What are my options in Spain for addressing excessive noise caused by a neighbor renovating an apartment next to me?

By
Bruno Bianchi
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Question

There is a neighbor in a building attached to ours, that is renovating his apartment for 4 months now. So 4 months of drilling, pounding, smashing, every day from Monday to Friday and it starts at 8 in the morning.
Can I do anything about it? I understand that renovating does take a lot of work, but 4 months? This is not normal.

Answers

These are the answers of some Facebook group members:

“Sorry, what isn’t normal? Is this your first time living in a city? Because renovations are normal in a busy overcrowded city like Barcelona.
Obviously the noise is horrible (been through it myself) but as long as they’re not doing it in unsociable hours there’s not much you can do about it really, sorry.”

“I just went through an 18 month apartment renovation above me. They hired ONE guy to do it all. I once saw an entire building (in Gracia) built pretty much by two people. It took about two years. I kid you not.”

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a full renovation will certainly take more than 4 months. It’s the crap shoot of city living. You can grin and bear it or let it get the best of you.
It won’t make you feel any better about your current situation, but a few years back I had two neighbors (same floor and downstairs) gut renovate at the same time the city converted my street to a pedestrian street, AND demolished the parking garage behind my building to create a playground. Not only was it coming at me from four sides, but they found asbestos in the parking demo and all the neighbors had to keep their windows closed in August. That was a crap shoot that I totally lost and it lasted a full year.”

“Been there, rented a room, all good, then 1 week later neighbour from down floor started banging at 8:00….for 3 months. It was absolute total mental harassment!
try earplugs and ask them when they expect to finish – if too long just move out, nothing else you can really do”

“Unfortunately, if it’s during working hours, there’s nothing you can do”

“I recently was confronted with the same problem (except that it hasn’t been 4 months yet, just 3 weeks). To understand the scale and timeline of the renovation, I went to the apartment that is being renovated. Based on local law, there should be a paper on the door of that apartment that provides basic information about the project and also contact information of the owner/renovator. I contacted them (because only the construction team was in the apartment) and asked about the timeline/scale. This was useful for me as I now know what to do, i.e., move out or not. I agree that this type of renovation is ridiculous. Good luck.”

In summary, it is normal to live in a city and undergo renovations, they also stated that it’s not possible to do much if the work hours are during the normal working hours (8 am to 6 pm) and that a full renovation usually takes more than 4 months. One answer suggest to understand the scale and timeline of the renovation, by going to the apartment, if the renovation is for too long and not acceptable consider moving out.

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