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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that if you want a light on overnight, it should be blacked out from outside?

160 replies

Gibble1 · 31/05/2015 05:01

My neighbours over the back have a really thin white blind and leave their bathroom light on all the time. It's like a thousand suns shining through our bloody rear windows. We have reasonably thick curtains but they don't block out the light.
I had to go round there before and get them to turn off their effing security lights and noticed the bathroom lights a couple of days later when I wasn't on a night shift. They were new to the house so I thought it was just an acclimatisation thing and didn't want to keep going round there complaining but the light is doing my effing head in now. I no longer work nights so it's all the bloody time and I just want to be able to sleep. It would also be nice to do some star gazing but DS's telescope got put in the loft as there is no effing point even trying to look at the sky.
Gah! Why can't people just turn off their bastard lights or put up black out blinds at every window so no lights can be seen from outside?
I'm sorry for the moan but I'm frickin knackered.

OP posts:
AyMamita · 31/05/2015 14:24

YABU. Get an eye mask!

carbolicsoaprocked · 31/05/2015 14:28

I'm sorry but I think an amicable relationship with your neighbours is much more important than the 20 quid or so it would cost you to put up black out blinds in your's and DD's windows - whatever your legal rights are. Living in a good community takes everyone to work together and give and take. They stopped using the security light, perhaps you can just give a little too?

BatteryPoweredHen · 31/05/2015 14:56

Honestly, only on MN!

The law prohibits this, how can OP possibly be considered unreasonable for expecting her neighbours to obey current legislation?

OP, if you had posted this as a reverse, i.e. "I leave my very bright light on all night with a flimsy blind, neighbours are complaining, AIBU?" you would have been absolutely toasted.

YANBU at all, in the first instance, I would ask the neighbours politely. In the event that this doesn't work, then involve the council.

ScarletIris · 31/05/2015 15:13

You most certainly can star gaze in towns, we regularly do. OP you can't do anything about your neighbour's light.

MamaLazarou · 31/05/2015 15:16

YABU. Just get blackout curtains.

MissBattleaxe · 31/05/2015 15:40

BatteryPoweredHen

Please point me towards the legislation that says people can't leave their bathroom light on at night.

And no, if it was a reverse they wouldn't be toasted.

BatteryPoweredHen · 31/05/2015 15:55

Miss I suggest you have a read of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005

It is not the fact that the light is on per se, the fact that it is causing a nuisance would cause it to be caught by this Act.

DownWithThisTypeOfThing · 31/05/2015 15:58

Would a neighbour whinging about what you do in your own house 100 feet away also be considered causing a nuisance?

MissBattleaxe · 31/05/2015 16:02

Battery- I assume you mean this artificial light emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance;

I should imagine that is open it interpretation otherwise the council would have to act on everything that anyone thought was a nuisance.

I still believe the OP is wrong to kick off about a bathroom light 100ft away and I still doubt the council will act.

MissBattleaxe · 31/05/2015 16:04

DownWith- There are also harassment charges that could levelled at someone who lived 100ft away and dropped notes through your door about your bathroom light wiping out the stars from the sky with its extraordinary relentless brightness.

BatteryPoweredHen · 31/05/2015 16:05

If the light were remaining in the neighbour's own home, then there wouldn't be a problem, would there?

It is the fact that the light is escaping that is causing a nuisance.

BatteryPoweredHen · 31/05/2015 16:14

It's been a while since I studied Tort, but I believe the test for nuisance is both objective and subjective so:

Objective Would a reasonable person be bothered by the light?
and
Subjective Is OP actually being bothered by it?

The thing is, none of us know how bad the light is, so can't really comment on the objective part of the test. Op is being bothered, so the subjective element is met.

To all the posters suggesting she get blackout blinds/wear an eyemask, if the problem is so bad that these things are necessary, I would call this prima facie evidence that the objective part of the test is met.

