Apartment living etiquette

We loved in a lovely flat in Germany. We had a note pushed through the door saying "please shut your door lowly". Lesson learned!

Our flats are not leased. We are owner occupiers which makes a difference.

My son has been working from home for last 2 years. He lives in a ground floor flat and works in the spare bedroom (now an office) the window of the room is next to the entrance path to flats. Almost every day someone has a parcel delivery they ring the persons flat bell and either they are not in or don’t buzz them in. The delivery men tap sons window as they can see him to take in parcel. He sometimes has 3/4 parcels a week, someone even had a chair delivered and without asking son said to leave with ground floor flat. He got so fed up as people didnt collect parcels so he was delivering them so he has put on Whatsapp that he was not taking parcels in anymore.

Just remember the lease is King. If it's in the lease then the management can take them to court to enforce it, whether pets, hard floors, items in communal areas, whatever. Most people will abide when asked, but if you have a difficult person who won't obey the lease regulations then court may be the only option.

Leaseholders managing their own property can only be done if everyone is friendly and co-operative. If you have a leaseholder who is either crazy, argumentative or inconsiderate then they may be impossible to control except through a paid management company.

I think a lot of it depends on the size of the complex. On larger ones it's very difficult to get buy in from everyone, people don't know how their service fees are being spent or argue over what should be prioritised, there's different people moving in and out all the time and the whole thing falls apart.

We have a residents committee who hold the factoring company to account. The resident caretaker deals with cleaning, refuse removal, supervises the parking, looks after our lovely garden etc. Yes this leads to a monthly charge but is well worth it to us.

A lot of it in some aapartments just comes down to lack of manners and consideration:

Smoking on balconies when people on the adjoining one are trying to enjoy their's

Dropping rubbish or spilling stuff in the communal area and just leaving it there

Pounding around in heavy shoes, particularly early in the morning or late at night

People shouldn't need rules and regulations for that kind of stuff but unfortunately they do

We have a communal bins which are taken out on the correct days and returned by a company who also clean the communal spaces. Also we imply a gardening company.

CanadianGran

Vintagejazz, there usually is a set of rules for each apartment, and every tenant should have to sign when the move in.
I think the issue lies in managing compliance of the rules, and how strict the building manager or strata council is.

We own an apartment in another city, which is rented to a long term tenant. We are copied in to strata council meetings and can see all the correspondence regarding breaking of rules and warnings or fines, as well as building maintenance. Our building is very well managed. Ours covers noise, pets, parking, smoking on balconies, even birdfeeding and laundry on balconies.

Of course some neighbours can be annoying while not officially breaking any rules, but rule-breakers should be dealt with by the manager.

I agree. But unfortunately a lot of management companies and agents are only interested in getting the service fees out of people. And a lot of landlords don't pass the rules onto their tenants.
When I lived in an apartment rules around hard flooring, installation of satellite dishes and parking of commercial vehicles were widely ignored and nothing was done about it.

I have lived in my present flat for thirty- three years in a block of eight.
We run our own management company and a yearly meeting it is decided the money to be spent, needed for the upkeep of the building. Depending on the percentage of square meters each person owns out of the whole, equals the personal bill. There is a bike/ pushchair room, landings must be kept cleared, no clothes hanging or barbecues on balconies. Everyone has their cellar and parking spaces. We have a small shared garden where we have a yearly neighbour’s barbecue plus sometimes apéritives, (especially in lockdown).
All of us have had fitted insulated wooden floors but neighbours take care of noise, parties, flushing etc after certain hours.
An immediate meeting is called if a problem arises.
Respect towards your neighbours is what keeps everyone happy.

We had an apartment for a few years when we regularly spent a lot of time in the USA and Canada. The main problem was people leaving the entrance doors front and back open so that anybody could come in. There was a fenced off bin store for each block of nine apartments and some people didn’t put their bins out on the designated day consequently rubbish piled up and spilled out in the area. One lady and DH and I were the only ones who swept the bin store out and tidied it and we ended up taking everybody's bins out to stop the overloaded bins, a few times we found other people were putting their rubbish in our bin which was clearly marked with our number. One person on the third floor was a keen cyclist and he used to haul his bike up the stairs badly marking the walls. On the ground floor there was a cupboard for the meters and this was gradually filled up with people’s belongings such as Christmas decorations and tools. After we sold our apartment I used to meet a friend from the same block occasionally and gradually the apartments became rented apartments and things got worse with some people smoking by the front and rear doors and leaving cigarette ends all over the floor, she ended up cleaning this up as well as the bin store. As well as everybody having a parking space there were two visitor parking spaces by the front door and some residents commandeered them to use on a permanent basis. There were some positives - noise wasn’t a problem because of the way the apartments were designed and built and because we were on the middle floor the heating bill was minimal. However the disadvantages outweighed the advantages and we sold the apartment when we stopped spending so much time away.

