advice on noise

[RichB]

Morning everyone,

 

Well seems like the afternoon to me been at work since 0545 and up all night.

 

I am having big problems with the neighbours and there music!!! been played between the hours of 2am to 9am everynight since thursday........ Im getting to the end of my paitance now!

 

Council - we'll go around at a selected date and time to look into it

 

police - its the council who sort it (you'll come around quickly enough if i drag him out of his flat thought wont you????????? eh yes!!!

 

What i have done is banged alot, gone around everynight to no reply or people just looking out of the window and looking away.... have wrote to them, the council and there landlord....

 

3 years ago when i was a student i'd have sorted it one way or another but now I just cant do this esp with my girlfriend living with me.

 

any help or tips welcome

 

Thanks a very knackered Richard

[ninjabeaver]

Morning Richard,

 

Never been in that situation.

 

Quick Google popped this up.

Nuisance neighbours | Home Office

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theoneshow/consumer/2009/05/19/how_do_you_deal_with_noisy_nei_1.html

 

http://www.whatprice.co.uk/advice/dealing-with-noisy-neighbours.html

 

Can you get a Decibel Meter and record the levels as well?

 

The only time I've witnessed this is my friends, who where moving after that to a detached property.

 

Keep pestering the council and the landlord. Get legal advice as well if you can afford it.

 

Not alot of help but hope it gets the ball rolling.

Edited February 15, 2010 by ninjabeaver

[Andrew_C]

The only real option is to keep hassling the council. They are causing a statutory nuisance under the control of pollution act, an it is the LA who are duty bound to take action. Trouble is, they won't want to do it. I don''t understand why, but they in my experience, try to avoid any response at all.

 

In my case (dgs barking day & night), the desk sergeant at the local police station (when such things existed) said, "Sorry, council; oh wait is that ****** the game keeper?" "He's just applied for a shot-gun ticket. I'll pay him a visit."

 

All sorted!

[IanT]

Morning everyone,

 

Well seems like the afternoon to me been at work since 0545 and up all night.

 

I am having big problems with the neighbours and there music!!! been played between the hours of 2am to 9am everynight since thursday........ Im getting to the end of my paitance now!

 

Council - we'll go around at a selected date and time to look into it

 

police - its the council who sort it (you'll come around quickly enough if i drag him out of his flat thought wont you????????? eh yes!!!

 

What i have done is banged alot, gone around everynight to no reply or people just looking out of the window and looking away.... have wrote to them, the council and there landlord....

 

3 years ago when i was a student i'd have sorted it one way or another but now I just cant do this esp with my girlfriend living with me.

 

any help or tips welcome

 

Thanks a very knackered Richard

 

Mate I know how you feel!!!!!!!! - I am going through the same at the moment with my neighbours!! they play the same old bloody tune, bass is so loud!! music is crazy!

 

What me and my partner have had to do is LOG EVERY time he plays his music, once its logged get the council to send you there log book, put it on there paper work, send it bk to them and they'll give you a password and number to ring and a person will come over from the council.........this is how it works with Sutton Council................if it continues then keep ringing the council and demand some sound equipment to record this!! we are getting some sound equipment next week we've been told.

 

I was reading a leaflet the other week and you can take this person to court your self and get financial support for it.

 

And to top it off the couple who live next door to us DONT WORK!! they sponge off people like you and me!! lazy .

 

Also lastly we have approached our neighbours twice, 1st time he turned it down but when I knocked on the door he got very nasty!!

 

Let me know how you get on!

[pagelad]

Was in the exact same situation last year, i ended up moving house in the end.

 

Ended up exactly the same though but the guys above us the second time insisted on pulling radiators off the walls so it rained in our flat :/

[AngryTechnician]

What me and my partner have had to do is LOG EVERY time he plays his music, once its logged get the council to send you there log book, put it on there paper work, send it bk to them and they'll give you a password and number to ring and a person will come over from the council.

This.

 

Record EVERY incident, insist that the council send you the paperwork for recording noise nuisances, and they will have to act once there is enough evidence. If you need to get a foot in the door to find the right people to talk to in the council, get in touch with your local councillor. It's part of their job to help out with situations like this.

 

Some councils also have a procedure whereby if 3 or more people complain about the same incident at the same time (i.e. you and two neighbours call in the middle of the night), they send someone out pronto, declare it a statutory noise nuisance, and issue an order to STFU (which if not complied with immediately, gets a police presence). Find out if your council has the same, and enlist your neighbours to help report. Again, your councillor should know the drill.

 

In the meantime, try these: Mack's White Silicone Ear Plugs 6 pack

 

We had an elderly neighbour who was half deaf a few years ago, used to leave the TV on b****y loud most nights because she was off her head on sleeping pills. These are comfortable enough to sleep in, and while they won't silence it completely, they may be enough for you to doze off.

[keithu]

If you aren't getting any joy from your local council you could get advice from The Noise Abatement Society

[SteveBentley]

You have my sympathy. My neighbours are generally ok, but last night one of the pillocks decided that 10pm was a good time to start doing some DIY and not finish hammering until gone midnight. Fantastic.

[RichB]

Cheers for the advice, just got off the phone to the landlord who says they'll send them a letter, if no luck by friday another letter, early next week no improvement final letter!

 

Can't really ask for more but we'll see if they stick by it.

 

One bed flat with at least 5 of them staying there..... and im paying council tax for what? council want nothing to do with it.

[srochford]

There are some contact numbers on the Leeds council website -http://www.leeds.gov.uk/Advice_and_benefits/Community_advice/Anti_social_behaviour_and_nuisance/What_can_I_do_about_domestic_noise_nuisance.aspx - not sure if these are the people you've already spoken to?

