Noisy Neighbours Forum - Noisy Neighbour experiences

Noise during the daytime

2010-09-05T02:07:22Z

Hi all,

I'm at my wits end with my neighbours, who having spoken to them on several occasions seem like unreasonable and unwilling people, totally selfish about their own ability to create as much noise as possible.

The noise is very loud shouting (not arguing, simply just shouting as a means of communication) and sometimes music, and it comes right into my living room.

Sometimes the noise is during the daytime and having confronted them about this, they say it's not early and therefore they can make as much noise as they like. I've spoken with the lettings agency and landlord but the problem persists. I've made first contact with the local council but as one of the criteria is the time of day the noise occurs, I wonder if being daytime will not work in my favour.

Does anyone have any similar experience or knowledge regarding daytime noise?

Regards,

Compost.

Help, what do we do?

2010-09-04T17:58:00Z

Myself and my family have lived in our flat in Nottingham for nearly 20 years. 6 months ago our housing association moved in this mixed raced woman with her 2 kids, and she keeps complaining about the noise of our surround sound television, we put it on a moderate level in the day time and turn it down a notch or two, in the evening. And rather than talk to us about it, she puts threatening abusive notices through our letter box. We have found this strange as we have lived in the flat for 20 years nearly and had no complaints from all the neighbours.

Her kids, are noisy and bang the walls on purpose at 11pm at night, when we are asleep

She lets her kids play around the area, even at 11pm at night and they shout and scream outside

they put rubbish all over the floor, make a bike ramp in the middle of the carpark, which obstructs other cars from going in to park and Also play ball games, when it says no ball games because of the damage balls do to cars.

She gives my mum abuse, as she asked her politely for her kids to move the bikes as they were obstructing the communal landing, and she couldn't get past and the woman was in my mums face calling her a f*cking *itch and saying that we have made her life a living hell since she has moved in.

she has made no effort to make friends with us, all the people in the other 5 flats are good friends of ours as we have all lived there for longer than 10 years.

I have been threatened by her boyfriend once from coming home on a night out, stopping me from getting past, threatening me and forcing me to apologise

We have phoned the housing association up to report it several times but they aren't doing anything about it, this woman is a nasty cow and we want to get her and her brats evicted.

Should we not pay rent until its sorted???

Please Help!!

noisy neighbour

2010-09-04T09:46:09Z

every day, usually before 7 a.m. we are woken by our neighbour vacuuming. our local council call it "lifestyle noise". it is annoying and has been going on for some time. any ideas what we can do?

Why can people so selfish and ignorant???

2010-09-04T09:42:57Z

My parents and I have lived in our current home which is council owned for ghe last 25 years. It is a fantastic area and street with nice people, except for my neighbour!!!!! Our neighbour has lived next to us for about 7 years, its fine fr a period of time as the 4 children they have were young and the husband worked.

About 18 months ago the husband left and the women has a new bloke and he moved in, during the summer months the family laze aroung in the front garden all day with music blaring out, their language is disgusting f***ing this and f***ing that. Cigerette buttd all over the garden. My partner works from home and it really affects her as she can hear the music clearly and the foul language used. She cannot have the windows open!!!! especially on a hot day. They have all sorts of people visiting verday they all share the same mentality - "they are all ignorant".

Our stress levels are so high that it is affecting our quality of life, our home should be a place where we can. I don't even look forward to coming home after work or the weekends. We have written to the EH, they send letters out and the noise do stop for only about a week but start agin anyway.

I know it sounds horrible but I cannot wait for the winter months to happen as they will not be outside the property making noises and make the street look bad.

Another thing is that no one in the household works (all on benefits), all they do is drink, smoke, use foul language and play loud music and disturb us while we all work trying to make ends meet.

Also they are a very rough family, believe you me I love to have word with them but I work during the day which leaves my partner and my elderly father at home which worries me.

I do feel sorry for all the good people who have selfish, ignorant neighbours.

Mentally Ill Noisy Neighbour

2010-09-04T09:39:57Z

Ok.. Thank Heavens I have a place to go to share and listen to others! I have a chap above us who is in care.. he is looked after by his family/social workers. His flat is a first floor flat and we live on the ground floor with two children. We loved the flat when we bought it but soon discovered a real problem which the seller neglected to tell us about. This guy talks to himself day and night and also grunts continuously..which I did get used to in time.. although I have taken to sleeping with an ear plug in one ear and the other on a sound pillow which plays music via an ipod etc so at least I fall asleep to noise of my own making..
but recently he has started stamping or banging on the floor at imaginary god alone knows what objects.. often at 3 am.. I wake up and can then never sleep. I am now on anti depressants and sleeping tablets..
I am going to take this further as I believe he should live on the ground floor not between two residential flats.. its so unfair and I worry its killing me!
i feel for hime because he doesn't know better and the most frustrating thing is you can't reason with him.. he simply doesn't understand the consequences of his action!!

