AIBU to think that my new neighbours are being very un neighbourly?

[lalasmama]

Old neighbours moved out 5months a go. Since then, new neighbours have been doing up the house. Feck knows what theyre doing in there. The time its taking them, they may as well had knocked the house down and started again.
The problem is, they are so frigging noisy! Last week they decided to start disc-cutting new kitchen units in the garden at 9.30pm!!! This resulted in 18month DD waking up and being very unsettled.
They drill all day everyday. DP has been round quite a few times after 8pm (DDs bedtime) to ask them to stop. The first couple of times they were fine and stopped. But now they are just ignoring it. DS (3Months) is so unsettled during the day because of the noise so I tend to take them to my dads during the day.
I am at my wits end.
AIBU to ask them to stop the noise at 8PM? Last night they were still at it at 10pm!

[wishiwasholdingaachinegun]

I think that sounds fair! Your children need to sleep.

:)

[PissesGlitter]

get yourself to the council and ask about noise
there is a limit to how much noise is acceptable at certain times

[bumperella]

Definitely not unreasonable to ask them to stop at 8pm, actually, to ask them not to do any noisy works between 8am and 8pm would be fine IMO. Daytime noise would drive me nuts, BUT you can't really ask them to limit it during the day.

[Tchootnika]

YANBU.

Of course you need to cut them some slack if they've just moved in - but that doesn't entitle them to make this sort of noise at night time.

What's your relationship like with them more generally? Have you made it clear (as if you should need to ) that it's one thing to do the work during the day, but not acceptable at night? Could you do this without winding them up? If you can't, them it might be time to contact EH, or send terse email pointing out that they're creating a nuisance.

You have my sympathy.

[HappyMummyOfOne]

I thought it was 11pm cut off when the council got involved?

Whilst its annoying, perhaps they need to work during the day so only have the evening to do the jobs needed on the house and maybe they want to be settled in asap.

[kelly2000]

Speak to your council office about noise pollution. There are rules regarding contractors doing works (they have to stop at 5 or 6 I think), but am not sure if that applys to private people. Your council will have an office to deal with this sort of thing though.

[LadyLapsang]

Remember if you complain you will have to declare it to buyers when you sell your house.

What happened when you asked them to stop and 8, did they give an explanation?

[Tchootnika]

Remember if you complain you will have to declare it to buyers when you sell your house.

Is this still so? I thought this disappeared with HIPs.

[Stormwater]

Complaining to your neighbours is hardly a dispute you'd need to mention when selling.

[LadyLapsang]

I meant if she complained to the council, then surely they will keep a record.

[limitedperiodonly]

I can't see that even if she got the council to have a word in this situation it would be anything that needed reporting to a potential buyer.

It's a temporary situation and it will get resolved so there's nothing to report.

Even in serious disputes it's a bit mad to advise people to put up with intolerable behaviour because it might affect the value of their house.

Blimey, if every tiff with your neighbours had to be reported none of us would move.

[lalasmama]

When DP asked them to stop last, the bloke said "well it needs to be done". My DP said that the children are young and need to keep their routine and they need to sleep but that we will be away from thurs to monday so they wont need to keep the noise down then. The bloke was a bit arsy with him but said once he had finished disc cutting the unit he was doing, he would call it a day but it still went on for a good hour and a half.
Will be calling the council this afternoon, not to make a complaint, but to know what the regulations are and to know where we stand.

[limitedperiodonly]

Sorry for not answering you OP. I meant to tell you what some of the others have done.

Check out the rules on building disruption: the council might be more flexible with people doing it themselves, but they will have limits.

Ask your neighbours to stop at a time that you both decide is reasonable. Ask to be warned about any special disruption. Ask how long this is going to go on for.

Make a note of the agreed points and give a copy to your neighbour to ensure you've come to the same conclusion. So if they ignore it you can cheerfully say, 'Hang on, I thought we'd come to an amicable agreement.'

If they continue to be gits go to the council. You will look reasonable with your informal agreement and they'll be more inclined to have a word.

It's best to keep things amicable because you might want to do something in future.

Don't worry. Building projects come to an end - which is what keep telling myself about the neighbour who seems to be excavating a nuclear bunker.

[Scholes34]

Perhaps instead of complaining/asking them to stop etc, the OP should try to find out what they're doing and how long they expect the noise and work to carry on for, whilst explaining the problems from their end and appreciating their neighbour's need to get the work done. It might help maintain amicable relations with people you'll be living next to for the foreseeable future.

[ZZZenAgain]

I think they sound very difficult so I don't think they would agree to an informal agreement. They don't sound as if they are willing to meet you have way. It is true you have to get things done at times but if a neighbour came around to complain to me about building noise at 8-9pm, I wouldn't then continue for another hour and a half afterwards. That's a bit rich. If the drilling is going on all day, I can't really see why it has to go on till 10 pm at night as well.

[limitedperiodonly]

Iagree they sound like gits.

But it's not about getting a legal agreement, it's about playing a game.

The council will ask what steps you've taken to resolve this yourself and that's fair enough. So if you can say 'we've had a meeting and I understood we'd agreed these point which seemed fair but they're ignoring it.'

Evidence that you've been reasonable would convince the council to step in sooner rather than later. If it's a short project they probably wouldn't bother. But if you can say 'we agreed it was going to be three weeks and I told you that in an email but it's been six weeks now and they're still doing it' they might step in.

You just have to keep up the friendly badgering to the council and the neighbours and send and keep emails.

[limitedperiodonly]

So if you can say 'we've had a meeting and I understood we'd agreed these point which seemed fair but they're ignoring it.' that would be useful.

[TimothyClaypoleLover]

We are in exactly the same position. New neighbours moved in about 5 months ago and have total disregard for anyone. Electric sanding going on until 10:40pm on a Sunday night. My DH went round to complain and they didn't see what the problem was! Annoying thing is that no work ever happens at weekends during the day - its always in the evenings until late at night. Added to this is that they have bonfires at 5.30pm and engulfing everywhere with smoke. Before they moved in no-one in our whole street had a bonfire in all the 12 years we have lived there.

So, totally sympathise. We have been keeping a log of everything in case anything develops but after a few complaints from us things to seem to have calmed down a bit. Fingers crossed.

[Tchootnika]

Of course where you can keep a decent and fairly relaxed relationship with your neighbours, that's preferable, but... It can be quite useful to point out from time to time that they're potentially breaking the law.

I realise this might sound pushy, uptight or whatever, but I really think that neighbours sometimes just fail to be self-aware about what they're doing until this is pointed out. It can even be done politely, but it can work, and shows that your 'complaints'/requests for a bit of peace and quiet aren't just the result of your being oversensitive/PFB about DCs, or whatever, you're just being normal people.

So I think you could point out e.g. that building contractors would have there noisy work restricted to business hours, that late night loud noise could constitute a nuisance in law, or whatever, very nicely - i.e. show that you haven't pulled your proposed 'restrictions' on their behaviour out of the sky, and suggest (very gently) that if you weren't such nice people, you'd consider claiming against them.

From what you say about your neighbour's grumpy response to your husband's requests, OP, I really think there'd be no love lost if you did this.