Noisy neighbours

PeggyMay

Hi littleblue, yep I can relate to all of that. We had drugs paraphernalia thrown into our garden during one of their parties... and cheeseburgers! We have a puppy who chews everything, so not good.

We have definitely become sensitive, we find it hard to ever relax now because we never know when the noise is going to start up. Sometimes I say to myself, right, I’m not going to let this get to me today. And I go to have a little meditate in the garden, listen to the birds chirping, enjoy the peace and quiet... and then five minutes later, they’ll put their music on again.

I wish we could move, but we just can’t afford it. We are stuck here, at least for the foreseeable future.

We have been through some horrible stuff these last few years, and now that’s finally died down, we were so looking forward to a summer where we could actually relax and enjoy our home without having any truly monumental and horrific life stuff to deal with. Our neighbours have stolen that summer from us.

We want to move to the countryside! But as I said, money is just too tight. Our income has been slashed in half this year because I’ve had to give up work due to my poor health. We can’t afford to sell/buy, and will find it hard to rent somewhere due to low income that doesn’t meet the minimum for renting, and also the fact we have pets.

JimmyChanga

Given they are tenants there's a good chance they will move on. It could be a lot worse. If other than the noise they are not making a nuisance or baiting you then they likely are not necessarily 'bad' people but don't see eye to eye with that one issue.

RelievedSheff

Where there is a will there is a way.

Don't give up on the idea of moving as it is certainly your best option. Nothing is going to change with your neighbours.

Fire_Fox

PeggyMay wrote: »

We feel the noise is ‘unreasonable’ when their bass is so loud that we can’t concentrate on what we are doing, or sleep, or rest, or enjoy our home and garden.

But, I have no idea what constitutes a ‘statutory nuisance’ so far as the noise team is concerned. Their parties are certainly above this level. Although we haven’t monitored the noise level of those yet as we’ve only just been made aware of how to do this by the Council’s noise team. The day-to-day noise I’m not sure about... it is at a lower level than the parties. I don’t know how loud it has to be to officially constitute a statutory nuisance.

I’m uncertain as to whether the noise team considers a certain decibel level to be ok, regardless of its impact, regardless of whether it’s interfering with our life and our health. That’s what I’m uncertain about. But I guess we will find out soon enough once we start using this noise monitoring app.

No one else has complained so far as I am aware, but then the noise is worst for us, because of the way our house is positioned relative to theirs. We don’t have an adjoining wall but their house is next to ours and the noise is funnelled directly at us, especially when they leave their side door open (which is very frequently). I imagine it can also be heard very loudly in the house the other side of them... but that property is currently vacant.

We put up with a lot from them already. We tolerate a certain amount of noise from them. We don’t expect to not ever hear them. But when it is stopping us from working, resting/relaxing and sleeping, we cannot just put up with it because of the serious impact it has on us.

We don’t want to stop them having parties, we just want a bit of notice so we can plan around it, so that our day is not completely ruined. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.

As for the day to day noise, we want them to keep it below the level the council told them to, and to keep their side door shut or, if they are going to leave it open for long periods, to turn the music down accordingly.

This has been instructed to them by the council. They have not complied. We will be taking it further up the council as the housing officer we’ve been dealing with is ineffective.

I hope that clarifies things a bit. There has been some useful advice posted above about the next steps we can take, and I am grateful for this, thank you. We will pursue.

I think you may have misunderstood what powers a Housing Officer has. Seems like the HO has been addressing this primarily as a neighbour dispute including noise (within their remit) rather than as a statutory noise nuisance (more the remit of council's EH officers). IYSWIM.

You should have referred (self or by the HO) to Environmental Health at the local council (?Noise Team?) at a much earlier stage, when the loud parties were ongoing. It is a shame that was not made clear to you.

However, given that you have not been dealing with EH officers to date, this actually means that you have by no means exhausted official channels. Your noise diary to date should really help EH 'hit the ground running'.

Many factors are relevant in EH officers deciding what action to take, yes the impact on the complainants (subjective and objective) is relevant not just the noise level in decibels, time of day, duration etc. (objective). Obviously it is easier to prove objective than subjective in any legal action, so EH will be keen to have both wherever possible.

Do read any guidance online on noise nuisance from local government (EH department of council), from our national government (gov.uk) and from organisations like the Citizen's Advice Bureau.

HTH.