Neighbours with hyperactive kids now in Easter holidays!

comeandgo

At night when the noise is bad and you want to sleep, have you tried head phones with some relaxing music? It's what I sometimes use to help me sleep. Are the children school age? They will be going back to school soon. You are in an unfortunate position, being in flats. Have you tried to look at house swap? Are you in a good school catchment area? You could use this as a point to see if anyone wants to swap with you.
You said it would cost money and you would need help moving. Could your brother help if you were able to get a swap?
Could you offer to babysit the children and let the parents go out for a night? You would be able to see exactly what the children get up to that makes your light shades move.

Fireflyaway

They are ' massive foreign people' ! What?!

Maybe that's part of the issue? You have already made a judgement based on their appearance and nationality. Do you think a fat person will squash you if you make a complaint? Or maybe in their country they chop up and boil anyone who doesn't agree with them?! There are inconsiderate people everywhere. Deal with them as you would a thin British person!!

On a serious note. They may not realise. Some people get so caught up in their own lives they fail to see what impact their behaviour has. I'd approach them politely ( be sure to wear protective anti squash gear) and let them know. Don't go round all pumped up ready to complain ( or you might get boiled) just say hi, even introduce yourself and let them know the issue. You might be nicely surprised. They might also be struggling too, especially if the child does have special needs.
I'd always try the friendliness lowest level approach first. Reporting someone is a sure way to annoy them.

TBagpuss

OP, your options are to raise the issue with your neighbours, or to change your own behaviour / environment so you can cope with their noise.

I understand that you feel nervous about approaching them but you can't address the issue without them being approached one way or another, and starting with a note, or a complaint to your landlord or to environmental health is likely to come across as very aggressive and unpleasant, so it is likely to be better to start by speaking to them directly.

I would start by addressing it at the time it happens, if at all possible. So if you are being woken up early in the morning, put on your dressing gown, go to the door, and say "Sorry to bother you, but could you keep the noise down? The noise you / your children are making is so loud it has woken us up"

Going in the moment shows that you have in fact been woken up, (there you are!) also, it directly links the amount and type of noise to the disturbance it causes you so they know exactly what you are talking about. And if you do it in the morning rather than late at night, the first time, the chances of them having been drinking at that time are probably a lot lower!

You may well find that they are perfectly amicable and very apologetic. They may well be completely oblivious of how loud they are, or that the level of noise is impinging on anyone else.

How you progress from there depends on how they respond. If they reasonable, then you can do the same the next time there is noise at unsocial hours, and at that time you can perhaps say to them something along the lines of " we understand that children make noise, but could you keep the noise down before 7.30 in the morning and after 10 at night, so we can sleep?" or something similar.

if they don't respond reasonably, if they are rude or dismissive or abusive, then at that point, contact your landlord (I think you mentioned you are Council or HA tenants?) ask them about whether they can help, on the basis that the neighbours are causing a problem and that you have tried to address it directly without success. They may have a mediation system or be able t work with you to address the problem.

If they can't or won't, then you can escalate to environmental health over noise nuisance , particularly at night.

For any of those options, keeping a diary of what type of noise, how long it goes on for, and what time it starts and ends is likely to be useful, so you can accurately identify the problem. Bear in mind it is much more likely to be considered an issue if it is happening late at night, than during the day.

Your other option is to try to change your own environment to reduce the impact on you, which you can do without having to speak to anyone.

try a white/brown/pink noise generator - you can download free ones to use with a smart phone to see if they help. I found that using a brown noise generator with oscillation worked really well for me when I had noisy neighbours.

You could also try to work out whether there is anything you can do in terms of rearranging your furniture / how you use your space to minimise the impact of the noise, and could even consider whether any form of internal soundproofing (even if it is just on one wall / ceiling) is worth considering.

Samsonite1

If you have not introduced yourself to them - go around with a cake and just say hello with no agenda. At least then if you want to talk to them about noise, you would have started off on a positive footing. You never know, it may act as some sort of reverse psychology or if you make it clear where you are in relation to them, they may at least have you in their consideration (more so than if they do not know you).

Noise can be relative. At my last house, the neighbours were incredibly noisy and had just one child, but 3 generations (child, parents/uncles, grandparents) there most evenings and weekends. They were foreign, but not particularly massive... They definitely shouted more than most people and I hated it, but eventually I spoke to them a few times about mundane stuff and I started to be more tolerant of their noise once I knew them a bit better, but it seemed that they were also more considerate over time as I maintained a friendly relationship with them.

Thorsmaw

I think you need to toughen up a bit! Just go and tell them you need them to quiet down. That's literally all there is to it. If they don't make any effort to do so then make a formal complaint.
No point in hiding behind a "disability" to avoid taking responsibility. Anonymously complaining about them is cowardly, toughen up and go and speak to them.

pimento

I like the easter egg idea. Say you've heard the children and thought they might like an easter egg. Say hello, "I'm your next door neighbour and thought it was time I introduced myself". Make some small talk, offer them a cup of sugar if they ever need one and take the fear of the unknown out of the situation.
You never know, they might be really nice (if a bit loud spoken).

Serendipitious

There seems to be an app for everything now, including recording Noise levels. Don't know if it's any good or whether your council participate in this scheme, but here's the link:

http://www.thenoiseapp.com/#/

arbrighton

FBaby wrote: »

Nope, so here we are. OH is clear though that we shall be living where they are no neighbours within 500 yards!

Has some benefits especially now there are two barking dogs rather than one and rather imminently, also a crying child. Oh and if I want to hoover at 1am, I can

BUT: noone to take in your parcels and noone to notice when your garage is being burgled.

scorpsub

We thought we would update, had a few ongoing issues that escalated and yesterday were woken up sometime after 6am (I assume 7.30 at very latest pushing it) and noise all day till 9.40pm bar a few minutes here and there of silence.

Then again today so went up 30 minutes ago and had a chat with the lady, she admitted the noise yesterday but said it started 8.30am (as her kids wake at that time) and all the noise I am hearing is from couple above them, the couple above them has a dog which explains the howling sounds I am hearing (but not how it travels down 2 floors of a building) they did quickly jump in and say they wore slippers in the house without prompting so it must of been on their mind but I notice they have laminate in every room! Which is banned in council flats! So I assume thats where the noise is coming from they also admitted the bedroom was full of children so imagine the noise with laminate!

So not sure what to do, we are nice people and they seem nice so it seems a issue more they have laminate than anything else.

They again without prompting said in future if they plan a party or have family round they will inform us, so we are torn as if we report the flooring it may seem petty but its a noise nuisance and banned.

IAmWales

Does your contract state laminate is not allowed? If you report them I would expect the noise to get far worse. I wouldn't blame them either.

The neighbours were very polite to you, and the noise is restricted to the daytime. You need to either stop being so sensitive (and judgmental) or move somewhere without neighbours.