Tricky situation with “legal noise”

Hi FlatChatters,

we are facing a difficult situation with one of our neighbours. She is making “legal noise”.

She loves to invite friends and talk with them on her balcony–for hours. It’s typical girly chatting: Lots of laughter and OMGs of about three people. They usually start around 6 to 7pm and end by 10pm if we’re lucky.

When we return from work we like to relax, but this chatting is disrupting our evening. We can hear it through closed windows and doors.

Last summer hardly a week went by without at least one such session. We talked to her, but she considered it “acceptable” to make this kind of noise until at least midnight.

On one occasion she had a party lasting throughout the night until 6am. We then lodged a complaint, which was signed by two other neighbours, and the agent notified her.

Winter was quiet, however, now chatting has returned and we fear another summer lost to stress.

When I talked to her on the last occasion and asked her to meet for a talk she said we had “talked already” and slammed the door shut in front of me.

What can we do?

She’s got a point when she says that talking on the balcony is not prohibited. But our by-laws have the usual clause that there should be no noise to the detriment of another tenant.

Clearly she is inconsiderate. But what are my options to deal with this noise issue other than what we’ve tried already?

Our other neighbours seem to be complacent and don’t want to get involved. They seem to be less sensitive to her noise than we are.

Thank you!