Noisy neighbour

jonty03

Sorry to hear you're having this problem. I had a problem many years ago and reluctantly took my neighbours to court. I have no formal legal knowledge and am not advising, just pointing out my experiences.

I had to take private action with a solicitor, as Env Health kept dragging their heels (I later found out the Env Officer dealing with it was a friend of the neighbour!) I did win and all costs had to be paid by the neighbours but it was very distressing and I was later told that only 5% of private prosecutions for noise nuisance were successful (20 years ago). I had a very detailed log and very good representation.

However, my sis has recently had a huge problem with a neighbour who was successfully prosecuted by the police. This involved loud music at all times of day and night. Env Health wrote to them and told my sis to keep logs, and installed a recorder to gather evidence, this all takes time However, things escalated and she had to call the police on several occasions due to the aggressive actions of the neighbour. Eventually the police had the evidence they needed and the neighbour was taken to court by the CPS and served time.

Thankfully, not all cases are like this and, in my sisters case was quite extreme, but you do have to be aware that it is not an easy, nor a quick road to take. She had to keep her log accurately (dates, times etc) and record anything that was said by either side and how the noise make her or anyone else affected, feel. She also needed to send an update in to Env Health Officer dealing with it, regularly (initially, every couple of weeks, then weekly). They then updated her neighbours that they were still causing a nuisance. She had tried to talk to her neighbours on several occasions, without success, she put this in her log and what their reaction was.

She did not have to pay any costs as the CPS prosecuted but as with anything to do with the law, you have to put the questions to the right people.

In my opinion, noise nuisance may not necessarily have to be loud, but could possibly be something that constantly and unresonably intrudes on your daily life. I could be mistaken, but I think you used to be able to get 20 minutes free legal advice from a solicitor. It may be worth asking one what they consider your chances are.

HTH

anoneemouse

vuvuzela wrote: »

If the council take them to court, you will not be liable for anything.
Subscribing to this thread as it's something I am likely to be pursuing in the near future too, sadly.

Sorry to hear you're experiencing this problem too.

What's happening in your case?

I suspect the root of the problem, in my case, lies with the fact that the neighbour concerned didn't expect the next door household to start having a go at creating a garden and doesn't like it. With previous owners of the house they were used to it being a pretty barren space, with a gate they could (did) readily walk through whenever they wanted to in order to maintain their house. I originally allowed this access to continue, but then there were problems with it and I found they started thinking they had the right to dictate what I do in my garden. Hence I had to make the gate secure and say that I needed a "request" for it and good reason as to why before I granted access. They have gone on from there to creating noise problems for me and it looks to me as if they are trying to force me to move.

When I originally bought this house I expected to be able to move on after a few years. Things haven't worked out and I cant afford to move to somewhere better. Hence I am making the best of the house I have and trying to create some sort of garden for myself and adapt the house to allow for the fact that it looks like I am going to have to stay in it (but I am very careful about any DIY that gets done and ensure that its kept to a minimum and only done at reasonable times, ensure that any workmen don't disturb anyone else, etc).

I am finding it upsetting that this neighbour feels like they are trying to drive me out. I was hoping there might be a little sympathy for the fact that I can't afford to "move on" and don't see any prospect of it. Instead there are these attempts to drive me out. I don't understand this, as it should be obvious that I would have gone before now if I could afford to and it's not my fault that I am in the position that I have no option but to stay and try and make the best of the house I have. I'm not the only person to be in this position I know and it wasn't my choice that the person in my house (myself in this case) turned out to be a "long term stayer", rather than the "first time buyer" set-up this neighbour was used to previously with owners of this house (ie I was a "first time buyer" when I bought this house, but I have now become a "long term stayer" unexpectedly). Previous owners of this house have moved on to a better house after a few years, but it hasn't proved possible in my case. Thus I am now a "long term stayer". So it feels to me like they are trying to drive me out, so that they can replace me with another "first time buyer".

anoneemouse

burtons wrote: »

Is the beeping like a smoke alarm sound as my neighbours was beeping for over a week and they didn't do anthing about it.

Yes. It would appear to be some sort of alarm that is creating this noise.

vuvuzela

anoneemouse wrote: »

Sorry to hear you're experiencing this problem too.

What's happening in your case?

