Woman quits Brighton home because of student noise (From The Argus)

the best thing to do is fight fire with fire, and make noise when you know they are asleep, leave bins on their doorstep, play loud music, etc. no-one should be forced out of their home by these layabouts. if they spent more time studying, and less time partying, then this country would have people to be proud of. if these allegations can be proven, then the university should become liable for their students behaviour, and if needs be, throw them out of the courses they are on. we had a problem with students in oxford, and after identifying the culprits, the university expelled them. very embarrassing for them. what ever happens, this lady can't let them win!!!

Dear Tessa,
I understand how you feel.
Now first, contact the council's environmental health team and get listening equipment installed.
Second, write to your MP, ward councillor and also request a personal visit from the university staff.
Third, Google Land Registry and look up the landlord's name and address.
Write to the landlord or even visit them at their home and let them know that every time you are woken, you will be visiting their home to wake them even at 3am.
Also the Land Registry will give you the name of the mortgage company if the house is still under mortgage. Take photos of the house in detail and write to the mortgage company and enclose the photos and noise records.
Also inform the Inland Revenue with details of numbers of people living in the property etc.
You will be surprised how many landlords are in breach of their buy-to-let mortgages, not paying correct tax etc.
We are doing this in our street with all student homes and already a number of landlords have found their mortgage companies foreclosing on them.
We also issue students with welcome letters, informing them that we welcome them to our communities but the first instance of noise and anti-social behaviour will lead to the council and college being called.
The council will remove these troublesome properties from the student let register and they will become unlettable.
Fight back Tessa.
Don't quit.

Tessa there is no student let register, a landlord can let to whoever they like, and it is the council and police to implement the powers they have to force any tenants to behave. the landlord enters into the contract and it is very hard to get rid of tenants during their tenancy period as you would probably expect. your vindictiveness against landlords who are in the main honest people providing an important service and probably not actually earning much in return makes me feel you are not a nice person. landlords are heavily regulated at great expense too, it is the council and the police and hopefully the university that hold all the powers, and you will be prosecuted under those powers if you behave anti socially against any landlord. landlords cannot go around and empty the bins for them or put them to bed at 10.30. I agree the students should face expulsion from their course if they are constantly being a nuisance. it is not just students that can be a nuisance, and in fact most of them in my experience are very nice and the most reliable, also keep community shops etc. in business. tessa it sounds like you are becoming the nuisance neighbour in your street, denying people a choice of where to live. the council are also landlords and as they will confirm they many anti social families who are very difficult to evict. anyone who is not a landlord should research this with the national landlords association and they will discover the huge amount of legislation they comply with and at great cost, and the contribution to society providing cheap housing that no one else will supply, and paying taxes into the system. tessa you are sad.

last comment should be read about the insider not tessa, the insider you are sad. tessa you were let down by the authorities, if things were that bad, and were unlucky, it could happen anywhere to anyone by any tenant student or not. all this anti student at the moment is more over zealous nannying.

Get real all you doubters! Walk round Hanover area between the hours of 8 pm and 8 am and virtually all student let houses are emitting the most enormous levels of noise.

Tessa the powers are with neighbours and councils will act so ignore Bug Eye. The day of students keeping residents awake and being left in situ have gone.
The council advise that from day one of noise, inform them and from this day the investigation starts. The council will and do remove students. Look through The Argus archive and you will find many court cases where students are fined and evicted. Also read the council's 58-page report into problem with student rentals in the city and recommendations which can be found on the council's website under completed scrutiny reports. This should give you some solace that the issue is being taken very seriously. Also we are heading for an election, so get thes prospective parlaimentary candidates to your home and ask for help. People change policy.
Also, the council advises, that from day one of noise, call the council. Do NOT leave it or negotiate.
And there is a recommended list of student properties which the colleges keep and the council can request removal, so Bug Eye is incorrect. Landlords can rent without being on this list but being on a list makes it easier to rent.
And Bug Eye, I am not at all sad, I am ensuring that me and my wife, who is a nurse, can go to work in ITU having a good night's sleep.
I hope you or your family never need a team or nurses trying to save your life when they have had two hours sleep due to houses full of student children being allowed to run riot next to my £290,000 home which I work **** hard to pay for.
You obviously don't care about community or decent working people which is perhaps why some areas of this town have fallen into total disrepair and neglect.
My neighbours and I will not let people like you ruin our town.

Um, it's Hanover. It's Brighton. It's a city of mainly young people. It's an area with lots of decent pubs.

