Annoying Neighbours - Advice please

Polaroid_2

marcowil wrote: »

Whilst it may be easier for you all to sound off without the alleged noisy neghbours there surely they have a right to be there since the meeting concerns them? They may not realise just how much of a nisance they are causing or, when spoken to in a calm and collected way might offer to do something about it.

By not including them in any meeting you risk alienating them and never finding a sucessful outcome.

They have their own private enterance to their flat as it's an extension otherwise I would have thought the same but they won't know we're getting together.

The problem is that another neighbours has tried to talk to them and he went crazy. I live on my own and I don't feel ballsy enough to go down there on my own to be honest.

Polaroid_2

G_M wrote: »

Planning permission. Not required even in conservation area. PP does not apply to change of use of rooms.

Overcrowding. Not you business. The associated noise is your business.

Envrionmental Health at the council deal wih noise complaints. They'll need you to keep a log detailing every occassion excessive noise occurs, recordiing time, type of noise etc, for several weeks/months. They may supply you with a machine to measure the decabels at different times of day.

You live in a flat yes? Do you own or are you a tenant? If you own, you should have the lease. Read it. This may have clauses limiting the disturbance leaseholders can cause neighbours.

Does the block of flats have a management company? If so, they can enforce the lease above.

Contact the landlady. Look up the name/address of the flat owner on the Land Registry site here (£4) - it may, of course, just give the address of the flat!

Final resort - call the police at 4.00 AM and report noise and what sounds like fighting/shouting downstair. A visit from plod may make them think before slamming doors.....

Thanks I'm happy to get all the advice people are willing to give! I'm pretty sure I can get the landlady's details with a bit of digging around.

I've spoken to my landlord and he's fine with me giving my notice in early if I have to but I'd rather stay. I'm only home between 7pm-8am. It's not much to ask that they think of others is it? Perhaps I'm naive!

I really don't want to chase them out but I can't live like this anymore.

Oxid8uk

G_M wrote: »

Envrionmental Health at the council deal wih noise complaints. They'll need you to keep a log detailing every occassion excessive noise occurs, recordiing time, type of noise etc, for several weeks/months. They may supply you with a machine to measure the decabels at different times of day.

Final resort - call the police at 4.00 AM and report noise and what sounds like fighting/shouting downstair. A visit from plod may make them think before slamming doors.....

Quite a few local authority environmental health departments now have an out-of-hours contact number for noise complaints. If your LA has one then ring them and they may come out and listen to the disturbance. If they think it constitutes a statutory nuisance then they will issue a Noise Abatement Notice which requires them to keep the noise down. Breach of this notice means they can be prosecuted, and then probably evicted.

Polaroid_2

mummyfie wrote: »

we used to have some annoying noisy neighbours who had all night parties(and i mean ALL night), we asked them nicely to consider us and our sleeping(or rather kept awake and grumpy) children; they didn`t,we tried playing them at there own game ,turning on our stereo at 6am , that didn`t have much effect. the house was rented out ,but the letting agency were not interested so i contacted the environmental health, who told me to log everything that happened and said he would write them a letter advising them that excess noise pollution could mean they would be evicted,once they got the letter they came round to me ,said sorry ,said they didn`t want to be evited from this house as well! and continued to be a be more considerate until they moved .(we even had a drink with them the new years eve before they left), so don`t give in or give up.

Thanks. I'd love to get on with them as I do with the other neighbours (we all have a drink together at Xmas!) but they are far from approachable. I'm going to start keeping a record tonight and see how things progress.

I think the only solution is for them to go (or me, of course). At least I'm renting and can move, the other residents all own their flats so are stuck with them!

Polaroid_2

Oxid8uk wrote: »

The other option is for you to contact your landlord and tell them about the problem. I’m sure they wouldn’t be too happy knowing they might lose their tenant because of someone else’s unruly tenants. If you can get the landlady’s details you could give them to your landlord for them to contact her.

If there is no improvement after talking with the landlady you could always inform Environmental Health but your home-owning neighbours might not want to get involved with that.

