Monday, September 29, 2008

Leonie Writes:

I'm a photographer and a graphic design student in London.

I'm 23 years old and after living in student accommodation for a year I decided to rent a flat of my own nearer to the University. I'm quite aware the place I rented is old Victorian conversion so the ceiling are not the perfectly insulated, so footsteps from the upstairs neighbours are alright at considerable hours.

The block I live in has 3 flats with mine and I live in the middle. The person on the ground floor is the guy in charge of the flats, since the landlady lives in Australia. Upstairs are 2 girls, one which also has her boyfriend living with her. The first few days they were moving in they were awfully loud and the banging on my ceiling was unbearable (dragging chairs, throwing suitcases, heavy footsteps, etc.) which I tolerated since they moving in so its understandable. I thought they will probably be quiet after they gotten installed.

HOW WRONG I WAS! A week later it had not stopped. I was still partly living at my student flat so it didn't bother but my mother was sleeping in the flat and she kept telling me every morning how incredibly loud they were, and that it was impossible for her to sleep. One night she knocked on the neighbours door to tell them to be considerate and that other people lived in the flat and wanted to sleep.

When I finally spent the night myself all I could think was ARE THEY HORSES? It was completely unbelievable! I saw my clock twice it was 2:30AM then 3:30AM. What on earth are they doing just above my bedroom??! It felt like a horse was galloping up there. IT WAS ALMOST 4AM!

I wrapped myself in my robe and knocked on the door at 4am. A guy, breathing heavily and wrapped in ONLY a bath towel answers the door. I explain that I don't mean to bother then but that it was really noisy and it is 4am, etc.

"I was only making a sandwich" he claimed. I explained that I needed my sleep and please try to keep it down and went back to my flat.

A few days later the Superintendant had come by my flat to fix some stuff and I decided to talk to him about the neighbours and the noise. Luckily the "horses" started making the same awful noise just at that moment and I could tell that he agreed the noise was excessive. The Super went upstairs and came back a few minutes later with a strange look on his face.

"Let me guess" I said, "they told you they were making sandwiches?" I found out they tried to complain to him about me complaining, and waking them up at 4am?!?! I'm not sure what he said to them that day but thankfully they are incredibly quiet now.

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