I rent privately and the council didnt mention anything about contacting my landlord regarding recording equipment. I am on a waiting list for this as they only have so many machines and no doubt a lot of noisy people!

I can understand your landlady holding you to the lease. It isnt her fault the neighbours are noisy but suspect that she will if not already had, problems letting it out if the neighbours are noisy.

If they have abatement notices against them, why is action not being taken if this is being breached?

And there is no way of telling if your next set of neighbours will be noisy. I have lived in other flats and terrace houses for about 5 years and had no issues for 4 sets of neighbours. These ones are hideous and always noisy!!!! I think its the luck of the draw! Try to avoid living near council houses as these seem to be a problem from what I have read on here, but I also know some council tenants are lovely and dont make any noise.

Thanks for your responses.  Maybe I need to go back to the council and see what action they are taking (if any) after witnessing the noise the other night.  They did say they would write to the landlord, but I am not sure if this happened.

I will also raise the point of recording equipment again.  I am just trying to focus on May (16 weeks) when I can move out of here.  Just terrified I will pick the wrong flat again!

I spoke to the council today.  They recorded in their files that the music could be heard in my flat after 11pm and my neighbour had been spoken to but it wasn't down as a statutory nuisance (is that the right term?), so no further action would be taken. 

I asked what would constitute a statutory nuisance, and he said it depended on the officer's judgement.  He said he would have said music at any level after 11pm would be a statutory nuisance but it wasn't up to him as he wasn't the officer visiting.  I have asked for that officer to call me tomorrow to explain - as at the time, he said a warrant could be served.

He also said there was no point in having recording equipment put in my flat, as the noise had to be witnessed by a council officer.  The equipment is not enough to take court action.  I am so upset and frustrated by all this.  I feel like I have put myself at risk by complaining, and it has got me absolutely nowhere.

Knackered,   there's one chance in five.... 20%....according to calculations based on my googling of having another bad experience. I think you'd have to do research and investigations of your own....however, things can change so rapidly with tenant changes. I conclude its better to make it right where i am. I went from frypan to fire. But surely if some way you could prove there was an existing problem before you moved in, that you were not warned of, which would have disuaded you from taking the lease, there are grounds for not only being released from the lease, but compensated ????   ok, i could be daydreaming again.

I wrote to my council today after being kept up all night by my neighbours.  Apart from the fact he did not address all issues raised in my email (he failed to acknowledge this is a problem with both of my neighbours, even though I made this clear).  I said I thought the council was incorrect to refuse to come to my flat to witness shouting and other loud noise apart from music in the middle of the night - he basically said it was fine for them to shout, yell obscenities and argue in the early hours of the morning, as long as it is not music.

I explained that I was woken at 1am by the tenant and his lodger last night who were arguing and shouting at each other.  I managed to get to sleep about 2am, and was again woken at around 3.30am by music and loud voices. This continued until I got up to go to work.  I also asked what had been done in response to noise that was witnessed last week by my other neighbour - who also has a noise abatement notice - and this was ignored.

This is the council's response - am I right to be annoyed?  I feel like they haven't actually said they will do anything to help, have ignored all my points and are treating me like the troublemaker:

Thank you for your email and the matters that you raise.

I am copying this email to our anti-social behaviour people as they may be able to tackle the arguing, shouting, swearing and banging coming from this flat.

In September last year, we served a Notice on XXX at this first floor flat, under section 80, requesting abatement of a nuisance defined under S79(g) as you have correctly shown below. So far we have not witnessed any breach of this notice.

You are right in quoting the definition from the legislation of a statutory nuisance is just "noise".
Once legislation is made and then used, legal opinions and precedents are made that affect how the legislation is interpreted. Basically noise is this case refers to noise created by something that has a on/off switches and or volume controls which will include amplified music and machines like vacuum cleaners or dish washers. Noise from domestic activities, like talking (and shouting), children running, floor boards creaking are not controlled by this legislation. This legislation does not outlaw swearing or drunken behaviour.

We do work with the safer neighbourhood teams to help resolve these social problems.

Anything you can do to help would be very appreciated.  Although I should add that in my annoyance, I replied with the following email to the council officer:

Dear Mr xx,

As I mentioned in my email this is an ongoing problem with both my neighbours. The incident I referred to in relation to noise being witnessed was from the top floor flat - which I was told by one of your officers also has a noise abatement notice. Can you please tell me the result of this visit. Your officer xxx told me when he was in my flat he would write to the landlord and also a warrant could be served.

Also, you say you work with other teams to resolve these issues. Could you please tell me how you plan to do this in this case? This is far more than normal domestic noise. It is affecting my health and well being and I need help to address these problems. I would like to speak to someone in the appropriate department to discuss these issues.

I just had a call from the police Safer Neighbourhood Team who are coming out to see me tomorrow (I copied them into the email to the council).  Maybe I will have more luck with them than the council?