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[Fey Knows]

After having the perfect tenant neighbours living under us for about 10 years, they moved out and the real estate agent has let the unit to young people of some description. The occupants seem to turn over about every two or three weeks, not so often as an AirBnB but pretty often. I suspect they may be itinerant workers bought in or temporary lodgers via Gumtree or whatever.

While they are mostly considerate, every time we get used to the unit’s routines and natural noises people make such as closing doors and drawers a little too hurriedly and ‘bathroom plumbing’ noises, it all changes again.

The real estate agent won’t tell us what goes on down there, even when we tell him it’s disturbing our ‘peaceful enjoyment’. He doesn’t get that if we knew what the set up is, we may be able to alter our expectations and change our ‘mindset’ though I hate that expression. In short, the agent is a nasty and aggressive bloke, unsympathetic, who tells us not to tell him how to run his business. The Strata Manager and Strata Committee won’t help.

It’s a cheaply built 70s block of 40 units in Lower North Shore  Sydney. Noise transmission has always been an issue.

We own here and do try to be reasonable. We try to put up with the unavoidable noises others make simply ‘living’ but here, you only need one 20 year old who’s never lived away from home or in a unit before to change the vibe for the worse. The latest group has on of those high powered smoothie blenders which sounds like a drill. Every morning at 5:45am it goes off. Most inconsiderate. (When I grind coffee beans much later, I set the machine on a wettex and cover it in thick towel to baffle the noise.)

Any suggestions please? And are we being unreasonable, do you think?

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