in order to find out what the offending noise is could you politely post a little note in all your neighbours letterboxes or under the doors along the lines of.

"dear neighbours, someone complained recently that we were making noise but did not describe the noise specifically, we want to have the best of relationships with our neighbours and were hoping that if anyone is annoyed by our excessive noise they could just let us know exactly what it is so we can do our best to stop it. Feel free to drop by for a coffee to discuss or just pop an anonymous note into our letter box if you prefer"

otherwise you could also maybe suggest a little intro apero at yours the following week also, so that you can meet everyone??
While i do agree for standing up for yourself if you are being bullied, maybe find out what is the problem first. having good neighbours is definitely worth not jumping the gun for.

Under no circumstances would I do any of this. You immediately raise the possibility that you are somehow to blame and there is nothing more such people like to do than kick someone when they're down.

As stated above, get a polite letter written to the agency refuting all allegations.

Cheers,
Nick

Thanks for the all the replies.

Yesterday, we contacted the agency and asked them about this letter. What we were told made no sense at all. The neighbour who complained apparantly said that there was a child making noise and that we were very noisy late at night.

We don't have any children and we go to bed at 10pm each night, and as already stated make very little noise.

The agency was understanding and agreed that we are polite and considerate people and that the neighbour probably has reported the wrong people.

Given the fact that my building is fairly quiet, it concerns me that someone picked us out and accused us of this.

My question now is, should I put anything in writing (in an email for example) to the agency to have on record that we are not at fault (and couldn't be given we have no children) and that this has been accepted by the agency?

Is it better to do nothing now, show no further concern and let sleeping dogs lie? Or perhaps, should we contact the agency in a few days and ask if they spoke with the neighbour and cleared the matter up?

Having false accusations made against you leads one to feel vunerable. My fear is that what if this person makes something else up about us again and we have no official record to show the ridiculous complaint that was made before. I have never heard any children making excessive noise in my building so this sounds pretty fabricated to me as complaints go.

Standard procedure would be to send the same 'you are making too much noise' letter to everyone in the building.

Don't take it personally. You are not being harrassed. So someone was disturbed by noise, it was not you...end of story...

I agree you should not take it personally. It's not easy to figure out who is making the noise. I would most definitely write a letter stating that you deny this is you. Send it via regular post and send it registered.

If you don't reply formal and it happens again they might just think you ignored the warning or something.

If you want to be truly formal, you should probably talk to the tenant's association and see exactly what to write (if they agree of course).

Sounds to me as if the neighbours below can hear the noise from the (noisier) neighbours above, and presumed it was you. Seeing, as you say, you live in an older building, this wouldn't be unlikely.

I read as "child-making" first

So a child that makes noise in an apartment would be a reason to be in breach and have official complaints against you? If this is true it is very sad for society. If flats are not sufficiently sound proof, the problem lies with the building not with the child. Crying babies are not like a radio that you can turn off.

The first flat sounds like a nightmare - how come the problems spread to the street? Were any of the complaints justified?

And I'm most intrigued about the 'elevator incident' - what was that over?

Lucklity - touch wood, cross fingers - have so far not had any problems with neighbours. Got a few stories from living back in France though...

Finally, for the OP personally I would send a registered letter to the agency confirming what you said by 'phone to refute the allegations. Otherwise, I agree with the others who say stand your ground but be polite / as much beyond reproach as possible.