Vintagejazz, there usually is a set of rules for each apartment, and every tenant should have to sign when the move in.
I think the issue lies in managing compliance of the rules, and how strict the building manager or strata council is.

We own an apartment in another city, which is rented to a long term tenant. We are copied in to strata council meetings and can see all the correspondence regarding breaking of rules and warnings or fines, as well as building maintenance. Our building is very well managed. Ours covers noise, pets, parking, smoking on balconies, even birdfeeding and laundry on balconies.

Of course some neighbours can be annoying while not officially breaking any rules, but rule-breakers should be dealt with by the manager.

I used to live in a nice, quiet purpose built flat with good neighbours. The only problem was the Factor's bills (In Scotland the management company is known as the Factor) which were extortionate. Even though we paid a monthly amount to the Factor if any work needed doing in any of the flats within quite a large complex the cost would be split between each flat. So, for example if the lift in another block needed a repair every flat in every block had to contribute payment. It became very expensive to live there.

My Mum has a balcony as do all the flats in her block. There is a strict 'don't feed the birds' rule in her block to protect everyone's windows.

I lived in a few flats, some ok others were grim. Im now in a terraced and prefer it. Personally, I would ban wooden floors in flats. Even in a mid terraced wooden floors are awful, and neighbours don't realise you can hear every word when they argue. Wooden floors allow noise to carry.

"My friend is getting fed up of the same few people using the lobby to store bikes, prams and children's trikes. It's against the rules for a number of reasons and letters have issued which are obeyed for a couple of weeks and then it starts again."

Perhaps the OP's friend should have a little chat to the local fire officers.........they have a very dim view of people obstructing doorways and entrance lobbies.

We’ve lived in a few flats, the first was a two storey block, newly weds moved in downstairs, DH used to comment on their stamina! Then the wife left and the chap would regularly get drunk and play Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf very loudly on repeat, just as regularly I’d go down and turn his electricity off.

Second flat, three storey we were in the middle, no baths after 10pm, chap regularly came in from night shift 1-2 a.m. wearing hobnail boots on ceramic floors and run a bath.

Third flat, fabulous, eight storey, we were on fifth, new build, once the front door was closed we couldn’t hear a thing.

Now we’re in a detached bungalow, quiet estate, big plots, with lovely neighbours.

The poster who said NDN in detached houses can be a pain was correct but they are easier to avoid. You just dont open the door to them and they dont know you are in.

I lived in flats for many years (live in a small detached now) and have had some feafully noisy neighbours. Last one I had loved boom boom music and played it constantly. No earplugs can stop the inner ear vibration.

There are seasons for shooting grouse and pheasants. I often wish there was one for taking a pot shot at neighbours. If I won the euro lottery I would buy a house miles from anywhere and put n electric fence around it.

I used to live in a flat and the flat upstairs had a small dog who liked playing with ping pong balls. The clacky clacky sound as it pinged across the floor a hundred times a day could have been used as an instrument of torture. Never heard it bark though.

I think we must be very lucky.
We live on the second floor of a block of nine flats, three to each floor.
We run our own Management Company, everyone pays the same fee each month and this is used for the good of the block. Occasional problems with parking but on the whole we all get on.
We are a mixed bunch in age but very respectful of each other.
I do know that not all flats work this way.

I'm very happy in my flat which is in an older building with high ceilings and good soundproofing. We all get on well, despite ages ranging from 4years old to 70+. The only issue I have is with the management company, whom I regularly update about problems.
Your plans for the jubilee sound great, Aveline. ?

We are very happy in our flat on the fourth floor of an eight floor block. Most of us are owners so we all like to look after the communal areas and respect each others privacy and are as considerate as possible. It's not a retirement block but it's one that people seem to move in to and just stay. There are a number of older people who have carers visiting. Younger people are beginning to move in but, luckily, seem to absorb the ethos of the place. We're currently organising a celebration for the Queen's jubilee and a tree planting for her green canopy campaign. Life can be very pleasant in a block of flats.

Only problem we ever had was neighbour with wooden floors soon resolved that as there was no permission for it My husband loves apartment living after 71 years on farm -Im amazed

I live in Germany and nearly all flats have sound proof flooring whether it’s wood or tiles . No prams or bikes allowed in the hallways .They are a fire hazard .

I lived on the top floor (3rd) of a block of flats for 5 years. My floor seemed to have good sound proofing and the other two people on my floor( one with a small child) were considerate and very pleasant.

I know people on lower floors had more upset with noise . I did have a wooden floor in my living room but always wore slippers and nobody ever complained.

It was annoying to come home sometimes and find a strange car in your allocated parking space . Everyone posted on the what’s app and they moved

Communal rubbish shed also not always as clean as it could have been because people were lazy about how they used it. Otherwise I enjoyed living there