Neighbours claim noise from my boiler is disturbing them

princeofpounds

Too early by far for a technician. Go see if you can hear the ticking yourself and identify the source (or even ask your tenants to look out for it).

- Ask if it happens every single night.
- Ask if it starts and stops at the same time.
- Ask why they think it is the boiler; point out the walls are fairly solid, they don't presumably know the exact layout of your property.

I'd go with ticking pipes too as a best guess; the boiler isn't doing anything specific at that time. You may even find it is their pipes!

Lord_Baltimore

Repetitive noises can drive people to distraction and may lead to irrational actions. Help to get to the bottom of this to avoid any escalation in tensions!

It will be important that you are seen to be sympathetic and helpful.

stator

They can be very annoying and at night the tiniest thing can make a noticable sound.
As people have said above I would ask your tenants to try turning their heating off at different times, a bit earlier or a bit later. Ask the neighbours to keep a log of when exactly the ticking comes and goes and how long it lasts.

samba

Sometimes late at night I can hear the pump running in my boiler, which is on the outside wall of my house in my garage, one floor down and a room across from my bedroom.

We have ticking pipes in our bedroom which we can hear in our lounge too. I actually find it comforting cos I know the boiler has just fired up and the heating is on.

martindow

I can't see that this can be pipes cooling down if the times are right. If the boiler goes off at 9 I would expect any noises as pipes cool down and move would be over long before 11.

abankerbutnotafatcat

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and advice :-)

G_M

abankerbutnotafatcat wrote: »

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and advice :-)

let us know if/how this is resolved....

aileth

Some good advice here.

Have to say I'm not wholly sympathetic with the neighbours. If you live in such close proximity you have to accept some degree of 'living noise.' We can hear our next door neighbour when they close the back door, or when their washing machine is on spin cycle, but that's a huge blessing compared to the 24/7 dub-step we used to have.

GolfFoxtrot

My neighbours gas meter is located outside of their property, it makes a squeaking noise when the little wheel is turning indicating they're using gas. Persoanally it's just one of life's facts you'll get some noises from the neighbours. As long as they're not parting all night I'd probably just class it as one of those noises.

srcandas

I had something similar in my semi and it was very annoying. The clicks were loud enough to keep you awake for long periods. They came in bursts building up then dying away. They sometimes seemed to occur without much logic. And it concerned me that the neighbours might hear it (although they never complained) It was diagnosed as pipes where they pass through the joists. As someone said not a cheap job to resolve.

Sorry our solution doesn't help you OP but we switched to a combi and with the tanks and various pipes not used the problem went away never to return.

ps Just an aside the combi best thing we ever did but we are two in a 2 bed semi. Appreciate if you have many bathrooms and lots of occupants you can get a different result. :beer: