Acoustic insulations

Martin – I agree with you, however most of the noise related issues posted here relate to residents’ bad behaviour and owners who have removed their as-built floor coverings and replaced those with poorly / cheaply insulated tile or timber/floating floors, mostly without the prior written consent of the Owners Corporation who would (hopefully) have determined appropriate noise reduction / transference standards.

This would be very helpful JT but its not just about the floor slab.

1. carpet gets ripped up and replaced with floor boards with high quality acoustic underlay.
2. resident then turns on TV at same volume as always
3. the echo chamber caused by the renovations and lack of soft furnishings (love the clean modern look) drives the next door neighbour mental.
4. next door neighbour resorts to ranting on flat-chat blog

Any acoustic standards or ratings such as suggested must also consider wall thickness, materials and insulation as well as the floor slab. 

Hello. My partner and I are in one of those nightmare situations where our upstairs neighbours installed tiles onto what is a thin concrete slab without any insulation and we desperately need some advice as we are at the tribunal stage at the CTTT.

Some background:

The neighbours have twin boys who they let run throughout the apartment all day often until 10.30pm or even 11pm on occasion. The running and dropping of toys or people walking around in heels is an absolute nightmare. Their reply to being asked to do something about their floor and to stop the kids running was “bad luck that’s apartments for you.” They have no sympathy for us below and have resisted every request to do something about the floor and to curtail their behaviour. They view us as troublemakers.

We went to mediation and then on to adjudication and produced videos, a detailed noise diary and stat decs as evidence. They were ordered to cover every hard surface or otherwise treat the floor sufficiently to prevent disturbance – a vague order (what a pathetic system!).

All they did was buy a hall runner and put a rug in the loungeroom. which has done little to rectify the noise. We applied for a penalty breach of orders. The first trip to the tribunal the registrar stormed into the hearing room in a grumpy mood and said what are we hear for? He had not looked at our application or read any of the background. when we replied why we are here he yelled at us “what do you want me to do about it?!” we were shocked. The hearing was adjourned because the one of the other parties had not turned up and they had not supplied us with their evidence.

The second attempt at a hearing a different registrar was actually personable but refused to look at any of our evidence until we had conducted professional acoustic testing of their floor and ordered them to give us access to their place. She said she would not put herself in a position to judge the recordings we made because it is too subjective. I replied that there are precedents where other registrars have decided without video evidence that laying a thin rug that doesn’t cover all surfaces is not sufficiently treating the floor, yet she would have none of it.

Now we have heard from a company we have approached that the tap test they do probably wont help us as the BCA acoustic standards are so poor that there is a chance that with the rugs they might comply. We are super worried that if this is the case and the registrar does not take into account our recordings, noise diary and stat decs that we will have wasted all this time and money and have to sell our place. We are not sensitive people, the noise is extremely disturbing. No one would live under those conditions. We would have trouble renting the place out in the current situation. 

What would be our best argument to the tribunal if the acoustic report shows compliance to the BCA standards? We have endured hell getting this far and putting up with their noise the whole time. It broke my heart when the acoustic company told us that their report mightn’t help us much.

Help!!!

Thanks for your prompt reply Jimmy. I was flabbergast she wouldn’t even look at the videos we had made which clearly show the extreme level of noise we are subjected to. Or for that matter read the stat dec and noise diary.

However she said the CTTT has no power to order them to put in wall to wall carpet. She can just fine them for not fixing the floor sufficiently. Is this correct? Would you still go through with the noise test? Or just turn up at the next hearing with the lawyer?

FYI I had brought in printouts of previous decisions and when I started to read them out she seemed flustered but kept cutting us off and saying every case needs to be judged on it’s merits and that she wasnt prepared to judge noise videos because that was too subjective. This whole process is astounding how unprofessional and difficult it is.

I can understand why the Adjudicator can’t or won’t order a specific remedy because it is possible that the remedy they offer won’t work.

However, the order to to do what is required to stop the the transmission of noise means the effect is what is ordered, not the means by which it’s done.

Have a look at this recent case at the CTTT  where the hard floor owner had  thought they’d get away with just putting down a couple of rugs … they ended up with $1000 fine for ignoring the CTTT order.

My advice would be to talk to the strata lawyer first, then do the acoustic testing if they think that’s appropriate, then take it from there.

Hi Jimmy. I will take your advice. FYI the decision you provided the link to I had already printed that out and tried unsuccessfully to draw the regsitrar’s attention to it at the hearing. I have taken your advice and contacted a lawyer. Thanks again for your help.

Regards,

dnitetime, drshelley,

All the best at the tribunal re your floor noise matters. I am shocked to hear of some of the responses you have had from the tribunal members. Mine were mostly supportive. I now have carpet above in the living and bedroom areas (albeit a cheap install) that has significantly reduced the impact noise that sent my blood pressure through the roof for almost 2 years. This has cured 80% of the problem and I have a neighbor who is willing to mop up the residual 20% with a separate application to OFT re by-laws 1 and s117 (1)(a)(c) SSMA 1996 to address the residual behavioral issues of the occupants.

There are good tribunal members and with some patience and perseverance I am confident you will prevail. Hang in there the SSMA is on your side….

Keep us posted

Cheers

Hi drshelley,

I simply gave the adjudicator a cover page (or 2) explaining my situation and the affect it was having on me, supporting stat dec’s and a detailed excel spreadsheet that:

 recording the date, the time the noise commenced, the time the noise finished, the type of noise eg stomping on floor over living area, what I did about the noise (eg spoke to neighbor, went out to avoid noise, earplugs, got witness statements from neighbor to verify it was happening), a column where I signed to attest to the noise and a column where the witness could sign.

My submission totaled about 35 pages…

Best of luck and keep us posted

Cheers