Millionaire neighbours win row against family upstairs who ripped up carpets | UK News

A businessman and his wife have won a millionaire’s court battle against the City banker living upstairs after complaining the racket made by his young family on the creaky floorboards was ‘unbearable’. 

Sergey Grazhdankin, 42, and wife, Maria, sued Medhi Guissi and his wife Meriem El Harouchi over the ‘nuisance’ caused by the noisy floors at their gated art deco development in West Kensington. 

They claimed everyday life in their £1 million apartment became ‘torture’ when their new neghbours moved in upstairs and ripped up the carpets, replacing it with wooden flooring. 

The Grazhdankins told Central London County Court a floating acoustic barrier designed to hide any noise was incorrectly fitted, with the judge later agreeing it was as useful as a ‘piece of plywood’. 

The decision leaves Mr Guissi and Mrs El Harouchi having to fork out £16,087 in compensation, as well as paying a substantial portion of the £250,000 lawyers’ bills for the case. 

Mr Grazhdankin and his marketing manager wife moved into their fourth-floor flat in Fitzjames Lane in 2011 before their neighbours bought the apartment upstairs for £1.1m in 2018. 

Previously, the Grazhdankins had an elderly lady living above them and told the court that they very rarely heard noise from upstairs, other than the occasional banging of a door. 

In a statement written at the time and put before the court, Mr Grazhdankin said that, after a year living in Germany, he and his family had moved back into the flat in August 2020. 

He described how a change of layout in the apartment upstairs, moving living areas above bedrooms, made things even worse. 

‘During the week, we are woken up daily between 5.30am and 7.30am by the noise from above and we can hear floor making creaking sounds, walking sounds and the sound of moving furniture right above our main bedroom,’ he said. 

‘On weekends we are woken up between 7am and 8am by walking, banging, jumping sounds, children running and voices. 

‘During the day, throughout the whole week, there is a lot of noise of similar nature, being creaking floor, walking, dropping things on the floor, moving objects on the floor, children crying, shouting and voices. 

‘This is experienced especially between 2pm and 10pm. 

‘Overall, living in our apartment feels like living in a shared apartment with another family. It is impossible to have our peace and live in our own rhythm.’ 

From the witness box he added: ‘Living with this every day since we moved is torture.’ 

His wife said the only time they are free from the noise above is after Mr Guissi and his family go to bed, which can be after 10pm at night, making the Grazhdankins dependent on their neighbours’ daily schedule. 

‘We live with our neighbours in the most direct way of speech as we are always disturbed by the sounds of their daily life in their apartment,’ she said in a statement. 

‘We are automatically able to tell not only if they’re at home but also who exactly of the family is at home, which room they’re in and sometimes what kind of activity they are engaged in. 

‘It feels depressing because I do not have a feeling of privacy, peace and quiet in my own home.’ 

Mr Guissi and Mrs El Harouchi eventually had carpets fitted in most areas of their flat, but Mr Grazhdankin pressed ahead with the ‘nuisance’ claim against them. 

Defending them in court, their barrister Tom Morris said that what the Grazhdankins complained about is the sound made by acts of ‘ordinary residential occupation’ of a family home. 

The acts ‘are not done maliciously or with the intention of disturbing the claimant, but reasonably and with proper consideration for the interests of the claimant,’ he said. 

Ruling in Mr Grazhdankin’s favour, Judge Tracey Bloom said the couple had been ‘plainly distressed’ by the noise from above, even the reduced sound which they experience now after the carpet was laid. 

She said: ‘I have no reason to doubt the experience of Mr Grazhdankin and his wife that the noise has been unbearable for them. 

‘I am quite satisfied and accept all of the experts’ evidence that the floor was put in incorrectly. 

‘The effect was that the layer that should have provided an acoustic barrier was squashed and the effectiveness of the floor was in effect nullified. 

‘It was no better than a piece of plywood across the floor.’ 

The judge said Mr Grazhdankin is entitled to damages for four months in 2020 and five months in 2021, the periods when their neighbours were in the UK and not stranded abroad due to Covid restrictions. 

He awarded Mr Grazhdankin £16,087.50 in damages for those periods, but said the noise they experience now does not amount to ‘actionable nuisance’. 

He rejected nuisance and breach of covenant claims which they had additionally brought against the freeholder of the building, North End House Ltd. 

The case will return to court at a later date to decide what portion of the lawyers’ bills for the case the parties will have to pay. 

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