Noisy neighbour ~ what can I do?

Crisp_£_note

Ive written about this problem quite a while back I think but didnt get anywhere so again ended up putting up with it. However its starting to get on my nerves again and I want to take it the next step if there is one and hoped someone could advise me what to do or where to go / who to see for help please?

The issue is we live in a semi detatched bungalow and the neighbour the other side of the wall is very hard of hearing and also affected by mobility problems.

We moved in at least 6 years ago now and the problem has been a nuisance since then. We put up with it for a couple of months as we were new neighbours but eventualy I went round and tried to talk to her but got knowhere.

She and her brother are nasty people we would rather not get involved with. Her brother lives next door to her and is a bit strange and has a very short temper and were usualy the first to get blamed for anyone elses actions in the neighbourhood that irritate either of them (bonfires, BBQ parties, dogs barking, chickens etc) when we havent been involved with any.

Then after a completly separate incident (caused by her brother getting involved with her annoyance over our dogs and her threatening to call the RSPCA) I had a word about the noise with the local comunity police man who said he had mentioned it to her whilst he settled the other issue she and her brother had with us. It settled for a couple of days then went back to normal. Since then they havent bothered us and as normal we have kept to ourselves as we have since moving in.

The issue is her TV's. They are on full volume when they are on. Thankfully their not on constantly but quite often in the morning when she watches breakfast TV, Geremy Kyle, This Morning and other shows. Its that loud I can hear what she's watching! Quite often in the summer she has 2 TV's on one in the front and one at the back of her house, or if its not a TV its the radio or her books on tape etc.
On some occasions they go on until 2am (the issue we had when we moved in) as she has difficulty sleeping. So we now combat this by having our TV on quiet and watching something interesting until were ready to sleep (usualy between 11pm and 1am) which helps but doesnt give us the peace or rest we need so even if we go to bed with no TV on ourselves we dont get a good quality sleep. We cant change to a different room as its not practical in our small bungalow and the noise can be heared throught anyway.

She has carers who come round regularly throught the day and the first changeover starts between 7am and 730am even at weekends and as they use the backdoor to let themselves in via her conservatry and our bedroom is adjacent to this its not the quietest of mornings wakeup call. Even the carers make so much noise, having to raise their voice to shouting level just to talk to her and asking her the same question several times until understood.
Today infact I was woken up at 7am by a carer hammering on her back door and when she got in she yelled Sorry about that I forgot my key today!

The reason I mentioned the mobility problems was due to the TV and adverts as she often is in another room and cant get to the remote to mute or turn the volume down when they come blaring out even louder. This was more of an issue at night when we first moved in but since then the volume has gradualy crept up and up and now its not so noticable when the ads are on, just agitating. Shes housbound which cant be nice for her, I know what its like myself.

The rest of the noise throught the day is bearable as it is daytime and I often just go out for a walk or turn up our TV so I can hear it.

I suggested to the Comunity warden that maybe she got a hearing loop for the carers or a pair of wirefree earphones for the TV but obviously she hasnt. I even offered to pay for them if it would help!

I do respect the fact she is elderly, has mobility problems and is hard of hearing / deaf. Hubby and I have been tollerant and understanding for 6+ years over it and kept our selves to ourselves. But enough is enough and now its time we had some quiet.

Anyway as I say its winding us up again and I dont know where to go from here ??

Thanks

Mojisola

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

I do respect the fact she is elderly, has mobility problems and is hard of hearing / deaf. Hubby and I have been tollerant and understanding for 6+ years over it and kept our selves to ourselves. But enough is enough and now its time we had some quiet.

Anyway as I say its winding us up again and I dont know where to go from here ??

Just because someone is elderly doesn't mean that they also shouldn't be understanding towards their neighbours and make efforts not to unduly affect your lives.

The time has probably come to involve environmental health. You will have to keep a diary of the problems and they will usually come and measure the volume of the noise.

Desperado99

http://www.nfh.org.uk/forums/index.php

Have you tried asking on this forum? the peeps on there will maybe have a bit more indepth knowledge for you.

Crisp_£_note

Thanks

Moj We dont want to cause her distress or problems but she and her brother are just so unaproachable and I dont feel its right to speak to the carers and dont know which agency they are from so cant go indirectly.

My concern if I get environmental health involved is there wont be sufficient noise to record. Knowing our luck they would be 1 step ahead! Then again its 1 or the other isnt it I suppose.

Desperado thanks for the link I have just registered and asked.

sassyblue

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

I do respect the fact she is elderly, has mobility problems and is hard of hearing / deaf. Hubby and I have been tollerant and understanding for 6+ years over it and kept our selves to ourselves. But enough is enough and now its time we had some quiet.

Anyway as I say its winding us up again and I dont know where to go from here ??

Thanks

The councils environmental health department. I think you've been tolerant enough. Elderly, disabled or not they shouldn't be making too much noise!*

disclaimer* I'm not anti elderly or disabled people before anyone wants to have a cheap pop - my father is one - just the ones that are making the OP's life a misery.

