legends · 3 min read ·
Quiet Hours
A tenant's noise diary shows an upstairs flat that only copies her, and only before ten.
**Alder Court — Tenant Handbook, Section 4: Consideration for Neighbours**
4.1 Quiet hours are 22:00 to 07:00. During quiet hours, residents should avoid noise audible in neighbouring flats.
4.2 Residents who wish to complain about noise should keep a written record of dates, times, and nature of the disturbance.
4.3 Complaints will be passed to the managing agent, who will contact the resident responsible.
· · ·
**Noise diary — Flat 3B (D. Okafor), 4 weeks**
**Mon 6 Oct.** 20:15. Footsteps overhead, from 4B, crossing the room from the window to the door. Eight steps. Then the same eight back. I know 4B has been empty since August.
**Tue 7 Oct.** 20:40. Footsteps again. Eight and eight. I put on a podcast to cover it.
**Wed 8 Oct.** 19:55. I dropped a pan in the kitchen. At 19:55 and four seconds there was the sound of a pan being dropped above me. It was a smaller pan.
**Thu 9 Oct.** 21:10. I ran a bath. Water began to run above me. I turned my tap off. Theirs ran on for another six seconds before it stopped.
· · ·
**Letter to managing agent (D. Okafor, 11 Oct)**
*Dear Ms Teague, I'd like to log a noise complaint about Flat 4B. I'm told it's empty, but there's a regular pattern of footsteps and water use between about 19:30 and 21:45. I think someone is staying there unofficially.*
**Reply (Teague & Rowe Lettings, 14 Oct)**
*Flat 4B is vacant. The keys are held in our office, and no one has signed them out since August. We have sent a contractor to check the flat and he reports it is clean and empty. Please observe quiet hours and avoid making unnecessary noise.*
· · ·
**Noise diary (continued)**
**Sat 18 Oct.** 20:30. I tried an experiment. I clapped once. A second later: one clap overhead. I clapped twice. Two claps. I clapped three times and then stopped, and after a moment there was a pause in the ceiling, and then a fourth clap that I had not made.
**Sun 19 Oct.** 19:30. I sat completely still for an hour. Nothing. At 20:30, when I coughed, a cough came back. It was not quite my cough.
**Mon 20 Oct.** 21:55. I noticed something. The noises have never happened after 22:00. Not once in four weeks. The footsteps, the water, the clap, the cough. They stop at 22:00 exactly, and they never start before seven.
They are keeping the rules.
· · ·
**Letter to managing agent (D. Okafor, 22 Oct)**
*Dear Ms Teague, I've worked out the pattern. The noise is only ever a copy of what I do. It follows me by a few seconds, and it stops at 22:00 because I stop, because I go to bed. I think whoever is upstairs is watching me through the floor, learning the routine.*
*I would like to know who has been in 4B. I would also like to know who has been in 3B. There are two toothbrushes in my bathroom cup. I only own one.*
**Reply (Teague & Rowe Lettings, 24 Oct)**
*Thank you for your letter. Our records show Flat 4B has a tenant. A lease was signed on 3 October. The tenant has asked us to let you know that they are very sorry for any disturbance and are doing their best to follow the handbook.*
· · ·
**Noise diary (final entries)**
**Thu 30 Oct.** 21:58. I have decided to test the rule. At 21:58 I started to run the tap, slowly, and turned the radio on. Above me the tap ran, and a radio played the same station, a fraction late. At 21:59 I pulled the plug on the radio. Above me the radio stopped.
**Thu 30 Oct.** 22:00. Quiet hours began. I stood in the kitchen without moving. I did not breathe above a whisper. Above me nothing moved. The building was as silent as it has ever been.
At 22:01 I heard the one thing the handbook does not cover. It was a small sound, directly overhead, of a person drawing a breath to speak, and then holding it, to see whether I would speak first.