Noisy neighbours - acoustic barrier fencing - AIBU to ask them to pay half?

[angelos02]

Our neighbours seem lovely enough but are elderly and they have their radio on, all day every day, at a volume so loud we can hear it across 2 driveways plus the width of our garden away. I know I should be more easy-going due to their age but surely this is not on?

DH and I have asked them time and again to turn their music down - just at the weekends when we are not at work (as a compromise) and they are fine for a day or so then it creeps back up again.

We have looked into acoustic fencing but I don't know whether or not it will work and it will cost alot of money that we will struggle to find.

Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated. I was out of work and suffered from depression last summer and this made it so much worse as I was stuck in the house every day.

I sympathise with the noise issue. We used to live in a terraced house next to someone who was deaf and who played his tv at an incredibly loud volume. He refused to turn it down on thevgrounds tbat we were being unreasonable as he could hardly hear it. I resorted to ear plugs.

However, OP, ypu have lost my sympathy by being incredibly rude to someone whose post you misread, and even when it was pointed out by other posters that you had misread it you refused to accept this. You were then rude when the other poster tried to explain what she'd meant and how you'd misunderstood her. This suggests that avenues such as mediation wouldn't work as you're not prepared to engage in any constructive dialogue, are you?

Getting back to the point, instead of fencing, could you put up a hedge or some trees as leaves are quite good at dispersing sound

I used to get really really stressed about neighbours noise and like you I was stuck at home for a while so just had to put up with it.

The situation is really a 2 parter:
Firstly, that level of noise is extreme and I hope you find a way to sort it (lots of useful suggestions on here).
Secondly, after its resolved you will likely still hear their radio a bit (at a more reasonable volume) and you need to find a way to be OK with this and not let it make you feel the same stress. I feel a lot better about noise from my neighbours now but it took a while and a few conversations with myself to get over it!

Sorry but I think the OP might be the problem going by how rude she as been here.

Has*

May be try a note saying that the problem persists...I don't think you have anything to lose? Also tell them that you don't want the prospect of (another?) Summer with all your windows & doors shut trying to minimise the sound and being unable to use your garden.

It's this sort of selfishness forces considerate people into the unthinkable after giving plenty of chance for someone to stop it. I'd be sorely tempted to give them a taste of their own medicine if they don't respond positively - they know they're being a nuisance but choose to listen to their radio at whatever voume suits them anyway. 10 mins of radio 1 blasting and see if their volume mysteriously reduces, if not them radio back on, go out for the day, and repeat on a random basis until they understand that other people are quite capable of being equally selfish but choose not to be - they've been taking full advantage of your good nature and making you suffer for long enough. I know you might be dying at the prospect but selfish people only react if it's in their own interests so you have to screw up your courage and show equal will.

Agree with PP you might have to get used to a low level version of the noise just not one that invades your home FGS!

OP you have my sympathy, both for the noise problem and for being ill last year. Depression is a rotten business and some of the comments on this thread can't be helping.

Water features in the garden are quite good for obscuring noise. Could this help at all?

I'd get some noise cancelling headphones if I were you. And yes I totally know you shouldn't have to go to those ridiculous lengths in your own home, but tbh if it improves your state of mind and well being, it's probably worth it. I had to use ear plugs when dc2 was tiny - the screaming was relentless for a while (no illness, just a very vocal baby) and I just couldn't physically cope with it, it was enormously stressful.

I'd also pop a polite note through their door asking them to relocate the radio elsewhere in the house as it's still disturbing you.

To be honest I doubt the neighbour's would notice/care if OP retaliated by playing her own music louder.

My DGM was very deaf, hated wearing hear AIDS because she thought she could get away with just lip reading - until it came to the TV. You could arrive st her house and literally hear what she was watching from the car in the driveway. We spoke to her about it God knows how many times, apologised to neighbour's etc, but she genuinely couldn't see the issue and thought it was us that we're sensitive to the noise.

If one of her neighbour's retaliated and turned their own TV up, I doubt she would notice at all. If she did she would just turn her TV up that little bit more. I think with DGM there was a level of niavity about it as she didn't have a bad born in her body. She wouldn't think anything of turning up the TV volume one or 2 notches through out the day until it was at an OK level for her if someone else had turned it down previously

Excuse all the typos/grammatical errors - stupid iPhone!

Water features in the garden are quite good for obscuring noise. Could this help at all?

^^this and trees / bushes along the fenceline will help to block out some of the noise too.

OP I'm glad you eventually apologized to Witch. I suggest you take note of mummymeisters advice. I'd find the noise you are experiencing extremely irritating no I'm not surprised you are dreading the warmer weather.
I'd try biting to them but make sure you are polite and reasonable. Keep a copy. I'd also try enlisting the help of any other family members of your neighbors if it's appropriate.

My parents are becoming hard of hearing and it's painful having to be in the same room as them when they watch TV. I have got my Dad listening to his music (opera agghh! ) wth Bluetooth earphones. Perhaps you can try to persuade your Nieghbours to get some?

Not sure biting the neighbors would help in the long term, Trollicking, but it certainly would get their attention.

I had to reread that several times before I could find my mistake. I have to agree that writing to them would be a better starting point than biting them.

