Neighbours fallen out with us

Just sit it out. If they approach you about it, just be mildly agreeable and say yes the birds are a nuisance but the noise was unbearable, it’s not fixing the problem, and in any event, we all have a right to to live in peaceful amiability.

To be honest the loss of their 'friendship' should be a small price to pay for peace in your home and garden. Because they've now shown you who they really are. What are you missing?

Is there a chance your neighbours can't hear the noise it makes? If they're older they may have lost their high frequency hearing. It's very common. I can't hear certain pitches at all, that drive other people completely mad.

You asked him politely to remove the noise pollutant and explained your reasons why the sound was distressing three times, you even offered a compromise so your daughter could sleep. He soured the relationship by being a stubborn, entitled prick. Most sane people will recognise he was the bad neighbour. He's the one who ruined neighbourly relations. Meanwhile, you have your peace.

You did the right thing your neighbour was incredibly selfish.

Put three or four wind chimes on your boundary. Just one usually stops a dispute.

Oh my goodness thanks, our neighbour has put a load in their garden and now I need ear defenders to go out, they insist it doesn't make a noise as they can't hear it, I hadn't thought of reporting to the council! I assumed it had to be loud rather than just irritating to be classed as a council matter.

I'd either buy a cat to keep the pecking at bay, or play the Sex Pistols at top volume on a loop. Selfish bastards.

Why give a shit they didn’t give a shit about your peace. Don’t give it a second thought and be glad the noise has gone!

I remember my neighbour had one for cats and only young people could hear it. It drove me mad when I was a kid, my ears were attacked whenever I played in my back garden

You deserve to live in peace - some noise with neighbours is expected. This is unreasonable noise. YANBU.

Fuck them. They killed the easygoing relstionship, not you,

This is exactly why I won't report our very noisy, alcoholic neighbour. I did have an initial call with the council, and they were very supportive. They advised she would initially get a warning, then some sort of black mark against her address if she didn't comply.

We want to move in the next year or so, and we know we'd have to declare it, so we haven't reported it. Sadly, the few times she is sober, she refuses to believe she does anything wrong - even when we have recordings of her screaming like she's being murdered, and the music sounding like there's a nightclub next door.

You might find it hard to ever get out of there, op. I hope you weren't planning to move soon.

When I was younger, our next door neighbour installed one of these “to deter cars” from going into his garden. My older sister had already moved out and my parents couldn’t hear it, but I could and it drove me CRAZY. I had undiagnosed ADHD so it was of course a huge sensory issue too, but my parents didn’t understand how much it was affecting me. I couldn’t stand the back door or any of the windows on the back of the house being open at all because of the noise. My parents didn’t really believe me how bad it was, until one day Mum was driving a friend of mine to our house and halfway down the street she said, “what is that awful noise?!” She then finally looked it up and realised that she and Dad were probably too old to be able to hear it, whereas they were known to be very bothersome for younger people!

Next door neighbour had some work done on his house and the noise blissfully stopped for a couple of weeks… We assume one of the younger builders sneakily turned it off. Unfortunately once the neighbour (who was also older, too old to hear it) realised it was off, he switched it back on again. There was then a period of it going on and off again constantly, and we couldn’t understand why until my Dad spotted another neighbour sneaking out of next door’s garden in the middle of the night. They had secretly waged a war against the annoying machine and I’m pleased to say they eventually did win. 😂

Unfortunately that next door neighbour was always awful, so there was no talking to him in the first place. He’s only gotten worse over the years. His wife used to be able to reign him in a little (not that she was much better) but she passed away a couple of years ago and my parents are now left with even more difficulties with him, that the police have had to get involved with. He really isn’t a very nice man at all.

So I can’t really offer much in the way of suggestions, but you have my solidarity as I know full well how horrible those stupid machines are!!

Yes, because of course people do that when selling houses…. LOL 😂

Rubbish. I would be going out there and smashing the device OR I would be playing heavy metal on a Bluetooth speaker right on their fence line 24/7 till the agreed to turn that shit off

You should have banded together with your neighbors beforehand, but it's not too late.

This, you’ve never had a good relationship him, he clearly doesn’t give 2 sh1ts about you and never has. Nothing has changed except the noise

It was hardly an easy going relationship if you asked him several times to take the irritating thing down and he refused.

Put on a black outfit then sneak out at night and chuck a huge handful of birdseed over the fence, maybe 2. Deny all knowledge.

YANBU But, when you are ready to move you have caused an issue as you will need to declare a neighbour dispute.

OP you got the right outcome from the council (which is refreshing!), I think you just need to take the win and put the fallout with the neighbours out of your head as they're pricks anyway, but obviously ensure you have cameras up for peace of mind.

I'm post menopause so definitely not a youngster, not far off my bus pass and it nearly sent me insane. It didn't bother the younger school children though. Or the foxes, or cats. Perhaps it was a Winter scarer? 😬

Hopefully it was (for the neighbor).

Yes they should be banned

When I was living in London, the block of flats opposite put one up

We discovered that some people can hear the noise and some people can't. Those of us who could hear it were being driven absolutely mad.

It was removed within about a week of our management company contacting theirs. But we did also have photos of pigeons wandering around as normal on their roof. So that might have been the real reason they took it down.

They should just be banned and they clearly don't work

He sounds like a complete arse though so I wouldn't worry about the relationship. But hopefully he's not going to do anything in "retaliation".

did they just cope with the noise or could they not hear it?