Are landlords responsible for noisy neighbours?

A reader of The Sunday Times is experiencing noise disruption from their downstairs neighbours and has queried what the legal options are as the freeholder is absent.

 ‘Notwithstanding the missing landlord, you do have legal options. You should seek advice both on the terms of the neighbour’s lease and your own lease. There may be covenants in the lease that you can enforce directly against the owners — a typical covenant would be not to cause a nuisance, noise or options. annoyance to neighbouring owners. Sometimes there are covenants not to sublet property. Even if no such covenants exist, you should still consider writing to the neighbouring owners again, or hire a solicitor to do so, stating that unless the problem is resolved you will take court action. You could offer, provided they take action to remove the tenants, to defer court action to allow them time to do so.’

Simon Painter, Partner in BDB Pitmans’ property litigation team, discusses the options available to the leaseholder.

The full article is available to subscribers of The Sunday Times, here.