Noise complaints

Make your landlord aware of noise that’s disturbing you in your home and how it’s affecting you. For example, if the noise is disturbing your sleep or having an impact on your health.

Noise can affect people’s quality of life. It can cause physical and emotional distress and affect performance at work or school.

Different types of noise that can affect you

Household noise

Household noise happens every day. However, sometimes it can become an issue that affects neighbours. This includes:

• shouting or arguing
• dogs or other pets
• children
• excessive TV volume
• appliances
• sound transference and movement from the property above/below or next door
• loud music

Environmental noise

Not all noise that affects you in your home comes from your neighbours.

A noise is considered a statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 if it:

• unreasonably and substantially interferes with the use or enjoyment of a home or other premises
• injures health or is likely to injure health

Statutory nuisance could include noise from vehicles, nearby businesses, or building works.

Local councils will investigate a complaint of statutory nuisance produced at any time of day or night.

Councils can also issue warning notices in response to noise above permitted levels from 11pm to 7am, even if authorities do not consider that noise a statutory nuisance.

Find out more about how councils respond to statutory nuisance

Antisocial behaviour

People who intentionally make noise to disturb, alarm, or harass others are engaging in antisocial behaviour. This includes:

• parties or loud car music
• noise in communal spaces or open areas
• loud noise at unsociable hours

If you’re experiencing antisocial behaviour, you should report it to your landlord, and in some cases, the police. It’s helpful to record times and dates of disturbances so that you can let your landlord know how often the problem is happening.

More about antisocial behaviour complaints  

Contact your landlord to report the noise. You should:

• ask your landlord about its noise complaints policy
• let the landlord know if you need support
• work with your landlord to provide as much information as you can
• provide a log of when the noise happens and how long it lasts
• explain how the noise is affecting you at home

Reporting noise to your landlord is a service request. This is different from making a complaint about your landlord.

People often call both ‘a complaint’, but they are different.

You can complain if you’re unhappy with how your landlord has handled your service request.

A complaint might be about:

• the level of investigation or action taken by the landlord
• the time it took the landlord to investigate or respond
• any action it should not have done, or you are unhappy with

To do this, you must use your landlord's formal complaint procedure.

Landlords' response to formal complaints

Your landlord must reply to a complaint in line with its complaint procedure. Our Complaint Handling Code sets out the timescales a landlord must respond to a complaint.

Stage 1:

• acknowledge the complaint within 5 working days of it being received
• respond, in writing, within 10 working days of the date the complaint was acknowledged

Stage 2:

• acknowledge a request to escalate the complaint within 5 working days of it being received
• respond, in writing, within 20 working days of the escalation request being acknowledged

You can bring a complaint to us for investigation if your landlord does not resolve your issues through their complaint procedure.

Tell us:

• what went wrong
• what your landlord should do to put things right

We need your landlord's stage 2 response before we can help. This is their final answer to your complaint.

You can refer your complaint to us within 12 months of your landlord's stage 2 response. We’re unlikely to investigate complaints referred after this deadline unless there are good reasons for the delay.

Help if your landlord does not reply to your complaint

We can help you get a response from your landlord if they do not follow their complaint procedure or our Complaint Handling Code.

Send us a copy of the complaint to your landlord. This helps us understand if your landlord follows its complaint procedure.

The easiest way to do this is by using our helpful online form. The form will ask you about your complaint and you can upload supporting evidence.

Online complaint form

You can also phone, email, or write to us.