Give us your suggestions to improve Noisy Neighbours

2010-09-03T18:49:04Z

Hi everyone

It's good to see the forum getting some good discussions going, with people explaining their predicaments and others giving tips and advice on how to tackle noisy neighbours. As the forum gains members and posts, I'd like to ask visitors if there are any features they would like to see on Noisy Neighbours, either on the website itself or on this forum.

Please reply to this topic with your ideas, and if any are popular enough, I'll try to implement them.

To get you started, I would suggest a general forum, for discussion of topics other than noisy neighbours (so alongside the Noisy Neighbour Experiences forum there would be another one, where people could chat about anything).

Cheers,

Laurence
NN Administrator

Where do I stand as a private tenant with a nuisance neighbour?

2010-08-31T20:10:31Z

Hi all,

I am a private tenant renting through a letting agent, and am experiencing issues with the neighbour below. My boyfriend and I moved in just under a month ago, and the person living underneath us (a man in his forties with a partner and two/more small children) is playing musical instruments on and off between the hours of 8am and 11.30pm. It is very loud and the bass in particular is clearly audible; he must have it set up, unfortunately for us, right underneath our bedroom as that's where it's loudest. In addition, he and his partner have very loud and violent-sounding arguments at all hours, and the children are usually to be heard screaming. When he shouts at them it is way beyond how an adult should speak to a small child. I hardly hear the women's voice.

I went down yesterday to ask if he could turn it down because I felt I should at least try and all the forums and suggestion sites say you should. I was very polite and friendly (despite feeling very stressed out and a bit intimidated by him from what I'd heard) and he actually was a a lot more amiable than I thought he would be; he mentioned the "conditions" being okay and that he would try harder and he realised we go out to work. He incidentally, is on the dole and housing benefit (I recognise the letters as I had a brief spell unemployed last year.) I really thought we might have got lucky and that it would be sorted, but then this morning (Bank Holiday Monday) we were both awoken at 8am by drumming down there. We'd been out the night before and felt entitled to a lie-in, which we obviously didn't get. He'd never used drums before, so it seems that this is a deliberate attempt to create as much noise as possible in response to me going down there yesterday. The comment about the "conditions" has me thinking they've been complained about before and, to be honest, I don't see how anyone could live above that and not find it a problem. I don't think it's acceptable to have to go down there each time he's doing it and ask him to turn it down, I just don't want to live like that. I'd be doing it every single day.

What I want to know is, can my letting agent do anything for us? I'm quite sure they knew of these problems and didn't say anything and I just don't want to live here if this is going to continue; if our everyday lives are being disrupted, is there a clause that will let us out of our contract early? I'm keeping a noise log and we plan to contact the Council to make an official complaint but this guy seems to be bad news and I know how long it might take to get something done...these things never seem to work in favour of the decent people. I doubt they'll evict them based on this and this guy clearly has no respect for anyone.

I'm so gutted that we've been so unlucky and am feeling very down about the prospect that we can't do anything; we are paying a lot to live here and want to be able to live normally.

I really appreciate any help or advice people can give.

Am I being unreasonable?

2010-08-30T17:22:51Z

I moved into this semi detatched ex-council house some 4 years ago now, and all was going well. Until about 18 months ago when next door started shouting and slamming doors at silly o`clock in the morning. I just put this down to a few incidents, as all folks argue from time to time .... Howver this has recently become more and more frequent, an example would be arguing at 2am , slamming doors, then a few mornings later have some people turn up in their garden and start shouting at them at 6.30am, one of which shouted at me as a gazed half asleep through the window, trying to find out what the comotion was all about. This morning the arguing lasted till 3am. The Police are aware of this property and have visited many times and yet it still continues. I have tried ear plugs, despite buying the best ones you can buy, they simply dont work.

The language from the house is appalling, and they have two small children in there as well. I am feeling victimised by their inconsiderate behaviour, am I over - reacting?, do I need to just chill out?

Please, comments welcome, before I take this further

Thanks for reading.

Neighbour with laminate floors...

