Cats - Noise Nuisance

Lass

Thanks for all your support on this folks, I'm possibly just getting my knickers in a twist over nothing, we shall see. I think part of what annoys me so much is that I tip toe around the place and I'm just fed up!

Fire fox, you really sound like you know what you're talking about, and you've made me a bit more confident about the situation, so thank you. I should have mentioned previously perhaps, that I'm in Scotland, and our properties are neither freehold nor leasehold - instead we have an ancient feudal system - happily most properties no longer have to pay a ground rent, but in essence the land that my house is on belongs to, yes, the local council. :rolleyes:

I returned their call yesterday and the lady I spoke to couldn't tell me specifically what the complaint was. She explained that the next step would be for them to meet with each of us individually - an interview essentially - to gather the information and then decide where to go from there. She also said there was about a 3 week wait but called me back 5 minutes later and said could they come and see me this Thursday! Anyhow I've agreed, they're seeing my neighbour directly before me, so at least I'll know what the problem is, but it really can't be anything else!

Sirbendy, I feel for you, it's a horrible situation - I did something similar with the cats on Friday night and I hated every minute of it, so eventually I just thought 'stuff it' and let them have the run of the house - I'm caught between my good nature of not wanting to upset anyone, and thinking, dammit I have a life! Lol! I have considered selling my flat but there are two reasons holding me back.... 1) bad time to sell and probably won't get as much as I'd like from the property and 2) I can't afford to buy a new place so I'd have to rent and I sort of resent paying out that money and having no investment to show for it. Anyway, that's for another board!

Will let you know how I get on anyway, thank you all very much.

Lass x

mrcol1000

Everyone has a right to live in their homes without anyone causing them a nusiance no matter the time of day. If the cats are causing a noise nusiance you have a duty to deal with it.
The council would only take action agasint you if they witnessed a nusiance. That would be using electronic equipment or coming out when the noise was happening and witness it themselves.
Often though people become over sensetive to noises and although a noise can be heard at night when its silent does not make it a nusiance.
I would go along with whatever your asked to do as if you co-opreate then it will be appericated. Mediation may be able to offer some kind of soloution that your both happy with.
I don't know how it works in Scotland but the council I work for only refers stuff to mediation when they decide there is no nusiance. But that would have written to you to make you aware someone had complained.

Lass

Hi mrcol1000 - this is precisely what is worrying me - I totally agree that nobody should have to cope with noise nuisance, and my concern here is two-fold:

I have no idea what on earth I am supposed to do to stop the noise - I know that under the law I have a duty to ensure my pets don't cause a nuisance, but they are cats - it's not like having a dog which is relatively controllable, if you know what I mean. It's also not like their activity is a new thing and I'm sure that everything has changed because she now sleeps in her livingroom which is directly beneath mine.

Secondly, what is really getting to me is that if they do deem my cats to be a noise nuisance, then they can effectively take out an order against me, requiring that I stop. If I don't stop the noise, then I can be charged. From the information I have seen online about this, I would be required to take all steps necessary to cease the noise, short of destruction of the animals. If it comes to this, and who knows what will happen at this stage, then the officials would determine that I would have to get rid of the cats - which I won't, I'd move to a hellhole first if I had to.

I have had no written communication about this at all, only the call with the mediation department that I returned on Monday.

Anyhow, tomorrow's meeting should clarify exactly the problem and I'll see what their attitude to it is as they will have spoken with my neighbour already.

Lass x

mrcol1000

Lass wrote: »

Hi mrcol1000 - this is precisely what is worrying me - I totally agree that nobody should have to cope with noise nuisance, and my concern here is two-fold:

I have no idea what on earth I am supposed to do to stop the noise - I know that under the law I have a duty to ensure my pets don't cause a nuisance, but they are cats - it's not like having a dog which is relatively controllable, if you know what I mean. It's also not like their activity is a new thing and I'm sure that everything has changed because she now sleeps in her livingroom which is directly beneath mine.

Secondly, what is really getting to me is that if they do deem my cats to be a noise nuisance, then they can effectively take out an order against me, requiring that I stop. If I don't stop the noise, then I can be charged. From the information I have seen online about this, I would be required to take all steps necessary to cease the noise, short of destruction of the animals. If it comes to this, and who knows what will happen at this stage, then the officials would determine that I would have to get rid of the cats - which I won't, I'd move to a hellhole first if I had to.

I have had no written communication about this at all, only the call with the mediation department that I returned on Monday.

Anyhow, tomorrow's meeting should clarify exactly the problem and I'll see what their attitude to it is as they will have spoken with my neighbour already.

