Apartment living etiquette

DD would never live anything other than top floor of flats after bad experiences of noise, primarily from wooden floors/ staircases from a family above her, Have to agree when we visited it was unbearable.
I believe in germany where most people live in flats it’s illegal to have a wooden floor on any level apart from ground floor. Makes perfect sense to me.

BlueSky

These issues are stopping us from moving to a retirement apartment. I was perhaps naively thinking that, as all the residents will be over 60, we won’t have a lot of the issues of ordinary apartment living?

I think you're far less likely to have early morning or late night noise but who knows? You won't have kids running around either.

But I do notice, in my house, that as the next door neighbours are getting older the telly is getting louder and louder.

We have few problems with neighbours and any that arise are dealt with by the management company. There are only 12 flats here and most are occupied by older people.
I find that when new people move in that is when problems crop up. One family thought the communal area was all theirs and filled it with their own things. It was reported as a fire hazard and no problem since.
It's not just flats that have neighbour troubles. I know people who live in detached houses who have ongoing problems.

These issues are stopping us from moving to a retirement apartment. I was perhaps naively thinking that, as all the residents will be over 60, we won’t have a lot of the issues of ordinary apartment living?

We had balconies in the apartment where we used to live with decking type flooring. The guy about used to push his used fags through the wooden slats so they all dropped onto our balcony. The man on the adjoining balcony always seemed to be out smoking when we were trying to enjoy a bit of sun.

I certainly think that the ‘No hard floors upstairs’ rule should be enforced. Afraid to say I can’t see it happening, though.

We have an upper maisonette, one of just two, where the former owner actually had ceramic tiles on the stairs ? and landing, as well as in the large kitchen.

I’m sure the neighbours downstairs were very glad when we installed carpet everywhere except the k and b, where we put a cushionfloor type of vinyl.

My mum lived in a flat for the majority of her life and the 2 main issues she had were noise and teenagers. Various havoc caused by them, nothing serious, but annoying for a single lady.

Bin wars - who will put the bins out or take them in.
Flooding - people above you letting the bath overflow.
Parking - someone always parks in your place.
Alarms - someone comes home drunk, puts some toast on..!
Litter - dropping rubbish and fag ends from upstairs windows into your garden.
Noise - All the time. All sorts of it.

I don't have the temperament for flats. I live in a detached bungalow now.....love having my own domain and ohhhh the peace.

We had one father who used to prop the main door open with the fire extinguisher so his daughter could come in and out when she was playing. It was a security risk for everyone else. It also gave access to gangs of kids who started coming in and running up and down the stairs and making a racket.

We did complain to the management company after that and he stopped doing it.

I lived in a flat when I had my first baby. She wasn't good at sleeping so I used to get up and let her play as I didn't want to keep neighbours awake all night with her crying. I now live in a ground floor maisonette and the only thing that irritates is people shutting doors loudly. However, the bonuses outweigh minor irritations and people have to live their lives.

Slippers should be worn as soon as anyone steps in the door.

Warn your neighbours if you are going to do any DIY.

We lived 13 floors up, a very long time ago, with 2 babies it often meant that I was stuck indoors, so a good Management Company would be at the top of my list. I couldn’t manage the stairs even without babies, now I’m much much older.

DS lived in a flat for a few years. The tenant upstairs clearly had hard floors as you could hear him moving around. What was more disconcerting was the waterfall noise that could be heard in DS's sitting room, presumably when said tenant went to the loo (and I don't mean the flush!).