Nuisance neighbours ... but only at weekends/night.

JustAnotherSaver

Our neighbours generally seem decent enough people. Through the day that is.
We're fairly private people and we don't go knocking on everyone's door on the street for the latest gossip but at the same time we'll say hi to others if we're passing on the street. The old dear to one side is lovely & we've had a few chats from time to time (usually summer time when out in the garden) and have found out a nice bit of history on the area, but i'm babbling on...

We live in a semi and our connecting neighbours are a young couple. One of them turned 30 this year. They don't seem the sort you'd find on Jeremy Kyle.

Anyway all was well until maybe 6 months after they moved in they came back one night around 12:30am & were making a right racket. This continued upstairs, they had a male friend round and it came to shouting and banging around upstairs to the point it woke my wife up & to begin with she thought someone was in the room it was that clear (unfortunately the bedrooms and living room connect, not the stairs).

Now we're not very confrontational people. Far from it. Personally if it comes my way i'll certainly deal with it but i don't go out of my way to initiate confrontation.

The noise continued to the point where my wife eventually just shouted for them to shut up as people are trying to sleep. Immediately the males responded in a childish voice shut up, shut up (& repeat repeat repeat) until his partner told him to knock it off as he was out of order.

Reception was frosty after that when we'd meet. Certainly from him. He seemed to scuttle away if we ended up being in the garden at the same time whereas normally he wouldn't.

All was ok for a while again until they were going away one weekend. 5-6am. Music up full whack in the house, going out to load up the car, door bang, back in to get something else, back out to put it in the car, door bang .... and repeat repeat repeat. Why they couldn't just leave a door partially open since they were going back & forth so much i don't know.

That was last year. FFWD to this year and while my wife was away i went to watch a movie one weekend. Already their noise was right up and it was 11pm by this point. I'm guessing they have some sort of karaoke game because they sing (i say sing but screeching & shouting would be more accurate) away to a whole load of different genres.
Normally our TV is about volume 20. To even just hear the movie i was watching i had to start on volume 35. Then it seemed to become a bit tit for tat. This made them turn their music up (even though my TV wasn't too excessive at that point) so again i couldn't hear the movie & had to turn it up again. By the end of it i was watching my movie at volume 72 & this went on until 2:30am. I recorded this, just sat on my sofa at the opposite wall, TV on mute & just recorded a video to show what it would pick up.

No mention of it when we'd see each other out in the garden.

Then some months later it happened again - their noise in to the early hours of the weekend. This time we were in bed anyway so creating no noise. We put our earplugs in and was just about able to shut it out.

Again another month or so later.

But then the most recent we were woken up at 2:00am to music. I went downstairs & they had music up loud and you could hear her shouting ready-steady-go and off he'd go screeching away.
I went back to bed, earplugs in but i was so P'd off and couldn't get my mind off it to the point where i was wondering if i was hearing their music through my earplugs or replaying what i'd just heard. I took my plugs out to find i was just replaying what i'd heard ... as their music was still going but different.

I went down again and again just stood there & set my video to record.

In the end it was about 3:30-3:45am before they knocked it off and about 4:00am before we were able to relax enough to sleep.


It's all random. Last weekend was fine. This weekend - who knows.

I'm disappointed in the recordings as they seriously do not do it justice. In both videos i'm sat 3.5 meters away from the party wall. This vibrates all the way up that wall to the bedroom.

I don't know if it's enough for grounds of complaint or what having never been in this position before. They have to be aware of how noise travels because if we can hear every creak they make then they have to hear ours.


I'm not an unreasonable person. Until 10 or 11pm they can make all the noise in the world for me. I couldn't care less but after that surely it's time to knock it off?

I understand you should be able to do what you want in your own home but when you have neighbours surely there's a level of consideration you need to have for others?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_VLFNwlpI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_VLFNwlpI

Date and time stamp in the file name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDTe_1Vv7Pk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDTe_1Vv7Pk


Sorry for the long rant. Anyone else here have neighbours you rather you didn't?

IAmWales

I understand your annoyance, but environmental health is not going to be interested in a very occasional noisy night. Normally in these situations I'd suggest a chat over coffee and cake, but these incidents are so rare that even that sounds like overkill.

And if you're going to get involved in tit for tat, then you're really no better than them. Ignore it and stick some earplugs in.

JustAnotherSaver

IAmWales wrote: »

I understand your annoyance, but environmental health is not going to be interested in a very occasional noisy night. Normally in these situations I'd suggest a chat over coffee and cake, but these incidents are so rare that even that sounds like overkill.

And if you're going to get involved in tit for tat, then you're really no better than them. Ignore it and stick some earplugs in.

