Neighbour issues

colz1234

Hi all. I have recently bought my first property. It's a detached coach house with 4 garages underneath, 1 of them being mine, but I am having problems with noise from one of the neighbours hammering and drilling on and off over the period of several hours, normally on saturdays and occasionally in the week as well. As i work nights, i normally goto bed about 2PM, which is when the noise is quite often happening, and my bedroom is directly above the garage with the noisy neighbour, and its pretty impossible to sleep with that going on. Even if I am the other side of my property, I can still clearly hear the banging, just goes straight through everything. I can also hear him rummaging about most days when i'm trying to sleep, dropping things and generally banging about. They have access to this garage directly from their back garden which is probably the reason it gets used so much.

The lease agreement for the garages has 2 key points which state:

1.Not to use the garage other than for the parking of private motor vehicles or for storage.

2.Not to carry out any repairs to any motor vehicles for the time being in the garage other than minor repairs which can be carried out without causing any noise or nuisance or disturbance.

Now to me what he is using it for is more than that so does this not breach the agreement?

I have not yet approached him/her and would rather send them a letter as i don't wan't to lose my temper when confronting him about it if he replies with some smart !!! comment.

I have taken a recording of the sound and was thinking of sending this on a USB stick with the letter so they can hear what i have to put up with it.

I would just like some advice on what to do would be very much appreciated.

moneyistooshorttomention

I would certainly say he is contravening the terms of the lease from what you say.

Keep a diary of events - and your sound recording you mention.

Good luck.

kazwookie

I'd go round and ask him carefully, what he is doing / howe long it is going to take.

Then I would send a letter and may be involve the LL as well

davidmcn

What are they hammering/drilling, and how long has this been going on? If it's some sort of DIY project then presumably it will end at some point. The problem may largely be (a) your sleeping pattern (Saturday afternoon is hardly an antisocial time to be doing work in your garden/garage) and (b) possibly poor sound insulation if the noise really does just go "straight through everything".

I don't think a letter is a great first approach to it (especially accompanied with a USB stick of evidence!).

AdrianC

I don't think working in a garage at 2pm is inherently unrealistic.

Have you discussed this with him? Does he know you work nights and sleep in the afternoon?

anselld

Why would your first assumption be that there will be a confrontation and you will lose your temper?

Most people are decent human beings and if you explain your circumstances most people would try to reach a suitable compromise, e.g. stop work by 2pm.

seven-day-weekend

I also do not think 2 pm is an unreasonable time to be working in your garage.

It is you that is out of the norm, you can't expect other people not to have a life because you work nights.

Get some ear plugs!

Davesnave

Passive-aggressive tactics aren't the best opener here.

You need to talk to your neighbour and find out a bit more before deciding what to do.

Coach houses may be 'detached' in a limited sense, but they're essentially flats above garages and come with similar risks as regards neighbours, albeit ones who are not usually there for long periods.

PasturesNew

I think some of the above posters have missed the essential points:

These are garages under a flat. Four garages on the ground floor, 1 flat above. Commonly found in new build estates.

The lease of the garage specifically states "no working on cars" in the garages. The garages are for people to store (safe/household/car) stuff and to park their car.... not to be hammering and drilling on a regular basis.

Now, nobody minds if the car's broken down and they've had to get a mate round to fix it and it's raining ... just once .... but this chap seems to be keen on doing lots of car repairs/work in the garage, directly under a flat, where the lease says this is not allowed.

What the time of day is is irrelevant in this case.

Garage user is being a tedious, arrogant, 4rse - and in contravention of the terms of the lease - and that contravention is DIRECTLY affecting the OP.

davidmcn

PasturesNew wrote: »

this chap seems to be keen on doing lots of car repairs/work

OP doesn't say that the noise is from car repairing.

cbrown372

If he is putting together flat pack furniture I don't see that he is contravening the terms of the lease.