BatteryPoweredHen · 31/05/2015 16:15

(that was to miss btw)

MissBattleaxe · 31/05/2015 16:16

Battery Powered Hen- you missed the bit about "would a reasonable person be bothered by the light". Many, many posters are saying it would not bother them. As a straw poll that would indicate that it is just the OP who is bothered. Many, many posters have told her that she is unreasonable but she's not having it.

BatteryPoweredHen · 31/05/2015 16:20

None of us can really comment on that, as we haven't seen how bright the light is.

It's like saying that music coming from a house wouldn't bother us, when we haven't heard the volume.

GahBuggerit · 31/05/2015 16:23

a light from a small room 100ft away bothers you?

Are you or are you not infact a Gremlin op?

LondonLady29 · 31/05/2015 16:28

YABU you have no right to "see the sky" no one can tell anyone else when they can or can't have their own lights on. You can't control all of your neighbours. If you don't like it get blackout blinds. People can exercise their own free will and have lights on 24 hours a day if they want. If you want it dark it's your responsibility to make that happen through your own curtains it blinds.

maddy68 · 31/05/2015 16:46

Yabu. This is a light inside their home, it's obviously not that bright otherwise they would be walking round in sunglasses inside the house.
It's bothering you possibly because of the angle of the window onto your house.
You need to buy a black out blind, because it's bothering you
I had to do the same as the streetlight was shining into my own bedroom. Problem solved

MissBattleaxe · 31/05/2015 16:48

Battery- noise and distant light at night are two entirely different things.

I can be reasonably sure that the bathroom light from 100ft away is NOT as bright as a thousand suns otherwise OP would have been blinded and would thus have cause for complaint.

At the end of the day whether it is bright or dim, it is an internal light and it is 100ft away though one presumably not large window.

OP is unreasonable to think that she can control whether other people leave a light on at night.

Georgethesecond · 31/05/2015 16:54

Sorry OP, you need to sort this at your end. Get thicker blinds or put tin foil up or newspaper at your own windows. And get an eye mask!

BatteryPoweredHen · 31/05/2015 16:58

OP is unreasonable to think that she can control whether other people leave a light on at night.

This is your opinion, and of course you are entitled to hold it. Fortunately, the law recognises that there are shades of grey here and disagrees with your black and white view.

Arguing the toss with me is pretty futile, if you think the law has got it wrong, then I suggest you write to your MP.

SoldierBear · 31/05/2015 17:00

I can see how it would be annoying - but as so many people have said, loads of people have houses opposite street lamps and just get blackout blinds.

It sounds as if you've really worked yourself up about this. The light is 100 yards away, so a normal household interior use bulb in a ceiling fixture isn't going to be that bright. It's not like a thousand suns at all - it is like an interior light a fair distance away.

It is not unreasonable to leave a light on inside your own house, even if your neighbours do not like it.

passmethewineplease · 31/05/2015 17:13

So instead of trying to rectify the issue by buying a 99p eye mask why not involve an already over stretched service which probably has a thousand and one better things to do.

BackforGood · 31/05/2015 17:17

I can see how the security lights might be annoying when they were wrongly angle at your windows, but I genuinely cannot conceive that a light in someone else's bathroom, 2 gardens away, is so bright that it is impeding upon your life.
You will look like a complete loon if you go round and ask them to turn their bathroom light off at night, really you will. If you are so hyper sensitive to any light around you, then I'm afraid it is your responsibility to stop it getting into your house, because, if you live in a town, City, or even village, then there will be houses with lights on (as well as street lights, lights from traffic, etc for most of us) and most people just don't notice it. If you need some kind of complete darkness, then you need to either live in isolation or get blackout curtains or blinds.

donemekmelarf · 31/05/2015 17:19

Some people are selfish when it comes to outside lighting.
My nextdoor neighbours leave 4 (yes 4) outside lights on All Night Long!

Why is it necessary to do that? We have blackout curtains, but unless the curtains are exactly right, then light still seeps through into the bedroom.

It should be a basic human requirement that nights be dark - dark enough for people to be able to sleep in peace.
Too much light at night is bad for the health,
and besides

IT'S LIGHT POLLUTION!!!!!!!

(looking at you Dear Neighbor Angry)

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