.
– Discuss and negotiate with the body corporate – perhaps there is a compromise position. Perhaps the standard they are imposing is unreasonable.
– Do nothing.
All options have pros and cons and you have to weigh them up. Ultimately though if you can’t reach an amicable conclusion with the body corporate the possibility exists that they may take legal action against you and the matter will be determined in court. If it was me I would try further discussion as the next point. Present your case reasonably and see what the response is.
4 years ago, after gaining approval from the then Body Corp Committee, we installed a floating wooden floor on a 1st level apartment using noice reducing underlay as recommended by the manufacturers – Compliant below the 62 noice level.
Part of the approval advised we needed to carry out an acoustic test, which required gaining access to the apartment below. After discussing with the owner at that time, he was not keen to allow the access needed.
I advised the then bodycorp of this. During the first year or so, we discussed with our neighbour who had no noise issue, so would still not agree to access, but we had no issues or complaints.
Last year, that owner moved out and rented the property out. The person who rented has continually complaint about many different noises, which has been discussed amicably, and have tried to accommodate his concerns by keeping as quite as possible for two older (65+ couple).
The tenant advised me he loved the complex, and was looking to buy a penthouse due to the “continual noise”, which I was happy about.
Unfortunately he decided to by the below apartment, and has continued to complain regularly about all sorts of noises, believing it all comes from our apartment. We know this is not true noises from above; Scraping chairs, walking in their apartment at all hours but this is just acceptable as part of apartment living!
On returning from an overseas trip we received a complaint about “continual clomping and stomping”, scraping of furniture etc.
Our apartment was empty when we went overseas for a 3 week holiday (cut short due to COVID).
He blames all noise at us, as has found out we have Wooden flooring, without having an Acoustic test carried out!
As we are of pension age, are we obligated to go to the expense of this acoustic test, as I do not think this will solve his issues.
Is it mandatory we have to carry out this test just to satisfy his issues?
Cheers
Kim
As an acoustic engineer with over 25 years of experience in floor impact noise in Queensland and having experience with over 200 high-rise buildings, I believe that I am in a position to offer some clarity on this matter. Firstly dropping weights onto a floor and logging noise levels in a room underachieves nothing. The issue is that this is a neighborhood problem that first should be managed by neighbors talking to each other. When this is not possible and to prevent possible problems, the matters become a Body Corporate requirement to set appropriate by-laws. These laws are often in two parts. One part references a need for neighbors not to create undue or excessive noise from hard floor surfaces. This is difficult to enforce as it is all subjective. The second part is to set a defined floor impact rating noise limit (LnTw under ISO standards). The problem here is that the terminology is not well understood. The terminology applies a corrected noise level in the lower apartment from a standard tapping machine dropping 500gm weights at 10 times per second onto the floor of concern. Under the National Construction Code (NCC) a limit of LnTw 60 is applied. Unfortunately, many people are still affected by noise and Body Corporates often try to set lower limits. These By-Laws are established after the building has been constructed and adjudicated by the Body Corporate Commission.
Floor impact noise is an issue of structural dynamics, with the noise affected by the thickness of a concrete floor, any pre or post-stressing applied to the floor, the columns’ location, and whether or not there is a ceiling under it. Carpet is the ideal solution to manage floor impact noise, but this is not the preferred floor treatment in QLD.
A builder will often build to the NCC’s minimum standards during construction, with all floors set to this minimum rating. It is only when an owner wishes to renovate that by-Laws will take effect, and owners then carry the cost of any floor impact insulation. Should a rating of less than LnTw 55 be required, this can require an underlay greater than 8mm thick. This becomes expensive and is not easy to lay correctly.
Any solution to manage floor impact noise is a compromise, and in many cases, people learn to live with the noise and, in effect, “tune it out.” However, some people will become more “tuned” to the noise and affected. There is no solution to protect all the people all of the time when considering that residential apartments are often separated by 200mm of concrete and no ceiling. Further to this, some residents will not generate floor impact noise, whereas other occupants (particularly where children play) can create high noise affecting lower residents. This noise has to be managed by people being considerate of their neighbors, with the By-Laws spelling out a need for owners/tenants to not create undue noise that could impact adjacent areas’ amenities.
