City trader in £2m f lat sues family above for being ‘too noisy’
A CITY trader living in a £2million flat is suing her neighbours for making ‘intolerable’ noise and ruining her peace.
Sarvenaz Fouladi claims Ahmed and Sarah El Kerrami held late-night parties while their three children treated the home like a ‘playground’ during the day.
The 38-year-old hedge fund trader, of Kensington, west London, claimed her social life and work had suffered from her lack of sleep. She said she had to eat chocolate in the morning to stay awake.
But Mr and Mrs El Kerrami’s lawyer said she was being ‘hypersensitive’ to normal family noises and her complaints were ‘completely unfounded’.
Miss Fouladi said she had lived there for years with her mother, Fereshent Salamat, without any noise from the flat above.
She said this changed when Mr and Mrs El Kerrami moved in in 2010 after a renovation.
Since then, Miss Fouladi said sounds from the boiler, the fridge, taps and the fireplace above began to disturb her at all hours. She claimed that at the time, the family had young children who made a lot of noise.
She said: ‘They used it like a playground, kids running and dropping things for seven hours non- stop. I just want to live my life in peace. It’s my home. It’s where people go for peace and quiet. The noises that come down are intolerable.’
Mr and Mrs El Kerrami’s barrister, Gordon Wignall, said all she had heard is the sound of ‘ ordinary folk doing ordinary things’.
‘The sounds of the kids playing upstairs are simply ordinary domestic child noises from time to time,’ he told Central London County Court.
‘They have only ever lived a sober and normal lifestyle with young children they care for during the day,’ he said. Mr Wignall claimed Miss Fouladi and her mother had ‘pestered’ porters in the block with complaints about their neighbours. ‘I hesitate to use the word “unhinged”, but this sort of accusation has the impression of being completely irrational,’ he said.
A neighbour of the Kerrami family added she had ‘never’ heard the children. Mr and Mrs El Kerrami offered to settle the dispute by doing work to improve sound insulation but Miss Fouladi declined. She wants damages and comprehensive steps taken to solve the alleged noise problem.
She is suing the parents for ‘nuisance’ and is also claiming against the overseas company that owns her neighbours’ flat as well as the freehold owner of the block.
The El Kerrami family and both companies deny her claims. The hearing continues.