Neighbour Problems

fluffyb

Hope you manage to sort it out amicably

Hardup_Hester

Hi
You have my sympathy, but I'm afraid I can't offer any advice. One of our neighbours frequently complains to the council about us, so far it's been, bonfires, rats & blocking the pavement, none of these are true, but the council won't even visit us to check things out, they just send us rude letters & slap a fine on us.
Hope you manage to sort things out soon

Princess_Jane

Hardup_Hester wrote: »

Hi
You have my sympathy, but I'm afraid I can't offer any advice. One of our neighbours frequently complains to the council about us, so far it's been, bonfires, rats & blocking the pavement, none of these are true, but the council won't even visit us to check things out, they just send us rude letters & slap a fine on us.
Hope you manage to sort things out soon

Wow a fine, that sounds scary! We are keeping up with the diary, which is turning into a bit of sad read - 7.30am Princess leaves for work, 11pm, Princess gets back from work; 6pm Mr Princess leaves for work, 6am Mr Princess gets back from work.:rolleyes:

One week until the council decide whether to put noise meters in!

Poppy9

Princess_Jane wrote: »

One week until the council decide whether to put noise meters in!

The noise meters will go into the house of the person complaining, not yours. It's only if excessive noise is recorded as reaching their house that there is an issue as you can be as noisy as you want in your house if you have adequate soundproofing.

I wonder if their real issue is cars coming and going early/late.

oystercatcher

I am wondering if it is noises like car doors, feet on stairs etc that is causing the problem. It sounds like you come home and leave at fairly unsociable hours (not your fault) but these noises can be quite annoying for people who sleep lightly and are used to lots of peace and quiet.
Then maybe the DIY noises annoy them during the day at times and they all get lumped together into 'noise from next door' .

I have a friend who suffers from depression and the 'normal' noises from the family next door really annoy her, although I am 100% sure she wouldn't complain. Just trying to point out that we all have different thresholds for annoyance.
Last time we went away overnight in the B&B we had people coming home above us at 12.30 am walking about in shoes for an hour or so before they went to bed and then at 5.30 am I heard the owners coming downstairs to start preparing breakfasts. Nothing out of the ordinary but for me it was a 'terrible night' and I was incredibly grumpy the next day.

It still seems over the top to me that the neighbours have made official complaints but it could be worth considering what you do and if it does make noise which might disturb people without you realising it.
Maybe when you are planning some DIY it's worth popping round and saying "we're going to be hammering but only for an hour is that OK ? "

I hope you find an amicable solution.

Oystercatcher

Debt_Free_Chick

I would be very careful about approaching the neighbours on this ..... as we all seem to be assuming that they complained to the Council and called the Police. But we don't know for sure and there is such a thing as a co-incidence!

On the subject of a co-incidence, a complaint could have been to Police days or even more than a week ago. It was almost certainly a complete co-incidence that they appeared half an hour after the TV went on And, for all we know, the Police could have formed the opinion that there was no excessive noise and therefore no grounds for complaint. The Police will normally tell you if they intend to take no further action - did you say you had to go to the Station to find out more?

If you're confident that you're not making excessive noise, I'd be inclined to ignore the whole thing and wait for the other side to take the next step - the other side being the Council, I think. If they do put meters in to the complainant's house, that would be a great solution for you as it will prove you're not making any excessive noise.

Oldernotwiser

Have you got laminate floors and wear shoes in the house? I don't think people always realise how noisy a combination this can be!

natbags

We have had problems with neighbours regarding unacceptable levels noise/behaviour. We kept a diary and had sound monitoring equipment in our house (this records the level of noise more that time/date etc...) Eventually we had to call out an enviromental officer (different one on call each night) and community warden to witness the actual noise - middle of night etc... so in our instance unless they witnessed the actual incidents nothing could progress finally we got it sorted. I would not worry, if you are not making the noise, they will be unable to witness it - HTH

Princess_Jane

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Have you got laminate floors and wear shoes in the house? I don't think people always realise how noisy a combination this can be!

Yes we have but no we don't - shoes in the house is a pet hate of mine!

Princess_Jane

Poppy9 wrote: »

The noise meters will go into the house of the person complaining, not yours. It's only if excessive noise is recorded as reaching their house that there is an issue as you can be as noisy as you want in your house if you have adequate soundproofing.

I wonder if their real issue is cars coming and going early/late.

Yep, we know that, I just mean it will show there are no midnight DIY sessions happening at our house.:o

There's not a lot we can do about the cars, unless they'd like to pay our mortgage so we can become a house of leisure..sounds good