To ask for ideas on dealing with a neighbour

[glitterelf]

This woman is driving us insane with her revving engine every morning from 5.20 - 5.40 trying to warm her car up. My husband has been moaning about it for a couple of weeks now but as he's already up and getting ready for work he tries to block it out. However this morning it's woken me and the noise is horrendous and totally unnecessary. I'm really pissed off as I grabbed my dressing gown and went outside only to reach the gate as she pulled away
I need to catch her later but how would you handle this situation ? Because right now my thoughts are pretty dark

Obviously you will need to speak to her later politely and calmly (however hard OP) to explain however, I suspect that most people would have an awareness already not to rev their engine especially for 20 minutes and at dawn and if she is that unaware or selfish, you may find she is not receptive. Surprised your DH hasn't been out at the time she has been doing it to speak to her especially as so regular an occurence.
Good luck OP

Personally, I'd pop a nice note through her letterbox today and ask her very sweetly to please not rev the car so early.
If she rev's it again tomorrow.....well then I'd find out if it's considered a noise nuisance legally.

@greatbigwho we do the same ( we share a car ) so I'll start it, husband scrapes it then we're off. Maybe I should buy her some products and wrap her car in a giant bow.

@Missingstreetlife I've only spoken to her once and that was because she'd choose to park outside my house but also on my other neighbours disability parking space, even though there was ample parking outside her own home

@Kirsteninakilt The only reason he hasn't been out to her is because he wouldn't want to frighten her as she's on her own at the time, it's dark and sad to say he would fear any repercussions because he's a man.

@primoestate If I do not see her then I'll definitely do a note but it'll be put on her windscreen.

Go to bed in warm pjs and have shoes and dressing gown/coat handy nearby, and a soon as you hear it tomorrow go and have a word with her. Rehearse a polite line: "this revving has disturbed my sleep the last few mornings, and it's bad for your car engine. I'm not sure why you're revving but please find a quieter way to do it."

DP is adamant that it's best to let the engine warm up before you start driving

Gosh, that's a bit old school. It used to be the case, if you had a diesel and were using a shit mineral oil, but isn't required any more, unless you have a very old diesel car, using a very cheap engine oil. The rest now flow immediately.

I can't believe the number of posters who are saying it's not her fault she has to leave early, the time doesn't matter.

Er - yes it DOES. She chose to take a job which means that she has to leave that early and secondly - it's an anti-social hour and she needs to be more considerate!!!

Actively revving the engine is completely unnecessary, as is sitting idling for ages "to circulate the oil" or whatever. Any modern (as in from the last few decades) engine is just fine to be driven off shortly after starting.

Trying to get enough heat in it to deice a car this way is fool's errand anyway. She should clear all the glass "manually" and be done with it.

If she's getting a lot of misting up inside the windscreen, something to try and cut down on moisture inside the car is probably the best option.

Get her to throw boiling water over it to de ice it (runs and hides!)

No need to do this. Scrape the ice off, turn the fan on and off you go.

I also can't believe the amount of posters who think that the op is unaware of the difference between revving the engine and running the engine. Also I'm pretty sure the op can tell the time.

Having been woken up for eight years, 7 days a week by a neighbour buffering around with a (broken) garage door, Van idling and radio on loud at any time from 5 am you have my sympathies.

Was even earlier when he went fishing at the weekends.

@Singlebutmarried 8 years how did you not go all Vinny Jones on him !!

There is no need to spend 10 or 15 minutes de-icing a car in the morning. Get a windscreen cover or a car cover. Remove and job done.

As for those saying about the inside of the windscreen icing up - spot of deicer on a chamois leather and that's gone in seconds too.

I was caught out one morning having not expected ice overnight so car didn't have the cover on. Still only took me 5 minutes to scrape the ice off and I didn't sit there pissing the neighbours off running the engine.

@glitterelf

If we had said anything he’d have made life v difficult. Loved to block the drive as it was. Has moved now so sleep all round here now.

Ask her if she's aware it's illegal to drive when under the influence of crack.
Wtf would she sit and rev the engine for 20.minutes of a morning. Weirdo.

Depending on your local authority, running a stationary car for 20 minutes might result in a fine.

www.drivingtesttips.biz/driving-tips/parked-with-engine-running.html

Talk to her. Face to face. She might have no idea that she's disturbing you. I had a similar problem with neighbours being noisy and when I told them it was disturbing me, they stopped.

Print off details of a windscreen cover and pass to her with a note suggesting that if she uses one of these then she won't need to rev the engine so loudly in the wee small hours. You could make a little joke out of it by explaining that you really need your beauty sleep and that being woken up so early is making you feel grumpy and tired.

A woman posted about a month ago (she was the annoying neighbor and got torn to shreds for her unreasonableness

Personally I wouldn’t be able to cope 7.40 is a struggle

I would talk to her nicely but also buy earplugs

it is easier to control your own behaviour rather than that of other people

Those suggesting windscreen covers and ice scrapers are missing the point that presumably she’s clearing the inside of the windscreen and windows. I never use anything to wipe the inside of the windscreen because even ‘non smear’ cloths do actually leave smears. The way to get a completely clear screen is to switch the engine on and use the blowers (though of course you don’t need to rev the engine for that.) my windscreen takes an annoyingly long time to clear on the inside.

After suffering with my own neighbours I’d advise that tomorrow morning you go round and talk face to face when she’s woke you up at 5.20, but don’t get angry, just state you’ve woken me up etc. If you just say they’re waking you up in the morning they might not believe it. We have neighbours who pay their music really loud early in the morning/late at night from their cars, when they come home they sit in their with it on loudly and when they go to work they leave keys in with music on while they’re in the house! Always secretly hoping someone comes and nicks it off their drive when that happens!