From arbitration to woofers of vengeance, Koreans find ways to deal with noisy neighbors

Over 75 percent of Koreans live in co-residential buildings with walls less than 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) wide, separating them from people living upstairs, downstairs and next door. Noises between units often distress tenants and home owners.

An illustrative image shows a footstep causing noise which can be delivered to neighbors living downstairs in co-residential buildings. [JOONGANG PHOTO]

A family living in an apartment in eastern Gyeonggi posted a memo on the door of neighbors living upstairs last year, asking them to be "mindful about noises particularly early in the morning and night.” The next day, the neighbor apologized and gave them a fruit box.

“However, the baby’s stomping from the upstairs unit has never stopped,” a 27-year-old woman told the Korea JoongAng Daily last month, adding that melons and an apology could not compensate for the noise.

Her struggle with inter-floor noises is not rare in Korea.

Over 75 percent of Koreans live in co-residential buildings with concrete-mixed walls less than 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) wide, separating them from people living upstairs, downstairs and next door.

According to Statistics Korea, 36,097,766 people lived in apartments, officetels (studio apartments) and multi-house villas last year, meaning they all shared walls at home with their neighbors.

Everyday noises, such as footsteps, sounds of washers, or domestic quarrels, often distress and irritate neighbors day and night.

Incomplete legal protections

Last year, the Seoul Central District Court sided with apartment unit owners in a damages liability suit in which a construction company was sued to cover 70 percent of the repair costs for installing soundproof floor panels, which were expected to cost 4 billion won ($2.9 million). The suit came after residents at the apartment in northern Seoul's Jungnang District suffered from endless inter-floor noise. The noise prompted the residents to conduct a third-party assessment of the building's structure, which found the construction faulty.

As complaints of noises in residential buildings surfaced nationwide, the government has been reinforcing stricter construction policies to make them soundproof. Yet, grey areas remain.

Last November, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it would authorize construction completions only when new residential buildings pass the sound qualification test. Otherwise, it said it would mandate the builders to do additional repair work until they satisfy the criteria.

Employees from Hyundai Engineering and Construction conduct soundproof test with a device. [HYUNDAI ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION]

A state construction regulation stipulates that indoor noise should remain below 45 decibels when all windows and doors are closed. The sound threshold is analogous to noise from refrigerators — around 40 decibels.

Although November's measure would be more legally binding than its precedent regulations, a Land Ministry official told the Korea JoongAng Daily last month that it is “unknown when the new policy will be implemented.” He noted that there are “no actual changes in the governing rules at the moment."

It left millions of residents — who will be moving into recently built or living in already-supplied homes — unprotected.

The ministry has been funding households that install soundproof carpets or mats. However, financial assistance is not universal because only low-income families are eligible, and noise-creating households should acknowledge that they are making such noise.

When asked if the ministry is planning measures to help distressed people make noisy neighbors install sound-absorbing carpets and panels, the official said such policies “would be impossible.” He said, “Future policies and supports would be limited to residents of units where sound-insulating equipment would be installed."

Noises between neighbors often persist unless the noisy households voluntarily put down soundproof carpets or move out.

Only so much state can do

Former Land Minister Won Hee-ryong, left, listens to an explanation about sound-absorbing mats at a state-supplied apartment in Seoul in August 2022. [YONHAP]

The statistics show that thousands of households seek help from the Center for Neighbors' Relations, a state-run mediatory agency specializing in noise between floors and walls. The center is operated by the Korea Environment Corporation and managed by the Ministry of Environment.

The number of yearly complaints filed to the center has increased fourfold over a decade, jumping from 8,795 in 2012 to 36,435 last year.

Upon receiving a complaint, the agency offers counseling and conducts on-site noise analysis. It measures the noise at the complainants' homes to check whether the impulse noise exceeds the threshold of 39 decibels in the daytime and 34 decibels at night — per the ministerial decree governing standards and scope of noises between floors and walls at co-residential buildings.

Yet, the center’s support appears to be limited as it does not provide any direct intervention in settling noise-induced conflict settlement between neighbors. The center stated that its service ends after completing the sound analysis on its website.

“Proactive means of providing damage relief is not a part of the center,” an official from the Environment Ministry told the Korea JoongAng Daily, noting such service is not the center’s responsibility. “Complainants should seek such relief through civil lawsuits or the ministry’s central environmental dispute mediation committee.”

