Solicitor recommendations for neighbour complaint

trex227

blurmoth69 said:

trex227 said:

... if you do want to get solicitors involved be prepared for it to be very expensive. The solicitors firm I worked for offered free 30 minute consultations but then the fee was £600 to take on civil disputes/litigation for the initial work and initial letters. The solicitors who dealt with these cases hourly rates were £200-£300 ... In a matter of months she ran up a bill of £10k- she didn’t care she had deep pockets and just wanted to keep going.

This are the kind of thing I have been scared by; legal costs if we instigate and/or if neighbour decides to that route.

It doesn’t really make sense for your neighbour to instruct solicitors to deal with this as if it ultimately it boils down to them not being happy with the noise you make the council is the route for them to take action on this. And if I were you I wouldn’t be trying to get solicitors involved from your side.

Even if they instruct solicitors you don’t have to- you can represent yourself.

blurmoth69

Sachs said:

Its not clear to me that directly approaching you and your partner, based on your description of both of them, would result in an improved outcome.

It was agreed in mediation that either of them contact myself. They did that via note through door few days after. It did give them improved outcome as I physically reduced the volume.

Sachs said:

You mention you believe you are being discriminated against and that your partner has cultural qualities that effect his noise but its not clear what form this discrimination takes so we can't really advise.

We figure that this is more of a side problem and why the housing association themselves closed our garden accusation in our favour. We didn't feel the need to persue this, maybe this was wrong and we should persue a claim against the housing association for discriminating against us and continuing to side with the the neighbour (think I mentioned the garden complaint in my waffle somewhere).
It is not the immediate issue at hand either way, just filling out some detail that may or may not be of use, probably if this went through solicitor (they would know if we need to get grity with legal details like that?). Discrimination is not directly what the neighbour complaints are based upon, it is more the circumstances of previous complaints.

Petriix

Thanks for providing clarity. Ultimately it seems that your partner and your neighbour have a fundamental cultural misalignment. I can sympathise: we have a large Turkish family two doors down who stay up late talking/shouting loudly in the garden. If they disturb us then we have to shut our windows; otherwise we try our best to accept it and not let it bother us. However, when they got a dog and left it barking in the garden all night we did have to take action. We did the whole taking recordings thing as advised by the council but, ultimately, they recognised the problem (and it probably did their heads in too) and they sent the dog to live with another family member. The dog was a beautiful (but massive) young Alsatian who just wanted to be let in, but the point is that some kinds of noise are just morally unacceptable to impose on people.

On the other hand, we also make an amount of noise: I like to watch movies with loud surround sound, we all play instruments (including piano) and we have the occasional late and noisy party (in the old times when this was allowed). However, we are on great terms with our immediate neighbours who are a middle aged couple and they have our mobile numbers and wouldn't hesitate to send us a message if we were disturbing them. Thankfully they just say that they like hearing the sounds of life.

Sometimes I can't actually stand the sound of my own kids playing/shrieking/squabbling, especially as they're now at home all the time and I have to try to work. I do try to keep them a bit quiet in the garden to avoid being a nuisance to the neighbourhood but it's not always possible to control them. Likewise, I doubt you'd have much luck trying to control your partner.

Here's what I would do in your situation:

1. Move your TV as far away as possible from the adjoining wall - not knowing your house layout I don't know if you have the scope for putting it in a different room, but whatever you can do to minimise the noise getting through.
2. Keep the windows and doors shut when you're being noisy.
3. Move the zoom parties and music lessons to a different room.
   
4. Ask your neighbour if there is a particular time when they are usually out or would be willing to accommodate the music lessons/practice.
5. Appeal to your partner to be quieter on the grounds that their actions are causing you unnecessary stress.
6. Consider lining the party wall with some kind of soundproofing: it could just be shelves or maybe some wall hangings etc. but anything that might make a difference.
7. Fit something soft to the inside of your internal door frames to dull the sound of doors being closed (you can get self-adhesive felt designed for furniture feet which works quite well).
8. Maybe explain to your neighbour that you can't actually control your partner and sympathise about the noise, but that the complaints are putting you in an impossible situation.
9. Consider changing partner or moving house.

Good luck!

blurmoth69

Petriix said:

1. Move your TV as far away as possible from the adjoining wall - not knowing your house layout I don't know if you have the scope for putting it in a different room, but whatever you can do to minimise the noise getting through.
2. Keep the windows and doors shut when you're being noisy.
3. Move the zoom parties and music lessons to a different room.

TV has always been on farthest wall away (it is full width of house though and it is small). We also do not have AV system attached either, again out of consideration of house not being well sound proofed. We are considerate. My partner could really help keep from going above what I think is acceptable level. Windows and doors are shut when possible, but we have had temps of over 25 degrees and this frankly is not acceptable to keep heated up; we have pets and they also need to be taken into consideration (gusts sometimes slam doors, but the doors that come with these new houses are hollow and light - we even have door stops, sometimes they get nudged by wind or pets, who knows, but they do). The parties difficult, but all rooms meet neighbour wall. We even tried upstairs landing last time, but it was just too dangerous (yes, we tried just to see if it would make difference - we got communication from neighbour so don't know).

Petriix said:

1. Ask your neighbour if there is a particular time when they are usually out or would be willing to accommodate the music lessons/practice.

