A Sydney apartment dweller is planning to record her neighbours’ noisy lovemaking in an effort to force them to re-carpet their tiled floors.
Plagued by nightly sounds of “moaning, screaming with swearing as well as loud thrusting noises in the main bedroom,” Flat Chat reader MsM is wondering how far she has to go to get the CTTT to order the young couple below her to abandon their noise amplifying tiles in favour of sound-absorbing carpet.
“Last year the unit below mine completely tiled throughout,” says MsM. “It was subsequently rented for 12 months during which normal noises such as opening and closing cupboards and nightly bedroom sounds were amplified.”
The tenant made an effort to cut down the noise but earlier this year, the investor – a real estate agent who had tiled the unit and should have known better – sold the property to young, first-time homeowners.
“The new owner and his partner are struggling to adjust to living in units,” says MsM who adds that they now deny that they are making excessive noise in the bedroom and say the noise is coming from somewhere else.
“What can I do? Can I record them to prove this? Any suggestions on equipment?” wails MsM. “And what can be done on the issue of the tiles throughout the property?”
You can go to Fair Trading and the CTTT to seek an order forcing them (or perhaps even the Owners Corp) to recarpet the floors.
Noise recorded just using a smartphone can be presented as evidence and there are several sound meter apps for smartphones that will measure the noise and store the data for future reference. Click on this link to find a list of noise measuring apps for iPhones and Androids.
Funnily enough, the night I wrote this, some drongo in my apartment block decided to party very, very loudly into the wee small hours. Heeding my own advice (for once) I downloaded one of the smartphone apps and measure the noise in my unit at 68 db – which is apparently about the same as road traffic.
I hasten to add here that sound and noise measurement involves very complicated sciences and I probably won’t be holding up my Galaxy SIII if I ever have to take this clown to the CTTT. However, it’s a handy indicator to the strata and building managers that I wasn’t being over-sensitive when I complained.
As for proving the noise is coming from their unit, call them in the middle of your recording session and when their phone rings, you’ve got them.
However be careful – recording someone’s conversation (rather than noise) without their knowledge is against the law. So tell them you’re doing it … that might be enough to shut them up anyway.
There’s a lot more sound and fury about MsM’s problem HERE on the Flat Chat Forum.