Problem with noise or other disturbance from neighbours?

This page contains a recommended process for handling problems related to noise or other disturbance from neighbours. The purpose is to give some guidance to the owners in order to secure a speedy and friendly problem solving process.

Problem category described below:
Problems with noise or other disturbance from one neighbor apartment, where the house rules are not adhered to.

Examples:
Loud noise making it hard to sleep during hours where the house rules direct us to be quiet (between 22 and 08), smoke from fire or illegal grill (wood or coal), spilling substances from one terrace to one below, failing to maintain own apartment – leading to disturbance in common areas or neighbour apartments etc.

The bearing principle of problem solving of such cases
When seeking a quick resolution to such problems, it is imperative that the communication starts between the owners or authorised representatives of the neighboring apartments and stays between them until the resolution is agreed and executed.

First response: direct contact between the neighbours

The first action when disturbed by a neighbour should be to knock on their door and try to explain in a friendly and calm way why your experience cannot be tolerated and ask for a prompt adherence to the house rules.

Escalated response: in case several attempts of direct contact fails to lead to any improvement

If, after several attempts with direct contact between neighbours, you do not experience any improvement, an owner can escalate his or her initiative by contacting the Committee via the email address committee.lacolina@gmail.com .

The Committee will follow up with an escalated response on the complaint at the first possible meeting, and probably ask the Administrator to contact the respective owner and request a prompt reaction to resolve the problem at hand.

If you have any additional information in the meantime, you are free to add more comments as response this email.

In case you are convinced that illegal conduct is involved as a part of the disturbance:
If you have the firm impression that illegal conduct like usage or sale of heavy, forbidden narcotics, trafficking, prostitution or similar are involved in the disturbance you experience from your neighbor, then the Committee recommends that you call the police on number 112 and explain the situation and ask them to come and check out what is going on.

112 is a common emergency number for fire, ambulance and police. Explaining the situation to the switchboard operator is needed to get the appropriate response. If you ask for an English speaking officer, that is normally possible as well.

When making such call to the police, it is important to notice aspect of timing in that this must be done in a situation where the police can catch the disturbing neighbours red-handed, so it cannot be part of an escalation to the Committee.

References – see also:
i) Owners responsibilities in plain English/Spanish – simplified from Horizontal Property Act

ii) Horizontal Property Act – in particular observe owners responsibilities as stated in Article 9

iii) House rules for La Colina – must be known and followed by all owners and residents/guests

Kind regards,
La Colina Committee