Neighbour changes use of garage and then complains about noise

Hominu

Our houses are setup like so:

House->Attached Garage->Attached Garage->House

Everything was rosey, you could make as much or as little noise as you wanted and nobody complained as there was 2 garages between the properties. The garage is a workshop so there's an assorted of tools in there including drills, saws, etc.

Now the neighbour has changed their attached garage to a sitting room. They are now complaining that I'm too loud and disturbing them whilst they are in their sitting room (which was a garage).

Can I do anything about this?

[Apologies if its the incorrect forum, I couldn't find any other housey type forum for this type of post]

Yorkie1

What times of day are you using the equipment?

Do you know whether they complied with Building Regulations for the conversion?

cattie

Have your neighbours had the connecting walls insulated as part of the job of turning the garage into a living room? Most garages are single skin, so the walls are not designed to keep out noise.

As long as you are not making a noise at unreasonable times, say early mornings, late in the evening/night or of a Sunday, then I don't see that the neighbours have any grounds to complain. After all they knew there was a garage attached when they decided to convert theirs into living accommodation, so can't expect neighbours to completely structure their lives & spare time around their new living arrangements.

I_have_spoken

Did neighbours serve a Party Wall notice? If not you could use the as a bargaining chip

Bella73

Suggest that they sound proof their "sitting room"? People like your neighbour annoy me, they are up there with people who move in next to a Church and then complain about the bells.

I'm sorry but I have no sympathy for your neighbour as they knew full well you are working in a garage so basically I would ignore them to be honest.

G_M

They did get planning permission and Building Regultions sign off didn't they?

I don't see you need to do anything. Use your garage as normal. If they don't like the noise they could always convert their living room into a space to store their car, and convert that spare room they have in the main house into a living room.......

BitterAndTwisted

Can you do anything about this? Yes, ignore them. They are numpties of the first order and do not deserve your attention.

If they persist in bothering you get busy with your local authority's planning department

mart.vader

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Did neighbours serve a Party Wall notice? If not you could use the as a bargaining chip

Not relevant. The PWA has no provision for retrospective action.

Billie-S

Ha ha, what a dipsh*t. Who would do that? I would happily make a garage adjoining a neighbour's garage into a spare room, but not into my main living room/relaxing room.

I would have made it a playroom for the kids/hobby room/sports room/DVD, games, CD, books & records room, general storage room, and so on and so on, but not a ruddy living room - not next to a bloomin' garage!

As someone said; the walls would not be like proper walls, and the sound will come through something awful from revving engines etc; not to mention the 'car smells.' (diesel, exhaust fumes etc.)

They have only themselves to blame: tell them you are not changing your lifestyle for anyone, and that they can report you to the council if they want. Bet they don't.

chanz4

Do you have permission to use the guarage as a business, some estates forbid this

tunnel

Sounds like the neighbour to one of our rentals who told me that he could hear everything from our kitchen and that it needed soundproofing(our side) as we were renovating it. I told him to soundproof his side if he was so concerned.

The cheek of some folk amazes me sometimes, just ignore him and carry on regardless, its his problem not yours, the house was built that way and if he wishes to extend into his garage then he should stomach the consequences.