What are our rights playing the drums?

Towser

I had problems with noisy neighbours and my local council threatened them with an ASBO if there were any further complaints.

I lived next door to a "Travelling family" who were a family of six from a caravan who had all nighter parties who had absolutely no consideration for anyone round the clock not just 7am till 11pm. This was in a tiny terraced house. I tried all the noise abatementment tactics with our council including our present one who did absolutely nothing. They are allowed to make a certain amount of noise and they were allowed to have parties. Phoning the environmental health and police did absolutely nothing. So I am pretty sure nothing will come of us playing the drums during reasonable hours.

We had to move in the end to our current house and was shocked to find out our current neighbors were the exact opposite and complained about music at 7pm! Since their complaint they have had the top floor of their house converted which took four months - noise from 7.30am till 10pm at night as well as their children monopolising the garden in the summer. I have suffered quite alot of noise myself and now prepared to give some back constructively getting my son lessons ect.

So I really wanted to know from drummers amateurs or professional what the law says. Rather than the anti drummers on this forum.

goodwithsaving

We aren't "anti-drummers", we are rational people, suggesting ways which you could mediate with your neighbours before you dig yourself into a very unhappy living situation. "Rights" this, "Rights" that is not always the correct way to go about things.
But go ahead........make a rod for your own back.

Person_one

There are no laws relating specifically to drum noise.

I play piano and several woodwind instruments which most people consider far more pleasant than the sound of drums alone, but I only play in a room on the non-joining side, never for more than about 30-45 minutes at a time and never after about 9pm.

Two wrongs don't make a right is a great lesson to your kids to learn.

marksoton

Towser wrote: »

I lived next door to a "Travelling family" who were a family of six from a caravan who had all nighter parties who had absolutely no consideration for anyone round the clock not just 7am till 11pm. This was in a tiny terraced house. I tried all the noise abatementment tactics with our council including our present one who did absolutely nothing. They are allowed to make a certain amount of noise and they were allowed to have parties. Phoning the environmental health and police did absolutely nothing. So I am pretty sure nothing will come of us playing the drums during reasonable hours.

We had to move in the end to our current house and was shocked to find out our current neighbors were the exact opposite and complained about music at 7pm! Since their complaint they have had the top floor of their house converted which took four months - noise from 7.30am till 10pm at night as well as their children monopolising the garden in the summer. I have suffered quite alot of noise myself and now prepared to give some back constructively getting my son lessons ect.

So I really wanted to know from drummers amateurs or professional what the law says. Rather than the anti drummers on this forum.

The petulance is simply dripping off this post.

Oh well, good luck.

w00519772

11pm-7am is night time to you. What if you neighbors work shifts and go to bed at 7pm only to be disturbed "all night" i.e. between 7pm and 11pm?

If you continue to disturb them then maybe they will create some disturbance when you are trying to rest/sleep. I would talk to them to find out what time they can tolerate noise.

As others have said; your son has the right to play whenever he wants; your neighbors have the right to report you to Environmental Health and Environmental Health have the rights to get involved.

Maybe you should think about your responsibilities rather than your rights i.e. I try to be a responsible neighbor maintaining good neighbor relations.

MacMickster

Towser wrote: »

I am pretty sure nothing will come of us playing the drums during reasonable hours.

I presume that this is a trolling thread (they always seem to increase during school holidays for some reason).

If not, whilst you may be "pretty sure" that nothing will come of your family's inconsiderate behaviour, it just takes the "wrong" neighbour to object and then you may find that a fist to the jaw is what comes as a result of playing the drums.

Arklight

Towser wrote: »

I lived next door to a "Travelling family" who were a family of six from a caravan who had all nighter parties who had absolutely no consideration for anyone round the clock not just 7am till 11pm. This was in a tiny terraced house. I tried all the noise abatementment tactics with our council including our present one who did absolutely nothing. They are allowed to make a certain amount of noise and they were allowed to have parties. Phoning the environmental health and police did absolutely nothing. So I am pretty sure nothing will come of us playing the drums during reasonable hours.

We had to move in the end to our current house and was shocked to find out our current neighbors were the exact opposite and complained about music at 7pm! Since their complaint they have had the top floor of their house converted which took four months - noise from 7.30am till 10pm at night as well as their children monopolising the garden in the summer. I have suffered quite alot of noise myself and now prepared to give some back constructively getting my son lessons ect.

So I really wanted to know from drummers amateurs or professional what the law says. Rather than the anti drummers on this forum.

What on earth does your vendetta against your previous neighbours have to do with your current ones? Building work is a legitimate reason for noise, drumming is not. Yet you are determined to punish your new neighbours for something that has nothing to do with them.

You sound like a total nightmare. You want to escalate a dispute with your neighbours for no reason at all. They have nothing but my sympathy and I sincerely help they have more luck with environmental health than you think they will.

duchy

As the mother of an autistic son I was always very aware that he was a noisier child than most other children and there is no way on this planet I'd have bought him a drum kit ....or allowed anyone else to without having somewhere soundproofed for him to play as I'd feel my neighbours already had more to deal with from noise from his meltdowns than if the lived next door to a family without ASD in the mix.

What on earth was the person who gifted this to your son thinking of ?
(I actually find it pretty hard to believe anyone would be stupid enough to gift a drumkit without checking with the parents first unless they really disliked them)

You've experienced living next door to an antisocial family -yet want to become one yourselves. It has nothing to do with anti-drummers it's to do with raising your children to be considerate of others by example.

sailerboy

Hi,
I'm a professional drummer.

A few years ago when I was 'semi-professional' (just getting started) I lived in a flat and used o practice. I kept it to daytime so as not to disturb the neighbours, but they kept complaining.

Eventually one of the more aggressive neighbours decided to take things further and took me to court for 'nuisance'. I told the judge this was my livelyhood and I needed to practice but the neighbour was really rude about my drumming, and the judge believed him.

Anyway I ignored the judge (have a living to earn) and the neighbour just went back to court! The judge said I was contemptuous (?) and I was given 3 days in prison.

After I came out I thought "That's it. No more!" And I found somewhere else to live.

Davesnave

Towser wrote: »

So I really wanted to know from drummers amateurs or professional what the law says. Rather than the anti drummers on this forum.

If you want to know what the law says about domestic noise, you ask an environmental health officer, not a drummer.