Crisp_£_note

Thanks Sassy

I know how you feel with the disclaimer felt the same and nearly didnt post. I was brought up to respect anf be polite but very rarely these days does anyone respect us 'youngsters' (im 40) yet they expect the respect and polite attitude without being polite back grrrrr but thats a topic for another day I think :rotfl:

antw23uk

You need to stop feeling sorry for this dredge and go to the enviromental health. On one hand your saying how horrid she and her brother are and then your saying you dont want to cause her any stress! Well what about you? 6 years and one disrespectful neighbour later and your still suffering.

If my post seems harsh its because im trying to get across to you that you have a life to live and you should be enjoying every moment of it, ezpecially in your wonderful home.

Don't let this piece of horrible make you feel misserable anymore, start laying down some rules and if the brotehr wants to get abusive then tell him in no uncertain terms that you will not tolerate being bullied.

Good luck and start writing up that diary. :beer:

ruby-roo_2

I would also recommend contacting your local councils environmental health department. I think you came up with some very good solutions to combatting the level of noise that your neighbours make. If there are things they could use to reduce their noise level then they should ideally be looked in to.

Whether people suffer with hearing problems or not, with age you would hope that they would have the wisdom to be more considerate. Why the need for them to have the TV on till 2am?

You may find that you are asked to keep a diary of when their noise disturbs you and to give details. I wish you luck as personally, to live as you have for the last 6 years, would have really got me down. It must be exhausting to not feel relaxed and at peace in your own home OP.

paidinchickens

How old is she? Is it a council property?

tenke

I had similar problem with some unbearable neighbours in the past, contacted Environmental Health but they are not much help, in cases of " vulnerable people " like noisy children (with unruly parents) or noisy elderly like in your case ...:(

I kept my diary all all, but in the end it was so bad, I had to move, my emotional health was destroyed.

I would suggest asking the Universe ( I know not many people believe in that, but it wouldnt hurt to try, right? If nothing comes out of it, at least you tried even the beyond this physical world to get help :eek::D )

Have a look at this link:

http://thecosmicorderingsite.com/testimonials/inconsiderate-neighbour-moves-out.htm

I have to admit I didnt know about Cosmic ordering at the time, that I was utterly miserable with my neighbours, but if I had found this link, I would have tried this anyway. When you are at the end of the rope, anything you try might help !! :T

Crisp_£_note

antw23uk wrote: »

You need to stop feeling sorry for this dredge and go to the enviromental health. On one hand your saying how horrid she and her brother are and then your saying you dont want to cause her any stress! Well what about you? 6 years and one disrespectful neighbour later and your still suffering.

If my post seems harsh its because im trying to get across to you that you have a life to live and you should be enjoying every moment of it, ezpecially in your wonderful home.

Don't let this piece of horrible make you feel misserable anymore, start laying down some rules and if the brotehr wants to get abusive then tell him in no uncertain terms that you will not tolerate being bullied.

Good luck and start writing up that diary. :beer:

Thanks your right there its about time I did do something about it other than vent my annoyance on here!

ruby-roo wrote: »

I would also recommend contacting your local councils environmental health department. I think you came up with some very good solutions to combatting the level of noise that your neighbours make. If there are things they could use to reduce their noise level then they should ideally be looked in to.

Whether people suffer with hearing problems or not, with age you would hope that they would have the wisdom to be more considerate. Why the need for them to have the TV on till 2am?

You may find that you are asked to keep a diary of when their noise disturbs you and to give details. I wish you luck as personally, to live as you have for the last 6 years, would have really got me down. It must be exhausting to not feel relaxed and at peace in your own home OP.

I thinks she must suffer from insomnia or something, well that was her excuse over 6 years ago, that and the fact the pain kept her awake.

If its not her TV its her carers (not exactly their fault I agree they are just doing a job but surely they must get fed up of yelling too?). If its not the carers its her 'discomfort' and the moans and groans of her ouch and owwws or the endless sneezing or coughing fits at certain times of the year (colds, chest infections, hayfeever, dust????) even their not quiet.
Seems she has to be loudmouth to hear herself suffer not just me to hear it too. Not a nice way to wake up on any Morning.

Carer the other week was 4 minutes late one Sunday morning, did she have a go about it at 7:34am oh yes, she did and the carer had to answer back as well in full volume to apologise her sick child made her a bit late then she was held up by the temporary trafic lights with the roadworks at the trafficlights nearby, which was not accepted other than to be repremanded that she didnt care and if they wanted to keep their job it would not happen again! I admit even I felt terrible for the carer.

paidinchickens wrote: »

How old is she? Is it a council property?

I dont know how old she is, at a guess shes about 70 going on 80 ish (my Mam is 72 so comparing to that) her brother is slightly younger. No its not a council property I suspect she now owns it outright.

We rent our bungalow with help from housing benefit. MIL is our landlady (all through proper channels) but we would be unable to move to a different place if we wanted to. Her brother knows this so goes direct to MIL trying to be clever and going above our heads as if we were stupid kids!


Thanks everybody so far for the helpful advice and support!