2010-08-29T10:35:16Z

I live in a terraced house and my neighbour has laminate floors. Unfortunately, I can hear her walking around and banging/slamming doors. Her kitchen also adjoins and I can hear her every time she opens cupboard doors and when she is using her kitchen work surfaces. Combined with the fact that she is a shift worker and comes in and goes out at odd hours banging around I am now finding it impossible to sleep and am getting tireder and tireder. I have briefly mentioned the fact I can hear her but it doesn’t seem to have made her any more considerate. I did get a sound expert in to review the problem and he said the noise I am experiencing is impact noise which is intensified by the laminate flooring. He could fit an internal wall which would not be easy and would cost £4,000 to £5,000 plus. It would also not entirely cut out the sound. I have tried ear plugs but these have not proved very effective. I feel trapped as I am unable to afford to move. I also no longer enjoy my home and feel I cannot even relax enough to read a book or watch TV. My work is also suffering and I look continuously haggard. I am worried as I really can’t see things improving.

please help, residental care home next door causing issues

2010-08-29T10:23:47Z

I hope someone can help me. my elderly parents live in a bungalow, semi detached. the one next door has suddenly been bought by a well known residental care home company, without any consultation .
its now housing 3 young mentally disabled adults and 2 carers. Not only have they tried to attach a gate onto my parents wall,they are scraping wheelie bins on the wall - usually at 6am and shouting.
one of the young adults is very volatile - she screams for hours and shouts constantly. the screaming is terrible, really frightening and its not good for her to be like that surely. this week its been worse.
the same young woman was outside and wouldn't get into a taxi, so she had what can only be described as a tantrum in the middle of the road. the neighbour on the other side is elderly - he's just lost his wife and has been admitted to hospital - with depression , made worse by all this screaming and carryingon.
my father has a heart condition, my mum is becoming more and more stressed
they called the council who said they can't do anything about the noise, the residental care home people don't want to know.
my parents can't go outside and enjoy their garden, even if you close windows and doors you can hear her - and its a daily occurance.
its affecting my parents health and their daily life, what can they do

neighbour with drumkit

2010-08-26T19:15:40Z

I live in a semi detached house and my neighbour has started playing the drums in the sitting room- I think this is unreasonable...anyone had a similar experience?

noisy neighbours+one of which is a community support officer!!

2010-08-24T18:35:56Z

Hi all,
i have written before regarding our next door neighbours!!originally it was due to their dog being left alone all day,my partner had our baby boy in october and has been on maternity for 9 months,had to put up with the noise ,howling,whining etc!!Anyway that has been resolved now,the dog has been rehomed!!But since then the neighbours have made our lives hell,it was my sons christening on june 6th,it had taken us 6 months to plan!everything went well until our neighbours decided to leave 6 kids in their back garden who decided to bang on saucepans and pans,which caused disruption to our party!!Water was sprayed over some guests,my new fence was kicked!!One of my uests threw a beer can over,apparently it sprayed a little boy!My neighbour came to the fence and said that,i apologised,and told her to let us enjoy the day!!Within half an hour 2 of sussex's finest were outside,apparently,the little boy got hit by the beer can,and an alledged assault had taken place!!i then spent 2 hours of my afternoon sorting it out,no proof,the neighbours were in their friends house 3 doors away,laughing out of the window!!it completely ruined my sons christening day!!since then they have had 2 parties both going well into the early hours,half past 3 in the morning!we let the 1st one go,but the second was on wednesday night,they had people over for a party,karaoke,and people in the garden shouting etc!!my son was woken up several times,at 2200 i asked them to keep the noise down,i asked 3 more times,nothing happened!!we went to bed but couldnt sleep,thenat 1220am we had a rendition of wonderwall on the karaoke machine,id had enough by this time and banged on the wall,tehy banged back and nearly scared the s#@t out of us!!The police were called and asked them to keep the noise down,party is over,0200 it started up again!!

Last nite we went to a mediation with next door neighbours,remember one of them is a pcso constable,at the local police station!!it felt very uneasy,as if she had been through it before,coz she had all the answers and knew the exact things to say!!we havent done anything to them yet we left feeling we were the aggressors!!We stormed out as we were so annoyed!!It seems like she can do whatever because she is a police officer and nothing can be done!!not sure what else we can do!!!!

Im not a noisy neighbour but im being told that i am, please HELP!