Sorry, but if you want a quiet existence, don't choose to live there.

We used BHCC noise team to help with a noisy neigh our, and they were brilliant. In addition, we found out the letting agent/management company/landlord, and basically hounded them with phone calls and letters every time there was a noise incident... They soon got sick of it and chucked her out. Noisy neighbours is one of the most debilitating things you can suffer from in everyday life. Lequack, had you stopped to think that people may have been living in Hanover for a lot longer before the HMO scourge swept through?

Call the police, and explain that you have seen under-age drinking, drug use, and selling of drugs (I am assuming you have) at the specified address. The police will arrive soonish, and the behaviour of your tenants will change dramatically, long term.

lequack80 wrote:
Um, it's Hanover. It's Brighton. It's a city of mainly young people. It's an area with lots of decent pubs. Sorry, but if you want a quiet existence, don't choose to live there.

Um, Brighton and Hanover have been there a lot longer than the students. Maybe Ms Meijer has been there longer than the students (thats what I infer from the report). Maybe Ms Meijer likes the area and the pubs but not the neighbours she currently has. Do you really think that anyone would say to themselves 'its a noisy neighbourhood full of pubs and students, lets move in, hope for the best and complain about it later if it all goes pear shaped'? Do you, really?

bug eye wrote:
Tessa there is no student let register, a landlord can let to whoever they like, and it is the council and police to implement the powers they have to force any tenants to behave. the landlord enters into the contract and it is very hard to get rid of tenants during their tenancy period as you would probably expect. your vindictiveness against landlords who are in the main honest people providing an important service and probably not actually earning much in return makes me feel you are not a nice person. landlords are heavily regulated at great expense too, it is the council and the police and hopefully the university that hold all the powers, and you will be prosecuted under those powers if you behave anti socially against any landlord. landlords cannot go around and empty the bins for them or put them to bed at 10.30. I agree the students should face expulsion from their course if they are constantly being a nuisance. it is not just students that can be a nuisance, and in fact most of them in my experience are very nice and the most reliable, also keep community shops etc. in business. tessa it sounds like you are becoming the nuisance neighbour in your street, denying people a choice of where to live. the council are also landlords and as they will confirm they many anti social families who are very difficult to evict. anyone who is not a landlord should research this with the national landlords association and they will discover the huge amount of legislation they comply with and at great cost, and the contribution to society providing cheap housing that no one else will supply, and paying taxes into the system. tessa you are sad.

How much council tax do you and your students pay?

lequack you are an idiot, anyone is entitled to peaceful enjoyment of their property - this is universal so dont spout guff about its Hanover, its Brighton somehow excuding peopel from this.
.
Insider - You seem to be hanging the resposnsibilty for the students behaviour onto the landlords. Whilts they do have sertain responsibilities they are not the students keepers, the students are respsonsible for their ownbehaviour and a landlord cannot be there everyday to keep an eye on them.

woken at 6.30 this morning by the neighbours singing, that's 10 minutes before the alarm goes off.
Most nights get woken from some lot.

Call 641894 Brighton Uni student housing problems

TheInsider wrote:
Tessa the powers are with neighbours and councils will act so ignore Bug Eye. The day of students keeping residents awake and being left in situ have gone. The council advise that from day one of noise, inform them and from this day the investigation starts. The council will and do remove students. Look through The Argus archive and you will find many court cases where students are fined and evicted. Also read the council's 58-page report into problem with student rentals in the city and recommendations which can be found on the council's website under completed scrutiny reports. This should give you some solace that the issue is being taken very seriously. Also we are heading for an election, so get thes prospective parlaimentary candidates to your home and ask for help. People change policy. Also, the council advises, that from day one of noise, call the council. Do NOT leave it or negotiate. And there is a recommended list of student properties which the colleges keep and the council can request removal, so Bug Eye is incorrect. Landlords can rent without being on this list but being on a list makes it easier to rent. And Bug Eye, I am not at all sad, I am ensuring that me and my wife, who is a nurse, can go to work in ITU having a good night's sleep. I hope you or your family never need a team or nurses trying to save your life when they have had two hours sleep due to houses full of student children being allowed to run riot next to my £290,000 home which I work **** hard to pay for. You obviously don't care about community or decent working people which is perhaps why some areas of this town have fallen into total disrepair and neglect. My neighbours and I will not let people like you ruin our town.

