Big Badger House (aka Noisy Lodger) HE'S GONE!

A question about : Big Badger House (aka Noisy Lodger) HE'S GONE!

We might have got rid of Lodger 1, but the story's far from over...

Here's a run-down of all the lodgers that have passed through Big Badger House:

NoisyLodger (Lodger1)
March 08 - June 08
Played loud music to cover his sex noises - evicted.

NiceSoFarLodger (Lodger2)
March 08 - September 09
Good strong relationship - got his rent reduced... moved out to get his own flat for his son to visit.

SickInTheBathLodger (Lodger3)
September 08 - November 08
Kept trying to sleep with me! Moved out suddenly.

MauritiusLodger
December 08 - Febuary 09
Didn't flush the loo. Wanted his internet girlfriend to stay over, so moved into a rented flat

AngelLodger
February 09 - May 09
Monday-Friday lodger, very chatty, was only doing a short contract

QuackersLodger
May 09 - October 09
DSS - got very behind with rent, and also took over the cleaning duties for a while doing a dismal job. Eventually fell pregnant and moved out, then gradually repaid the outstanding rent.

SleepyLodger
October 09 - December 09
I don't even remember his real name or what he looked like Never saw or heard from him at home. He moved out for Christmas and expected to be able to move back in afterwards, but I'd already filled the room.

ClumsyLodger
January 10 - August 10
Quiet as a mouse, polite and sweet. Never a moment's trouble. Moved out to live with her boyfriend and now has a baby daughter with him.

ChattyLodger
August 10 - September 10
Talked a lot! And cleared the garden of weeds. Moved out to be closer to work.

BigBruvLodger
September 10 - July 11
Nice enough bloke, but increased his alcohol consumption and suddenly flipped out about having to live with Tufter. Left under mutual agreement.

BigGunsLodger
May 11 - January 12
Smoked indoors and bothered the neighbours - evicted with rent arrears

JoannaLodger
July 11 - present
Good as gold - not a single complaint

__________________________________________________ _

For the last two months, I've been renting out a couple of bedrooms to lodgers. I've sung their praises on here before - two great guys, late 20's, full-time workers who always pay their rent and are becoming good mates.

However, Lodger 1 is starting to be a problem with noise - I think purely because he's fairly well off and has moved here from a detatched house where he never had to worry...

Now, me personally, I could sleep through anything - noise never has bothered me, as long as it's consistent. But I have always been very wary of neighbours (having lived in a few flats), and as a result I've had a chat with him a few times now:

- Having a party down in the basement on a weekend - I think we can get away with this, because it's two storeys below the bedrooms (in a large edwardian house) and is half-underground. However, one night at 4am he was singing (or shouting?) along to music at the top of his lungs and opening the back door.

- Twice when friends have been in the spare room (inc once when Lodger 2 was home), his mobile phone has been going off periodically throughout the night.

- I didn't get involved, but I suspect Lodger 2 had a word last week when he was still playing music quite loud in his room at 11:30pm.

Well, just now the doorbell rang - I was fast asleep but managed to stumble into a dressing gown - and my next door neighbour was looking very distressed, saying that the music was keeping her kids awake. I of course apologised straight away and knocked on Lodger 1's door - he instantly turned the music off.

But I'm really worried about this going into the future - I don't want to be the arsey landlord but I REALLY don't want to be the neighbour from hell I'm always hearing about!

Any suggestions on how to nip this in the bud? How do you teach consideration for others to a 28-yr-old businessman?

Best answers:

