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I recently moved into a new apartment in South West of Sydney.
The apartment block is next to a major road (mostly likely arterial). The apartment is up on the third floor and two bedrooms faces the main road.
The noise level from the road has caused significant issue to my resting at night even with windows and door completely shut (with no air flow).
I subsequently contacted the council in searching for more answer with regard to rules and regulation around the acceptable/minimum acoustic standard for residential building next to main roads and testing undertaken to certify my apartment is fit and proper for occupying.
Council advised that the relevant certificates issued show that the living room and bedrooms have met the building standard and were undertaken by an independent third party (I was provided with the name and contact numnber of the company).
According to my research and information council provided, the general rule for noise level threshold is 40db for living room and 35 db for bedrooms measured in the middle of the room with a minimum 10% of the window open for air flows. My understanding is that the threshold is measued to be the top 10 percentile hourly noise measurements in db over two periods of the day i.e. 7am to 10pm (14 hours) and 10pm to 7am (10 hours).
Without speculating and questioning the independence and robustness of the certificate, I googled for noise/sound devices and discovered a number of sound meter apps available. I downloaded several apps and tested them to measure the noise level in my bedroom according to the criteria (i.e. in the middle of the room with a min. 10% of window open) as suggested in the building standard.
Based on the sound meter apps, it shows a consistent noise level across difference devices tested significantly higher (in the order of 60 to 70 db) than the 35db for bedroom and 40db in the living room notwithstanding it is measured around 7pm-8pm on a weekday.
The government legislation I referred to is per the following link.
https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/noise/roadnoise.pdf
(It was subsequently replaced by the NSW Road Noise Policy effective 1 July 2011 with some transition arrangement. https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/noise/2011236nswroadnoisepolicy.pdf).
I haven’t dwell into the new legislation and believe it is not signficantly different to the predecessor.
Council has made it clear that the information provided so far is the best they can do. Now I am a bit lost at what the next step should be and whether there is any independent authority that I can escalate this matter to local council.
I am thinking undertaking an independent acoustic testing by certified professionals to provide stronger evidence.
I wonder if the flat chat can provide more direction or avenues to pursue this further.
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You certainly have done a lot of research on the noise problem, but it’s not clear to me what you are expecting to be done, and by whom.
So far a I’m aware the purpose of the Legislation is to provide building design / construction guidelines to permit the habitable areas of new residential developments (and others) to meet target noise levels given their proximity to certain noise sources, such as arterial roads in your case.
I’m not familiar with all the provisions of the Legislation that you’ve referenced, but I know that such provisions are generally reflected at the development planning level by a State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) and at the development consent level by a Local Environment Plan (LEP).
Based on your research, your building’s compliance with the Local Council’s LEP with regard to road noise impacts upon habitable areas was met by way of a private certification prior to the sale and occupation of the Units therein, so that is as they say “it”.
If traffic movements on the nearby arterial roadway have increased or if the original assessments were in error such that you and a few other residents are now adversely affected, I don’t expect that either the Council or NSW Roads & Maritime Services will do anything at this stage to ameliorate those impacts; and really you shouldn’t expect them to.
So what’s the solution?
Well the external windows of the building are almost always Common Property (unless they’re facing a balcony or similar area that’s part of the “Lot”), and therefore the Owners Corporation (O/C) is responsible for the maintenance and repair of those.
So IF you’re an Owner your best option would be to speak with the Secretary of your Executive Committee or the Strata Manager about whether the windows of concern are Common Property, and if they are, about the possibility of then including a suitably worded Motion on the Agenda of the next General Meeting of the O/C to consider that fitting double-glazed windows (at some locations) or the retrofitting of a membrane to some existing windows are indeed maintenance items.
If they go for it, maybe have your window/s “maintained” by the method preferred by those at the General Meeting in the first instance to assess the results.
If the windows of concern aren’t Common Property or if the O/C doesn’t consider that insulating those is a maintenance issue, then you would need to seek the O’C’s consent to undertake those works yourself, and perhaps ask (nicely) for a O/C contribution.
If you’re a tenant and the noise levels are really that bad, then I’d be looking to terminate your Lease on the basis that the Unit’s not habitable.
I guess that covers all the options; good luck.
Dear Seek,
The information your require and are seeking with respect is not going to come via a Chat Forum site.
May I suggest the Following options:
- Take what you have to a Strata Solicitor (Normally no charge for first meeting, if you don’t stay for Lunch) and discuss your concerns and what options you have open to you. If the Solicitor thinks you have reasonable grounds to raise then look at getting an Acoustic report, and go from there.
2. Sometimes the cure is worse (or more expansive than the sickness) so can I make a sensible suggestion to how you can more than likely fix the issue.
- Bring the issue to the Owners Corporation’s notice via the Executive Committee or Strata Manager and ask if you can have a second window installed (at your cost unless other unit Owners have the same problem) behind the windows and doors of the wall facing the street.
A good company that has proven performance with this issue is Magnetite https://www.magnetite.com.au/?gclid=CKD5qv6NwbMCFUNMpgodMAwAKw who are specialists in this area.
The OC should be happy to give you permission to fit a recommended product from Magnetite (they may want a By-law) and I am sure all of this will be done with a lot less stress than trying to sue someone and at a lot less cost then going to Solicitors etc.
Remember when you bought the unit that a standard contract condition is ‘Caveat Emptor’ which translated means Buyer beware, in other words it was your responsibility to make the enquires before purchasing.
Hope this helps.
@Seek said:
To answer what I want from this, I would like to understand whether the residential block is built to the acoustic standard as per the relevant legislation.My preliminary testing suggests it potentially does not by a great deal.
Even though I’m sure you won’t like it, the fact is that on the basis of a private certification the habitable areas of the building complied with the relevant noise standards prior to Council issuing the Certificate of Occupancy, and that is (as I said before) IT.
If the current noise levels in your Unit exceed those standards now (i.e. after completion) that could be due to an incorrect certification, or increased traffic volumes, or changes to the types of vehicles using the roadway, or the design of nearby developments, or a myriad of other factors – none of which I believe you can do anything about now.
As I said before, if the windows of concern aren’t Common Property or if the Owners Corporation (O/C) doesn’t consider that insulating those is a maintenance issue, then you should to seek its consent to undertake those works yourself; at least you’ll get some sleep!
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