Lass x

The thing is though that no council wants to take legal action agasint a resident as it never looks good but it will if it has to. Therefore if you follow what the council says and co-opreate with them then they will help you and offer assitance and advice of how to solve the problem. Its only the people who stick their heads in the sand or refuse to co-opreate that have legal notices served on them. But it hasn't got to that point yet so I wouldn't let it worry you. I am also wondering if she has contacted the council and they have told her there isn't much they can do and to try mediation. As I really can not see how you can control cats to stop them making a noise apart from keeping them in. I mean I really don't see it any different to foxes being in your garden and causing a noise nusiance which you would not be responsible for. No action can be taken if your neighbours cat regularly goes to toilet in your garden. I guess the only thing the council could order you to do is keep your cat inside between certain hours so that it does not cause the nusiance at night. But my best advice to you is just to co-opreate with everyone but remeber the council will only be able to take action if it witnesses something it deems to be a nusiance which will be down to the expert opinion of the officer dealing with the issue.

emlou2009

i have a cat and can hear him running about upstairs in my house, and jumping on and off furniture, and he is only a kitten! but when you live in a flat, you do expect to hear noise from the flat above, unless everyone floats and never drops something, its something that cant be helped!

i dont think you'll have a problem here, its not like you're playing loud music at 3am. it sounds as if your neighbour is just overly sensitive to noise and doesnt seem to understand how noisy it is living in a flat, no matter who lives above you.

in my first flat, we used to hear upstairs having sex every night :eek: and normal level conversations from downstairs!

Lass

mrcol1000 wrote: »

I guess the only thing the council could order you to do is keep your cat inside between certain hours so that it does not cause the nusiance at night.

It's the cats being indoors that are creating the problem! Lol.

emlou thanks for your comments - I know from past conversations with my neighbour, who has lived in that property for about 30 years, that previous neighbours were a nightmare. Of course, as she is getting older, she is getting less tolerant, only to be expected I guess.

Lass x

kitekat

You could be talking about the neighbour below me she is a pain in the backside also,she never stops complaining about trivial things and has made my cats life a misery,and has the cheek to say she is an animal lover.I have had no end of problems with her so i know where you are coming from.People living in flats have to tolerate normal everyday noise and its not your fault she chooses to sleep in her living room(she prob does this to be awkward)maybe if she slept in her bedroom she wouldnt hear the noise.I think you have been totally fair with her and other than knitting slippers for your cats there is little else you can do.If you dont want to go to mediation then you have every right to refuse it will prob make no difference anyway.When you sell your flat make sure its to a bunch of hells angels,then she will have something to complain about.

paddypaws101

Please update us..... Hope it went well.

Lass

The meeting was fine, two syrupy sweet ladies who asked a bunch of questions - how long had we been neighbours, how long had I had the cats, what had my relationship been like with the neighbour yada yada.

Anyhow I explained to them that my options are extremely limited, in that there is nothing I can to to 'control' the cats behaviour. I told them about my thoughts on what I could do, such as shutting them in the hallway (in my opinion tantamount to animal cruelty, I'm in a very small flat) but that because it has laminate flooring through there, it would be even worse noise wise. They explained that they are not there to tell me what I should do, but to try to help us neighbours find a solution we can both live with. I explained to them that this is my concern, I can see no viable solution on my part and that I was afraid where it was all headed etc. They were very nice, I have to say, and I made them aware of exactly how I'm feeling about all this, close to tears at a couple of points, and they said that I shouldn't have to live like this either.

Upshot of it all, they've recommended a mediated meeting with my neighbour so that we can discuss solutions. They do this as if a solution is offered by us ourselves, we are more likely to 'stick' to it and they are therefore generally more successful - yep textbook psychology 101, I understand this!

I reiterated that I am happy to do so, but that I don't know what I can bring to the table. One of the mediators said that my neighbour may have to reconsider her sleeping arrangements and that perhaps I could - and I quote - "do some research, possibly online, to see how the cats behaviour could be changed".

Unfortunately, I can't see her being willing to change her sleeping arrangements now - long story short as I seem to waffle on anyhow, a different neighbour was trying to push through getting a lock on the front door as it could be propped open and he didn't like this - nobody else had a prob but anyhow not enough people agreed to it. Came home yesterday and discovered that the fire-door spring on it (if you know what I mean) has been replaced. Not only is the door now extremely heavy to open, but it can't be kept open and will always close itself. With a nice loud clunk. So not only am I now having to run up and down the stairs everytime kitty wants out, when I went to get her back in last night, I heard her miaowing at the stair door and of course, that is pretty much directly outside her bedroom window. I just feel that even if this got resolved, she'd find something else.

Anyhow, thank you for letting me blether on, I know I can't say anything succinctly lol. If you're still interested, lol, I'll keep you updated with how things progress from here.

Lass x

Spearmint

glad to hear the meeting went well :cool:

why doesn't she sleep in 1 of the bedrooms

not sure there's anything you can do