Problems with nextdoor neighbour

B..

First of all i do apologise if this is not in the right area, and sorry it's so long!

we've had a few problems with our nextdoor neighbour. everything was fine until they installed a new washer which was banging on the wall, so much so it was vibrating things off our wall in the kitchen. so i went around, explained to them and asked if they could move it slightly, they said yes that was fine, they had just bought it and they'll sort it out. They did.

Moving on a few months.. their dog started barking at 5 in the morning as soon as they left for work. As we get up for work at 7am it meant we were all having lack of sleep including our 3 year old. this went on for a few months until we had enough and couldn't cope any longer. I went round and politely asked if there was something they could do to try and stop them barking at 5am. their response was 'they would sort it, and that they were considering moving because they felt like they are living on egg shells' i was completely baffled by this but i did say to them that if they had any problems please come and let us know.. that was the end of that.

ever since then, they have been scowling at us whenever we see them outside, giving us dirty looks etc making us feel uncomfortable. More recently, the guy who lives there who has only been living there a year or so was following me home one day and was trying to intimidate me, tailgating etc. i left it and didn't rise to it, parked up and went straight inside.

now tonight i was bathing my daughter when we hear this almighty banging on our living room window. went down and it was the police.

they had called them because our tv was too loud. Now my partner is deaf in one ear, and we've all been bunged up with flu since before christmas so non of us can hear terribly well anyway. but even so the TV has only ever been slightly louder than average.

the policeman said that he could hear the tv and that it wasn't really too loud.. and what it was on at the time is what we've had it on recently. we told him what had happened etc, and that we were annoyed because they had never said anything about the tv being loud.

Now our 3 year old daughter has been having nightmares tonight about 'the misters banging on the window' which is really upsetting.

i can't believe they phoned the police about it, if they had come around and told us it was too loud we'd of done something about it, or even a note through the door would have done.

my partner is absolutely fuming and wants to write a polite letter to them. should we? or just leave it? is there anything else we can do?

really sorry if i've bored you all with this!

sharon

BitterAndTwisted

Never, ever write to a-holes, it just fans the flames. I'd completely ignore this and try to live your lives. Obviously your complaint about the dog didn't go down well but none of us here were present to hear the conversation but you've obviously !!!!ed them off.

lilac_lady

Ignore them.

melancholly

i'm mostly surprised that the police came out to a loud tv report.... you're only meant to ring 999 for a real emergency and this should be put down as a waste of police time since noise problems should be dealt with by the council. when i've rung for a violent event, it still took a few mins (to their credit, not many!), but i'd hate to think they'd be tied up testing tv volumes! (although if they had to bang the window, presumably they tried the door first but no-one could hear it?)

OP - time to keep a diary of behaviour and any interactions, just in case the council do get involved (and their behaviour is clearly harassment!). also, just so that you're covering every base, time to get subtitles up on the tv if there's any danger of putting it up too loud. for now, don't worry about your DD - being upset just after it happened is one thing, it probably won't last. your attitude to it should be able to make her see that it isn't a big problem or anything to be upset about.

WeBeBroke

Oh lord.....our house next door has just been bought by new people. It's a semi with stone walls. Hope I don't hoover too loud or chop my veggies too noisily :eek:

aliasojo

melancholly wrote: »

i'm mostly surprised that the police came out to a loud tv report.... you're only meant to ring 999 for a real emergency and this should be put down as a waste of police time since noise problems should be dealt with by the council.

Who said they'd called 999? They might just have called the station. And noise problems are within Police remit.

maninthestreet

I wonder why did the police banged on the windows instead of just knocking on the door????

Gwhiz

maninthestreet wrote: »

I wonder why did the police banged on the windows instead of just knocking on the door????

It does sound fishy, unless the OP could not hear them knocking on the door because the TV was up so loud - which would then explain a lot.

JuniorSherlock

Well, if it was me I would go round there and say that you realise there is a problem now and since it is affecting your 3 year old you thought it would be a good idea to talk about it like adults and try to come to an agreement. Invite them round to put their side of the case forward and promise that you will listen to what they have to say.

They might tell you where to go, in which case you'll just have to ignore it, but I would inform the police officer who came round that you have offered to resolve the situation and they refused. I would also inform the police station of the problems with the neighbours and ask that if they are called out in future, if they wouldn't mind knocking on the door like normal people.

If they do come round, be prepared to listen to what they have to say. They may have overheard other complaints directed towards them or may feel got at. As we weren't privvy to your precious altercations with them, we've no idea what you said or how you said it. Apologise even if it isn't your fault and explain how the noise of the dog was affecting you all and how you are grateful that they did something about it.

I do think that getting everyone sat round a table, with a few glasses of wine, goes a long way to resolving problems rather than this tit for tat game. So invite them round tonight and you might be pleasantly surprised. It's worth a shot.

CynicalScotsman

The OP had even said they'd had the TV on that volume for a while, so why hadn't they complained before?

Possibly they had, the police wont do anything about it until there is a recurring issue if i'm correct?

melancholly

aliasojo wrote: »

Who said they'd called 999? They might just have called the station. And noise problems are within Police remit.

we were told to go to the council when we had problems - very annoying as it goes! i guess i'm genuinely surprised that the police came out immediately for a noise problem. i've never rung a station and been connected to a person immediately, it was always through to an answerphone, but i guess these things must vary! (mind you, the fact that i've had to ring on multiple occasions probably says a lot about the area i used to live in - the police were certainly busy!)