Factsheet 5 - Good Neighbour Protocols

Overview

This Good Neighbour Protocols factsheet outlines ways to act as a responsible neighbour in a highdensity environment, including management of noise, privacy and social connections. Many Australians accustomed to living in detached houses on larger blocks of land may find it confronting or difficult to live in shared proximity with others and may benefit from guidelines for living in high density environments. Such guidelines or education initiatives have been used in other places, such as those outlined in the Singaporean Report by the Workgroup on Promotion of Better Social Behaviour in Housing Estates [1], which suggests various measures (including mediation, penalties and awards) to encourage considerate neighbour behaviours.

Liveability benefits of improved neighbour behaviours and interactions include:

reduced noise transference between neighbours’ dwellings,
increased social relationships if desired,
improved respect for privacy.

“Social responsibility, respect for others and appropriate community behaviour are fundamental requirements of a thriving and successful community.” [2]

What our findings revealed

Neighbour Considerations and Social Adaptations
Being aware of Noise Transference between Neighbours’ Dwellings
Other Cultural Contexts
Bylaws to Guide Neighbour Behaviour
Respect Neighbour Privacy

Neighbour considerations and social adaptations
Some residents in the QUT High‐Density Liveability Study engaged in social adaptation and reciprocity in high‐density dwellings, by monitoring their own behaviour (e.g. noise generated) and being tolerant of particular neighbour behaviour such as routine, expected noises.

I think we’ve kind of, each of us have just realised, look this is the way that it is and we just have to be a bit considerate. I mean I have been lucky, I don’t have a party animal living upstairs who likes to have music blaring and his mates around every Saturday night to watch the footy. So the people that have been upstairs, previously there was an older person and then more recently a younger couple. I actually said to them can you hear my TV and they said yeah, can you hear us talking? And I said, look you know, I think that’s just the way it is and we just have to live with it. And they said ‘yeah’.

Limited tolerance was displayed for particular neighbour behaviours that were not deemed as ‘acceptable’. Examples of unacceptable behaviour included generating noise early in the morning or late at night (e.g. loud music or television, arguments, greeting visitors), loudly exiting and entering building (e.g. slamming doors, heavy footsteps), pet noise and disregard for allotted car‐parking spaces. Residents discussed how a certain level of consideration for others was required in highdensity areas.

Every couple of weeks he has his mates come around and they have a three‐piece jam session. And one guy turns up with a drum kit [laughs]. He plays the electric guitar and the other fellow plays the bass. And I’ve got to tell you it drives me nuts… I think wherever you are, someone who is that inconsiderate would always cause a problem. He’s doing something that you’re not really meant to do in a built up environment.

If you want that noise and you want to listen to your sub‐woofer, get the hell out in the country somewhere, don’t do it here because you’ve got a lot of people. I love the loud music whether it’s rock or be a symphony but you have to consider the people around you.

[My neighbours had] jam sessions that start at about eleven o’clock at night on a Monday night and you just think, like how can you sit there playing the bongos and the didgeridoo and not think about the fact that there’s all these people around you?

Being aware of noise transference between neighbours
It is important for neighbours to be aware of noise transference and how the noise they make travels within the building. Personal one‐on‐one interviews revealed that some residents were not aware how the noise they generated (both structure‐borne and air‐borne) reverberated through the building.

… due to our spot here we’ve had a couple of noise complaints here even though it’s just been the three of us at home listening to music. So I guess the sound might travel a bit downstairs.

I can’t hear the people directly across the corridor. Because the outside wall of my unit and the outside wall of the unit above me, is solid cement. So there’s no noise transference but there’s only timber floor between myself and the people above. So they can hear my TV if I have it too loud and I can hear them walking around because of their feet on the floor.

The girl who lives this side is wonderful. She works from home. …But she is just obsessive about noise... And a couple of times she has complained to us that she can hear noise. Like these floorboards carry noise so she hears things like when we put the cat food out, you know how you shake the can, if it taps on the floor she can hear that and she’s complained about that. A few little things like that… And we just work around it. She hates the chairs scraping. She gave us felt to put on the bottom of the chairs so they don’t scrape when they go in and out.

The quote above illustrates how amicably discussing concerns with neighbours can help resolve the issue or complaint. Residents may be willing to adjust their behaviour to a certain extent to maintain good neighbour relations.

Other cultural contexts
Australians who are accustomed to living in spacious suburbs may find the transition to high‐density dwellings difficult and may need guidelines for living in such environments. Speaking of her experience overseas, one resident explained how being mindful of noise and considerate of others appeared to be part of an ‘in‐built consciousness’ in countries like Japan, where high density living has been a common dwelling configuration for decades.