Stop showing off Insider. We don't care if you have a good job or a £290,000 house. As lequack80 says, you and I chose to live in a young, vibrant and noisy city so we just have to accept the good and bad sides of it. I live next to seveal student houses too and yes they are noisy but these students are also vital to Brighton's economy. We've all been young and had parties haven't we? I do agree though that many need to have a little more respect for their neighbours but let's not be too harsh and remember that a lot of jobs in this city rely on the students.

I know a few people who have left because of the same reason, it used to be quite a desirable area to live in, Muesli Mountain. Now it's more like Stella Peak.

Still, it makes a lovely free car park for me each day.

What about those who already lived there before the students moved in?

The Insider - while your sentiments might be understandable some of the actions you suggest won't help. Firstly, there really is no such thing as a student let register that prevents or allows me, as a landlord, to rent to students. Just as long my property conforms to legislation I can rent it to anyone I want.
Secondly, any responsible landlord will act on any reasonable complaint. I rather less inclined to act if some idiot wakes me up at 3am to complain. If students are responsible for noise then they are just that - responsible - the landlord is not. The landlord has a duty to act. I wouldn't go knock on your local bobbies door at 3am if the police couldn't send an officer so why do the same to a landlord ?

Um, the fishermen, the railway workers and the prostitutes were in Hanover long before Ms Meijer but most of them seem to have gone. Why? Could that be because, like any city, things change and new demographics move into new areas of the city while leaving others.
Back in the 1970's, many of the students lived in Kemp Town but that has become the new Museli mountain and vary few, if any, students can be found in the area.

Ok, I have sympathy for Ms Meijer, but Hanover is a student area so it isn't really a story when someone is getting angry at the noise levels.

Of course, the other problem is that the city needs the students more than the students need the city. It's not exactly an economic giant in the UK, is it? Everyone I know works either in London or at the University and what attracts them to the town is that it's a vibrant, young persons city; the students being a part of that. Get rid of them and the London workers will leave, get rid of them and the town is suddenly Hastings.

Does a student area automatically mean people have to tolerate excessive noise? I really dont understand this logic..

"Students moving into private sector education"????????? Proof reader on the bottle again I see, or am I missing something? Housing or accomodation would seem more appropriate. As far as student noise is concerned, I live in an area which has a lot of students living in private houses and I must say that this year they seem, so far, to be very considerate as far as noise is concerned. I am not however able to say the same about the rubbish left spread around.

I can really sympathise with Ms. Meijer and all those who have made comments about being disturbed by noisy neighbours. We moved out of Hanover because of constant noise disturbance from our student neighbours. To comment that people should simply put up with intrusive noise just because you live in a 'young and vibrant' area is a bit unfair I think. Hanover is a lovely place in lots of ways, close to city, picturesque houses, good pubs etc, etc. We moved there unaware of the large student population, but I know lots of people who lived there very happily before the students moved in and have since been driven away. We were advised not to report the problems to the council as this has to be disclosed when you come to sell your house. We often spoke to the students about the noise levels, some were more reasonable than others, but it was always a problem as they have totally different lifestyles from someone trying to do a 9-5 job and often have parties and get-togethers on weeknights. I think the student housing issue is becoming a big problem in Brighton and needs to be dealt with. Being woken night after night by thumping music and shouting coming through the walls has a profound effect on your wellbeing. I think I would probably have had a nervous breakdown had I stayed!

There is an awful lot of cobblers on this forum - lequack80 you are talking nonsense. Everybody deserves a certain quality of life no matter who you are. I have no doubt there are other students who hate the type of behaviour Tessa is having to put up with. As for saying Hanover is a student area - NO IT ISN'T! Most of the people who live there own the houses they live in and are invariably professional workers. I know a project manager, a trainer and web developer, an Ofstead inspector, three teachers, a retired publican and a dental technician who live in the area and ALL of them own their respective properties. Most of the students in the area come from Phoenix.
I am on the board of director of a large block of flats in Brighton and we have been forced to introduce considerable restrictions with regard to sub-letting and tenants due to various incidents over the past few years. I have to say that the majority of those cases involved students and ranged from noise pollution to downright vandalism. We now insist that any owner of property in the building that wants to sublet applies for a license (which we reserve the right not to grant) and that any tenants provide references. We have been driven up the avenue by the inconsiderate morons who see fit to have "a few friends around" on a staturday night until 3.00am and drive the rest of the block mad with music, smoking in public ways and coming and going in taxis etc.
Students don't give a toss for their neighbours as they are invariably on short lets.
I feel for you Tessa. Do not give up. Stand your ground.