No...just bite them in a polite and reasonable manner :D

Do they have neighbours at the other side? Annoying as it is, I don't think a radio inside a neighbours house during the daytime which you can only hear outside is something environmental health would be interested.

maydancer I have lost count of the number of Statutory Notices that I served for noise nuisance arising from radios/stereos in the house or garden. it is incredibly common particularly where you have back to back gardens all converging on each other. This and barking dogs was well over 50% of my work load.

The issue about noise is complex because the law tries to take a reasonable view rather than a numerical one - ie if its louder than 60 dBA then its a nuisance but if its 59 it isn't. this is because how disturbed you are depends on the level of background noise and things like the duration of the noise, its character, tonal frequencies etc.

I would always recommend trying to resolve informally. I have seen at first hand neighbour disputes that have gone on for years and years, escalating and causing peoples lives to be a misery. when you look into them they all started with something really simple like playing the radio loudly when gardening or a party or a dog barking during the day.

it is hard to speak to people sometimes and this is why mediation can work. when you step it up a level the person causing the noise starts to realise it is serious and causing you serious distress.

It is causing me distress. I know that may seem over the top and a bit obbsessive but I think that is due to my depression.

I could blast music back but I don't think that would bother them and also, the volume it would have to be in order to drown out their music would affect other neighbours too and I don't want to become that sort of person.

I am seriously thinking about moving. I don't think I could go round and talk to them without getting upset so if they start their antics again when the weather gets warmer, DH is going to go round. It is 100 times worse in the Summer as they have their door open all day, every day. I can literally stand at the other end of my garden and hear every word that the presenter is saying.

angelos02 the thing about noise and how it affects us, is that once you know it is happening you start listening out for it and being sort of hyper aware.

If you don't think you can face them, which I completely understand, then please put your concerns to them in writing. explain the effect it has on you and the quiet enjoyment of your garden. is it audible inside when you have your windows open? if so say this. then make suggestions as to how they could improve things for you. like move the radio to another room, wear wireless headphones and link to one that they could buy from e.g. Argos. keep it light and friendly and show that what you really want to do is make the noise stop causing you a nuisance.

Stop using emotive language like "antics". these aren't antics. this is them living their life the way they want to. I agree that they aren't aware of the problem but if they are losing their hearing then they probably aren't.

Can I also be brutally honest? if you are sensitive to noise because of other health issues that you have and you have been further sensitised to it because of these neighbours then I can virtually guarantee you that you will have issues in the next place you move to unless you live somewhere completely in the middle of nowhere and even then your sensitivity will pick up on noise.

You need to deal with the noise where you are and also with your own health issues. moving will not be the answer.

It is causing me distress. I know that may seem over the top and a bit obbsessive but I think that is due to my depression

Just because you are upset by someones behaviour, doesn't mean they are necessarily in the wrong. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, but your level of upset is not the metric by which this can be measured.
When my noise sensitivity is at its worse, I am extremely bothered by people breathing too loud next to me That does not mean that people are unreasonable to breathe next to me!

If I were you I would ask other people to listen to the noise and advise you on how un reasonable or not they think it is, and move from there.

While I know I am hyper-sensitive to noise, the fact remains that DH & I can hear their radio from 2 driveways and a garden away to such an extent that we can hear exactly what the presenter is saying.

I think I have said before that if it was now and again, I wouldn't be bothered but last Summer it was 12 hours a day, 7 days a week from around May until September.

It is totally horrible having to listen to other people's noise 12 hours a day.. We have neighbours who blast out music in the summer from professional speakers. You can hear it everywhere- every room, right at the end of our garden. But it's only usually for 3:or 4 hours at a time.

From what you have described I don't think you are being over sensitive at all. You sound worn down by it.

I hate hearing other people's noise too, I think I may be oversensitive actually. But you are having to pur up with this constantly. This sounds just awful, and not something that would be replicated anywhere you lived.

I would speak to the other neighbours if you can. Then sit down with the noisy ones and try and explain the issues and the impact it's having. Explain you will have to contact the council if they don't stop.

The council should come round and listen to the noise and take it from there. I have read about cases where people have been stopped from playing music this loud.

OP it sounds awful and I think you are getting an unreasonably hard time because it is elderly people.

I have given the OP the best advice I can based on 20+ years experience as an EHO dealing with noise nuisance.

the age of the people making the noise is only relevant in so far as the solutions to it may be different.

Nobody wins in a neighbour dispute and I have tried to suggest ways to avoid this.

The OP has to be aware that if this is proven to be a statutory noise nuisance (and that is a reasonably big if) then her elderly neighbours will be served with an abatement notice. if they fail to comply and continue to offend then it will end up in court and she will be required to give evidence. that is far more stressful than writing them a detailed note, attending some mediation sessions or discussing it with a third party - like another neighbour or one of the elderly couples children - present.

In addition, if the OP makes a formal complaint and either its not sufficient to be a stat nuisance or she just decides that it is all too much and she wants to move, then the fact that she has complained about her neighbours will have to be disclosed on the sellers information form.

again, just my experience, no one else will touch her property with a barge pole if it shows up that she has made complaints about neighbour noise.

I am not unsympathetic, just realistic about the implications and trying to advise the OP how to take this forward avoiding legal action (because that is what a complaint to the council seeks) and all of its ramifications.