Man claims he was forced to sleep on living room floor for two years due to raving gran
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A man claims he was forced to sleep on the living room floor for two years because of his raving gran neighbour.
Dominic Hyde, from Brixton, says it has been a nightmare living below Heather Akinwunmi for the past decade.
While he and his family were on good terms with the neighbour for a while, things tuned sour when she allegedly began blasting out 'bass-heavy 90s dance music' from her flat to 'punish' them.
The 57-year-old, who lives in a converted Victorian house, says it's been a 'living hell'.
And it's got so bad that Mr Hyde says he had no other choice but to sleep on a mattress in the living room to escape the noise.
He has now taken Ms Akinwunmi to court, demanding that she be banned from causing a noise nuisance, and £30,000 in damages.
During a hearing at Central London County Court, Mr Hyde said problems began when his neighbour accused his family of making her flat smell.
"If I'm not going to sleep, you're not going to sleep," Ms Akinwunmi was heard telling Mr Hyde in a video shown to the court from an argument they had at 2.00am one night.
One particularly painful incident in 2017, Mr Hyde says, saw his neighbour blast out music for two days straight while she wasn't there.
He said: "Music was played non-stop for 48 hours and she said she was doing it for revenge.
"Her logic was that she was saying we were putting smells through her floors.
"We weren't doing it at all and we couldn't convince her we weren't. We had no way of remedying this."
So fearful of more reprisals are Mr Hyde and his family, that they allegedly try and keep as quiet as possible.
"It has destroyed us," he told the court. "That's how we live. We live in silence.
"We want to be left alone and have a quiet life."
The family's barrister, George Woodhead, urged the court to take action, and save them from more 'harassment'.
"It has had a detrimental effect on their health and livelihoods beyond the disruption of sleep and everyday enjoyment of their flat," he said.
"They come to court desperate for a remedy which will give them peace and respite from her un-neighbourly and, at times, malicious conduct."
However, despite the allegations, Ms Akinwunmi said she never plays loud bass music.
She said: "I can't do anything without them complaining.
"I don't play that sort of music.
"I don't listen to songs like that. I listen to Capital, Choice and Heart FM.
"I don't accept that that music is coming from my flat.
"It's only the radio that plays, I don't play music in the night."
Her barrister, Elizabeth Fisher, said the Hydes were increasingly 'sensitive' towards noise coming from her client's flat.
"The animosity between the parties and heightened sense of emotions have further cultivated their sensitivity," she told the court.
A ruling on the case is yet to be made.
