Neighbours are getting on my nerves already

[OneGreyBiscuit]

Had new neighbours in on Friday. They're privately renting and was told by landlord that it was a woman and her son, didn't sound too bad so I thought. Already it's people constantly going there (9am this morning), talking loudly. Now the son has been outside for the last hour bouncing a basketball and throwing it in a bin. I've just had to shut my bathroom window and can still hear it. I'm thinking they've only been there two days and I've had enough already. What would you do?

Basketball noise is super annoying. Our neighbours son plays a bit and I know it's just one of those things. So you have my sympathies OP. Hopefully it won't be to frequent when school returns.

I think you need to give it time to see what the patterns are. If the basketball is excessive, have a word then. They may be very reasonable. People coming around when someone has just moved in is very normal. They're probably helping with the move or visiting for Easter. Wait a few weeks and see how things shake down.

The first day I moved into my new house the neighbour's son threw a bottle of piss over the fence and shouted 'go back to 'Afghanistan' out of the window.

I think their behaviour is normal.

The OP has said she realises she spoke in haste and might be wrong in this case. End of. Takes a lot to admit you're wrong OP, especially on here. Well done and best of luck with your new neighbours x

Careful what you wish for! I live in the middle of nowhere and have been listening to a Cockerell making a right bloody racket since 4.45........there is noise everywhere.

We moved into our house just before an Easter weekend and our welcome was the neighbours throwing a massive party then falling asleep with Teenage Dirtbag playing on repeat at a volume loud enough to rattle the windows. Sadly this proved to be a true representation of what they're like. Still drinking and partying every weekend over a decade later and now approaching their 50's, they've also become the host house for their underage teenagers and friends to drink in as well.

So I'd take a bouncing ball over the teens I live next to falling about drunk and screaming! He's probably just a bit bored, school holidays and his mum busy with the move, money for activities with friends limited due to moving expenses etc.
As for people talking/coming and going, hopefully that will settle down they're just moving in and there's often lots of commotion.
I totally understand your anxiety about potentially being stuck with disruptive neighbours (I am and it's horrible) but try not to spiral based on just what you've seen so far because it's not normal circumstances.

Just a quick update - took a parcel in yesterday, she collected it today but don't think she wants to be particularly friendly as no more conversation. I don't want to be in any neighbours pocket either but that's the sense I'm getting. And I've just had to turn my own TV up as her radio/TV was on full pelt and could hear more of hers than my own. This woman told me they were quiet but not much evidence of it at the moment.

we lived in a very quiet street, a family moved in with a very autistc child who screams all the time he is in the garden (his two siblings also scream no idea why!!), I know it's part of life etc but my neighbours and I now spend as little time in the garden as possible during weekends and school holidays

Yes, when I lived in deep countryside on the edge of a wood, I was regularly kept awake by screech owls being absolutely deafening in the early hours.

Nature sounds and annoying people sounds are two entirely different things

When we first bought a detached house (previously had racist and loud English neighbours), I thought all our problems would be solved. Little did we know, the neighbours kids climbed up onto their shed to call me racist names whilst I was holding a baby. They were also bashing their football at the fence all day for hours on end and shouting at us to throw the ball over. I think your neighbours are not as bad!

They are. If you had neighbours regularly making loud noises that woke you at 2 and 3 am, you can go and talk to them and ask them not to do it, and if that doesn’t work there’s a mechanism for reporting them. Screech owls don’t give a shit.

I love hearing the owls personally 🦉

Another update - was woken up at 9pm Thursday night when I have to get up for work at 2.40am by the kid thumping the basket ball about in the garden and using the recycling bin as a net. And her talk radio I can hear through the wall has now descended into music, good stuff.

It’s difficult to be enthusiastic when one (or more than one) is emitting a piercing shriek approximately every minute from 2 to 3 am when you have an early meeting and have to drip your child at breakfast club on the dot of eight.

OP you can't expect silence at 9pm. If you do shift work and are asleep when other people are awake, you need to wear ear plugs or go live in a detached house.

9pm isn't late, OP. If you need to get up in the middle of the night to go to work then you need to invest in some earplugs, not complain at the neighbours.

well you can’t privately rent if you’re “lower class” if that means low income? I had to pay 2 years upfront to be able to privately rent which was a huge amount.

I don't expect total silence at 9pm but when you're woken up by the thump, thump, thump of a basket ball when the said kid has been home all day it is pretty galling, imo.

Buy some earplugs. 9pm when the nights are light is not late.

Earplugs are a good idea but I might not hear my alarm potentially. I'm not complaining at the neighbours at all, I haven't said a word but I come on here so I can have a rant anonymously.

Get a vibrating alarm.

Complaining about your neighbour - Citizens Advice

I hate bouncing balls, the parents that allow it and the kids that do it.

I don't fear judgement from MN. IDGAF. It's annoying. It affects MH. It's lazy parenting, inconsiderate and needless.

So, it's okay to rant here. You have friends amongst you.

I second the vibrating alarm. My DD has a cheap smartwatch that vibrates to wake her up.

@OneGreyBiscuit I know you said you're just having a rant and I understand that helps sometimes. The amount of attention you pay to what your neighbours are doing is really over the top and your noise expectations aren't realistic at all. I'm not being unkind. You will drive yourself to distraction if you don't shift your focus. Sort out a vibrating alarm and some earplugs - the Loop silicon ones are decent. Or play some music or the radio quietly in your bedroom. There will never be silence at 9pm, or at any time really. Your neighbours are almost certainly decent people. It's a you issue. It will make you extremely unhappy to live like this, if it hasn't already.