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.

*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.*

OMG this ^^ sums it up perfectly!

Thank you all so much for your replies and for all the helpful links.

Through your help I have now found the district manager and will be emailing him to let him know of the issues and inviting him to the meeting.

I am hopeful this will help. My husband (who is amazing) has found all the legislation re noise and decibels and quiet enjoyment etc and will be bringing all this to the meeting.

I can't see anything being settled at the meeting - rather issues outlined and solutions suggested with a follow up afterwards?

The meeting is supposed to be next Friday but the Council haven't confirmed.

Thank you all also for the links re parking because if I can get somebody on top of that it will really help to make the Church they use "not ideal" if they can't load up their cars on the zig zags etc.

Seeing your updates I would suggest you just go to court. It’s very likely that you would get a noise abatement offer and the best part is that it would actually insentivise the Methodist minister because you could sue him directly. Speak to a lawyer.

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!

Now that wouldnt annoy me at all!, seeinsg I've just managed to get a "returns" ticket for Glyndebourne:)

Poor you, they sound like a really inconsiderate bunch of people. Good luck.

Do you know anybody who attends the Sunday service? Especially anyone...shall we say, opinionated? Just wondering if it's worth having them over for tea in the garden on Saturday, what with the lovely weather and all. They can then tell the whole congregation so the minister is getting pressure both ways.

My concern about having higher ups from a church come to listen is I suspect there will suddenly be a quieter service that week, back to normal when they've gone. But I have a nasty suspicious mind.

Good luck OP.

Surely it destroys the value of your property too. Anyone who looks into it now will see the noise complaints (or hear it for themselves).

Both houses on the road should sue, I agree. OP- can you bring a solicitor to the meeting on Friday?

@Justaboy They loved the singing...but it was keeping their kids awake!

It's worth considering the noise level in Sones rather than Decibels. Decibels measure just loudness whereas Sones, put simply, are about how irritating and/or how disruptive it is. So even quite a quiet noise may be higher on the Sones scale.

Were you there before the church? Has the church changed its routine? If not YABVVU. We live in a small community and although I do not go to church the hall is central to the community with hire for Hogmanay celebrations, birthday parties, weddings etc. Although max probably once a month. The next door neighbour has complained and had it shut down as it’s so old the church are finding it difficult to sound proof it. So one absolute fucker of a man has taken this away from the community because he moved into the house next door. Absolute cunt face! Nobody likes him anymore so he may as well move anyway.

If you read the thread you’ll get the answers, winkywonky.

I really wish people would RTFT or at least skim down and read the OP's updates - then they'd know that yes, the church was there when they moved in but the Methodists started to rent out the church on Saturdays four years ago to the SDAs who are causing serious noise nuisance and disruption well beyond what might be expected living next door to a church.

I think part of the problem is that MNHQ let people reply on the first page of a thread. If they had to get to the last page before replying, they might be more inclined to check what’s already been posted.

Don't you sound charming winky. I'm glad that bloke won his case if it was clearly against oblivious rude people like you.

It's worth considering the noise level in Sones rather than Decibels

Well polly havent heard that used for well, as long as i can rember Phon's and Pascals yes but the old decibel scale has a lot going for it and can easly describe a wide range in levels.

The Bel was a very large unit so hence deci bel or one tenth of a bel but the usage is very wide in varied in scicence and industry in particular radio and broadcasting.

As brief as i can make it its a relative scaling 0 dB is well about as quiet as you can get and its all refenced to that level or in other cases a definded level like say a milliwatt thats one thousanth of a watt. Its a logarrithmic power of ten scaling.

A very simple example of the way they work is consider you are in a country churchyard in the middle of the night in the middle of no where then a jet fighter passes by the noise or sould level has gone from aroung 0 dB to say 120 dB above the start quiet level now what do you thnik it will be if he comes back with a mate ?

That will be a doubling of level which is a 3dB increase so its now around 123 dB not 240dB as you might think! Thta number is around what an atom bomb would be around a few feet away as it went off;!!

I don't think the 7 days are going to take any notice of you. You need to very publicly shame the Methodist church authorities for putting their greed above your mental health!

I would expect loud music during services and singing. Praying. Loud music when rehearsing hymns/organ playing. If modern then electric instruments and drums being played. Lots of car park noise.

Isn't your meeting today @little???

I hope it went well today @alittlequinnie

How did it go?

@alittlequinnie how did your meeting go?

Update thread here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3684898-AIBU-to-give-you-an-update-re-Church-noise

Thanks jackstini