A resident who says his life has been made “a living hell” due to the noise from his neighbours has won a six-year battle against his housing association.

Jose Bolou, of Brennan Mews off Buckland Road, Maidstone, said he had been “driven to breaking point” by the sound carrying from the properties either side of his and blamed poor soundproofing when the building was constructed.

The shared ownership tenant said a cavity in his wall amplified sounds “like a drum” and said when he heard the telephone ring, he would look to answer it, only to realise that it was his neighbour’s.

The 60-year-old first complained to Orbit in 2017, but after six years of pleading with them to take action, he was told there was no evidence to support his case.

Convinced the property was not constructed to the correct building standards, Mr Bolou, a qualified civil engineer, wrote to the builder, Wealden Homes, demanding answers, but they no longer had the records.

As part of his own investigation, Mr Bolou carved out an inspection chamber in one of his walls and discovered it had not been built to the appropriate ‘Robust Detail’ standard, meaning a sound check should have taken place.

In 2017, a senior Orbit inspector agreed and recommended one was carried out to ascertain whether the property was sufficiently sound-proofed.

However, no such test was carried out. Instead, Orbit wrote to say that since the builder had assured them that the appropriate standards had been met and that since Mr Bolou was the only one of the 10 households in the two blocks of properties in Brennan Mews to complain, they were taking no further action.

He said: “My life became a living hell. The noise just drove me crazy.

“I couldn’t sleep properly and I just felt angry the whole time.”

Mr Bolou even suffered a minor heart attack which he attributes to the stress.

He said: “It got to the point where I really didn't want to go home, and I stay away a lot of the time now.”

It has also caused him to fall out with his neighbours.

In December 2021, following a visit from an Orbit director who concluded he did not know whether the wall would or would not pass a sound test, Mr Bolou’s complaint was rejected again “due to a lack of evidence”.

Frustrated, he contacted the Housing Ombudsman for help.

One year and seven months later, the watchdog ruled there was “maladministration” in handling the complaint and that Orbit should carry out an acoustic test within four weeks.

It concluded Orbit had not taken any steps to fully understand the nature of the noise being complained of or its effect on Mr Bolou.

Its report found there was no evidence any member of staff attended the property at an early stage to consider the noise first-hand and that, when Orbit’s senior officer has confirmed the wall did not meet the appropriate building standard, no acoustic test had been carried out.

The Ombudsman said that would have been “the reasonable action to take”, but it still didn’t happen.

He said Orbit had missed an opportunity to resolve Mr Bolou’s concern at a modest cost.

As Orbit had not sought to test the sound levels, it was “not reasonable to conclude that there was a lack of evidence” to support the complaint.

As well as carrying out urgent sound tests, the Ombudsman also ordered the housing association to apologise to Mr Bolou and pay him £650 in compensation for its failures.

Mr Bolou said: “It feels like I have been fighting, fighting and fighting over this for years, but Orbit kept ignoring me and sweeping everything under the carpet.”

“At last I am being listened to.”

Both Orbit and Wealden Homes have been contacted for comment.