#13469

New chum in this forum and still navigating.  But usually s117 is not the way to attack a floor noise problem; the standard by-laws have a floor covering by-law that reads

14 Floor coverings

 

(1) An owner of a lot must ensure that all floor space within the lot is covered or otherwise treated to an extent sufficient to prevent the transmission from the floor space of noise likely to disturb the peaceful enjoyment of the owner or occupier of another lot.

(2) This by-law does not apply to floor space comprising a kitchen, laundry, lavatory or bathroom.

The ‘disturb peaceful enjoyment’ wording is generally generally interpreted quite well by adjudicators. 

The AAAC guidelines are also very useful.

Some quick tips:

i if you are offended by a change to floor covering, make sure that you gather evidence.  Get an exercise book and keep a ‘noise log’ listing the times when the noise was annoying, and the kind of noise.

ii if the noise happens when friends are over, get them, if possible, to make a short note of what they heard and when.

iii on the other hand, if you have just ripped up the carpet and underlay and polished and you are now getting noise complaints, do not expect that putting down rugs will solve the problem.  ‘sound proofing’ a hard floor can be a complex and horrendously expensive exercise.

Floor noise disputes can run and run, and they can be horrendously expensive. At CTTT appeal level it is not uncommon for both sides to hire acoustic consultants to do so-called ‘tap tests’ on the floor.

The real answer to this is that one should be very restrained about changing floor coverings