Help: Big problem with noisy neighbours

warehouse

Where do I begin? We've lived in our semi for 3 years now and last night was the final straw. From the beginning we realised the neighbours were noisy, but it's now unacceptable so I'm looking for advice. Here's the story...

We bought the house is 2007, and almost right away discovered that the people we purchased from had issues with the family next door, (ajoined). The son, (24-ish), has a drum kit that he plays regularly. Another neighbour told us he had an order agianst him due to complaints in the past where he played all day and night. He can now only play the drums for an hour with all windows closed. He once played for 5 hours straight and I complained to them, (nicely), and it cut down to 2 hours. I've never checked out whether the noise order was ever real or a neighbourhood myth.

The same lad has his bedroom next to the kids room, (8yo and 4yo), which is upstairs and adjoined. Again, from the beginning we could hear his TV very clearly in their room, and often it's loud enough to hear over our own TV downstairs, up to 1am. My eldest daughter, (12), used to be in there but said she couldn't sleep anymore with the noise, so we switched things around.

Why did we put up with it for so long? Well I don't want to fall out with anyone, or do anything that could affect a possible sale in the future, but it's gone over the line now.

So recently the same lad has been playing music on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon that you can hear clearly word for word at the bottom of the garden, over 200 feet away. You can only imagine what it sounds like inside the house. We're finding that we're starting to stay out of the house more and more, and not particularly looking forward to being at home. The fact that summer is coming actually fills us with dread as the noise will be awful outside.

Last night his TV was so loud that it actually woke up my 8yo daughter who could sleep through anything, and she was in our room at 1am in tears because of the noise. I got up, dressed and knocked on the door for 20 minutes, no answer, they never answer the door. The noise stopped when I returned home. My daughter told me she regularly knocks on the wall trying to get him to turn his music and TV down, but nothing ever happens. I never knew this and it really upset me.

So that's it, the camels back is now well and truly broken and it's time to do something about this. I intend to knock as soon as I get home from work tonight or catch him as he comes in, and tell him straight that his noise is affecting our whole family, but I really need to know what else I can do and who to speak to, as this is now serious enough for me to be very very angry, (probably due to lack of sleep).

The family in there keep themselves to themselves. Like I've already said, they never answer the door. Nobody around here knows them as they don't speak to anyone, infact they actively run away as soon as people walk towards their house rather than say hello. My wife has caught the mother a few times and got a few mumbled words out of her, but that's it.

Help.

keith969

Contact your council's Environmental Health team. They will ask you to keep a noise diary to record the times and dates of the noise nuisance, which they will use to determine if there is a problem. They will write to or visit your neighbour, and if that does not resolve the situation will serve a noise abatement order and could take them to court.

Swipe

I had noisy neighbours in my last place and have vowed never to live in anything but a detached house again. I really feel sorry for you. I'd speak to them and stress how much of a problem it has become for you and your family before going to the council.

jockettuk

next time you look for a house do the driving by at different times of days and night.. even during the night.. we did this and saved us from buying a house with neighbours from hell

BeenieCat

I really can sympathise with you. I'm in terraced and both sides are noisy (they're related to each other, seems their hearing problem runs in the family). It's like mental torture, and it really does affect your whole life. I'm a council tenant though so i have been dealing with the housing officer direct about it, not that it's helped much.

I found it hard to make the step with reporting the noise because i worried about causing issues but it got to a point where i was so angry that they were affecting mine and my kids lives like this.

Hope it gets sorted, i know how awful it is

mrs-h_3

We have a problem similair to you, but our lousy neighbours aren't attached, although you would think they are considering the noise levels! We have had damage to cars etc over the several years we have been here, we live in a nice area too we just happen to have the one chavtastic family in the vicinity it seems
we found the council etc useless as they wanted us to keep a journal over a period of months and then maybe fit a machine to observe noise levels???? Why cant they just come and sort it eh? We decided not to bother in the end and have put our house on the market as quite frankly it has impacted on my health and my families. The reason we also didnt take it further is that you have to declare if you have issues with neighbours when selling so whats the point eh? This country seems to have forgotten how to address issues and seems to protect the chavs, so its either shut up and put up or move on (well for us anyway!) sorry to be so down on the matter but thats how i see it, if you want to stay in your house then try your council however be prepared for a long and lengthy process

donnaessex

I sympathise - we have just moved out of a house with neighbours from hell and I am so oversensitive to neighbourhood noise now its stupid. They werent even attached to us - just next doors semi.

Like you, we didnt want to cause a fuss, knowing that we would have to sell the house and reveal any disputes with the neighbours. Maybe you could call Environmental Health anonomously and ask what the deal is with putting in a complaint?

The final straw for me was at knocking on their door, at 3.30am, 9 months pregnant with a 1 year old waking every 15 minutes. I asked them for the third time that night to please turn the music down (they had a car parked in their back garden with all doors open including the boot) and they said they would turn it down. As I stepped inside my front door they started letting off fireworks. I sat rocking on the bottom of the stairs crying my eyes out and vowed to get out as soon as I could.

It took a year but we have just moved into our new home and the change in us as a family is shocking - we are so much happier now. We have 3 teenagers next door to us and they play x-box and the like until about 10pm and we hear them making noise but so far its been OK and we havent had to say anything. I am praying I am just being oversensitive and that this is what "normal" neighbours sound like.

I do hope you find some peace and quiet soon.

dander

It sounds like madness to me to not want to do anything to tackle the issue because you don't want to affect any possible sales in the future, but instead to just live with a noise level that is driving you mad, and making you more likely to want to move.
Surely it's better to try and tackle it by whatever means so your property is nice to live in, and if you sell you can say, "yes we did have a trouble with noise from next door, but it's dealt with now"

If the noise is unreasonable, speak to them. Knock on their door every single night if neccessary - maybe everyone has been so scared to make a fuss that they don't realise how bad the noise is. Give them a chance to do something about it as decent humans. If that gets nowhere talk to environmental health, go through the full process properly and get the problem dealt with - if he's already got a noise order that he's breaching then you'll have a head start.

As things are, when/if you sell, you still might have to do viewings with the noise blaring from next door and in that case declaring a dispute will be the least of your worries.

savemoney

This is what I did.

I know my home town well but that doesnt prepare you for problems that occur, like parking, gangs on street, and on some occasions noise

jockettuk wrote: »

next time you look for a house do the driving by at different times of days and night.. even during the night.. we did this and saved us from buying a house with neighbours from hell

ritesh

I sympathise comletely with you. No one should have to live to this kind of behaviour. They should respect noise levels especially when they know you have young children.

You could always borrow my very large speakers, plug them up to a decent system, place speakers an inch away from the walls, put the music on highish volume and you and your family spend a quiet night out else where. Be sure to keep all windows thoroughly shut!

You can do this most nights, through to ealry morning and i am sure that when they have had enough they will be round knocking on your door. You can decline to answer ;-)

Just a suggestion, by the way

hope it all works out well for you

warehouse

donnaessex wrote: »

The final straw for me was at knocking on their door, at 3.30am, 9 months pregnant with a 1 year old waking every 15 minutes. I asked them for the third time that night to please turn the music down (they had a car parked in their back garden with all doors open including the boot) and they said they would turn it down. As I stepped inside my front door they started letting off fireworks. I sat rocking on the bottom of the stairs crying my eyes out and vowed to get out as soon as I could.
.

That's disgraceful, and puts my own issues into perspective. Thanks for sharing that.