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I’ve lived in this particular unit for 8 years, in the last 6 months, I haven’t had a solid nights sleep as the new tenants above me urinate loudly 2-3 times a night and at all hours. Its so loud that it sounds like they are in my bedroom.
I usually don’t have a problem addressing noise issues, and have spoken with them twice about loud kitchen noises, i.e. stick blender on countertop at 11pm, and chair dragging every 30min ciggie break on the balcony, but the issue of urination is much harder to broach. So I’ve tried ear plugs, hypnotism, staying up late and have even joked about the noisy plumbing. I’ve written 3 notes but haven’t delivered them, even one to the realestate agent that returned to my inbox undeliverable. I’ve sketched a funny cartoon showing the issue, I didn’t deliver it.
How do I address this issue without embarrassing them or me?
I though maybe saying something like, ‘I thought you would like to know that I can hear you peeing every-time, and that if you aim for the side of the bowl it might be a bit more private for you’?
Or, ‘when you pee, think of it as pouring a beer and not making a cappuccino’.
Or, ‘I hear your toilet music every night, can you turn the volume down a little?’
Living in a small block using stealth on the loo is a learned habit, these are 2 young kids, so should I see it as my responsibility to help them learn about good neighbourly habits?
All sensible suggestions please…… I also happen to be an owner and the Chairperson of the BC so could come down very hard if necessary, ripping up their bathrooms to insulate etc… but would rather a diplomatic solution that will end in smiles and a laugh.
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I started laughing as I read this and stopped when I realised I’m on the top floor and get up most nights for a loo stop (I drink a lot of water!) and am wondering if I’m bothering the quiet Asian family below me. They’re so quiet and polite I suspect they’d never say anything to me if they could hear me. It’s all well and good to ask a man to aim for the side of the bowl, but what about a woman? I don’t really want to be contorting my body on the royal throne in the middle of the night when I’m half asleep just so I can try to aim for the ceramic and not the water! So looking forward to the responses on this one!
We had a similar problem in our block. Are you sure that it is the occupants who are causing the problem? The easiest way to tell is to see if you hear it during the day or if they out at night. In our block the problem was two defective toilets in another unit. These toilets had a very slow leak from the cistern into the bowl. Eventually the cistern refilled and the flushing noise was heard through the pipes. Some units however heard water dripping periodically throughout the night from the same toilets. They assumed this noise was someone using the toilet because it was often followed by the flushing noise.
It was a really difficult thing to workout what was causing it and it annoyed everyone on our side of the building for months. We eventually worked it out by asking everyone to turn their toilets off at the cistern one night. This solved both problems. We then looked at everyone’s toilets until we found the leaking ones.
My advice is to ask other residents if they hear the noise as well. We did it by putting a notice in the foyer. This told us more than one unit was affected and which water riser the units were on meant we knew who to ask to turn their toilet off.
Unless you have tried to sleep in units where there are problems with the toilets you have no idea how much sleep disturbance they can cause. I hope you can ort this out quickly.
I’ve got vague memories of a similar situation escalating all the way to the Tribunal here in NSW (a looooong time ago). The woman living downstairs objected to (as she described it) the noise of Niagara Falls emanating from her upstairs neighbour’s bathroom. If my recall is correct she wanted the Tribunal to rule that the upstairs neighbour direct his “stream” to the side of the bowl rather than into the middle of the bowl to minimise noise. I don’t remember what the result of this case was!
I recall this story being related about 10 years ago by the then Commissioner of Fair Trading (or was it the CTTT).
The Tribunal declined to make a ruling as no one was prepared to monitor its enforcement. I think he was taking the P.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
I have a similar problem, I usually get woken up around 3am or before by a resident living above me, who slams things around and runs on a thread mill, there may be no carpet in the flat. Is there anything I can do ?
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