Quiet Hours and Hot Water Supply

Dear all,

I am new here in Poland and would appreciate some help with the subject in caption.

I respect my neighbors' rights for a good night's sleep and, therefore, quiet hours between 10pm and 6am. My understanding, however, is that my family should be able to lead our lives that way we like so long as we do not create noises exceeding 55db at night. This means we should be able to have normal conversations, wash our dishes, and bathe after 10pm well into the early morning - although those may not be the usual hours others keep.

My neighbor complained about us bathing after 10pm and talking in the living room because "the walls are thin". While I empathize with her, that is a design flaw of the building and it should not infringe on my rights to stay up at night. I definitely do not run my vacuum cleaner or turn on loud music after 10pm and I have checked that what we do (apart from shower, maybe, assuming it echos in the shower stall) should not create noises above the legal limit of 55db (mostly within 50db actually). Being new to the country, I would like to check if I am missing anything here. I have lived in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Dubai for extended periods and never had similar problems before.

Also, is it normal to have hot water shut off after 10pm? This is making life miserable as we go into the freezing winter. My landlord (who owns all the units in the building) told me that is the norm because leaving it on 24/7 would spoil the water pump. Again, this is new to me as I have never had similar experience in other countries.

Your input would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,
Newbie

I don't know how it is with the blocks as I live in a house all my life, however I doubt if normal speaking may cause problems (in sense of law). I never had such problems - I live in the village, neighbours do not have problems with themselves. When a neighbour's son came from the conscription they made a party - we could not sleep, no one could, but everyone understood that and didn't make any problems to them. However, mentality in different parts of Poland may vary as well.

:( Where's this? Which town? Sounds very harsh.

If I were you, I'd find another place asap. Your landlord is a skinflint and bs artist, and your block sounds like it's made of cardboard. Move soon and enjoy your family.

The quiet hours are as you say.


I have never heard of this before.


Agreed. You should look for somewhere else immediately.

Newbie where are you from ?

Thank you, everyone, for the input! This is very helpful.

I am from Asia but have been living and working overseas half of my life.

Cheers!

BTW, this is in Gdansk.

Thanks again!

Then you should have little trouble finding a better apartment, which seems to be your only option.

These people are messing you around and what they're doing isn't normal. In your rental agreement there should be a notice period (okres wypowiedzenia), usually a month, maybe 2 in rare cases. You should give notice, explaining that you want a flat where they don't mess around with the water supply or expect you to tiptoe around.


He is lying to you. I've rented 7 flats in Poland, arranged rentals for other people and rent one out now and have never ever heard of anything like this.

+1, yea leave.

That no hot water after 10pm is nonsense and your neighbour sounds like a gowl.

Thank you, guys!

There is indeed a break lease clause with 1 month's notice but that comes with a penalty of 2 months' rent.

It is one of those fully renovated pre-war buildings which look very quaint on the outside and the inside of the apartment fully modernized. We chose it because it is in the neighborhood we wanted to be in.

Some of big cooperatives set computers to reduce hot water temperature in the night (from 23oo to 4oo) but no one dare to turn the pumps off even that the electricity savings would be sizeable.