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A public relations boss is suing her neighbor for claiming she’s a dance music-loving grandmother who made her life a “living hell” with a decade-long campaign of nagging and harassment.
Dominic Hyde, 57, says neighbor Heather Akinwunmi uses “90s bass-heavy dance music” as a weapon to “punish” him and his family.
He told Central London County Court the noise drove him out of his bedroom and he is now sleeping 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 says he and his wife were also kept awake by their neighbor who used the washing machine at night and ‘deliberately’ dropped items heavy floorboards.
Ms Akinwunmi, however, is fighting harassment and harassment allegations, denying the thumping dance music is hers as she only likes more mellow music on Capital, Choice and Heart radio stations.
He accuses the Hydes of being overly “sensitive” to the noise of daily life in a poorly sound-insulated Victorian building, saying he “can’t do anything without them complaining”.
In his testimony, Mr Hyde said they had initially been on good terms with their upstairs neighbour, but over time “things changed” when she blamed them for the unpleasant smells entering her flat.
She said their life had become a “nightmare” and a “living hell” thanks to alleged behaviors that had lasted for more than a decade.
More than a dozen video clips taken by Mr Hyde as examples of the noise he says the family faces were played in court.
She said Ms. Akinwunmi once put on dance music at 2am before going out and sitting on a opposite wall with her dog. In the ensuing row, she blamed him for the smells and she allegedly said, “If I don’t go to sleep, you won’t sleep.”
Mr Hyde claimed on another occasion in 2017 that she put on some music before going out and didn’t return for two days.
The businessman said his family resorted to “tiptoeing” in their apartment and living “like monks” to avoid triggering a response from the neighbour.
“It destroyed us. This is how we live. We live in silence,” she 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 acoustic nuisance, as well as £30,000 in damages.
Providing evidence, Ms Akinwunmi attributed the noise transmission to the deplorable sound insulation due to the conversion of the flats by the local council in the 1970s.
The houses are separated only by floorboards, joists and a single sheet of plasterboard ceiling, and experts agree that the soundproofing is terrible with one describing it as ‘living in a drum’.
Ms Akinwunmi accused her neighbors of being overly “sensitive” to noise and added, “I can’t do anything without them complaining.”
Confronted with one of Mr Hyde’s videos featuring thumping dance music, he denied being guilty.
“I don’t play that kind of music,” he said. “I don’t listen to songs like that. I listen to Capital, Choice and Heart FM.
Her solicitor, Elizabeth Fisher, admitted there was “clear animosity” between the neighbors and suggested that Ms Akinwunmi had felt “intimidated” by Mr Hyde at times.
“Any noise that is heard, Mr and Mrs Hyde will immediately try to blame it, rather than looking at the matter objectively,” he said.
A judge will issue his ruling on the case at a later date.
