Neighbour complaints!

PasturesNew

annapanda wrote: »

People are entitled to live their lives and enjoy their home!

Boot on the other foot is: people are entitled to live their lives without being annoyed by over-noisy neighbours who are careless about noise levels and how it travels.

You can't side with them just because it suits you. You have to take a systematic approach to dealing with this and not assume the neighbour's guilty and your tenants are angels.

Pixie5740

Exactly, you're not sure if your neighbours are being excessively noisy are not. People are entitled to live their lives and people are entitled to live in their homes without suffering from excessive noise from neighbours.

This could potentially be resolved if your tenants just talked to the neighbour when she approaches them about things whether she's an eccentric old bat or not.

annapanda

They have never not engaged with her but equally I don't think she's perhaps used to having a couple live next door to her and has unreasonable expectations of what is noisy and what is just normal.

I lived next to her on my own for 8 years and I'm not a noisy person .
She once "mentioned" to me in passing about how loud my TV was. No, it wasn't, it was just a normal level but to her it was "loud". She always lived alone and very rarely had any visitors.

The tenants said one time she was complaining about noise when all they were doing was talking to each other in the kitchen at teatime. Talking, not shouting, in the evening, not in the middle of the night.

I can understand how noisy neighbours are a blight, I really can, and I wouldn't want those sorts of tenants. But equally I don't want my tenants to end up on the wrong end of someone who thinks they have a god given right to absolute silence.

Viberduo

PasturesNew wrote: »

Boot on the other foot is: people are entitled to live their lives without being annoyed by over-noisy neighbours who are careless about noise levels and how it travels.

You can't side with them just because it suits you. You have to take a systematic approach to dealing with this and not assume the neighbour's guilty and your tenants are angels.

Everyone has different levels of noise acceptance, i.e I have never had complaints over noise apart from sometime using hoover during night and even then I didnt realise as I was hoovering in living room they could hear it in downstairs bedroom, only other time was when I had somewhere with wooden floor and my living room was above the neighbours bedroom and I had sleeping problems or even if I was in bed early I would go to kitchen for glass of water, I would get my neighbour scream and threaten me with violence for keeping him awake claiming I wore boots in house, stomped at all hours and never went to bed before 6am and slept all day(and even admitted he never hears noise during the day) I went to bed twice at 6am in 3 months, most nights about midnight to 2am and eventually he attacked me by punching me and choking me then said he was the victim, told our shared LL I was a disrepectful tenant etc, but I found out that in the 3 years he lived there he complained about every tenant.

Every other time when I have moved I have been told by neighbours they wished I would stay as I am so silent they don't know I am there, at more than 1 property I have lived I have had neighbours knock on door as I was so silent they thought I may of been ill or that I moved out.

My current place I have a neighbour who brings round their nephew a few nights a week who runs about for a hour or so, and wakes up 6am crying, she also has dogs that bark when they wake up, or when postman arrives, or if she has gone out for the day(which is a lot) they bark at the slightest noise when alone i.e even turning on a tap makes dogs bark, has been as small as me opening a can of juice to set them off, I cant even flush the toilet without dogs barking but they are silent when she is there unless someone knocks on the door.

Some people really do react to everything some can handle a lot, the ones that can handle a lot doesnt mean their neighbours arent making a lot of noise but it may be down to in moderation i.e like the upstairs kid running about a hour a day will be annoying that hour and silent rest of time.

annapanda

Thanks for you post, Viberduo, I quite agree different people have different levels of noise tolerance.

I guess it can be a bit of a shock to the system to get used to having more noise around you than you are used to, but equally if that noise isn't excessive and just normal life, then you either have to accept it or find somewhere more suitable for your noise needs!

Argghhh

you wont know until it escalates to a point where the council install recording equipment to verify the complaints - then proof will be one way or the other - until then its hearsay

Davesnave

annapanda wrote: »

I feel like I have a moral obligation to help - it's in my interests as much as theirs!

You are not their parent or guardian, so you cannot take moral responsibility, whether you want to or not. As you suggest, you can advise them, but that's all.

The council are quite right keeping you at arms length from this.

As Arrgghhh says, this is all hearsay until it becomes a statutory nuisance, when you might then feel it right to issue an S21, but it looks like you're a long way from there!

patman99

If the local Council is anything like mine, then before taking full action on a noise complaint, they will insist on the complainant using a noise recorder for a month (the Council will supply it) in order to gather evidence.

The Council will then review the recordings and then decide whether or not your tenants are causing a noise nuisance.

kinger101

Pixie5740 wrote: »

It depends on where the rental property is located. If in Scotland then yes as the LL you would have a legal obligation to ensure your tenants are causing a nuisance to the neighbours.

Gosh, they're a funny lot north of the border.

Pixie5740

kinger101 wrote: »

Gosh, they're a funny lot north of the border.

I wouldn't swap the property buying & selling or renting in Scotland with the systems used South of the border for all the tea in China.