Noisy neighbour
July 17th, 2008 catnipTags:antisocial behaviour, neighbour, noise
Posted in state of society |
I have a problem with my next-door-neighbour playing music extremely loudly. I feel powerless to do anything.
Last night (Weds) she played really loud music until 3am. I have been struggling to stay awake at work today. It’s not the time of day/week that’s the problem, it’s the volume. I don’t want to hear someone else’s music at that volume at any time of day.
The problem has been going on intermittantly since we moved into our house about 2 years ago. I phoned the police last night and was told that they don’t deal with noisy neighbour, which I’d kind of already guessed might be the case. I don’t really understand why they don’t deal with noise. After all loud music has been used as a torture weapon by some. My neighbour plays music so loud that the bass sounds like someone is hammering on the wall. I had about 7 hours of that yesterday when I was trying to sleep.
Anyway, the official route is to contact Environmental Health. We did contact them last September and their procedure is to send a letter out to the perpetrator and then get you to fill in a diary for the following two weeks. Presumably they know that after they have received the letter they might shut up for a couple of weeks. The problem did seem to get a little better for a little while, but then she was back at full volume. We didn’t do anything as the problem is quite intermittant.
It seems to have come to a head again this week, so I rang the council to see if I could use the diary forms that they sent me last time, but of course I can’t. They had closed the case. How convenient. Now they have to send another letter out and we have to keep the diary in the following two weeks, which will presumably be the quietest two of the year, following receipt of a warning letter.
I’m guessing the fact that they’ve sent out a letter before will hold no weight at all for my case. We’ll see what happens…
July 17th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Or there’s the civil remedy of bringing an action in private nuisance… that can be a little expensive I’m afraid.
If you’re leasing the property, odds on favourite she is too, there could well be a covenant in the lease that could be enforceable by you and / or your landlord.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:39 am
A written diary seems a bit old fashioned. Something like Qik or bambuser would be a time stamped record of not just the noise but could also include your comments on how wound up you are.
July 17th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Thanks Paul, we own our property, but hers is owned by the council.
Nick, I doubt somehow that the council would accept Qik or Bambuser as an official record, but even so it’s a great idea and will probably make me feel better :)
My colleague at work suggests that if the council don’t do anything, I should take *them* to court for not protecting my human rights. Not sure how serious he was, but i’m guessing that would be an extremely lengthy and expensive procedure anyway.
July 17th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Yay, she’s a council tenant! Get the biyatch evicted! :)
July 17th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
How awful for you.
Sounds like the best strategy is to follow the council procedure and keep at it. Not worry about continuing to complain and document isolated incidents because you know it’s likely to escalate to this sort of day long intrusion ultimately.
Some advice here about how to tackle it http://www.noiseconcern.org/
Wish there was a better answer though!
July 20th, 2008 at 11:02 am
The nice thing about computers is that you can generate the letter every month.
Be nice, be polite and note on the forms that the letter she received seemed to have helped.
Two weeks later, when she is back at it, send off your letter again.
(Do loop, repeat for as many times as needed)
By the 6th iteration, even the Council ought to get the idea….
August 1st, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I can sympathise with how utterly horrible this is and how powerless you can end up feeling, having had the noisy neighbour problem myself in the past. Some people are just so inconsiderate.
I really hope they’ve quietened down now … and that they bloody well keep it that way!
October 25th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
hi, had the same problem for 2 years now, dont know anything worse than booming bass, its like having one of those booming cars in your living room,sends you insane!! They must be so big speakers.The neighbour plays games with the volume to annoy and plays it intermittently also so you feel you cant complain because when a noise inspector would finally come around the noise will be down or off. I dread coming home from work and the weekends. Cant move home cos no one will rent to me cos although im working i have to get a bit of help from the council to pay and am treated like a leper by landlords—sorry no DSS!!
October 27th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
I totally sympathise, having one of these myself for the last five years.
He plays his old reggae (guh!) LPs through an enormous amp! You can feel it as much as hear it. What’s worse is, at the first hint of sunshine, he sticks the gigantic amp outside….. then the next door but one neightbour opens her windows, blaring out Babs Streisand and the battle begins! She’ll never win, though!
Hope your problem has improved by now!
October 28th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Thanks Karmadillo, things seem to have quietened down a bit lately, hopefully it will stay like that!