Very noisy buliding work is this allowed?

I live in a large apartment block. The flat below me is completely renovating and at the moment is digging up every floor and bathroom in every room simultaneously with pneumatic drills. The noise is terrible I have a 3 year old and a 3 week old baby who can not sleep or live.

Are there any rules and regulations regarding noise decibels or how much noise they can make?

They stop for 1 hour for lunch but they are working in every room so there is not one room we can hear ourselves think.

Going mad!

There are rules about what times you are allowed to make noise. I think it supposed to stop between midnight and 6am but not sure as I have thrown away the note from our management company about it. You can be fined $10,000 for public disturbance outside whatever the designated hours are.


Your management company may make additional restrictions on when noise is permissible so ask them.


Have you tried asking them nicely and explaining you have a baby?

can it do any harm?

I sympathise with you. In our apartment block, as soon as one person finishes renovating, another one starts! It drives me insane!! The noise level is so bad sometimes, that I can't even have a telephone conversation as it's impossible to hear anyone. And the floors and walls shake when they use the pneumatic drills ... our dog's a nervous wreck!! I was so upset one time that my husband called the management head office who basically told him there was nothing we could do as long as they didn't work outside the designated hours, which in our apartments is from 9am-6pm ... however, they often try to over run this ... and people do complain! A friend with young children who lives in the same block did try to speak nicely to them, and ask if there was any chance that they could stop the very noisy work for a couple of hours so that those with kiddies could get a nap ... needless to say, they weren't very obliging! Basically, there's no quiet way to take up concrete floors or to knock down walls. Short of moving out, there's not much you can do.

this is what we pay crazy rents for, to live in a nightmare!!

Unfortunately you are stuck, but you need to determine which are the official (permitted) working hours in your building, and if the noisy work exceeds those hours, file a written complaint with the management office. You have these immediate avenues: the management office (whether or not they want to help you) and the owners' committee, which may be incorporated or may have been set up by the developer and not yet incorporated. In the latter case, they are also owners. The management office should give you contact info for the chairman or other member. In this city, this disturbance happens so much. It sucks but it is still going to happen. The more they can work, though, the sooner they finish...in principle. Can you make an agreement with a friend to take the kids for a few hours each day in return for a future favour? I sympathise (and empathise) with you. Good luck.

have not had the displeasure as yet in HK but had it in singapore, nothing worked got very messy. If every westerner could add a clause into their lease that if a reno happens in a neigbouring property that you could walk away from lease or pay half rent given the rental value is about that- things would be much fairer. I make a point now when we take a lease that we visit above and below, see what their intentions are etc, i also check if they have kids, particularly upstairs.

The standard law is between 9 am-11 pm, but restriction can be set any which ways as long as there are complaints from others. Then a permit must be imposed. Back in US/Canada, Excessive noises applies to 24 hours a day. Call the police and they will provide you with the guideline... Do approach the people yourself as I had tried to fill a compliant to the apt above me for children banging on the floor. The husband came after me with a large knife...

I had to deal with the SAME situation for 6 months, I was pregnant, and it was during SARS, and they kept drilling ESPECIALLY above my bedroom, right above my head actually. Some mornings, it scared me that I literally fall out of my bed. I did everything, wearing a mask, I walked upstairs a zillion times, asked them WHEN they will stop drilling, when they will end this renovations b/c it seemed like they have no plan and schedule. They drill one part of the apartment, and then do something else, and then two days later, they drill again... and was like this for months. Then my NEXT door neighbor decided to join the fun, they started renovating too .... the paint thinner smell was so strong, I had to stand outside in the street for half an hour to figure out what to do... (during the peak months of SARS scare!). Finally, I called police, I called environmental department, about the amount of noise they were making, and during hours that were NOT included in the "by-laws". Bascially, they told me, any hour, you can complain... if it disrupts your daily life, and it's upsetting you, you can call and complain. Whether anyone does anything during daytime hours that you complain is another story. However, during my complains, the police and the environmental department did come and survey and asked the people how they were doing it and also gave them verbal warning...etc.


At the end, I went back to Canada to give birth, and when I came back with my baby at 3months, the management of our building told us the renovations of BOTH apartments went on for another 6 months after I left.


We moved out of that apartment building and moved to Clearwater Bay... we're much happier here now. Hopefully, our neighbours will stay happy with their present condition of their house!