2010-08-23T16:06:26Z

Hello everyone,

First time poster here. My names Alexander Cruisey (21) and i live with my fiance (Jo,19) in a first floor flat that is infact a 100 year old converted house. We've been here about 5 months now and on the whole we like it, its our first place together and we're happy here. appart from the senior couple downstairs. before i launch in to that let me give you an example of a day in the life of me and my fiance . As of this moment im unemployed but jo isnt so everyday i get up with her at about 8am to make a packed lunch and shes out of the house by 8:30am then i normaly spend an hour and a half looking for jobs online and having breakfast, after that i would play a few video games on my computer, using headphones, untill lunch time at about 1pm. this point id do some cleaning then have a shower while listing to some music via my computor speakers at about 1 quater volume so nothing mad. after thats out the way id watch some tv or go out to the shops or to see family and be back by 5:30pm for when jo gets back from work. then we'd have dinner, play some video games together, emails, facebook then watch some tv febefore bed at 10pm

me and jo understand than this is an old building and also that for six groups of people to live to gether in such proximity is going to cause some friction at times, for example the people that live above us make alot of noise we also made apoint to get to know these people and we turn a def ear to there noise aslong as its not keeping us awake at night. we can hear them walk accross the celinings, some times even the lights bounce but this isnt becuase there runing around or practicing for the olimpic gymnast team, its becuase the house is old and the floors arnt as stable as they once were.

now as for the senior couple i mentiond before, they seem to think that our life style is too loud, for them, for ourselfs, or anyone else. they tell us that it sounds like we run around all day in our flat and our music is always on and always loud. i have informed them politely that we dont try to make noise and are quite quiet people in general. to be frank, we are both computer nerds.

today at about 2 oclock as i had some music on wrapping some presents for an upcoming birthday, i heard the door bell go and i answer it, its the wife of the senior couple telling me that "i just dont get it" and that "i have no respect" and then the husband turned up and started telling me "im a little S**T" and that "i dont care about anything at all". to this i have tryed to explane that we dont make noise very offten and that we certenly dont do it expressly for there dissatisfaction. they have came to us twice before and said the same thing and we just turned the music down to the point where it was barely audiable, or off. one might say, complying with there wishes in the fullest of our capacity.

there attitude is very uncomprimising and very thretening. i need to know if theres anything that i can to get my twitchy neigbours to stop harasing me for the slightest of sounds i make in this aged building.

thankyou for you time

Loud music

2010-08-23T10:58:13Z

My neighbour likes to come home with her mates around 2am and have her music on loud till after 5am which wakes up me and my family. The problem I have is that she doesnt do it every weekend its prob twice a month and I dont know if the council would do anything about it because its not all the time? We knock on and she lowers it for 20mins then puts it back up. Last night she had the music going which started at 2am and didnt finish till after 3:30am and the music is very loud you can hear what song is playing, and then were up for work in the morning and feel very tired! So i was wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and if theres anything that can be done? Or do i just have to persevere with it?

Noisy upstairs..help!

2010-08-21T11:45:00Z

Hi,
I live with my almost 3 year old son in a ground floor flat. We moved in almost 2 years ago and have had so many issues with the flat upstairs!
Unfortunately they own and I am renting, (council pay my rent), so I feel trapped and terrified of complaining incase I lose my home.
When we first moved in we had trouble as they had laminate flooring, but to their credit they did replace it with carpet when my landlord brought it to their attention.
We had trouble with their teenage daughter having friends back until 4/5am..the mum did nothing, and no-one would answer the door if I went up. If I banged on my ceiling they would laugh and get even louder.
On Mothers Day I woke to find their daughter had vomited out of her bedroom window and it was all over my son's window..they of course denied it!
The flats have terrible soundproofing, and I can hear every conversation, TV, phone ringing, sex(!)...which I can put up with.
The thing I have been having trouble with for several months is that the floorboards in their bedroom squeak terribly..not a mojor problem you'd think, but given that they go to bed at 2am + it means that even though I go to bed at 11 I get them going backwards and forwards at ungodly hours which wakes me up EVERY NIGHT! Then they wake at 6.30/7 and put their stereo on..argh!!
I now also have their bathroom pipes groaning every time they flush the loo which again can go on til all hours.
I don't want to go up to them as I heard her bitching about me to another neighbor.
We try to be very quiet. Obviously my son does make noise, but it is nothing outrageous, and I'm very lucky that he sleeps from 7-7.30am so any noise is at a reasonable hour.
I have a child that sleeps wonderfully but I am knackered because my neighbors wake me up!

Thanks for reading my rant. Good luck & best wishes to all who also suffer!