To ask neighbours to stop making noise?

[123girlsandboys321]

New neighbours are renovating their house, we're living in a semi so just us attached to them. They pretty much only do work on it in the evening and have refused to keep the noise down - I'm talking saws and drills at 10:30pm - I find this totally unacceptable especially as they know we have young children. Just wanted to see if I'm alone in this view? We've tried asking them to keep the noise to before 7pm and they've been rude and aggressive to us...

[MrsKittySmith]

Hi,

Noise and asb officer here for local authority.
Although no laws in place for DIY times we would advise cut off point 8/9pm weekdays.

10.30pm way late. We would be going out and speaking to your neighbours asap and telling them this. We would advise if it continued, was unreasonable noise (excessive/loud) and we had evidence of this occuring on a frequent basis then action could be taken against them. Personally I would always enquire what work they were doing and dates for this to be completed which I would feedback to the customer.

Contact your local authority, they should go out or send a letter.

Good luck!

[ItsNovemberNotChristmas]

I'd be pissed off at any later 9PM, I'm up at 5 for work so usually going to bed then, it's not just children that they disrupt

[BackBoiler]

@123girlsandboys321 the house probably isnt fit for kids to live in. 7pm is a ridiculous suggestion.

[Thehop]

Sounds like kitty smith has great advice OP

[LakieLady]

I'd try asking them to stop earlier before you get the council involved OP. They may not realise how much it's disturbing you.

I'd be very pissed off if someone went straight to the council without speaking to me first.

You're going to end up living next door to these people, it'll be a lot nicer if you can all get along.

[SuperDonkey]

My council recommends 8am-6pm.

[SuperDonkey]

Oh and none on Sunday, and only until1pm on a Saturday.

[ToTheRegimentIWishIWasThere]

When they were rude and aggressive, what did they say?

9pm finish is probably unreasonable but acceptable if you know what I mean?

[B0bbin]

They sound like very selfish people. Sorry that you have to deal with this.

[FanSpamTastic]

Ask again nicely - if they still don't listen then buy your children recorders and a drum kit and tell them to go for it first thing every morning!

[Butchyrestingface]

Well, 7pm was a ridiculous request so you kind of shot yourself in the foot there.

I’d take the view that they will get it done quicker if you just leave them to it, annoying as the 10:30 drilling must be.

[Lou867]

It's completely unacceptable. I have a baby who goes to bed around 7 so I try to get to sleep around 9 before he wakes up for a feed between 2 and 4. I'd be livid if this was happening to me

[Butchyrestingface]

It's completely unacceptable. I have a baby who goes to bed around 7 so I try to get to sleep around 9 before he wakes up for a feed between 2 and 4. I'd be livid if this was happening to me

You can be as livid as you like but DIY at 7pm is no more unacceptable than your baby screaming the place down in the middle of the night and waking the neighbours (not saying that happens, btw).

Just part and parcel of living in close proximity of other people.

7pm = fine
10:30 = unreasonable but I’d thole it for a very short period

[whyamidoingthis]

We had that many years ago with a neighbour who was doing a massive job himself (he was a builder) so all day every weekend, starting at 8am, every evening during the week, finishing up around 8.30- 9pm each night. This included every day, bar christmas day, over the christmas break. The 9pm finish was as he had children so finished at their bedtime.

Dh and I were both studying part-time and working full-time so we asked him to give us a bit of a break from it coming up to exam time. He laughed in our faces. We might have played loud music very late at night in retaliation a couple of times after that.

We moved house and sold to someone who let the house out to students. How we laughed when we heard he was complaining to neighbours about late night music and parties next door.

Have you spoken to them about it? I know you said they refuse to keep the noise down but have you explained how disruptive it is? I do think you are being a little unreasonable asking for 7pm but I fully understand your annoyance. You might get a bit further with them if you ask for a more reasonable time than 7pm.

[MiniEggAddiction]

Doing drilling at 6pm os annoying but not much you can do doing it at 10:30pm is bloody ridiculous.

[ChardonnaysDistantCousin]

This is what you do.

Work out where their bedroom is and set you phone’s alarm at 4:30, 4:55, 5:15 and 5:20. Leave next to adjoining wall. Close door and retire to your bedroom.

Repeat as necessary.

[Lou867]

A baby will cry to let you know they want something and you go to them asap.
It's a lot different when someone is consciously aware of the noise they are making at a ridiculous time for God knows how long. Im just saying to have some respect

[WorldEndingFire]

This app is your friend! noisenuisance.org/noise-app/

[Thefaceofboe]

We have the same problem. 2 elderly brothers next door do work at 7am on a Saturday and Sunday morning but nothing the rest of the day. They are retired so I imagine can do the work whenever they are just oblivious to other people’s feelings

[TeacupDrama]

there is a big difference between noise from Builders which is regulated generally 8-6 weekdays and 8-1 Saturdays and not at all on weekends

DIY ( this refers to who is doing the work not the complexity) is often done at evenings weekends and bank holidays and reasonable noise rules apply generally most councils think that noise should not be heard by neighbours etc between 11pm and 7am, this are the hours when you can expect quiet the odd exception maybe
however I would say that things that are particularily noisy should stop a couple of hours before that about 9pm, if someone is working on their house after work it is unlikely they can start before 6-6.30pm so not really reasonable to expect them to stop by 7pm
I would try again with different suggestions ie could you do the really noisy bits before 9 and just paint etc after 9pm

[MissPepper8]

You could try speed things up by talking to your local county Councillor or MP they can deal with and advise with issues like this and even put the complaint in for you.

[Choufleur]

The world doesn’t revolve around kids. 10.30 is too late to be very loud but 7pm is not late.

[123girlsandboys321]

Totally agree that some work will need to be done after 7pm, to be clear I asked for drilling etc to be finished earlier, never asking them to stop all diy early. However, when it sounds like the walls are going to fall down and the kids can't sleep for school the next day I find it unacceptable. We've renovated houses before so I know it's exactly what it's like.

[wink1970]

If they are aggressive at this point, before they have moved in, it doesn't bode well.

Normally I'd say 'suck it up' but given this I agree with calling the local council's EH dept .... once you have tried a 2nd time to ask them nicely. You may have caught them badly before. After that, sod it, sort them out pronto.

[bridgetreilly]

Totally agree that some work will need to be done after 7pm, to be clear I asked for drilling etc to be finished earlier, never asking them to stop all diy early.

That is not really how it works, though. You have to do things in the order they need doing, not in the order of how much noise they make.