If there's one thing history has taught us, it is that scapegoating is a brilliant idea.

If there are two things that history has taught us, the first is that scapegoating is a brilliant idea and the second is that hatred is good for the soul.

Thoughts:

Students do not pay council tax: this is true (in the majority of cases). However, the government pays the missing money to local councils from general taxation.

Graduates earn more on average and therefore pay more tax. Complaining that students don't pay council tax is only valid if you imagine that graduates appear from the void, drawn forth by the warmth of a loving Creator.

The Universities are of benefit to the local economy: they provide employment directly, the student population supports the retail & entertainment sectors and the graduate population supports businesses in Brighton.

The overwhelming majority of teachers, doctors and dentists are graduates.

Having universities and students to attend them is probably a good thing in the end.

Bad neighbours are bad neighbours: litter is litter, noise is noise, the first rule of tautology club is the first rule of tautology club. If you have bad neighbours who are students, you have a problem with bad neighbours, not students.

I would absolutely welcome more effective measures against bad neighbours - our neighbours are 30-something professionals and they start their parties on the wrong side of midnight. Apparently, since they don't do this more than once in a two-week period, the council can't help. Help me out, angry citizens of the comment section: what can we do to fight back against the growing menace of 30 year olds?

The correct response surely is first to talk to the people causing the noise. If that does not work then contact the landlord and/or letting agent. In addition, contact the council as they are the only ones with any formal powers to enforce noise abatement. However, I deal with a lot of student and other let properties and I have seen extremely few complaints about noise and of the ones we have received the vast majority were not students. As for toldsloth's comment 'We now insist that any owner of property in the building that wants to sublet applies for a license (which we reserve the right not to grant)' I would love to see how you enforce this the first time that one of your owners challenge it in court!

I can completely relate to this. We are four students living in Hanover and we love it, we don't like loud music (unless its inside a night club) and we hate the rubbish and bikes on the street. We've been involved in Hanover day and we when we planned a party for Halloween we spoke to the neighbours first and even had some early local trick or treaters come in to help us decorate. We've never had a problem with noisy neighbours until this year.
The tenants on one side of us are very noisy and play their music very loud on and off at all times of the day. They have it so loud that they can't hear us banging on their door and we can't get quiet / sleep on any of our 3 floors. We've spoken to them numerous times and called the council but when the council sent someone round the music wasn't on and so they said they couldn't act. Having loved the house, the area and our lovely landlords for the 3 years I've been there, I now can wait to move out, get some decent sleep (without earplugs!) and know that I can invite people over for tea and be able to hear what they are saying.
Any advice on what I can do / get the council to do about it?

Clearly there are a large number of people annoyed by students who have asked for quiet and don't get it.
Therefore, as I suggest, just knock on the landlord's door.
There seems to be posts on here that suggest it's not the landlord's problem. Well who cares if it is or not.
If you can't look after your property and manage your tenants, don't let it out.
The council is responsible for its tenant.
As for Benn, Kemp Town, you made me laugh out loud saying a £290,000 house was showing off. Are you that crazed leftie Tony Benn?
An ex council house in the Scoomb will cost you £230,000.
What planet are you on.
There is hope though, unis are reducing students numbers and at the same time building more accommodation so fewer students will be renting and this will either drive the rental market down and release homes for sale to families, or just keep rent low for those on low incomes.
It's win, win for everyone....well except for landlords who have not really bothered to manage good quality homes for good quality tenants.

As I am reading this I am shocked. The reason for this is because as is always the case, people are commenting on this article in what can only be described as a childish and uninformed way. For one second has it occurred to any of the naysayers that have previously spouted off about this subject, that there may be another side to the story? The media as per usual is portraying the students in a poor light. Students make up roughly 1 in 5 people in Brighton and yes Hannover is a largely student populated area.
I am speaking as a close friend of the some of the students in question, and by no means am I trying to claim they are perfect! But there is no way they are any way near as bad as the article portrays them to be. They have lived like typical students, they attend uni in the day and occasionally go out and come home late (like every other student in the country) by no means is it a party a night kind of house, and the allegations about piles of rubbish outside are preposterous! Some of the things that the article fails to mention are:

Unreasonable and aggressive complaints against casual conversation and light music, (from a small laptop.) on the patio at 2 o’clock in the afternoon…. on a Saturday!

Mrs Meijer illegally entering into the house and threatening the tenants.

