Neighbour has just put up a wind chime

[sandraven]

It's really irritating, needless to add. Plus I work from home. I need to ask them to take it down don't I? I'm a bit worried about this as the husband is definitely aggressive and apparently drinks.

It's going day and night, though I wear earplugs at night anyway because the husband is a tradesman who makes a lot of noise in the early hours with his van, and they often shout.

They're generally inconsiderate with noise (the woman is the worst, she's unemployed and likes to conduct her private shouted telephone calls with the other person on speakerphone), and I've never done anything about it, other than passive aggressive comments. I can't believe it's bloody wind chimes making me consider confronting them.

They do rent their house, only mentioning (and not wanting to drop feed) as the estate agent who manages the property might be a better or safer first port of call?

God I hate windchimes.
They are the work of the devil and should be illegal! 😂 I fear your neighbour's one may have to have an accident next time they're away....

This. You sound very snooty with "unemployed" and "tradesman"

I've already said up thread that was to explain the van, and early morning, sometimes late at night, noise. I've been wearing earplugs to bed for a couple of years for that.

Unemployed was to explain why the woman is home all day, just in contrast to my working from home.

Also do you live in a caravan? How do you hear her on the phone through the walls?

I work from home with the windows closed and can hear if neighbours are in the garden talking. I’m in a very standard brick-built house with double glazing. It’d more unusual to be acoustically sealed off.

Op doesn’t sound like hard work at all. Wind chimes are well-known irritants and these come on top of other noise issues. Just how much noise is she expected to put up with before it’s reasonable to expect them to quieten down? Anyway, I’d try and speak to them first if possible, but if not then absolutely try the LL or agent. I resolved noise issues with some old antisocial neighbours this way.

I said in my OP that I'm hesitant to approach either of them as the husband is aggressive and apparently he drinks. My husband works away, lives in our business) so I feel slightly vulnerable.

I understand that but you have never spoken to them about it.

There is no situation where complaining to the landlord will do anything except make things worse. Most people would be annoyed by that and the landlord can't do anything.

Either speak to them or, if you are convinced they are completely unreasonable and likely to be a threat when antagonised, ignore them.

I definitely think the wind chimes should get stolen. Hmmm I doubt talking to them will work and the agent won't care as long as they are paying.

I think moaning to the estate agent/landlord is worse. Speak to them, if they’re horrible or don’t listen then go to the letting agent.

You’re overthinking it. Just knock and ask during the daytime. Just say chimes do your head in. Be nice about it.

if you go to the letting agent first it’ll look like you think you’re above talking to them or something.

I understand it might look unreasonable that I haven't attempted to speak to them so far, but I've heard and seen the husband's aggressive behaviour too often. If the woman is afraid/wary of him (this is from her 'private' phone calls) when he's had a drink then I'd be reluctant to put myself physically in front of them. I also have teenage children (GCSE year) so I don't live alone.

I'd rather not ask my husband to do it when he's here either.

What does hard work sound like? 🤔

My old neighbour had wind chimes up. We lived in a bungalow and the chimes could be heard through the night in our room with the slightest breeze. They jangled all day and I ended up so sensitive to the noise I could hear it everywhere in the house, all the time. It drove us insane. We tried to knock on the door but they would never answer it to us, so my husband actually stole them when they were out at work, only for them to replace them soon after.

I don't think I have ever loathed a person the way I loathed these two middle aged, awful people. They were 'nice' people too. Eugh. We thankfully moved to newer and better pastures although I did spend an inordinate amount of time dreaming of ways to get revenge in the end I felt much better just being far away from them.

Just to add, I didn't hate them just because of the wind chimes. They (the husband anyway) was horribly loud in other ways - football on the radio at full blast, local radio with cheesy music at full blast, him SINGING along to the radio, hoovering next to our bedrooms at 6am in the morning, banging his workboots on the wall outside my bedroom to get the mud off at 6am. I'll never live in a terraced house again if I can help it.

If you don't want to confront them then maybe drop a very polite note through their door explaining how the noise is affecting you. I totally understand, it's awful to live next to noisy neighbours,

Bloody wind chimes? Justifiable homicide, OP. I would plan a new patio and contact a hitman…
Alternatively, move house. In my experience, once a vile noisy neighbour, always a vile noisy neighbour. They don’t mellow with age!

OP, the agent will literally laugh if you ask them to do something. You do really need to stand on your own two feet about this.

Why don’t you try to be a friendly with the woman for a while and get to know her a bit. it will make being neighbours easier and she might be more willing to take your feelings into consideration.

You have my sympathies, as we had similar plus a hot tub right next to the fence in full view of our windows. The owners were ok but completely lacking in awareness sadly.

I don't have a solution- it prompted us to sell up and move 12 months before we had planned.

We have a bloke with a noisy van plus loading at 5.30/6 every morning and I want to kill him. It's always been lovely and quiet and now bloody van man wakes everyone up every day.
Sympathise op. I made dh take down the stupid wind chimes he put up because I like our other neighbours.

Where are the wind chimes in relation to your boundary? Any chance of accidentally cutting them with shears whilst pruning your hedge etc.?

I don't think the estate agent would laugh about the noise impacting on neighbours. They're probably best placed to deal with it, given I've no idea how the neighbours might react.

I honestly don't think it would be possible to befriend the woman. She's the main source of the daytime shouting and noise. The other neighbours are fine, it's a quiet residential area, or rather it was.

Sorry, I name changed for the mammogram thread. I don't think it's too identifying!

I love windchimes. I'll swop you for a neighbour whose child screams repeatedly all day in the garden and has a love of loud cheesy dance music.

People who make a shitload of noise and put up windchimes aren't exactly the sort of people who would say 'oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't realise we were being noisy arseholes, of course we'll take down our pain in the arse windchimes' - they're more likely to say 'fuck you, neighbour' and put up 20 more.

Email to the landlord/agent - let them deal with it (and they will, if they're any good at their job)

If only it were just wind chimes I'd happily swap with you!

Their children can be a bit noisy, but what you'd expect, and nothing out of the ordinary or worth mentioning here, and there's a trampoline! Surprisingly no bother either.

This drives me nuts!

What does 'hard work' mean in this context?

And there is clearly noise over and above what you would expect living with neighbours.

Wind chimes being irritating aside, some of your comments have left me uncomfortable. What does the woman being unemployed have to do with her making loud phone calls?

The OP has already explained that.