 

Dealing with any kind of domestic problem is always difficult - go in too early and you get accusations of nanny state, interfering in people's lives etc. The council also has to try and decide who (if anyone) is actually in the wrong - what if you have 2 sets of neighbours, each equally bad and they just want the council to join in the fight.

[russdev]

Had it few times as someone said local councillor is your friend surprising what happen when they ring the department.

 

Also if it is a council home ( I know in this case not) a new tenant then most LAs have policy that they can chuck you out within 12 months of the start of the lease with very short notice for pretty much no reason and certainly for anti social behaviour (key here is complain and make sure on council paper work).

 

Russ

[IanT]

Our neighbour has been playing his music tonight as loud as anything!!!

 

Does anyone know how much it would cost to take him to a magistrate court?

[RichB]

Thanks again guys!

 

Bit of an update....

 

Finally got hold of the guy upstairs sat down with him and had a bit of a "meeting" told him what i wanted and was not going to move on it or would go down the council, landlords and police route

 

(police man told me, if i said it was a noise problem they would not turn up BUT if i said there was about to be a breach of the peace happening if you did not turn up they would and make them turn the music off)

 

Since monday night like clock work the music has gone off at 10pm not ideal listening to his music till 10pm every night but better than listening to it from 4pm till 6am the next day.

 

On the plus side he also told me he has 3 mates staying with him for a while and has beds in there for them, so if it starts again he is in breach of his contract with the landlord and maybe the council because its a one bedroom flat....

 

Have to see where it goes from here.

[RichB]

oh and can not take him to court until the council has done a 30 screen test of you property joke i know!

 

If you do go, the county court will just throw it out straight away, went to see a solictor on the matter and paid £25 for letter to be sent to the property which will probally turn up today!

[Jamo]

We had this same problem in an old rental place we used to live in. It was the TV mostly here though, usually E4 when the Ads kick in at about 20DB louder than the program itself! The the GODDAMN Hollyoaks music! ARRRGGHH. The thing that made us move in the end was the parents went away for a week and their daughter had a party in which we could hear people talking in their kitchen next door!! We went and knocked on the door 3 times in total while we were there, and continuously banged on the wall didn't make any difference. We eventually decided to buy a flat instead and are much happier now!!

 

 

I really don't know what it is about building houses etc, but I don't know why the laws regarding building construction arent tightened. For some reason the carpet is included in the sound proofing reading meaning if someone takse the carpet away and replaces it with hardwood floors (which is what we think they had next door) then its like a direct connection to your wall!!!!! We used to hear them walk around with their big hoof feet too. It was a really nice house apart from that though

[RichB]

Same at our place, wood floors!!!! bang bang bang bang and there only off to bathroom!

[localzuk]

*insert comment about the old guy from the early series of Friends here*

[solitaire89]

You have my sympathy. Our previous neighbours were similar - there used to be music paying at all hours of the day and night. It was so bad that during the day cars would pull up to locate the source of the noise. The one member of the family was a drug dealer and we had a couple of dawn raids in the time we were there. Another member of the family was an alchoholic - he was found dead in the woods behind the house in the weeks before we moved out.

We did manage to stop the noise though before we found out about their "habits", not sure it's a method I'd have tried if I'd have known... We were just REALLY nice to them. To begin with they were really embarassed when they saw us, and then they started apologising, and in the space of about 3 weeks, the noise was pretty much gone. May have been more luck than judgement though

We've moved now though - have heard from other people we've kept in touch with from the area that they've gone through a "noise-relapse".

[IanT]

Update:

 

The council have been round this morning and installed some Sound Equipment for once Im now hoping he plays it as loud as poss so we can catch the little low life

[RichB]

move your speakers into the room and play YOUR music pretty loud.... then it will record your decibels as his!!!!

[RichB]

Well everything was going ok............. TILL THIS F******CKING MORNING MUSIC STARTED AGAIN HENCE THE TIME (5AM NOW BEEN UP SINCE 3.30AM)..... OFF TO WORK SHORTLY WITH MY MUSIC ON ALL DAY SEE HOW HE LIKES THAT TIME TO PLAY FIRE WITH FIRE GOT NEXT WEEK OFF SO LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!

[srochford]

TIME TO PLAY FIRE WITH FIRE

 

I know it's tempting, but if your neighbour is the complete *&!^ he seems, then this really won't help - if they complain to the council about your noise (or other neighbours complain about you) then it really won't get better.

[mac_shinobi]

I know it's tempting, but if your neighbour is the complete *&!^ he seems, then this really won't help - if they complain to the council about your noise (or other neighbours complain about you) then it really won't get better.

 

Plus if they do send someone from the council whilst your at work and they turn there music off and yours is playing whilst your at work , well you get the picture....

[IanT]

Update:

 

Our neighbour started his music up last saturday so we hit the record button!

 

problem is he hasn't done NOTHING since!!!

[jahbulon]

I haven't had anything quite as bad as this but my neighbours above have wooden floors and I more or less hear every footstep, thankfully though they go to bed by 11 every night like ourselves.

 

Funny thing is they came down to us for a chat one month because they heard our talkradio in the morning on the weekends, we mutually agreed to keep our volumes down as I informed him about the footsteps and the absurd bass on his TV sound system. Oh btw we have no sound system and no tv- all the sound is coming from a iMac with no external speakers and the volume is never at full [i did tell him of this and we agreed that we need sound insulation, I rent downstairs and he owns upstairs].

 

The house was converted to two parts before the sound insulation regulations came in. I'd much prefer to move but in general it is a pleasant and nice neighbourhood. Apparently they are trying to sell upstairs so god knows what we'll get

 

We've got a nice equilibrium at the moment. My story is over, all the advice given here is exactly what I've read elsewhere in the past and is sound.