The exceptionally mature response of playing radio 4 loudly through the walls from 6 in the morning until significantly later on that day (which is more amusing than an annoyance)

These are just a couple of examples from a list (I would hazard a guess at) being as long as Mrs Meijers.
I could fully understand Mrs Meijers complaints should they be reasonable, but unfortunately for her, they are not. Not once has she approached the tenants in a calm and mature manner. And by reacting in such a way has resulted in nothing but aggravation for the students having to live next to her, not only this year but in previous years as well.
Perhaps the Argus should publish a responding article addressing the alternative side of the story before this witch burning gets too out of control!

JayJayR wrote:
I can completely relate to this. We are four students living in Hanover and we love it, we don't like loud music (unless its inside a night club) and we hate the rubbish and bikes on the street. We've been involved in Hanover day and we when we planned a party for Halloween we spoke to the neighbours first and even had some early local trick or treaters come in to help us decorate. We've never had a problem with noisy neighbours until this year.
The tenants on one side of us are very noisy and play their music very loud on and off at all times of the day. They have it so loud that they can't hear us banging on their door and we can't get quiet / sleep on any of our 3 floors. We've spoken to them numerous times and called the council but when the council sent someone round the music wasn't on and so they said they couldn't act. Having loved the house, the area and our lovely landlords for the 3 years I've been there, I now can wait to move out, get some decent sleep (without earplugs!) and know that I can invite people over for tea and be able to hear what they are saying.
Any advice on what I can do / get the council to do about it?

I would give Nicholas Hoogstraten a call!, he seems to know how to deal with this type of problem very efficiently!.

Bennn wrote:

TheInsider wrote:
Tessa the powers are with neighbours and councils will act so ignore Bug Eye. The day of students keeping residents awake and being left in situ have gone. The council advise that from day one of noise, inform them and from this day the investigation starts. The council will and do remove students. Look through The Argus archive and you will find many court cases where students are fined and evicted. Also read the council's 58-page report into problem with student rentals in the city and recommendations which can be found on the council's website under completed scrutiny reports. This should give you some solace that the issue is being taken very seriously. Also we are heading for an election, so get thes prospective parlaimentary candidates to your home and ask for help. People change policy. Also, the council advises, that from day one of noise, call the council. Do NOT leave it or negotiate. And there is a recommended list of student properties which the colleges keep and the council can request removal, so Bug Eye is incorrect. Landlords can rent without being on this list but being on a list makes it easier to rent. And Bug Eye, I am not at all sad, I am ensuring that me and my wife, who is a nurse, can go to work in ITU having a good night's sleep. I hope you or your family never need a team or nurses trying to save your life when they have had two hours sleep due to houses full of student children being allowed to run riot next to my £290,000 home which I work **** hard to pay for. You obviously don't care about community or decent working people which is perhaps why some areas of this town have fallen into total disrepair and neglect. My neighbours and I will not let people like you ruin our town.

Stop showing off Insider. We don't care if you have a good job or a £290,000 house. As lequack80 says, you and I chose to live in a young, vibrant and noisy city so we just have to accept the good and bad sides of it. I live next to seveal student houses too and yes they are noisy but these students are also vital to Brighton's economy. We've all been young and had parties haven't we? I do agree though that many need to have a little more respect for their neighbours but let's not be too harsh and remember that a lot of jobs in this city rely on the students.

Rather ageist, young. Well i have lived here all my life and I do not want to be disturbed by some moron that hasn't contributed anything to society

Tessa,
I can definitely sympathise with your position however, this article seems to me to be biased and to portray students in a very poor light.
I can understand that you would want to retaliate but I do not believe that trying to wake these students will help you in anyway. 'codpiece's idea of leaving litter on their door seems extremely childish.
Also, 'codpeice' why do you assume these people are using and selling drugs? There is no evidence of this in the article.
I too have had problems with noisy neighbours but I still believe these students should be given a say.

The students opposite had a party in January, i politely went over the road and spoke to the student in charge and told them if i was woken again they will be reported to the council, then university and more than likely expelled from university.
I asked the sheepish chappy how his parents would feel about that?
not a peep since.

