Rent Reduction
You may be eligible for a reduction in rent due to excessive noise if you were not made aware of it prior to signing your tenancy contract (unless the severity of the noise was purposefully withheld). Obviously, someone on floor 2 will be post impacted, with floors higher up much less. If you are working 9-5 every day outside your home, then again, there would likely be no reason for the landlord to agree to any of the below as it does not severely impact your enjoyment of the property. As a reminder, you are not allowed to simply withhold rent and doing so can have serious consequences!
Remember to be reasonable if you decide to go down the route of requesting rent reduction as it should be proportionate to the damage you are suffering. Think about how much rent a typical person would be willing to pay if they were thinking of moving into your flat. If the noise is severe enough to reduce demand for your flat to the point the landlord would have to lower the rent to get it let out, then a reduction in rent would be reasonable.
Courts have awarded rent reductions of 10-40% in the past, but each case is different, so best to make a reasonable request that the landlord may approve simply because they agree with you, rather than you threatening legal action – which, let’s be honest, most tenants would not go through with due to lack of legal knowledge. Most landlords have huge bills to pay that you are unaware of and routinely flats go to bankruptcy auctions as the rental income no longer covers the costs, so I’m sure you will understand that they will likely reject any request that they deem unreasonable and may not indulge in further conversation rather than providing you with a solution you are both happy with.
Example e-mail
You could send the following to your letting agency or land lord. Please remove/add anything that does not apply or where your circumstances may be different. Please remember that this is general advice and not legal advice. Your landlord does not have to agree and you can always contact the council for advice.
Dear XYZ,
I live in Marco Island, Apartment 000 and the excessive construction noise caused by the Mezzanine floor being removed is severely impacting the enjoyment of the flat and amounts to a breach in covenant for quiet enjoyment.
The construction causes vibrations throughout the flat which can be felt throughout the day. The excessive noise makes being in the apartment during the day difficult and frequent breaks away from the apartment are required. Noise is considered a public health risk and I can confirm that this noise is impacting me.
Under common law, the covenant for quiet enjoyment is not limited to noise created by the landlord, but also covers noise created by construction which is entirely outside their control and has nothing to do with the landlord. I appreciate that this is the case in this situation and hope you understand my position as well.
I hereby officially request a rent reduction of XX% for the period of February 2022 until June 2022 or the ability to terminate my contract immediately. The excessive construction noise is expected to come to a close in June. I’m certain that the severe construction noise would negatively impact your ability to rent out the apartment at the current agreed rate and hope that the above is an acceptable compromise. I hope to receive positive confirmation swiftly and look forward to the day the noise ceased and rent can be normalised again.
Kind Regards,
Further Information
Misrepresentation and unwinding the tenancy
If you recently signed the contract and were not made aware of building noise, you may have a right to cancel your tenancy.
There has long been a right for people to claim for ‘misrepresentation’ and there is now also a right for tenants to ‘unwind’ or end a tenancy through the courts if they have been induced to enter into it by some sort of unfair practice. Such as concealing a problem – in your case the fact that noisy works were to be carried out on the mezzanine floor.
You need to exercise these rights promptly or you will be deemed to have accepted or ‘affirmed’ the contract.
So far as the right to unwind the tenancy is concerned, for example, you need to apply to the court during the first 90 days of the tenancy (and ideally during the first 30 days when you can reclaim all monies paid).
You will find a brief guide to misrepresentation from Which here.
Noise nuisance
Excessive noise levels in living accommodation is illegal and is one of the ‘hazards’ looked at by Council Environmental Health Officers when carrying out a ‘Housing Health and Safety Rating System’ assessment.
So complaining to your Council is one of the options available to you. There is now a useful noise app which you can use to record noise levels.
The main problem though is getting your Council to do anything about it as most do not have enough staff to deal with the housing issues in their area.
Still, I would recommend that you start recording the noise as of now with the noise app as it always helps to have evidence of these things.
The break clause
As it is obviously going to be impossible for you to end the mezzanine works, if the noise is intolerable, your best option will be to end the tenancy and move out – there may be a break clause to end the tenancy early.
You don’t give the wording of the clause but note that it is important that you do exactly what it says. For example, if it requires two months notice in writing you need to give two months notice in writing. So read it carefully.
Complaints to a Property Redress Scheme
The final thing to discuss is your right to complain about the agents to their Property Redress Scheme.
All letting agents must belong to one of the two schemes or they will be trading illegally. They must give the name and logo of the scheme they belong to on their headed paper emails, website and in their premises, so check which scheme is being used by your landlord’s agents.
There are two schemes:
- The Property Ombudsman (TPO), and
- The Property Redress Scheme
You can read our article about them here.
Note that you can only apply to the Property Redress Scheme after you have failed to resolve a dispute with the agents directly. You will find guidance on the procedures and the forms on the scheme’s website.
The Ombudsman has the power to award up to £25,000 compensation and I don’t see why you should not request some compensation from the agents. For example something towards the costs of moving.
The agents have clearly withheld information from you and acted in an unfair manner – particularly as you specifically told them you needed somewhere quiet as you are a writer. Which happily you will be able to prove as you have your email correspondence.
Conclusion
Whatever you do it is always best to have proper proof and paperwork. So I suggest you prepare a chronology showing what happened in the past and also from now on keep a diary. You can use this to record all meetings, conversations and telephone calls with the agents on this issue and also the noise levels which you will also be recording with the noise app.
This will be very useful for you if you need to make a complaint to your agents Property Redress Scheme.