A PR boss is suing his neighbour over claims she is a dance music-loving grandmother who has made his life a “living hell” with a decade-long campaign of noise nuisance and harassment.
Dominic Hyde, 57, says next-door neighbour Heather Akinwunmi uses “bass-heavy 90s dance music” as a weapon to “punish” him and his family.
He told Central London county court the noise has driven him out of his bedroom, and he now sleeps on a mattress in the living room of his £750,000 home in Brixton, south London.
Mr Hyde, a father-of-two, blames Ms Akinwunmi for “long periods of sleep deprivation”, and claims he and his wife have also been kept awake by their neighbour using her washing machine at night and “deliberately” dropping heavy items on the floorboards.
Ms Akinwunmi, however, is fighting the harassment and nuisance accusations, denying the pounding dance music is hers as she enjoys only gentler music on radio stations Capital, Choice and Heart.
She accuses the Hydes of being overly “sensitive” to the noise of everyday life in a Victorian building with poor sound insulation, saying she “can’t do anything without them complaining”.
In his evidence, Mr Hyde said they had initially been on good terms with their upstairs neighbour, but over time “things changed” when she blamed them for unpleasant smells entering her flat.
He said their life had become a “nightmare” and a “living hell” thanks to alleged behaviour stretching over more than ten years.
The court was played more than a dozen video clips taken by Mr Hyde as examples of the noise he says the family have to cope with.
He claimed Ms Akinwunmi once put on dance music at 2am before going outside and sitting on a wall opposite with her dog. In the ensuing row, she blamed him for smells and allegedly said: “If I’m not going to sleep, you’re not going to sleep.”
Mr Hyde claimed on another occasion in 2017 she put on music before going out, and did not return for two days.
The businessman said his family has resorted to “tip-toeing” around their flat and living “like monks” to avoid triggering a response from their neighbour.
“It has destroyed us. That’s how we live. We live in silence,” he said, adding: “We want to be left alone and have a quiet life.”
The Hydes are seeking a court order banning Ms Akinwunmi from causing them noise nuisance, plus £30,000 in damages.
Giving evidence, Ms Akinwunmi blamed noise transmission on woeful sound insulation from the local council’s conversion of the flats in the 1970s.
The homes are separated only by floorboards, joists and a single sheet of plasterboard ceiling, and experts agree the sound insulation is terrible with one describing it as like “living in a drum.”
Ms Akinwunmi accused her neighbours are being overly “sensitive” to noise, and added: “I can’t do anything without them complaining.”
Facing with one of Mr Hyde’s videos featuring thumping dance music, she denied being to blame.
“I don’t play that sort of music”, she said. “I don’t listen to songs like that. I listen to Capital, Choice and Heart FM.
Her barrister, Elizabeth Fisher, accepted there was “clear animosity” between the neighbours and suggested Ms Akinwunmi had felt “intimidated” at times by Mr Hyde.
“Whatever noise is heard, Mr and Mrs Hyde will immediately look to blame her, rather than looking at the matter objectively”, she said.
A judge will deliver his ruling on the case at a later date.
