Help with Noise Nuisance from Neighbors | Legal Aid Office

Questioner

Dear Sir/Madam. I have been suffering from enormous noise pollution from 2 upstairs neighbors for years. The police and the neighborhood nuisance reporting center cannot do anything for me. Are there any legal provisions that allow me to force the neighbors to insulate their floor to a permissible dba level?

Lawyer

It is possible that your municipality has an APV in force that includes rules on noise pollution. This depends entirely on the municipality you live in. Have you ever checked yourself or has the police checked for you whether such an APV is in force? I'm going to assume that this is not a rental property, but if it is, you can also contact the landlord. If the above options are ruled out, it is possible that you can address your neighbours on unlawful nuisance, but in any case it depends on the severity and duration of the noise nuisance whether this has an effect. Has a sound meter ever been used to check whether there is objectively structural noise nuisance? It is also possible

Lawyer

You can call the Building and Housing Supervision department of the municipality. They can check whether the insulation value between the upper and lower dwelling meets the requirements of the Building Decree. Depending on the cause and duration of the nuisance, it is also possible that there is unlawful nuisance. If that is the case, you can start legal proceedings against your neighbours. Your question does not make clear what exactly the nuisance consists of (washing machine? walking noises? music?), so I cannot now properly assess whether the nuisance is indeed unlawful or not.