AIBU to ask you to clarify "reasonable" in my dispute with a church and noise?

[alittlequinnie]

My DH and I have a meeting next week with the Council and representatives of the Church next door.

We have had trouble with noise issues for the past four years.

The result of the meeting will probably be defined by the Council's idea of what you should "reasonably" expect as noise from a Church.

Would any of you be able to take the time to suggest what you would suggest would be "reasonable" to expect if you lived next door to a Church?

I don't want to give too much info yet because it needs to be an unbiased opinion.

To help though the Church is a very modern one - built in the 1980s / 1990's and a Methodist Church.

I'd be so grateful if you could let me know what you would expect if you lived next to a Church.

Sounds horrendous OP.

FWIW years ago a mate of mine was very annoyed by his next door neighbours they were a rock band who'd go down the pub come back and start playing, he went through all the usual sources council landlord etc to no avail.

But he had a secret weapon he was a radio amather and was licensed to use IIRC some 400 watts on whats called single saideband that that can cause a ungodley amount of interfernce so he one evening set up the gear and had a tape playing the opening chords of close encounters of the third kind.

It was very amusing to hear it taking over thier equipment and you could see them looking amazed at their gear playing a tune by itself anyway after a while they gave up and moved out.

The odd thing was that it was almost quite legal for him to do that what wasnt quite legal was playing music it was speech only and his callsign should be announced every so often!

If i was in your position OP guess what I might be tempted to do;))

To give you some idea of that in perspective thats around 800 times the power of a mobile phone!, have you noticed if your mobile goes off near a landline phone how it makes that racous buzz- buzz noise!

I'd expect the church to facilitate groups in the evening, events on a Saturday and the obvious on Sunday morning and possibly evening services. In order to help with the running costs churches have to let out rooms to organisations nowadays. Hope this helps give you an insight into what to expect from most churches nowadays.

YANBU
The Saturday noise is daytime noise - it’s not a big deal but the nighttime and early hours is unacceptable.
How awful
Get an air rifle

Haven't read past page one, but I lived opposite a Methodist church for many years and it was the Sunday bells that did my head in. A tuneless clanging that seemed to go on for hours. I didn't see why it was necessary.

Yep, all the night stuff is completely unreasonable. I can absolutely visualise the scene with all the kids as we used to frequent a park opposite the local church service. I would always be agog at the kids all dressed in their Sunday finery and acting like little savages.

Hope this helps give you an insight into what to expect from most churches nowadays.

They should in no way be disturbing the neighbours to this extent though.

Who was there first - you or church?

RTFT

My sister had similar. She got called racist and her Views (and 20 other neighbours) were dismissed as that, even though they were perfectly valid issues. Noise, parking with no one helping or addressing it. Just “we can do what the hell we like”.

She moved because she couldn’t argue against it when every legitimate argument is met with “your racist”.
Sorry I know that’s not what you wanted to hear.

noiseabatementsociety.com/about-us/what-we-do/
Have you spoken to the noise abatement society? They may be able to offer advice.

I'd expect the church to facilitate groups in the evening, events on a Saturday and the obvious on Sunday morning and possibly evening services. In order to help with the running costs churches have to let out rooms to organisations nowadays. Hope this helps give you an insight into what to expect from most churches nowadays.

Our church does all of these things ManicMij - but we damage to do them without causing unGodly levels of noise, or disturbing people late at night or for extended periods of time.

OP and the church co-existed happily until the SDA's arrived. They are loud, rude, selfish, aggressive, unChris,tian and downright vile by the sounds* of things.

*pun not intended

I don’t know if it’s possible to look back that far but are there any planning restrictions or covenants on the church originally?

OP have you tried the UK headquarters of the Seventh Day Adventists. If you look on their site it is all about living a Godly life, and all the noise is hardly honouring to God.

I'm aware of a church near us that started renting out their barn for evening functions.

The barn was oldish but surrounded by a housing estate. The residents complained about the noise from functions and the cars & taxis dropping off.

I don't know what process was followed but first of all the barn tried to limit the noise and then it was stopped by- I think - the council.

I hope you get a good result OP.

This issue is with a rental agreement. I can't imagine such an agreement being made without some regulations about behaviour. I belong to an Operatic Society who got in huge trouble with our rehearsal venue as our singing was annoying the neighbours (we're very loud without amplification!) However I suspect the 7DA are a cash cow so the issues are being ignored. Midnight services are usual in Christianity and parts are often held outside but this disruption isn't every week. You might get them on regular loud noise, but also consider Health and Safety such as fire regs; the number of children at risk; parking and highway issues as the council may be able to do more about this than on noise.

Given the age of the church, I suspect planning permission was given based on certain principles regarding noise etc. I would get this as ammunition before the meeting.

Midnight services are usual in Christianity and parts are often held outside

'usual' in that you can expect them to happen once a year at Christmas.

Do you know where the fuse box is in the church? It might be possible to arrange a power cut.

Not sure if its any help but a Gospel church in Nottingham got fined for noisy services. according to reports it was in 2012

'usual' in that you can expect them to happen once a year at Christmas.

Twice a year - we have an Easter vigil, too.

These services are accompanied by quiet readings, prayers, some gentle appropriate hymns. The outside bits are rarely (if ever)"enloudened" (sorry - I can't remember the real word ). The only times we've used external microphones are for things like the Remembrance Day service (which is pretty short as regards the noise part) and once when a local boy was killed in Afghanistan - the church I then attended wasn't big enough to hold everyone who wanted to pay their respects (and it was a big church) so microphones etc were positioned outside, too.

Most churches, apart from the bell ringing, don't cause a lot of noise.

Who was there first - you or church?

Actually, the OP was there before this particular "church".

Next.

YADNBU

Corna Hoppingpavlova What?! She doesn't need a translator what are you on about?

Well, someone is literal! It was said in a metaphorical sense and simply means unless you have someone who understands the SDA mindset and can speak to them from that frame of reference then you will get nowhere. Not hard to understand.

The difficulty is that the 7DA's style of worship is very exuberant, and church gatherings a very social affair. I imagine the fact that there are only two houses to upset may be a factor in them being able to rent your church rather than one in a more populated street. It isn't fair on you though.

Whatever promises you might be able to extract from the Methodist church as the landlord, I can't see how this would be managed. The 7DAs won't be able to change how they do things to the extent you need for your own quiet enjoyment.

I think the Methodists have been very naive in thinking that this could work.

DS1 works somewhere where they allow functions and such.

He says it always always goes over the time they hire the hall for when its the Seventh Day Adventists and they are very loud, before, during and after .

I don't know what to suggest OP but I wouldn't like it.