u/Delicious_Product_45

Recently bought a 3-bed semi-detached, and we're having concerns about the sound insulation between us and the adjoining house.

We can hear our neighbours' conversations (although slightly muffled) and general day-to-day activity quite clearly, as well as footsteps. The footsteps are particularly noticeable and can sometimes sound as though they're coming from inside our own house / directly above our living areas.

Our snagging inspector had also raised some initial concerns about the acoustic separation but developed assured were all up to building standard.

I raised it with the developer, who provided us with a SITRI sound test report from other houses in the estate (apparently not all houses need to be tested, only 1 per batch). The tested walls in similar house achieved 56 dB, against a stated requirement of ≥53 dB, so they passed.

The developer also mentioned on the phone that they've previously tested other houses by having buyers go into the adjoining property and talk loudly/shout between the houses, and apparently very little, if anything, could be heard.

That doesn't seem to match our experience at all as mentioned. Pafticually when the neighbours have large groups over.

The developer has now offered to have our specific house tested, but has said we'd have to cover the cost if it passes. The testing company has also indicated that the retest would be limited to assessing compliance with the Building Regulations.

Has anyone here had a similar issue with a new-build semi/terraced house?

Is this level of noise normal even with a 56 dB party wall?

Should normal conversations be clearly audible through the wall?

Could the footsteps be a separate impact/flanking transmission issue?

Would you recommend paying for the developer's test, or getting an independent acoustic assessment that looks at the wider issue?

Any experiences or advice would be appreciated.

We recently bought a new-build semi and had the driveway extended so we can fit 3 cars, as we're a fairly busy household.

The driveways aren't really separated, just a small raised strip between them but can clearly see divide between each and the footpaths. Before we got the keys, the neighbours attached to us and another family a few houses down used to cut across the driveways to visit each other, which obviously wasn't our concern then.

The thing is, they're still doing it now we've moved in. Even if our cars are on the drive, they'll just walk straight across front of our windows instead of using the path.

I don't want to make a big deal out of it, but it does feel a bit odd having people constantly walking across our property. I also wonder if it might just be a cultural difference and they don't see anything wrong with it.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? How would you bring it up without making things awkward?

I recently bought a new build from a private developer, we had done our original snag at end of april, we were then brought in early this month to go through final snagging walk through with the developer.

There was quite a lot not done so we agreed with the developer that we can proceed with closing on a signed agreement that all the final snags would be fully complete by 22nd of June.

We are now 2 days beyond this and none of the work has been done. I only caught he foreman on Monday who advised they were trying to arrange to get things done and doing there best. I have also been onto developer along side this for past two weeks to push on these items.

What should we do in this situation? We closed and received our keys on 14th of June. Should we contact our solicitor? Some of the snag items are currently preventing us from getting tradesman to do tiles, flooring etc

Hi, myself and my partner are currently at the end stages of closing on a new build. Our developer told us to register mprn with energy provider as urgent back in April so he could keep things on track.

We just received a bill from said provider of nearly 200€ but we have not closed on property yet. Our current status is drawdown and receiving closing documents.

The period for bill is for may and June and to reiterate, we have had no access to property whatsoever since.

Are we expected to pay this bill? Or do we have Case against developer to reimburse us?