• I would just have a nice cosy chat and explain as you have done hear your concerns.
  If he does have consideration, this might be enough.
  You've already said that he instantly turned the music off when asked.
  this may indicate that he is happy to be a good lodger (he did not get @rsey) and maybe did not realise the effects he was having.
  Good communication can resolve a lot of things, if it doesn't then maybe you need to say that it is not working out (not sure on legality issues with lodgers. Does he have an AST?)
• If it were me in that situation - I'd just try and be fair and ask them to keep noise to a minimum past a certain time of night - perhaps in writing - or via email (so it's datestamped and proven).
  The sooner the better cause you sound like a person who is very fair, but if you leave it too long they might take advantage by having gotten used to being as noisy as they like. Good luck.
• Noise can travel in older houses up/down the chimneys. In my last house I had a cast iron fireplace in the living room and when next door had a rowdy party (which invariably included singing loudly to 1980s songs) it would reverberate through my house because of the chimneys. In my living room the effect of having a cast iron fireplace was that it acted like a giant speaker. Next door had his speakers alongside the fireplace on his side I suspect.
  So although you might not be able to hear it from your room, maybe it's louder next door.
  I'd have no idea what to say to the lodger about it to be honest ... but only yesterday evening I was wondering how you were getting on with your lodgers.
  I am very affected by noise, especially noise I can't control. It causes me deep anxiety.
  It's a work night for most and many people who are working like to go to bed early, so this may be affecting your neighbour's worklife and ability to function the next day. This 28 year old "businessman" is no more than a very naughty boy really.
  Good luck.
• Get rid.
  Say it's not you its the neighbours.
• Thanks for all your comments!
  - He doesn't have an AST, both the lodgers are just on a one-month rolling houseshare agreement. However, he is a great guy to live with and he intends to stay a long time - he's just refurnished and decorated his room (with my permission!) and is just about settled down now - so I'd hate to have to evict him Not least because I'd have to go back on Freecycle for replacement bed / wardrobe etc that I've only just given away!
  - Good point about fireplaces - another advantage of the shared living room in the basement is that it doesn't have one (the chimney breast has been removed), so the noise really does contain quite well down there.
  Now I've had a chance to wake up and clear my head a bit - do you think setting a "house rule" when they're both around would be reasonable action? I'm thinking:
  "No music/TV/card games in bedrooms after 10pm (unless it's very quiet or on headphones). Reasonable noise is allowed in the living room all night."
• You can't say no noise in the bedroom after 10pm. Well you can, but...
  If he doesn't realise he's inconsierate noise wise you have to educate him. Usually telling someone twice does this. If they don't learn then they may never.
• Maybe 10pm is a little early. I'd probably tend towards 11pm on a work night.
  Certainly the "all night" in the living room would give the impression it's all right to make as much noise in there as you like whenever you want.
  I think the problem here is the definition of reasonable. Everybody has a different opinion... and when it's you sat round, a few sheets to the wind with your mates, laughing/joking/playing music .. the noise levels escalate as your senses dull.
  What do the neighbours have in their basement, the other side of those walls? Perhaps you could find out from the neighbour what they could hear and where they were. To gain an understanding of how the noise travels.
  I lived in an old house with wooden floorboards. Next door had theirs stripped and when their kids were running about it would bang all the way through my house too.
  Different materials will transmit sound in ways that might not be obvious unless you're on the receiving end of it.
  Also, now it's summer, people having a window open or not makes a big difference to how sound is travelling.
• How well do you get on with the neighbours? It can be useful to put the music/TV etc on at the usual sound level and then actually go next door to hear how it sounds to them. As you say part of the problem will be that your lodger has been used to living in a detached property.
  It's always difficult to balance noise and neighbours - some, as PNew says, are more susceptible to noise nuisance than others. We've had neighbours whose own kids could be heard screaming & shouting and thundering up and down on laminate flooring from 5.30 am in the morning onwards, but once their darlings were in bed at night the parents would complain if anyone else's noise could be heard by them from either of the neighbouring properties.
  Rather than setting a house "rule" which tends to get adult backs up, can you not just sit over a glass of wine and discuss the issue as you have done here and jointly agree the way forward for more harmonious living? If he's decorated etc he'd not want to have to think about moving on again, anymore than you'd like to lose him as a lodger.
  Alternatively point him towards Pastures New's recent post about DEFRA's noise mapping and tell him you don't want to be be listed
  Edit: P New - hadn't seen your post immediately above. Had started a response to OP and then had to deal with work things before hitting send! Obviously on a similar wavelength on this one.
• I believe 11pm is the time before people can officially start complaining so set it at that. 10pm is taking the !!!! imho but your neighbours would probably like to see that.