I’m just trying to think back to when I was in Japan ... and what worked there. I think that because Japan has had this history of where people have had to live closely together, there’s an awful lot of inbuilt consciousness about that and consideration. I think that it will be interesting to see people who have grown up on big blocks and all of a sudden have to live closely together and how they’ll adapt to that. I think that sort of mentality has to be bred into you, you know. You have to think about the neighbours next door playing that sort of music and you know, things like tipping water over the balcony and stuff that we might do without thinking about it but really affects, people underneath you.

Bylaws to guide neighbour behaviour
In contexts where an ‘in‐built consciousness’ to be quiet in high density areas does not exist, it may be necessary to have rules and regulations to guide behaviour. Some buildings stipulate regulations regarding tenant behaviour in their bylaws.

Internal noise, we have regulation bylaws, about internal noise. For example in summer all through the year, we make sure that, no one can use the swimming pools after 10 o’clock at night and before 6 am, I think or something like that. By and large our bylaws have recently been effective in controlling that sort of noise. So we don’t normally have problems with loud speakers, hi‐fi sets, doors open and keeping all the neighbours awake.

Yet some residents believed this should be more publicly available so residents are aware of the rules that exist.

One thing that we’ve had that we struggled with, just in our little ‘ten pack’, is conveying the body corporate laws to the people moving in because we don’t have a communal notice board. Perhaps that’s something that we should look at getting because we did have an issue with one of the tenants parking their car in the driveway and … you couldn’t negotiate with him. … So I guess that’s the sort of one area where there’s community notices or something helps to keep people informed of what’s going on.

There was even the suggestion that residents sign a copy of the buildings bylaws so they were aware of the restrictions and accountable for their actions.

Every complex has its bylaws. Theoretically when you get your contract to the building, you get a copy of the bylaws and you read through them but there’s nothing in there that you have to sign to say that you’re going to abide by them. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea if people actually did sign something to say I’m not…going to annoy people. Because it is a different living style and you have to be a little bit rigid and not as free, perhaps as your own home.

Respect neighbour privacy
Another consideration for being a good neighbour in high‐density dwellings is respecting the privacy and ‘social space’ of neighbours. Privacy was highly valued by residents and some felt that living in proximity with others in a high density complex did not need to involve making friends with neighbours. Our findings suggest that living in close proximity in high density housing may, for some people at least, heighten the need for privacy.

We’ve still got the friends we used to have and [we have] not necessarily made friends in the building just because [we live] there.

...[E]specially with apartment living ...you are that much closer, [but] with a house you have a bit more space between you and your neighbour so that [there are fewer] noises and ... everything’s not so close and you don’t know so much about [your neighbours]. Whereas [in] apartment living, it can be really quite intimate at times. You can hear fighting, you can hear ... bathroom sounds and all that sort of stuff.

Recommended Guidelines

The following table presents practical suggestions for Residents, Building Managers, Designers and Developers for managing neighbour interactions in the dwelling.

Further Information

Your Home Technical Manual – Apartments and Multi‐Unit Housing
http://www.yourhome.gov.au/technical/fs412.html

Department of Housing: Design Principles – Private versus public
http://www.housing.qld.gov.au/design/standards/private_public.htm

Department of Housing: Affordable Housing Guidelines
http://www.qchc.asn.au/Portals/0/Uploads/Affordable%20Housing/aff_hsg_des_
guidelines.pdf

The Housing Development Board of Singapore Guidebook ‘My Neighbour, My Friend, It Begins With Me’
This may be useful as a guide for bodies corporate wanting to draft their own version of good neighbour protocols for their high density complex.
http://www100.hdb.gov.sg/GoodNeighbour/HDB‐GN‐EC2.pdf

References

Singapore Ministry of National Development, Report by the Workgroup on Promotion of Better Social Behaviour in Housing Development Board Estates, 2009. [citied 5 June 2009]; Available from:
http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10297p.nsf/ImageView/REPORT/$file/Report
+on+Pro motion+of+Better+Social+Behaviour.pdf
Safer Halton Partnership, Promoting Positive Behaviour – Halton’s Anti‐Social Behaviour Strategy 2007‐2009. [cited 23 September 2009]; Available from:
http://councillors.halton.gov.uk/Published/C00000292/M00001754/AI0000
4266/$An tiSocialBehaviourStrategyAppendix.docA.ps.pdf