Help! The nutter downstairs is making our lives a misery.

HouseHunter001

Maybe he's mentally ill, and really DOES believe you're making noise because he's hallucinating? From what you've said, that sounds like it could be a real possibility, and any kind of 'rational' approach will not work if what he really needs is medical help. Not sure how helpful that is, but might be worth pondering!

Edit: Just realised that the poster above has said exactly the same thing. Great minds think alike!

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

Maybe he hallucintes the sounds.... must be a word for that

Tinnitus?

People with that "hear" all sorts of things.

Davesnave

chris_m wrote: »

Tinnitus?

People with that "hear" all sorts of things.

Rational people with tinnitus know where it's coming from.

That doesn't rule out tinnitus, of course, just that it wouldn't be the primary cause, which in this case seems to be a mental health issue.

andsoshesaid

OP - sorry to hear what you've been going through.

This reminds me of an issue with a previous neighbour - it started as him banging on the shared wall between his flat and my flat (my bedroom wall) at night time. When I asked him about it (politely) he at first claimed that it wasn't him who was banging, that it was me (he told me that I was sleepwalking and banging my wardrobe doors while I was asleep...); he then decided that he was banging on the wall in retaliation to the noise that (he claimed) I was making. To cut a long story a bit shorter he had serious mental health issues and speaking to him about it made it much, much worse - it ended up with him banging on the wall intermittently for hours on end throughout the night and early in the morning..for weeks on end.

Regretfully environmental health (EH) were not particularly helpful; the noise was intermittent during the daytime so they never heard it in person. They agreed that it was likely a mental health issue but were unable to discuss if they could contact mental health services about this. I had a noise monitoring machine installed right after EH sent the neighbour a threatening letter (which shut him up for a week or 2...so no noise was recorded). The second time the noise monitoring machine was installed I recorded lots of banging noise; but it turned out the machine was faulty and had not recorded anything(!), but apparently their policy is to only offer noise monitoring machines on two instances and if no noise is recorded then the case is closed. You can imagine how this made me feel!

Other avenues I pursued: I went to the police but they would do nothing about it (noise is a council issue and although he was threatening there was no danger to me so they would/could not do anything); I went to social services/mental health but they could not do anything without his name; and I contacted his landlord who was already trying to evict him for different reasons but who could offer little help.

After 9 months of very little sleep and a LOT of stress (and days off work; and even booking a night in a hotel and sleeping at a friend's house to get some sleep) it was only solved by the neighbour moving out. The landlord contacted me and told me that they found many dents up to 1 and a half inches deep in the wall adjoining our flat from whatever he had been using to bang on the wall(!).

If I was to offer any advice, it would be to try as many avenues as possible, it may be that in your area the council or your managing agents may be more helpful. Your council environmental Health (noise team) are a good place to start - but do make a note of every time he bangs, you will need to keep a noise diary if you make a noise complaint through EH - and the sooner you can start keeping a diary of noise the sooner you can resolve the issue through them. Mental health services may be of help too.

However I think unfortunately the easiest and quickest option (for your health and sanity) is to move out, if its an option for you. I was lucky my neighbour moved out when he did; I hate to say it but I wish I had moved and saved myself all those months of stress.

Ivana_Tinkle

I'd be keeping all his notes (plus notes of what you were doing when he complained - eg "in bed asleep") in case you need them as evidence, but also I'd be very wary of writing him any notes back in case they come back to haunt you at some point! If this escalates in some way, the last thing you want is for him to produce a note from you threatening that you'll start playing loud music or whatever.

Ivana_Tinkle

Meant to add, you can also make your own compaint about noise nuisance to your local magistrates court. It doesn't seem to be an option that's widely known about, but it can be used in cases like andsoshesaid's when EH haven't been able to help, particularly if the noise is intermittent.