A Seoul court said Wednesday that it had rejected a request for an injunction from an apartment resident to stop his neighbor upstairs from making noise, citing the age of the building.
According to the Seoul Central District Court, the complainant, who lives on the 12th floor of an apartment building in Seoul, has been in a noise dispute with a neighbor on the 13th floor since 2011. Their apartment complex was built in March 1984.
The complainant claimed that he was often blackmailed by his upstairs neighbor after he initially complained, saying he sometimes visited the accuser’s apartment to threaten him, without apologizing for the noise.
In one claimed example of intimidation, the neighbor was found to have kicked the complainant’s front door and reportedly threatened to kill his family.
The court, however, downplayed the possibility that the person on the 13th floor was intentionally causing noise that could hamper the ordinary residential life of the accuser “when the construction year and structure of the apartment are taken into consideration.”
The court appears to have taken into account that buildings of that age are relatively vulnerable to noise problems.
But the judge ordered the 13th-floor neighbor not to visit the accuser’s apartment any more, raising concerns that their dispute could worsen.
About two-thirds of people in and around Seoul are thought to live in apartments or multi-housing buildings.
Noise disputes among disgruntled neighbors are rising sharply, according to the court and the noise consultation center.
By Kim Yon-se ()
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