  I've had plenty of arguments with neighbours over noise in the past, usually targetted at me because I'm a hi-fi enthusiast and like listening to my music. You should be glad you've not got my neighbours - a couple of weeks ago they phoned me up at 8.20pm on a Friday night asking me to turn it down when were in the middle of a party (and the music wasn't even particularly loud - you could easily talk in the room). What !!!!ed me off about it is that they have 2 babies that are teething and scream their lungs off 24/7 but although it irritates the hell out of me I've never once complained about it even though they regularly keep me awake, but apparently this is okay because they're babies and there's nothing you can do about it so I'll just have to put up with it. :rolleyes: :confused:
  Fine, you can put up with my music then, oh and by the way, I'm turning it up another notch. :rolleyes:
  Rob
• I'm not far off the age of your lodgers and I admit to sometimes getting a bit carried away with noise. I would NEVER mind being asked to be quieter because I wouln't want to make anyone else uncomfortable. The difference between me and a baby is that my noise is voluntary and I have some idea of the effect it has on others. I'd like to think my noise is more pleasant though......
  I think the law is on your side and that, over a glass of wine you say just what you have said here, you really like him, you want him to stay but that you also want to be a good neighbour and so you'd like to ask that bedroom noise start to wind down in the evening, and be gone by about 11 to comply with not only the law but being a good neighbour.
  What a great landlady an neighbour you sound like, btw.
• ^ Aww, thanks! I try
  Couple of clarifications:
  Basement Living Room
  On one side, it shares a terrace wall with an elderly couple. Their basement has not been converted, and is still an old coal cellar.
  On the other side, there's a solid internal wall with a door to the stairs / hallway. Then there's a shared terrace wall with a 3-generation family. Their basement has not been fully dug out, so it has a higher floor than ours, and is used as a small secondary living room (their main living room is on the ground floor).
  Both the neighbours have all their bedrooms on the top floor.
  To the front, it is underground. To the back, it opens onto my kitchen (and the neighbours have their kitchens alongside), which has a back door to the garden.
  Turning it down when asked
  Lodger 1 does turn it down / off when asked to, but this is always after the event. My biggest worry about last night's event - how long/how many times had my neighbours lain awake listening to the noise and worrying about how to approach it? How stressed must they have been to finally come to my house at 1:30am? They're currently on the market, so must be keen to keep the relationship sweet.
  It's actually the only neighbour I don't know by name, because it's the only household who couldn't make it to my moving-in party in February. But it's a very close-knit street and rumours/gossip spread quickly. Up until last night when I said "oh, it's my lodger", no-one officially knew I was letting rooms out - they would have assumed it was me, and changed their opinion of me accordingly
  I don't want to be a nag, I'm not good at it!
• The time you ask him to keep quiet would partly be governed by the ages of the children,i think.
• I think you really need to just have a chat. He sounds like a nice guy and my view of it is that you are getting (understandably) quite worried and worked up about it, but really there may be no need. I'm sure if you have a chat it'll be all worked out.
  Why not say something like "since the neighbours came round it's got me thinking, perhaps we should have a house rule that there's no music playing after 11pm, it's obviously bothering them, I don't want them to get annoyed with us, so would that be OK? what do you think?"
• It's nice to see someone who is actually concerned about it! I've lived in a shared household with some very noisy people who obviously don't realise just how paper-thin the walls are! And I've had neighbours who think it is alright to slam doors and stomp around at 3am.
  Unfortunately I was never brave enough to broach the subject with the neighbours but when I tried to deal with an incredibly noisy housemate it all got very messy and I ended up moving out!
  Good luck with this situation. I hope you managed to get it resolved soon.
• i think 11pm is reasonable, as this is the time police can be called after if there is too much noise (or is it 11.30pm??) I do think 10 is too early, but think 11pm is perfectly reasonable. A little chat will go a long way I think
• Just say that the neighbours have complained (but you remain neutral on this - and point out you're not taking their side!), and so it's best if music is kept to a minimum during the week after 11pm to avoid further issues with them.
  That way, you're passing on the message from the neighbours, but also getting the result needed without you directly complaining to the lodger.
• Speak to him and tell him your concerns, Tell him you really like him being in your home and glad that he pays on time, tidies up etc etc (positive things) then explain your concerns (negative things). Don't be too strict as he may think your nagging and mind games set in where he will constantly test your boundrys, say something like you have no problems with having parties in the basement but it needs to be contained. Say you have had a few complaints from neighbours and would like things to settle down or you will be forced to ask him to leave.
  If he has made an investment in your property it should be enough to do the trick.
  Am I just lucky?