I asked this specifically during mediation, which mediators thought was reasonable request. Neighbours shot this down, but came to agreement that we just turn it down. Music party was main thing that they wanted to stop, regardless of being open to communication to work around this (whatever the reason, they shot this down until mediators saw that we were making efforts to technically reduce this - didn't get so far as to technically make this work buying equipment to uses mics/headphones). My partner didn't like the idea of even being told when to do this, feeling their freedom would be violated, but we stopped it for now anyway. This was the biggest complaint.

Music lessons we asked where they found it best to be done, gave them the option which the mediators seemd to think was very fair to off, but the neighbours shot down too but with a bit of persuasion, agreed outside building in garden with doors closed. It is not appropriate for accoodation however, and was not thought about by either party when we soon after had temps upto 27 degrees, we couldn't sweat indoors with no doors or windows. This maybe needed a bit more thought and understanding on both parts, as we only theorised a solution, without factoring in real variables like weather.

Petriix said:

1. Appeal to your partner to be quieter on the grounds that their actions are causing you unnecessary stress.
2. Consider changing partner or moving house.

Working on this still, think it is reasonably the best solution, but we are married. Even luxurious properties have no say in neighbours, so don't see that as a gurantee.

Petriix said:

1. Consider lining the party wall with some kind of soundproofing: it could just be shelves or maybe some wall hangings etc. but anything that might make a difference.
2. Fit something soft to the inside of your internal door frames to dull the sound of doors being closed (you can get self-adhesive felt designed for furniture feet which works quite well).

We have discussed this in mediation that we were already trying things, but partner playing music in garden etc will likely still get complaints. Partner loves garden, culturally very talkative and sociable, so not sure how far we can get with this (the hope is, the complaints have not so far been about this, just music volumes which I am hopeful to get my partner to understand and work with). Still looking at things we can do in the home, especially as we are at end of terrace which means we only need to soundproof one side of the house. Again, garden sound is something else that would then take up their priority of complaints, but that is just guessing.

Petriix said:

1. Maybe explain to your neighbour that you can't actually control your partner and sympathise about the noise, but that the complaints are putting you in an impossible situation.

We have had this conversation in absense of my partner with the mediators present, which is where I had to highlight the cultural differences that may or may not be factored in (remember, we suspect some discrimination from the housting association, but not sure if this is from them directly or the neighbours - it is hard to tell when complaints have come via the housing association).

anselld

Your neighbours do not need to make allowances for more noise if you claim to come from a more noisy culture.  They simply need to treat you the same as they would any other person from any other culture. 

It sounds like you have made some efforts to reduce noise but your partner is perhaps in denial about the issue or just doesn't care about the complaints.

blurmoth69

anselld said:

Your neighbours do not need to make allowances for more noise if you claim to come from a more noisy culture.  They simply need to treat you the same as they would any other person from any other culture.

More noise for culture allowance!? Of course not. You would indeed be correct and I would agree.

Just that the culture background is what much of who we are derives, not using it as a blanket, only that there are differences (culture is I suppose assumed, so agree it doesn't need to be mentioned as such, but it was mentioned in mediations hence included here) of voice volumns and speak quantity (not claiming they differ in value, just mentioning that we wanted to be clear it was being considered as when all complaints are coing in one direction, it make a person a little defensive).

blurmoth69

anselld said:

They simply need to treat you the same as they would any other person from any other culture.

We have some doubts on that fully being the case (neighbour and housing association alike), but as that would be a legal issue, we think trying to get a better balance fixing some of the founded complaints would be better for all to focus on without getting legal (something the great feedback to this forum post have helped push me towards, rather than looking at a solicitor - at least for now).

Petriix

It does sound as if the problems are coming from both sides. Sometimes, once someone gets a 'bee in their bonnet' so to speak, they can't let it go and, no matter how reasonable you try to be, they will always be on the lookout for any minor transgression. Unfortunately you don't get to choose your neighbours. There's not a lot they can do to you in terms of legal action as long as you aren't actually breaching the legal limits (which are set pretty high), but they can keep hassling you in the way they have been without much recourse. I'm not sure if your housing association have any particular policy in terms of nuisance neighbours which might apply; they're probably more used to dealing with more serious antisocial behaviour.

blurmoth69

Petriix said:

There's not a lot they can do to you in terms of legal action as long as you aren't actually breaching the legal limits (which are set pretty high)

That is kinda how I arrived here with fear it might be best to approach a solicitor; the governemnt and council guidelines seem clear as you say, but I am hearing that the housing association could have an overwhelming case against us from neighbour if we don't build a defence. Knowing that the law does work like that, I don't know how far we legally need to accomodate our agreement, especially based on them breaking the agreement to communicate together; one small note does not stack against 100 complaints. But the law is a complex beast, I want to be sure we are not actually breaking any laws or agreements (so far, this is the second time complaints with housing associates against us, I don't want this affecting our tennancy ultimately).

sheramber

While you say you took action when a complaint was made you seem to expect your neighbour to repeatedly  put a letter in your door  every time  the same problem arises.
I would get annoyed by that as, after a complaint was acknowledged I would not expect the same thing to be repeated.  
While you expect your neighbour to make allowances because it is a modern house with little insulation   you also need make allowances for that fact as well and limit the noise.
Invest in heavier doorstops . for instance, to stop doors banging.  
 I find it very annoying to hear somebody elses's telephone conversation so conduct them indoors with the doors closed.   You can surely  close doors and windows for the length of the call.
Buy a fan if  it is too hot.

The  noise from your house may not disturb other neighbours because they are further away- not attached.