I understand the comment about it being occasional but at the same time surely there's some law in place? What it is and if there actually is one then i don't know but i'd expect there to be some sort of noise law and if it's broken then it shouldn't matter how frequent it is surely?

If you get busted doing 150mph on an empty motorway & it's the only time you speed in 30 years of driving then you still get done for it right? The fact you only ever sped once in 30 years doesn't make it any better?

Anyway we use the earplugs (as said) and mostly they work but some times the noise is too loud even for that.
And not wanting to sound like i'm laying it on thick but i've had to go to ENT after one noisy weekend. The ENT clinic told me not to use earplugs to which i just said try having our neighbours then.

DoaM

FWIW I hear absolutely nothing from those videos ... until I turn the volume up to 30. (I normally listen to most things at volume 10 ... the audio out is connected to a Creative 2.1 sound system).

WestQueen

Yes I have neighbours that have zero respect for those living under them. I'm in a flat. Reached a point 15 weeks ago of things becoming so unbearable I tried to end my life... Yes it was that bad. I'm still living here having survived my suicide attempt and for now they seem to have improved and the noise has been less, some but OK for me to cope with.

JustAnotherSaver

DoaM wrote: »

FWIW I hear absolutely nothing from those videos ... until I turn the volume up to 30. (I normally listen to most things at volume 10 ... the audio out is connected to a Creative 2.1 sound system).

Yeah to be honest i myself will say (and did say) that the recordings did not do it justice. What it was like in person and what it sounds like it was like on a recording are massively different, but then you only have my word for that & i understand that doesn't sit very well with a good section of this message board. Depends which side of the line you're on i suppose?

I think the first clip is the most telling. Being sat on the opposite wall able to pick up the music clearly at gone midnight should at least indicate how loud the noise actually was.

sheramber

https://www.gov.uk/report-noise-pollution-to-council

andyca

I found this thread while considering posting about my own noise complaint, I think you have been given really good advice to just talk to your neighbor calmly, preferably with his girlfriend there as she sounds like a more positive influence. If it continues and disturbs you any more than once a month start moving down this list:
https://www.gov.uk/how-to-resolve-neighbour-disputes

If I can hijack this thread a little, does anyone know if running a noisy business from a home has any additional environmental or council considerations?

My neighbor runs a coffee van, which is started (including a diesel generator) at 5:30AM every morning 5-7 days a week. He clatters about with metal coffee pots etc. for two hours before leaving.
He returns at 3:30PM (just as the kids get home from school) and has the generator running for another hour or two while he clatters about again cleaning up.

I'm pretty much used to it now but the diesel fumes and noise are really getting to my partner so I'm going to have a chat with him. I wanted to be fully informed of regulations and have a consensus of what is reasonable before the chat. I'm going to ask him if it's possible to do his setup and cleaning at his destination rather than at home.

Everyone has to earn a living but it's been going on 3 years now and I'm having trouble keeping the peace.

takman

andyca wrote: »

I found this thread while considering posting about my own noise complaint, I think you have been given really good advice to just talk to your neighbor calmly, preferably with his girlfriend there as she sounds like a more positive influence. If it continues and disturbs you any more than once a month start moving down this list:
https://www.gov.uk/how-to-resolve-neighbour-disputes

If I can hijack this thread a little, does anyone know if running a noisy business from a home has any additional environmental or council considerations?

My neighbor runs a coffee van, which is started (including a diesel generator) at 5:30AM every morning 5-7 days a week. He clatters about with metal coffee pots etc. for two hours before leaving.
He returns at 3:30PM (just as the kids get home from school) and has the generator running for another hour or two while he clatters about again cleaning up.

I'm pretty much used to it now but the diesel fumes and noise are really getting to my partner so I'm going to have a chat with him. I wanted to be fully informed of regulations and have a consensus of what is reasonable before the chat. I'm going to ask him if it's possible to do his setup and cleaning at his destination rather than at home.

Everyone has to earn a living but it's been going on 3 years now and I'm having trouble keeping the peace.

Just tell him it would be far cheaper for him to run a cable into his house and plug it in than run a generator for 3+ hours a day!.

takman

JustAnotherSaver i would suggest buying a sound level meter; even just a cheap one from AliExpress will do. Then you will be able to give an actual value on how loud the sound is at specific places in your house.

This then makes it far easier to discuss the problem with people.

andyca

takman wrote: »

Just tell him it would be far cheaper for him to run a cable into his house and plug it in than run a generator for 3+ hours a day!.

The crazy thing is he has an extension cord plugged in overnight for the fridge. I have no idea why he needs to run the generator for all that time too.