To not know how to handle this neighbour?

[wishiwasapenguin]

Moved into our house about 6 months ago.
It’s a “naice” area if that makes any difference.
Anyway, the houses are detached and neighbours on 1 side are retired and in their early 60s by the look of it.
I’m not sure if they have alcohol problems (particularly the man) but when we put our recycling boxes out weekly theirs contains at least 50 cans of lager, 10 or so bottles of wine and a couple of bottles of spirits. I’ve not been nosing honestly, but they have 2 recycling boxes purely filled with empties.
When you look out of the window from 9am onwards they’ll be sat with cans and also from 4pm onwards they sit out the front still drinking.
Anyway not sure how relevant that is.
So the problem is that they play music in their garden from 9am until 10pm. Again, it’s not massively loud so although annoying as we don’t get any peace and quiet I’ve just let it slide. A couple of times a week he gets very drunk and sings karaoke style, but hey ho.
Also they have a couple of little dogs that he’s started to goad when we are out in the garden, so he’ll drunkenly shout “more noise Rusty, more noise” and wind them up to purposely bark for 30/40 mins solid.
If our dog goes out in the garden then he will do a solitary bark back at the dogs but I immediately stop him. The man then goads his dog again “you fucking tell them Rusty” etc.
He’s started to comment on our kids too, who play nicely, but are preschoolers and do giggle and run around. He’s started saying “I can fucking hear them giggling again” etc etc.
And when my toddler falls over and cries he’ll shout “he’s always fucking tripping up and crying that kid”
I now try and take them inside as soon as they cry or whinge as I’m worried about annoying the neighbours.
But I don’t know how to deal with this?
Keep a log? Or just ignore it?
It seems to get worse and louder the more he drinks.
Plus he tends to start on the wife then screaming “I told you to leave that fucking door open” etc.
Advice please?

I can hear him now drunkenly rambling “stay in the shade you idiot” to the dog over and over again.
He seems to ramble pretty much all day about one thing or another.

Oh god, soooo difficult cos he sounds like the type to get worse if you speak to him about it! He’s clearly doing it for the audience.

I know 😩
I’m half tempted to say “is there a problem?” over the fence.
But I’ve got no balls and I’m too scared. Just don’t want it to escalate.
They’re twice my age and you’d expect them to act it?

O no not good! Sounds like you need to keep a log and then report to the Council...I think they have people who can come out and measure the noise etc and then give them warnings to keep it down...is there a time they are sober and you could possibly talk to them...although from the sounds of it you probably wouldn't get a reasonable response!

Report as noise nuisance to the council, they should a letter to neighbour and ask you to keep a diary, sometimes just the letter can improve things.

Ask the old creep why he’s hanging about listening to your kids.

“They’re twice my age and you’d expect them to act it?”

Nah, horrible people just turn into older horrible people (and get worse as the years go on, especially if they’re drinking that much).

Poor you though OP. Sounds awful :(

I just don’t want to do anything to make it worse.
But he’s just a horrible, abusive man who spends his day getting drunk, winding up his dogs and screaming at his wife.
I’ve let the music issue go, as my kids playing and laughing is probably annoying to his ears, as his music is to mine.
Although they take their sofa outside to the bottom of their garden and play their music full blast from inside their house so they can hear it from 10 metres away which is pretty annoying.

They sound awful. And this is a nice area?? How have they got away with it before. I’m surprised other owners haven’t done anything about it. We’re they not there when you viewed the property?

I’d love to tell you to shout shut the fuck up over the fence but if he’s an alcoholic he won’t remember/ take heed of it anyway

Have a chat with the council. Tbh what he’s doing isn’t terrible so I wouldn’t expect a huge amount

Keep a diary and report them to environmental health, they will send him a a letter explaining the issues but won’t tell them who complained. They will tell you to keep a diary and if it’s not improved after X time they will take it further

They take their sofa outside?! Haha that is Shamelessly awesome

I don't think the music is a big deal but the commenting on my kids would piss me off, unfortunately he does sound like the type to escalate if confronted but I would probably say something, especially if my kids heard and it upset them.

I don't think that the area is as nice as you assumed it to be. Sounds awful

It is genuinely a nice area! This is our third house on the same estate. 4 beds are generally £450k!
But yeah neighbours are horrific.

Record them for a week or 10 days, aand then get in touch with the council. Tell them you don't want your neighbours to know you've reported them
Don't approach them directly - they'll just get worse.

And no. We bought the house in winter, well late autumn, so too cold for them to be sat outside when we viewed I expect.
Also he can’t be that much of an alcoholic as he’s recently constructed his own “lean-to” made of corrugated plastic and wooden posts which now hangs off the back off his house. It’s still standing after a few weeks (precariously)
Be-a-utiful.

I’m also really worried about going to the council/environmental health.
Their neighbours the other side have lived there for 6 years and we’ve lived here for 6 months.
So they’ll know it’s us won’t they?

Not much in the way of advice but id ignore them. Their type tend to thrive on confrontation and if you say owt I’m sure he will only get worse.

Move? And sell in autumn!

It’s a ridiculous landscaped garden with decking and slabs, so we don’t actually own a sprinkler unfortunately.
Although we DO need to power wash the whole garden at some point! That will be pleasant for them!

I'm sorry to say I think only the dog noise could be reported as a nuisance though others will know more....could be worth asking MN to move this to Legal Matters?

I am not sure the council would do anything about it.

Playing music until 10pm isn't illegal is it? It isn't in my local authority. OP says it isn't deafeningly loud, just annoying. Swearing could be seen as anti social, but he is doing it in his own garden.

Sounds like a horrible drunken bastard OP. I really sympathise. Have they really been out all day every day for six months? Like all through the rain and snow?

That’s what I was also thinking.
Mid volume annoying music they won’t care about.
The man shouting the odd comment and winding up his dogs, probably not.
The dogs barking perhaps so. Although they are barking on demand 90% of the time so easy enough for him to stop.

No they’ve not been out for the whole 6 months.
Probably since April. They chase the sun round the house with their sofa too, hence ending up in the front garden!
His bloody voice is just infuriating.
I feel for his wife.
In the last 10 mins he’s shouted from his “garden sofa” for her to get him a beer, open the door wider, find out what time the match starts, get that letter that came earlier and move the parasol 🙄 Poor woman.