Noisy neighbours or am I being unreasonable?

kiwigirl

Hi if this is in incorrect place please move. Thanks :beer:

I live on the end of 3, 3 floored town house, I moved in last June and next door was empty til approx September.

The amount of noise coming from next door initially when they moved in (approx 8pm on a Thursday) I thought there was burglars there! Realised people had moved in, saw them on the weekend and they apologised that they may be noisy as they moved in / initially. Said fair enough, I'd been lucky next door was empty when I moved in. The other side of them is a lone female. We're all in our late 20's / 30s. Couple living mid house.

I get woken up at 6am every day by banging doors, I don't need an alarm clock. Drilling starts on weekends at about 8am, most weekends! If I go to bed before them I can hear them go upstairs, bang doors again I think they live in the middle floor, it sounds like I have burglars and I've walked downstairs to check more than once! They slam doors all the time, and kitchen cupboards are just as bad - mine rattle when they slam theirs! They have a tendency to drag we assume chairs downstairs which I can hear on 3 floor. Even my deaf dad can hear them talking in the living room. All my pictures are crooked due to amount of slamming doors they do and once they slammed their living room door mine opened!

This morning I was woken up at approx 2am by them slamming doors, they've been in all day and at 5pm they start drilling, and hammering. I try and ensure that they're out when I'm being noisy, i.e. hammering / drilling.

The other side of them shout through the walls to be quiet - don't know if they can hear her, but take it they don't. I asked them how much they can hear from the 2 neighbours - after thinking for a bit he said "if they're really quiet they can hear us walking up / down stairs".

They had fireworks about 5 foot from back of houses on bonfire night without even being polite enough to mention it beforehand. There's around another 15 feet in garden, so they could have taken the fireworks further away.

They park in front of my house (on a bend) more then theirs and they're friends are even worse (dark cars on blind corners :eek: ), although they block the road when they park there as across road have to park on their side of road.

Am I being unreasonable wanting some quiet and not to be woken up by them and listen to them dragging furniture around or getting told by others "your friends parked and stopped us getting into our house". They parked in front of mine for 24 hours without apologising or asking was it ok.

Friends of mine who also live mid terrace with 2 young kids either side have said how noisy they are when they've visited me, as I think they thought I was imagining it! :rotfl:

Any suggestions, I've tried speaking with them to no avail.

Pretani

basically, you can't do anything about them creating noise before 11pm (I think), as long as the noise is below a legal limit.

go and see your council and get all the legal information you can, including their parking, noise levels, etc, before you get too worked up about it. Once you know the legalities it will ease your mind and help you define what is and isn't acceptable.

pm sent regarding parking

misgrace

The laws changed now, where you dont have to put up with unreasonable noise at any time.

Be aware though, even if you recorded them it doesnt count, you can keep a log of times when they wake you up, the drilling, scraping chairs etc, but you cannot legally record (tape) thier noise, this has to be done through the legal channels, (the noise abatement society) which you can get the info from your local council.

They come and sit in your house, with thier notebooks, and tape recorder, and record everything.

Not sure of your area, but the downside of this can be in certain areas like mine, they only work thurs/fri/sat, so if we are disturbed on a tues, tough, as they dont come out.
Aslo, once they are aware of your situation, you can call them, and in some cases they will come round to you there and then.
Or if you say for example, the noise is everynight at 11pm, then they would be there at that time.

They are very good, and will issue warnings, and if the noise still persists, either take them to court or evict them, I know this to be the case, so they do carry plenty weight.

I sympathise with you, it is awful, but if by talking to your neighbours dont give you much joy, then you have to take it further, and you are not alone, there is definately help out there for you.

Please let us know how it pans out.:D

princessbutterpea

we have the same problem but just with music it starts about 6am and finishes gone 12 and is really loud almost everyday. I think you get it in terraced houses and ours is really old. You could try speaking to them about it and say that your not happy and if nothing gets done you will try the Council and/or legal proceedures?

Errata

Even my deaf dad can hear them talking in the living room.

If this is the case you haven't got bad neighbours, you've got a bad property.

Pssst

Dont rely on the authorities to do anything. They are mostly wet and useless. What you need to do is give them some noise back. I recommend the power tools sounds from this site

http://www.freesfx.co.uk/

Connect your pc to your hifi and let these sounds thrum out of your woofers. Get yourself some foam earplugs so that you can sleep.

kiwigirl

Thanks for all your replies, will look through them shortly.

I was thinking after being woken up again last night by what sounded like them dragging heavy furniture around :mad: that I must re-start playing the saxaphone, a 15 minute blast of that every evening after they make sufficient noise may make them think again when they come and complain about my noise! I have a few months to catch up. Their alarm clock has been reset to 7am again which is better than 6am. Shame I've got to go to work early tomorrow... they can only hear two neighbours using staircases.

He's got an electric guitar - which one will do the most noise do you think, tenor sax or electric guitar? Mine will make their house rattle if I play it incorrectly though and I've not played in 3+ years... I'll have to start playing scales again, that may make them complain about my noise, they stop being noisy I'll buy a mute. :rotfl:

Not got any of my music books here will have to do trip home (150 miles) to get tunes again, and not planning on doing that for a few weeks so scales for 4 weeks :eek: I can be as bad as a squeeking violin they might get quiet all of a sudden.

All I need to think about now, do I wait practise every few days at odd times or make it a regular soap time treat?

Horace

A tenor sax is certainly noiser than an electric guitar especially if you manage to get a squeaky high note.

Have fun.

markelock

what about a drum kit?

or a dvd from a drummer? you could alter their heart beats...

iltisman

There is only one fix, move house I did when it happened to me it cost me loads but I got my sanity back.

poppet

Errata wrote: »

If this is the case you haven't got bad neighbours, you've got a bad property.

I tend to agree with this - from what you have said, your neighbours are not making unneccessary noise, you havnt mentioned loud music, late night parties, screaming kids, barking dogs - the nosie they are creating appears to be from normal everyday living, opening and closing doors, talking, getting up and down from the table...except for the 8am drilling which does seem a bit early to me.

So one can only presume that the walls in your houses are extreamly thin and not sound-proofed very well.