Types and cases of noise between floors. [MINISTRY OF LAND, INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORT]

Another anonymous official from the Korea Environment Corporation told this paper that “providing sound assessment results to complainants who decide to take the case to the civil court is what the center could do to help them after the end of its service.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Government’s conflict settlement body said it received 113 settlement requests related to neighbors' noises in the last three years as of last month.

“Only five cases have undergone settlement, which resulted in three being solved and two unsettled,” said Cho, an official from the city government. He noted the difficulty in settling as “both households should agree to participate in arbitration.”

A large number of people usually do not respond to the city’s call for arbitration, and in such situations, the city has no other option but to close the case.

This explains the small number of settlements.

Even police face similar problems in resolving sound-related conflicts between neighbors.

A police officer told the Korea JoongAng Daily on the condition of anonymity that they simply instruct noisy households to be “careful.” He said, “Preventing noisemaking is hard as it occurs in private and personal spaces.”

Another police officer in Mapo District, western Seoul, said, “Even when police are sent to resolve noise conflicts between neighbors, we ask complainants to seek help at the center for neighbors' relations as the Environment Ministry holds oversight authority regarding noise between floors and walls.”

Don't get mad. Get even.

A so-called ″revenge speaker″ delivers sound to the upstairs unit. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Due to the lack of enforcement mechanisms to curb noisemaking, some people have taken matters into their own hands.

Lee Yu-gyeong, 29, who lives in an officetel in central Seoul, said she suffered for a year because of two neighbors who screamed at night, usually between midnight and 4 a.m.

She said she and her sister had to take stronger actions as their initial approaches of “asking them not to make such noises or gently knocking on walls" were ineffective.

“Later on, I had to shout back to the neighbor through the window, asking them to stop screaming at night,” Lee said, noting they had tested her patience. She added that she found peace when the duo finally moved out.

Others rely on loudspeakers for revenge, a tactic of an eye for an eye.

On the internet, some shared their “revenge experiences” of using loudspeakers or sound amplifiers attached to their ceilings or floors.

A domestically developed bone conduction speaker dubbed “Shakebone Speaker” has gained traction among people who suffer from noises from neighbors despite its cost — 187,900 won.

Nearly 230 people who bought the speaker from the e-commerce platform Coupang said they were “satisfied” with the product. Some wrote in the product review section that it “felt powerful to have speakers for retaliation” and that the speaker “made the noisy neighbors apologize.”

As of last week of August, 90 Shakebone Speakers had been traded in an online secondhand marketplace named Joonggonara this year, with most priced between 70,000 won and 130,000 won. The transaction list indicates a healthy demand for the speakers.

Taking things to extremes

A photo shows a woman kicking the door of her neighbor living upstairs who claimed that inter-floor noises bothered her. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

At worst, conflicts develop into death threats or crime-level revenge.

The Gwangju District Court ordered a 49-year-old man to pay 5 million won in fines after he was charged with coercing his neighbor. On Dec. 2 of last year, in an apartment building in Gwangju, he kicked an elevator multiple times and threatened the neighbor from upstairs by saying, "I will burn down everything." The investigation showed that the man engaged in such behavior because of inter-floor noise from above.

Lee, a grandfather of two children younger than elementary school age, told the Korea JoongAng Daily that his family was “threatened" by a neighbor living downstairs who accused them of making noise.

He claimed that the downstairs neighbor misunderstood that the noises created by Lee’s upstairs neighbor were from his 18-month-old granddaughter.

He said endless complaints and death threats from the downstairs neighbor prompted Lee to seek intervention from the apartment’s administration services and the Center for Neighbors’ Relations — which determined that the noises "were coming from the unit above Lee’s home.”

“The downstairs neighbor told my wife, ‘You saw murders happening between neighbors because of noise between floors, and you want me to make it happen to you?’” Lee said. He added that the neighbor also “installed a woofer speaker for revenge.”

Lee said the neighbor also “stalked” his family by tracking when they left home and returned.

The behavior of the downstairs neighbor made Lee’s family sue him and seek criminal prosecution.

According to court documents provided by Lee, the neighbor was sentenced to 10 months in prison with two years of probation and ordered to undergo 40 hours of education to prevent stalking. The court wrote, “The neighbor inflicted psychological damage on Lee’s family through various stalking crimes.”

“Ultimately, we could not tolerate the neighbor’s behavior any longer, so we moved out,” Lee said.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]