Cheers. Obviously without being too specific, it's continual student party-type noise. Before anyone thinks I'm tarring all students with the same brush, I'm definitely not, just these particular immature ignorant selfish ones. Also, if things are a one-off, then fair do but keeping us awake for every night for the last 2/3 weeks until 2/3 AM is just not on.
I suspect they've had some people attach themselves who are treating their place as a new club venue, had the council round not long ago and they agreed that as my entire house sounded like a club at 3AM due to the extreme volume of their music, and as it wasn't the first time, that they were pretty sure it would be counted as a statutary noise nuisance. We are keeping a log and they will install monitoring equipment if necessary.
However I've no experience other than this as yet, so I don't know what will happen if it goes on, sorry.

jonty03

vuvuzela wrote: »

We are keeping a log and they will install monitoring equipment if necessary.
However I've no experience other than this as yet, so I don't know what will happen if it goes on, sorry.

From what I remember with my sister, I don't think Env Health can act until you submit your log to them, so the sooner you submit some details, the sooner they can write to your neighbours. You can continue to update your log and send it in. If your neighbours are tenants, it may be worth yourself and/or Env Health contacting the landlord as well.

fluffnutter

vuvuzela wrote: »

Cheers. Obviously without being too specific, it's continual student party-type noise. Before anyone thinks I'm tarring all students with the same brush, I'm definitely not, just these particular immature ignorant selfish ones. Also, if things are a one-off, then fair do but keeping us awake for every night for the last 2/3 weeks until 2/3 AM is just not on.
I suspect they've had some people attach themselves who are treating their place as a new club venue, had the council round not long ago and they agreed that as my entire house sounded like a club at 3AM due to the extreme volume of their music, and as it wasn't the first time, that they were pretty sure it would be counted as a statutary noise nuisance. We are keeping a log and they will install monitoring equipment if necessary.
However I've no experience other than this as yet, so I don't know what will happen if it goes on, sorry.

God, that would just make me die of misery. The other half had a neighbour once who played his stereo really loud all night. After repeated polite requests, he went round one night with a pair of wire cutters, barged his way in, grabbed the speaker cables and... snip snip... no more noise. Not that I'm advocating such willful criminal damage, of course. But it worked for him :rotfl:

vuvuzela

fluffnutter wrote: »

God, that would just make me die of misery. The other half had a neighbour once who played his stereo really loud all night. After repeated polite requests, he went round one night with a pair of wire cutters, barged his way in, grabbed the speaker cables and... snip snip... no more noise. Not that I'm advocating such willful criminal damage, of course. But it worked for him :rotfl:

The 2 council officers actually told me after they went round that it was a good thing I hadn't gone on my own, the hangers-on didn't seem like pleasant people...
There's also been a couple of cases locally where peple have been prosecuted for taking the law into ther own hands and stopping irritating music.
Feeling constantly tired is just awful and debilitating though. Last 3 weeks I've averaged around 3 hours sleep a night (my OH sleeps better than me and can cope with the noise much better than me) and it is just a killer.

vuvuzela

jonty03 wrote: »

From what I remember with my sister, I don't think Env Health can act until you submit your log to them, so the sooner you submit some details, the sooner they can write to your neighbours. You can continue to update your log and send it in. If your neighbours are tenants, it may be worth yourself and/or Env Health contacting the landlord as well.

As they witnessed the music, the Council have written to them and the letter will arrive with them this week, I've been told. They are tenants and also students, my area has a good student-local 'contract' and the Universities are able to find out if there are students living there and also write to them, which they are in the process of doing. So we're doing what we can, legally, and will take it as far as we have to.
They move out end of June, which is 'only' another potential 4 months of barely any sleep...

PhylPho

OP: there are no costs to you if court action isn't brought by you (which in this case, it isn't.)

There is, however, a downside: if you sell your home, you'll find there's some official form or other you'll get from the buyer's solicitor requiring you to disclose details of any inter-neighbour dispute.

Two quick caveats here:

1) I'm not a lawyer and:

2) It's been five years since I last moved house.

So maybe the form I'm thinking of isn't in circulation any more (but it certainly was when we moved in 2006, and in 2001: not only did we receive this document from our buyer's solicitor, the people whose property we were buying likewise received such a document from our solicitor.)

I don't know how possible it is to finesse or even overlook this disclosure requirement, and especially if, at the time of sale, your neighbour has either moved elsewhere himself or has mended his ways.

fluffnutter

My neighbour's currently playing Coldplay's Fix You really loud. That surely constitutes as abuse, doesn't it?