The compromise solution is a well-written By-Law that sets a defined rating using achievable impact insulation ratings and understands that owners/tenancy must not create excessive noise. Floor impact insulation testing is a crucial part of the strategy.
Ross Palmer CPEng RPEQ
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Hi!
We purchased a ground floor unit which we have lived in for one year now. It is in an old 2 story block with only 8 units. It was first registered in 1967, so it falls under the 1965 by-laws. The issue is, the second floor units all had carpet & underlay, laid onto tongue & grove boards. The unit above us have pulled up the carpet and underlay and have polished the old boards which sit directly on the structs in our ceiling, leaving no insulation what so ever. Apart from the noise being incredible loud & disturbing, any spilled liquids, leak through the boards and come through our light fittings. Do we have any rights? Are the owners above us allowed to remove the floor insulation? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Joelle
Chris Irons, Hynes Legal has responded to your question in the article above.
great information thank you.
Several occupants in our recently completed apartment building have complained about acoustic noise transferring from other apartments, usually from above and limited to those with tiled floors. The developer/builder (same organisation) have tested several apartments, some have failed and others are very high ie. between 55dB and 62dB. They have committed to remediating the failed apartments but no comment so far on those that are well above 50dB.
Problem is, the developer/builder, also being the original owner, put in place the by-laws and included one that stipulated that any alterations to the flooring must not exceed 50dB , which is far more appropriate for multi-story apartment than the NCC code of 62dB. This suggests that they themselves had intended to install flooring that did not exceed 50dB.
My question: is 50dB a reasonable standard for apartment flooring? Also, where does the original owners by-law leave the body corporate in terms of enforcing the standard BCCM Act 1997 ‘occupiers right to peace and enjoyment’ by-law? If one by-law makes reference to not exceeding 50dB with flooring and the occupiers know for a fact that the apartment above does, what then? Is the ‘offending’ lot owner responsible for the remedy or the builder/developer?
Hi Tony
Chris Irons, Hynes Legal has responded to your question in this article: QLD: Oppressive or Unreasonable Strata Bylaws
We have received this comment from Stuart Clough, NoiseNet:
There are regulations in the Building Code of Australia around floor to ceiling noise, and although older buildings are not subject to that, the strata committee should not be permitting any modifications to buildings that make a non-compliant situation even worse.
Moving from a soft surface (carpet) to a hard surface (floorboards or worse, to tiles/slate) very significantly increases the noise levels created on the floor surface. This can be from shoes, furniture, dropped items. Once these sounds are created, the hard surfaces more effectively transmit the sound to the residents below (and sometimes to the adjoining apartments as well) resulting in not only noisy floorboards upstairs, but next door too. Foam will not really help unless it is an acoustic foam which can absorb and dampen the sound vibrations.
Minimising impact noises on the floorboards of the apartment above may help somewhat:
– removing shoes in the apartment;
– putting soft pads on feet of furniture;
– reducing general noise levels (music/TV/etc).
However, these measures will never be as effective as good acoustic design in the building, soft floor coverings and/or sound insulation underfloor.
There are a range of sound insulating foams/treatments available that can measurably reduce noise levels. Any strata manager should be insisting that this is installed at an appropriate thickness to compensate for a move from carpet to a hard flooring surface.
More proactive managers may even insist that this is carried out for all flooring changes, as this will over time result in quieter apartments for all residents, better sleep, happier residents and ultimately higher valuations.
If we’re a tenant with similar problems, and have been told by the property/building manager that the owner/occupier above installed floorboard underlay to code, are we within our rights to ask for the installation details?
Hi Tom
We have received the following reply from Frank Higginson:
That is not what you should be asking for.
What they have installed is neither here nor there. What matters is whether they are using their lot in a way that interferes unreasonably with yours. If they are, then you have rights.
So, what you should be doing is collating evidence of what happens and when, including the sound levels, and then preparing a submission to the body corporate about by-laws.
But if you are a tenant, it might just be easier to move out when the lease expires…..