DIY Noise - Where do we stand?

Kimbos2

Thank you all for the replies.

As anticipated after begining drilling holes for kitchen cabinet doors...thumping at the door began. We decided today not to open the door to him as last weekend I was really shaken up by his aggresion (he is a tall musclely man!) As he cannot enter into a civil conversation and feels the need to shout and swear I decided finally I didn't want to deal with it.

The result...we are in a noise war! Currently got some speaker blowing R & B blasting through the floor.

TBH I would rather put up with this than confront his aggresive behaviour. Just discussed it with bf and I think we will call the council tomorrow and inform them of his behaviour.


Thanks again:o

paddy's_mum

Kimbos - you may think that I am over-reacting and why should you bother to take this next piece of advice. Make a diary of everything that your batty neighbour does, starting today. Record everything - what time you started, what time he came banging on the door, how long he has had his speakers blaring out, what time you stopped the diy - everything!

The reason for this is twofold - if the local authority do eventually have to get involved, they will ask you for this information. If you don't already have it, there will be a delay while you compile it. If this should ever go so far as to require Court action, you will be ahead of the game and be able to go a long way to prove that your actions were reasonable but that your neighbour's were not.

You may be wise to consider having an independant third party present whenever you begin work, simply to act as a witness if this goes downhill and becomes a real problem.

I do feel sorry for you when all you want is to bring your property up to standard. Sadly, idiotic neighbours like this can indeed create a war out of virtually nothing and the stress of the disputes eventually make you ill. Keep your cool, keep notes and keep hoping that this sad individual will soon enough find someone else to persecute.

PS What did your sellers say on the Spif, when you bought?

Kimbos2

Paddy's mum thanks again for your suggestions. And after thinking about our situation it certainly has the possibilty to get out of hand and therefor think making a diary of all activities and complaints in a really valuable idea. I think if we are to speak to council tomorrow they will expect some sort of history - so going to sit down now and jot everything down.

As for any info from prevoius onwner, it was an elderly lady who hadn't decorated since 1982!!! Don't think she had carried out any DIY since then!

I actually ended up feeling really guilty for the horrible man's other neighbours who have young kids and had to suffer his blaring music all day because of our actions

xlt_hunter

Chin up - good luck with the council and keep a log of everything

Some peeps are just plain to$$ers!

leo-saphira

paddy's_mum

Another thought! Would it be possible for you to have a quiet word with the other neighbours, diplomatically, to see if they are also having, or have had, problems with this particular neighbour. If they have also suffered abuse at his hands, that might go a long way with taking preventative action against him, should it ever become necessary. The 'idiot' is going the right way to proving that he is unreasonable by inflicting the music on the family-with-children as well as on you.

Perhaps best summed up in the phrase 'know thine enemy'. Good luck and hope it doesn't come to that.

Tim_L

Noise problems (and I have suffered them) are usually to do with a feeling of a loss of control and or fear of change (i.e. having a new neighbour moving in). The neighbour is probably having a quiet weekend, noise starts, he or she feels you as a new neighbour is likely to be noisy all weekend every weekend, construes this as a threat to peace and quiet, gets aggrieved and angry and eventually snaps.

The right way to deal with this is to build bridges, really. You need to reassure the neighbour that this is not going to be ongoing for ever, you should probably apologize for the noise (personally I'd take a box of chocs or a bottle of wine), try to agree a time when it can be done and some sort of protocol for allowing the neighbour to stop the noise if it really becomes an issue for a particular reason. Giving some sort of control over the situation allows for a negociation, which gives the opportunity for a sensible compromise.

black-saturn

You don't live over my boyfriend do you? It's very annoying, they seem to be hammering, sawing and drilling all weekend. They have damaged the ceiling of my boyfriends flat and caused water to come in. So yes I can see how aanoying it is if it's every weekend.

MontBelzoni

May i request a little background information?.

When you and bf first moved into the property did you:-

1 Introduce yourself to your new neighbors

2. Advise of forthcoming diy work including potential noise and hours of work/ timescale?.

thanks

MontBelzoni

Kimbos2

Hi all,

thanks again for your responses. When we first moved into our flat we did introduce ourelves. A month after we moved in we hired 2 builders to fit a new kitchen. We (admittedly) stupidly did not inform our neighbour we were having our kitchen replaced. TBH this is the first flat we have owned and we just didn't think. The first day the builders were in our neighbour came up screaming and shouting at the builders. As soon as we got home and heard of this we went down apologised for not letting him know about the work and after letting him know that we were keen to be on friendly terms ( I ivited him up to dinner when it was finished) he seemed happy and friendly. When the builders left we went down each time to tell him in advance we would be doing DIY (3 times). He continued to come up aggressively screaming and shout the odds at us, this also happened when we were hoovering a few weeks ago? Now he will not answer the door us. Last weekend the two neighbourhood officers appeared at the door to inform of of a complaint from our neighbour who was downstairs screaming and basically going mad. (he clearly has problems with aggression) I asked if we could try and have a conversation about it, but he wouldnt speak to us. We agreed to cease DIY for the weekend to let him cool down.

I would love to build bridges with him as I really don't want an enemy - especially in an agressive man, that frankly, I'm scarred of. We have been nothing but polite to him, even in the face of his aggressive behaviour.

We spoke to the council today and they have asked we record any actions down and send in a written complaint. Thanks to Paddy'smum's suggestion we have a list of incidences so that is the next step for us.

I value the balanced opionions recieved as it allows me to see his point of view which i was finding hard to do.

Thanks again

littlejaffa

We had similar downstairs neighbours, but their issue was that our floorboards (barely) squeeked when we walked on them...we had carpets onto of the floorboards too.
The abuse and agressive screaming go so much we were about to move, when they suddenly did. Only later i found out the abuse was more to do with how much they'd drank than any floorboards.

I wish now that I'd contacted someone (council/police etc) to complain about their abuse, noise is one thing but personal attacks and abuse should never be tollerated. Instead I put up with things far longer than I should have and was getting worn down because of it.

By all means check out your housing office etc...but remember you are within your rights, and they are the problem, their behaviours is not acceptable and you do not have to put up with it.