Yeah I've told my landlord. He's furious & wants to get rid of them quick smart. He came over the other day to check my boiler and was blocked in by 2 of their cars within 10 minutes. He got a taster of my life for a moment!

Hopefully all the residents will agree to a gameplan tonight and things can start moving. It's just horrific how people can destroy your homelife by being so selfish. I think I've been so lucky with neighbours up until now.

BigAunty

Environmental health or move is your two basic options. My last local authority didn't recommend speaking to occupants but to call them directly instead. They had roving teams to deal with that type of nuisance.

It's difficult for a landlord to evict tenants who are paying the rent even if they are anti-social so even if she cooperated with you and wanted to act, she may be obliged to honour their initial contract.

Polaroid_2

BigAunty wrote: »

Environmental health or move is your two basic options. My last local authority didn't recommend speaking to occupants but to call them directly instead. They had roving teams to deal with that type of nuisance.

It's difficult for a landlord to evict tenants who are paying the rent even if they are anti-social so even if she cooperated with you and wanted to act, she may be obliged to honour their initial contract.

Thanks for the advice. I don't feel comfortable talking to them so will do everything I can do avoid that!

I'm going to keep a record of all the noise whilst saving some money then perhaps move. I've been thinking about living in the countryside since all this started! Lovely peace & quiet!

Oxid8uk

Polaroid wrote: »

It's just horrific how people can destroy your homelife by being so selfish.

I know exactly how you feel.

My last house was a semi-detached and my neighbour was really quiet (house was mine, neighbour was renting) then all of a sudden 2 women and 7 children moved in with him (it was only a two bed!). They made my life hell. During the day the kids were in and out the back door all the time, and no word of a lie slammed the door about every 30 seconds. They slammed it so hard all my nik naks on my shelves rattled, and one day a couple of drinking glasses actually fell off the kitchen worktop and smashed because the slamming of the door had made them move across the worktop!

I tried calling the landlord but he had given me the wrong number! I didn't call EH as I didn't want to have to declare I had trouble with my neighbours in case I came to sell.

My life was a living hell - I couldn't sleep because of the stress and everytime the door slammed I felt like ripping my hair out. I started staying at friends houses to get some sleep and respite from it all. It was so unfair that I had to leave my own home to get some peace!

Thankfully the landlord eventually found out and evicted them straightaway (not sure how he managed that!) but it was so nice to be able to enjoy my home again.

I know it seems awful now but stick it out a while longer and try the different avenues suggested. Although you might not want to, at least you are able to move if need be.

pmlindyloo

Please don't give up. I think it is appalling that you have to put up with their inconsiderate behaviour.

It is excellent that you are meeting with your neighbours because the more people involved the better. I am afraid that Enviromental Health (and anyone else 'official' ) are often slow and need lots of evidence - hence the keeping of detailed records. Even then it can take months for anything to happen and meanwhile you are living in a very stressful environment. Also, one voice complaining may be seen as 'she/he's a bit sensitive/has an axe to grind.

Since the 'noisy neighbours' are not approachable you need to write a letter to them detailing your complaints. Of course you could ask your neighbours to do the same (might have some effect, you never know) or all of you sign the letter. In the letter tell them that if there is not considerable improvement in their inconsiderate behaviour then you will be contacting their landlord, Environmental Heath and the police. (The police may not do anything if nothing criminal is going on but it may make the noisy neighbours wary)

If this has no effect then carry out the 'threats'.

I know from experience that it is not enough to make one phone call to anyone, you need to bombard them with complaints, the more people involved the better. With a bit of luck someone will get fed up with the complaints and do something about it.

Remember that people power can be very effective.

Good luck!

dorisday

if its a one bedroomed flat and there are more than several people living there it could be classed as a house of multiple occupants and may well not have a license for this worth checking it out.
I had this problem last year - spoke to tennants spoke to landlady and when that didnt do any good spoke to enviromental health office and that did the trick - they left within 6 weeks.
The owner of the flat will not also want a dispute against their property as on selling this has to be risen and I wouldnt want to buy any property with a dispute against it.
Best of luck and dont give up why should you move.