neighbours pipes

worried123

I want to approach my neighbour regarding noisy pipes but want to know if I have any rights beforehand.   I have lived here for many years and never heard any noise from my previous neighbours.   New neighbour....of about 3 years had something done to her bathroom.....i had drilling in the adjoining wall for days - immediately the moshorrendously loud noise whenever she runs her taps.  it is like living on a station platform and the fast one is going through....it is horrendous and esp in my kitchen.  I know every time she runs her taps and when she turns them off with a shunt noise.   I have had about two years of it and can honestly take no more....its stressful, its pushing me over the edge and i even put a white noise machine on when she runs them as i cannot stand it.  if you can imagine the noise of your own taps when you run them, i can hear that as loudly from her taps in my home. 
I live in a bungalow that is semi dtatched to her house....sounds strange i know and my loft door is in my kitchen and i think the bulk of the noise is coming from there.  The loft is insulated etc and i can only imagine what the noise would be like if i was a house with it coming straight through the walls.
I am not good at confrontation and she is not very friendly......i have never exchanged any conversation with her as she tends to just turn the other way or blank if you see her..she talks to nobody around here....the only time she introduced herself was 6 months ago when my fence had come down in the back garden and she turned up on my doorstep with a man in tow...a workman and allowed him to to talk about my fence needing mending etc.......very threatening and inappropriate (it has indeed now been replaced with a new fence).....so as she is so blatantly unfriendly i thought i may put a note through her door including my phone number if she wanted to discuss it.
The bottom line is this noise is now driving me insane...literally affecting my health....i have a very stressful job which is partly working from home and i swear that all she does all day is run her taps....
Does anybody know what legal rights i have, if any, regarding this situation so that i am forearmed when i approach her...i have been putting it off because she is so unfriendly and she almost looks quiet hostile...and also i hate confrontation but i am at the end of the line with this now.
sorry for rambling......many thanks

Carrot007

You have zero rights.

It has obviously been done on the cheap by morons.

I am unsure from your post what actually is occuring.

Yiou can of course offer to fix things at your cost with competent people! They may not agree. (if they do not agree to that then best option is move if it bothers you that much).

FindMyWayBack

Is this the same woman who mows her lawn in the middle of the night and hacked your hedge to bits?

Carrot007

FindMyWayBack said:

Is this the same woman who mows her lawn in the middle of the night and hacked your hedge to bits?

Ahh history. OP move, making a point will only cost you your sanity.

worried123

i have not posted here for a very long time and now i know why i dont bother.  

FindMyWayBack

And I have no clue what either of you are on about.... I merely asked a question for context

knightstyle

She has probably had a water pump fitted to increase the water flow so at least the noise is not for long at a time.   She could have had noise suppression pads fitted under the pump but those cost money!

[Deleted User]

You will get many more replies if you repost this in the House Buying, Renting & Selling sub-forum. Good luck!

twopenny

My semi detached neighbours son in law 'worked' on her ballcock in the attic water tank. It then banged away every time she had a shower or ran water.

I tried mentioning it to her but as all was working for her and it cost nothing she wasn't prepared to get a plumber in even though it was a small job.

I agree too that it could be a water pump. There is one installed here that makes a racket but only while the shower is running.

Bungalows are notoriously bad for noise transmission and shared wall more so, so it's probably nothing she has done deliberately.

Have you spoken about it to her politely and invited her in to hear it?

Phil4432

Its very doubtful that the council would help with this.  At best, they could advise the neighbour to somehow quieten the taps but they can't make them do anything. 

If it was causing damage to your house, then maybe something could be done. 

If you have had recurring trouble with this neighbour, unfortunately moving might be a solution.  Its a forceful eviction, but we simply don't have the means to have our rights for peace and quiet enforced in this country.

Sorry I can't suggest anything more.

worried123

Many thanks for your replies - much appreciated.   I suppose the only chance of a solution has to be telling her about the noise.
thanks again.