Given 'abatement notice' for noise - but haven't been in property for a few weeks

[Willeh]

Hello,

 

Thank you for clicking and giving this a read.

 

Apologies in advance if this is in the wrong forum: it was a toss up between this one and the renting one.

 

I am not able to get in touch with my local city council until Monday but I would just like some reassurance in the interim.

 

For the past few weeks - since the end of March, we have been temporarily living in an AirBnB rental in London for a work placement. We returned home today for a few hours to check post, water plants etc, and to our surprise we had received two letters - the first dated mid-April and the second dated two days ago, with regards to excessive noise (from an amplified speaker) coming from our flat in the afternoons on these two occasions; the second letter was accompanied by the abatement notice.

 

Our flat is in a building of three flats in total. The building itself is right in the city centre, surrounded by other commercial and residential buildings. We rent our flat and we have not sublet any part of it out.

 

We are able to provide an extensive range of evidence to prove that we have been away for all of this time - and most certainly on the two days that the complaints have been logged and witnessed: from our AirBnB rental receipts to statements from work, heck even oyster transactions on the tube and our phone GPS logs.

 

It's an annoying amount of extra effort but I am going to whole heartedly appeal this abatement notice come Monday morning. I can see though that the process of appealing requires a magistrates hearing which is slightly daunting.

 

For both the feeling of having done something about it today, as well as for our reassurance: could this in any way go wrong? Our array of evidence is water-tight, however the letters from the city council claim that the excessive noise has been "witnessed" by them?

 

Thanks again.

[SabreSheep]

Stupid question

Do you know if anyone else has access to your flat?

[Willeh]

Thanks for your reply SabreSheep.

 

Apart from the landlord / lettings people, no one else has access.

We have all of the spare keys with us - nothing under a doormat etc.

We briefly entertained the idea of regular break-ins but locks did not seem tampered with, nothing seemed used or out of place etc.

 

I am eager to learn what evidence the council / environmental dept. has, as the use of the term "witnessed" suggests they turned up in person and heard it coming from our flat.

 

I guess I am trying to find the balance between preparing for the worst and not over-thinking, but my only concern is having to go for a magistrates hearing for an issue we were not even present for, as well as the council being resistant despite all of our evidence - which I will mention tomorrow. Still being 2 hours away because of this work placement certainly does not help things!