Many moons ago I bought a semi detached house in a quiet area.
On the first night we moved in we were treated to the regular donging of clock in the adjoining house, ghastly Big Ben chimes.
After a while I asked the neighbours if they would mind silencing the clock, they refused saying it was an heirloom and the previous residents had not complained (It was an electronic Big Ben clock, hardly an heirloom). The neighbours were a middle aged couple who had lived in the area for years.
The noise persisted and I once again asked, politely if they could switch it off or move it away from the adjoining wall, and again they refused.
After a while I suggested that I did not have to live in the area and could instead move and let the house out to students.
The noise stopped immediately!!!
I also lived briefly, very briefly, in the centre flat of a three floor building. All the neighbours were elderly and trust me, they are the noisiest of people. Being mostly hard of hearing they had their TVs at full blast late into the night, having presumably fallen asleep whilst watching. They slammed doors, and woke early to repeat the last.
It works all ways, and no one is perfect.
Frankly I'd have a quiet word with the students themselves, quiet but frank words repeated often.
From my experience of owning several houses rented out to students I know this works best.
ps Not in Brighton but Exeter, just in case you were thinking of moving there!!!!!!!

As a tenant of private rental accommodation in Brighton I have been nothing short of horrified since I moved here regarding the poor quality of private rental property. I've seen some right dives not suitable for animal, never mind human habitation - rotten windows, mouldy bathrooms, inadequate heating and worse of all houses turned into flats with absolutely no action taken to soundproof properties. A lot of these problems would be sorted if there was legislation to ensure a level of soundproofing, as with new build flats in private accomodation - expecially conversions. But there is no such legislation.

Myself and my friends who are all private tenants have all been forced to move, at least once, because of neighbours. Mainly in converted houses. Even noise which isn't actually antisocial can appear antisocial because of this soundproofing issue such as TVs, walking around, doors shutting, playing music and even talking!

It's about time Landlords were made to keep their properties at a certain level of habitability and by law have to ensure properties were sufficiently sound proofed.

I think some landlords live in cloud cuckoo land thinking that certain living conditions are acceptable but moreover, I think they don't actually give a **** as long as they have a nice home to retire in of an evening and a big fat bank balance.

I work a 40 hour week and expect to be able to come home of an evening and relax - not listen to my neighbour having **** in the flat below. I'm afraid I am going to have to move AGAIN.

**** can stand for whatever you like or dislike - as if you thought it I can hear it.

I think that noise problems are less to do with students and more to do with living in an area (such as Hanover), where there is a proliferation of cheap rented property. People who rent tend to care less about their homes and neighbours than those who own their properties. When you own it's not so easy to "move on" if you don't get on with your neighbours, so you HAVE to make an effort and show respect for each other. Also low rents attract transients and people who generally don't care about their homes - they see them as just a temporary place to "crash". I live in a Georgian house that has been converted to flats. NO problems whatsoever with the neighbours or noise, everyone respects each other, with the exception of the people in the top flat. Why's that? Because it's the only flat that isn't owner occupied! Whoever has rented it over the past five years, whether they be students or not, has caused a racket and has eventually had to be evicted.

Ndee wrote:
As a tenant of private rental accommodation in Brighton I have been nothing short of horrified since I moved here regarding the poor quality of private rental property. I've seen some right dives not suitable for animal, never mind human habitation - rotten windows, mouldy bathrooms, inadequate heating and worse of all houses turned into flats with absolutely no action taken to soundproof properties. A lot of these problems would be sorted if there was legislation to ensure a level of soundproofing, as with new build flats in private accomodation - expecially conversions. But there is no such legislation.

Myself and my friends who are all private tenants have all been forced to move, at least once, because of neighbours. Mainly in converted houses. Even noise which isn't actually antisocial can appear antisocial because of this soundproofing issue such as TVs, walking around, doors shutting, playing music and even talking!

It's about time Landlords were made to keep their properties at a certain level of habitability and by law have to ensure properties were sufficiently sound proofed.

I think some landlords live in cloud cuckoo land thinking that certain living conditions are acceptable but moreover, I think they don't actually give a **** as long as they have a nice home to retire in of an evening and a big fat bank balance.

I work a 40 hour week and expect to be able to come home of an evening and relax - not listen to my neighbour having **** in the flat below. I'm afraid I am going to have to move AGAIN.

Welcome to Brighton; what you found when you arrived is about par for the course.
A significant proportion of Brightons' housing stock is crumbling, below standard, and you are correct that even an animal should not be living in it.

It's all about supply and demand isn't it? Brighton is a popular location to live, add to that the huge population of students, all these people vying for low-cost accommodation, the landlords are the only ones that do alright out of it. As has been pointed out they are able to get away with renting out crumbling below standard properties because there will always be someone out there prepared to pay for it. As with everything in life if you've not got the money to pay extortionate prices for quality private rentals or property purchase in Brighton you will most likely end up living next to losers who make loads of noise and don't give a **** about their neighbours. Sad fact of life.