Complaining that the flat upstairs is loud is easy; saying how loud is over the line is not. In Korea the answer sits in one short instrument — the Rule on the Scope and Standards of Inter-Floor Noise in Apartment Housing. It has three articles, and every number lives in a single table. The notes under that table settle the point people get wrong most often.
1. Footsteps are capped at 39dB by day and 34dB at night. But that is a 1-minute average (equivalent level); the peak has its own pair, 57dB and 52dB.
2. One thud does not break it. Note 5 under the table — the peak counts as exceeded only where it is passed 3 or more times in one hour.
3. The Rule says only "shall endeavour". No fine is attached. What it gives you instead is a ladder of four steps.
Every number is in one table
Art. 1 names the parent provisions — the Rule is made under art. 21-2(3) of the Noise and Vibration Control Act and art. 20(5) of the Multi-Family Housing Management Act. It is a joint ordinance of the transport ministry and the environment ministry.
Art. 2 splits the scope in two. Item 1, direct impact noise — "noise arising from running, walking and like movements". Item 2, airborne noise — "noise arising from the use of televisions, audio equipment and the like". The two carry different limits.
| Type | How it is measured | Day 06:00-22:00 | Night 22:00-06:00 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct impact (running, walking) | 1-min equivalent level | 39dB | 34dB |
| Maximum level | 57dB | 52dB | |
| Airborne (TV, audio) | 5-min equivalent level | 45dB | 40dB |
The unit the table gives is dB(A). The day and night boundary is inside the table too — day from 06:00 to 22:00, night from 22:00 to 06:00. That is where the folk rule about being careful after ten at night comes from.
One thud does not break it
This is the most misread line in the whole Rule. Note 5 under the table, as written — "the maximum level (Lmax) shall be deemed to have exceeded the standard where it is exceeded three or more times within one hour."
So a single jump that registers 57dB is not, on its own, a breach. It takes three inside the same hour. Read the other way, the condition explains why "it keeps happening" is the part that matters — the provision is counting occurrences.
The equivalent levels carry note 4 — the 1-minute and 5-minute equivalent levels "shall be the highest of the values measured under note 3". Measure several times and the figure used is the maximum, not the mean. Note 3 in turn sends the method itself to the official test standards under art. 6(1)(ii) of the Act on the Testing and Inspection in the Environmental Field.
Older blocks get slack, and it was cut last year
Note 2 carves out older housing: blocks permitted under art. 11 of the Building Act, and blocks whose project was approved under art. 15 of the Housing Act before 30 June 2005. The carve-out reaches direct impact noise only.
The allowance appears twice — "until 31 December 2024, the standard under item 1 of the table above plus 5dB(A) applies, and from 1 January 2025, that standard plus 2dB(A)."
| Older blocks · direct impact | To 2024 | From 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| 1-min equivalent · day | 44dB | 41dB |
| 1-min equivalent · night | 39dB | 36dB |
| Maximum level · day | 62dB | 59dB |
The slack fell from 5dB to 2dB, so the daytime figure for an older block went from 44dB to 41dB — 3dB tighter. It has already happened and is still little known. Airborne noise gets no such addition: note 2 says "as regards the direct impact noise standard".
Running water is out; the flat next door is in
Art. 2 ends with a proviso — "provided that noise arising from water supply or drainage in bathrooms, toilets, utility rooms and the like is excluded." A flushing cistern at midnight and a washing machine draining are not inter-floor noise under this Rule.
The term widened in the other direction elsewhere. Art. 20(1) of the Multi-Family Housing Management Act defines it as noise "including noise between neighbouring units such as noise through walls (and noise between units positioned diagonally)". The bracket arrived with the 2023 amendment. The flat next door, and the one on the diagonal, both count.
The Rule stops at "shall endeavour"
Art. 3 is one sentence — occupants and users "shall endeavour to keep inter-floor noise arising in the housing at or below the standard in the table". Not "shall keep" but "shall endeavour to keep", and the Rule carries no penalty and no administrative fine. Art. 20(1) of the Act is built the same way: "shall endeavour not to cause harm".
So the figures are not a line that triggers punishment. They are the line a mediator or a court measures against. What actually moves is the ladder of four steps that art. 20 of the Act lays out.
| Step | Where | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tell the management body, ask for a recommendation | Act art. 20(2) |
| 2 | Apply to the inter-floor noise committee | Act art. 20(4), (7) |
| 3 | Housing management dispute mediation committee | Act art. 71 |
| 4 | Environmental dispute mediation committee | Environmental Dispute Mediation Act art. 4 |
At step 1 the management body "may carry out such investigation as is necessary, including checking inside the unit, to establish the facts" (art. 20(2), second sentence). And the household making the noise picks up a duty of its own — art. 20(3), it "shall cooperate with the measures and recommendation of the management body".
The committee at step 2 was once optional and is now mandatory above a certain size. The proviso to art. 20(7) sends the size to the Enforcement Decree, and Decree art. 21-2 fixes it at 700 households. Members must complete 4 hours of training a year under Decree art. 21-3(2).
Questions that remain
Is the upstairs neighbour punished for going over?
Not under this Rule — it has no penalty provision. Exceeding the standard is evidence for mediation and for a damages claim, not an offence in itself. Noise that escalates into assault or threats is a matter for the Criminal Act, not for this Rule.
Does a reading from a phone app count?
Note 3 sends the method to the official test standards under the Act on Testing and Inspection in the Environmental Field. An app reading can describe a situation, but it is not a figure that can be set directly beside the table.
Is anything after 22:00 automatically night?
That is what the table says — night runs 22:00 to 06:00. In those hours the direct impact limit drops from 39dB to 34dB and the peak from 57dB to 52dB, 5dB off each.
Our block has no committee.
Below 700 households forming one is not compulsory (Decree art. 21-2). Step 2 can then be skipped: art. 20(11) opens steps 3 and 4 where the noise continues "despite measures by the management body or the inter-floor noise committee".
Sources
Korean Law Information Center, Rule on the Scope and Standards of Inter-Floor Noise in Apartment Housing — rule text (in force 2 January 2023) — art. 1 (parent provisions), art. 2 (scope; water supply and drainage excluded), art. 3 (duty to endeavour), the Table (standards and notes 1 to 5). Every figure and quotation here is from the Table as written.
Multi-Family Housing Management Act — statute text — art. 20 (prevention of inter-floor noise: (1) definition, (2) management body, (3) duty to cooperate, (4) and (7) the committee, (11) mediation), art. 71 (housing management dispute mediation committee).
Enforcement Decree of the Multi-Family Housing Management Act — decree text — art. 21-2 (mandatory at 700 households), art. 21-3 (member training, 4 hours a year).
Left for another day
Where to request a measurement. The procedure at the support bodies sits in notices and operating guidance rather than in the provisions, so it is left out here.
Floor impact insulation performance. How a new build must perform belongs to the Housing Act and its subordinate standards, a different layer from this Rule.
How much damages run to. Awards in mediation and adjudication are not in the statute.
Based on the provisions as they stand in 2026. The 39, 34, 57, 52, 45 and 40dB figures, the "3 times", the 5dB and 2dB, the 700 households and the 4 hours are the provisions' own; the four-step table is our arrangement.
