Noise issue

BrowndOff

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, I work in environmental health and we deal with noise nuisance complaints. You are trying everything we would recommend - speaking to your neighbours, seeing if it can be resolved amicably etc. Hopefully these fittings will reduce the noise impact to an acceptable level. If they don't, you have a few choices. 
The neighbours house being owned by the council should be a positive. Most council tenancy agreements usually include wording about not causing nuisance to other residents/neighbours etc. so that could be your first port of call. As the landlord, they may look to replace the kitchen - they are often replaced on a fixed time period in council houses, so if they are due, they might be able to bring that forward. You might be able to work with your neighbours on seeing if that is a possibility.
Second option is your local Environmental Health team. There is a legal requirement to investigate all noise nuisance complaints. Obviously, once you make a complaint, relations with your neighbours may sour, so worth considering that. Generally, we ask complainants to keep a diary of noise nuisance for 4 weeks to show the pattern and intensity of how you are affected. Once you've done that, either an officer will try and witness the noise themselves, or look to install noise monitoring equipment - the later may be difficult if the noise is sporadic and unpredictable.
You may find that if the noise impact improves after fitting these devices, you are less affected - or sometimes the opposite happens if you have become sensitised. That will be down to you. Good luck with it.

Phil, thanks. I have looked into all the statutory noise nuisances and am aware that many councils regard doors slamming as acceptable noise, especially where a building isn't very well soundproofed and not up to current standards, thus leaving it to the occupants to deal with it. Do you think it's a reasonable request if I end up speaking to them, as I am merely asking for soft closers, and happy to fit them at my expense. Hopefully I can just sort it with the neighbour but this lockdown has put the reins on it. Final thought: I know it's ridiculous, but it has really affected me, and is pretty disturbing, considering it's merely a noise.

[Deleted User]

I sympathise for you @BrowndOff as I am going through similar and know first hand the effect neighbour noise can have on you mentally. Anyone who tells you to just ignore the noise or wear earplugs obviously hasn't dealt with this before and has no idea what its like. I certainly wouldn't want to be walking around my house wearing ear plugs all the time. 

I can't offer you any advice as I am yet to find a solution to my own neighbour noise issues, which have been delayed due to lockdown, but I will certainly report back with anything that may help. 

In the meantime if you want somebody non-judgemental to have a complain and moan about this to then feel free to PM me.