Things that go bump, crash, bump, crash, boom, bang, creak, in the night - and during the day - can be a feature of apartment living. Domestic arguments, dodgy plumbing, budding musicians, TVs on high volume, all night parties and chairs being dragged across wooden floors are only some of the potential sources of apartment block noise.

For anyone considering apartment life, they should be aware that a certain amount of noise is unavoidable. Flushing toilets, ringing telephones and raised voices can be part of the territory.

"Noise is a huge issue," says Enda McDonnell of RF Property Management, "some people are not suited to apartment living. You are very close to other people. I lived in an apartment myself for two years and had a problem with loud music coming from downstairs. The bass reverberated through the block, floor after floor."

He has come across some cases in the line of his work where over-zealous musicians hit all the wrong notes with their neighbours - like a dedicated saxophonist who "practised for two hours up and down the scales every night," and a drummer who played late into the night.

As noise problems go, however, loud music and all-night parties can be among the more straightforward to deal with.

Usually the first course of action would be to approach the offender and ask them to stop. If relations are strained or the problem persists then it could be easier to ask the management company to deal with the situation on your behalf. "Often excessive noise comes from rented apartments. Usually the landlord will have a chat with the people involved and it rarely goes beyond that," says Enda McDonnell.

If a friendly chat doesn't work, there is legal recourse. Most leases have covenants which forbid residents to play loud music. For example, a covenant of a lease for an apartment block in Burgh Quay, Dublin 2, states that "The lessee shall not play or allow to be played any musical instrument, television, radio, loudspeaker, mechanical or other noise making instrument of any kind nor shall any singing be practised in the demised premises or in the balcony thereof at any time so as to cause annoyance to the owners, licensees and occupiers of any of the other apartments or commercial units in the building or so as to be audible outside the demised premises between the hours 12 midnight and 9 a.m."

Bringing the matter to court is usually the last resort, "I find if it is followed up personally and persistently then you achieve some results. If you are looking at a court case then a resident can go on playing the drums every night until the court date," says McDonnell.

Some cases are not so clear cut. A reader recently contacted Apartment Living about the constant pounding of footsteps on the wooden floor in the apartment above which she said "sometimes sound like a performance of Riverdance. The apartment above is the same layout as mine and I can tell what the owner is doing day and night by the sound of her footsteps. The noise is particularly bad if she wears heavy shoes. It gets worse if she has people round late at night and you can hear them dragging chairs and walking about. She sometimes comes in at 4am or later and I often have very little or disrupted sleep. When I moved in six years ago the lease specifically stated that wooden floors were not allowed."

In cases like this the first step would be to ask the management company to investigate whether the floor was installed using approved materials. If the floors have not been adequately soundproofed, an apartment owner can be ordered to take it up or have it relaid. If the management company neglected to specify the correct materials then they could be liable.

According to Rob Cussen, assistant solicitor, Brophy Solicitors, if a person moved into a block on the basis that wooden floors were not allowed, they may have a case against the management company if a change in the convenant means that the quiet enjoyment of a property has been interfered with.

"It may also be a good idea to get a sound engineer to carry out tests and make a report. This could perhaps be backed up with an auctioneer's report which might testify that the property would have been worth a certain amount but has dropped X amount of pounds because of the noise."

Most blocks are only as good as the management companies who run them and the most effective ones tend to keep an open line of communication with residents. An owner of an apartment in a Dublin 6 development said the management company recently issued a summary of lease terms to all owners. "This seems to have had the desired effect. We have advised all owners again about wooden floors, and we would be prepared to take legal action if these floors cause noise, either by dragging furniture or loud foot-steps. Noise is not confined to immediately overhead or next door. It tends to reverberate throughout a small block."

Unrelenting noise can also come from outside the environs of the development. Pubs blaring loud music or constant drilling emanating from a nearby construction project are examples of this. Obviously noise is going to be more of an issue in the city centre but there is a possible course of action if noise is "so loud so continuous, so repeated and of such duration or pitch/occurring at such times as to give reasonable cause for annoyance".

A noise nuisance complaint can be brought to the District Court under section 108(3) of the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992. It costs £10, and the summons office is at the Dublin Metropolitan Court. The attendant gives a court hearing date which is usually three to four weeks after the complaint is made.

The court may then order the person or body "making, causing or responsible for the noise to take the measures necessary to reduce the noise to a specified level or to take the specific measure for the prevention or limitation of the noise."

The Dublin 6 apartment-dweller says that the development he lives in is two-thirds owner-occupied where owners "are considerate towards their fellow residents" but they've had a few noisy party-problems.

"Luckily, when this has been reported the landlords of the rented apartment in question have acted on it. We have a note on the notice-board in common areas warning people about noise and advising them that parties are inappropriate, even at weekends."