A retired nurse has claimed that a loud noise from her upstairs neighbour led to the death of her husband.
Rosemary Boudezari and her late husband Messaud Boubezari complained to their landlord about loud bangs heard until the early hours on a regular basis and claimed doors were being deliberately slammed by their neighbour in Notting Hill.
Tragically, 79-year-old Messaud recently died of a stroke after suffering from Parkinson's disease, reports My London.
In May 2021 he fell when trying to ring his neighbour's doorbell about the noise. He also fell three times in July 2021 due to stress from the noise, Rosemary told the housing watchdog.
A report into the neighbour dispute and how it was managed by their landlord, said that Messaud "was very unwell with advanced Parkinson’s disease and his death was caused or hastened by the stress caused to him by the noise from upstairs".
It continued: "The resident also has a medical condition related to her immune system and has provided supporting medical evidence indicating that her condition is affected by stress. The resident says she has now lost hearing in one ear from the noise."
The report noted that arguments became so bad that both Rosemary and her upstairs neighbour called the police on different occasions. The upstairs neighbour said their relationship with Rosemary had got off to a bad start when he moved in on March 15, 2021.
He told the Ombudsman that within five minutes of moving in Rosemary asked his family not to use the toilet after midnight as the water pipes in the building may disturb their sleep. Just 17 days later the landlord of both flats was contacted by the police.
Rosemary had been complaining that there was unbearable noise and banging all day. She spoke to the Met and claimed her neighbour threatened to punch her husband if he complained about the noise.
The upstairs neighbour had told the police he was worried about repeated complaints made against him and officers said he had taken reasonable steps to reduce the noise by putting down fitting rugs and carpets.
Tthe police did not take any further action.
The Ombudsman report revealed the neighbour had also emailed his landlord about the issue.
The retired nurse also claimed that while her husband was unwell in hospital her neighbour poured a bucket of water from upstairs onto her and her cat.
Rosemary claimed that items had been thrown into the garden including a knife, however the neighbour says this happened by accident and no further action was taken.
A letting agent also complained to the landlord that the upstairs neighbour had also been throwing items out of their window into another resident's garden.
After speaking to the police in June 2021 the landlord decided the neighbours should not speak directly. Instead, they should speak to the landlord about any issues.
Another incident took place on October 17, 2021, when Rosemary had a fire pit in her garden. She tried to extinguish the fire using water which caused smoke to go into her neighbour's flat above.
Rosemary told the Ombudsman her neighbour became extremely aggressive. She was given a formal warning by the landlord for having the bonfire.
Her neighbour had also sent her emails complaining about the amount of dog hair in communal areas of the property.
Rosemary claimed the situation only got worse when the upstairs neighbour installed a security camera close to the front door that she said allowed them to see when Rosemary was entering and leaving her flat.
On April 30, 2021, the property's landlord said it was looking into soundproofing the property, but it delayed getting a quote for three months.
The Ombudsman report said: "This was a period of avoidable delay of approximately three months and prolonged the distress caused to the resident and her husband. It would be appropriate for the landlord to offer additional redress for this delay."
In October 2021 Rosemary was contacted by Kensington and Chelsea Council's noise team who explained the landlord had been willing to install soundproofing but it needed consent from her neighbour - he refused for it to be installed.
Rosemary told the Ombudsman that her neighbour's overall behaviour has improved recently but she said the noise remained a significant problem for her and that she does not have the money to move.
The Ombudsman did not look into the neighbour's dispute but it criticised the landlord for taking too long to install soundproofing and for how it dealt with complaints of antisocial behaviour.
The Ombudsman report said: "The landlord, therefore, failed to correctly follow its anti-social behaviour procedures. The resident needed to chase progress on a number of occasions and was not regularly updated by the landlord. There was therefore also communication failure by the landlord.
It added: "There were grounds to consider issuing a tenancy warning letter to the neighbour of the resident and this would have been a proportionate response after the knife incident or the water-throwing incident for example.
"There was significant delay with regard to obtaining the soundproofing quotation."
The Ombudsman told the landlord to pay Rosemary £550 for the distress caused by delaying getting a quote about soundproofing and for failing to follow its antisocial behaviour policy.
A Notting Hill Genesis spokesperson said: “We were aware of the allegations of anti-social behaviour and worked intensively with both households to seek a resolution that was suitable to all parties and allowed both to stay in their homes.
"We worked closely with environmental health who concluded we took all reasonable steps to resolve the matter including offering sound-proofing, options to move to another property with financial assistance, mediation and more, but none of these offers were accepted.
“We are currently reviewing the determination made by the Ombudsman in this case, but will look at our anti-social behaviour processes to identify any lessons to learn.”
