To not expect neighbour to use washing machine overnight

[BornInTheWrongCentury]

Just that really. Over the last couple of months our neighbours started using their washing machine/tumble dryer overnight, it was going on on at about midnight and stays on till around 3am.

My husband asked a them politely a few weeks ago when he saw them outside if they’d mind changing the time they have it on as it really disturbs us. We’re in a mid terraced house and they are the end of the terrace. Their kitchen is below our bedroom. The previous occupants took out a wall in their kitchen that separated the kitchen from their hallway so it’s open planned now so all sound from their house is amplified now anyway and noise seems to travel up the wall into our bedroom.

After my husband mentioned it to them they stopped for a couple of weeks but now the noise has started again as they are putting a wash on at about 10pm and it finishes at 1am.

It’s really upsetting me that I can’t go to bed and read/fall asleep in peace until at least 1am now.

If it’s relevant we own our house and their house is social housing. They are the end of the terrace so if I complain to the council or their housing association they will know it’s me. They are the kind of couple who seem ok as long as you’re on the right side of them but they are rather loud and look very intimidating and to be honest I don’t want to make things worse or get into an argument with them.

They are pretty good neighbours apart from this issue as in the only other noise we hear is their children (they have very screechy, door slamming children but I can cope with that during the day!) They don’t have parties or play thumping music - it’s just the issue with not being able to go to sleep when I want to. I don’t know if I’m just being over sensitive where I so tired.

What would you do?

YABU - just be grateful it’s nothing worse than a washing machine and try to ignore it/go to bed later when you know you’ll fall straight to sleep

YANBU - be brave and speak to them again asking them to not use after 11pm and complain to the council if they refuse?

The noise from their kitchen runs up the side of our wall. We have our sitting room and a long thin hallway under our bedroom but next to the hallway they have an open plan kitchen. Our headboard is against the shared wall. We have fitted wardrobes around our bed so can’t reconfigure our room without a lot of work/expense.

I’m not sure if/how the previous occupants got permission to take out the wall to have their kitchen open plan.

I just want to be able to relax/sleep at nighttime. I don’t think that makes me a princess

They might be on an economy 7 tariff and have no choice.

I wash and dry mine at night because I work during the day so I don’t have time, so in the mornings I can just put it all away. Weekends I’m generally busy with running either my other errands or my nan’s but I try to wash the bits that take longest to dry then (kingsize bedding in a tiny dryer takes an age)

Even if I start it around 7-8ish the wash takes 1.5 hours (even longer if a hot wash) so the dryer is on late into the night.

Summer is different because I don’t need the dryer, so I set the washer to finish for when I wake up and I can just hang it outside before work.

I just want to be able to relax/sleep at nighttime. I don’t think that makes me a princess.

Then you need to look at what you can change in your house. Not make unreasonable demands on your neighbours.

I suggest you take up the trumpet and start practising when you can't sleep because of the noise of the washing machine.

The tenancy is relevant. The problems in our case related to an HMO so it meant the landlord was involved. Completely different to someone in a home they owned or to a council tenant or even to a single household privately renting. When the council get involved in neighbour disputes, the approaches open to them will be different.

I know Im missing the point of this thread, but can someone please tell me which electricity companies have different rates for different times of day? Im not on Economy7.

I am torn, I am mid terrace and I work full time so I often use my machines at night, my dryer is in the old outhouse space before the bathroom so there is nothing above it so as far as I am aware it doesn't bug anyone else. I check with one neighbour as she is lovely but the other one I don't as he is a massive twat and I have had to out up with parties til 2am during lockdown and endless rows between him and his wife and their daughter. Like full blown screaming for hours and the language is hideous. My 7 year old has learnt some fantastic words as a result. Their dogs bark constantly and are shut out pretty much 24/7 and they rarely clean up so it stinks of shit in the summer. Frankly if the washing machine and dryer are disturbing them I am calling it even.

However @borninthewrongcentury perhaps once covid is done you could invite them to hear it from your bedroom, they probably don't realise how bad it is. But just have a chat with them. Explain how disruptive it is and ask them if there is anything they can do to lessen the noise, some lino under the machine maybe?

You can only ask, and if that fails then I think you need to invest in either some sound deadening underlay for your house or white noise machines etc to try and help you tune it out.

How long has it been going on OP? I used to have a bedroom that was directly next to the kitchen, and my electric was more than half the price of daytime, during the night. The washing machine was about 3 feet from my head (with a wall between obviously). To begin with it did wake me up at night, but within a few weeks it just became a background noise my body got used to and didn’t disturb me ever again.

BornInTheWrongCentury

There have actually been some quite nasty comments on this thread! confused

Thank you to all those who have stuck up for me! xxx
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Don’t listen to the crap comments. Until you’ve been in this situation you can’t really comment on how it feels. My ex neighbour used to put her washing machine on most mornings 2/3am. Noise at that time seems to magnify 100 times at that time. That’s just feckin bloody ignorant to tell you the truth, especially when they know it annoys you.

YABU. It's also irrelevant that you are a home owner and they are tenants.

all of us will have to get more use to this as gov wants all houses to be electric by 2030 ish - which presumably means more people will do laundry at night ie cheaper rates.

Who does a bloody three hour wash?

Tricky one. I live in a flat and we have a covenant in our leasehold agreements about noise.

We are also all Economy 7. I run my dishwasher overnight as it is quiet and I'm confident that the smoke detectors work well.

I don't use my washing machine overnight unless it is an absolute emergency (so twice in 5 years).

YANBU.

I live in a terraced house and can clearly hear my neighbours washing machine, luckily they only run it during the day. Ours is loud enough to stop me sleeping, especially when it goes onto the spin cycle. Even if it didn't disturb me, knowing how clearly I can hear the neighbours machine I would never dream of running mine at night.

Hmm. I seem to be in the minority but I think YANBU. I think it's quite a British thing to think it is okay to make noise at all hours. I have lived in the UK (where I was born) and also in a couple of other European countries were living in flats is more common. In the other two countries there are rules about when you can and cannot make noise. For example it would be considered rude by most people where I live to use the Hoover or the washing machine after 10 pm, for exactly the reason that you are experiencing, it disturbs the neighbours! In the UK we are also used to living in houses that we forget that noise does travel through walls and pipes and can really inconvenience others.

As an aside, in one of the countries I have left there is a special telephone number to call for the noise police, it is anonymous and they will come round and tell your neighbours if they are making too much noise so that you don't have to!

YABU
They probably run it at night because the electric tariff is cheapest. Socially housed people are forced to economise. They can’t be running up the electric bill in the middle of the day.

But what you can do, is put some underlay on your bedroom floor. Peel back the carpet and put some sound proofing underlay sheets down.

@torquewench www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/economy-7.html

Also yes to posters saying ear plugs won't necessarily make the problem go away. I them find them very uncomfortable and also poor at blocking certain noises. They don't do anything against slamming doors. I listen to white noise on headphones instead (I worry about getting tinnitus in future) and think sleeping in this way is starting to make me depressed.

But they did what you asked? Machine was going on at midnight, you complained and asked for a time change, it's stopped.

Personally I'd just play a bit of white noise and pull your headboard away from the wall.

@torquewench

I know Im missing the point of this thread, but can someone please tell me which electricity companies have different rates for different times of day? Im not on Economy7.

It usually only applies if you are an all electric house normally with storage heaters. You would have 2 meters with a day rate and a night rate - the storage heaters charge at night to have heat available during the day and that's why the night rate is cheaper than the day rate.

Hi op , I think it’s easy for other posters to say you’re unreasonable - when they aren’t suffering noise and sleep deprivation! I also have a similar situation with upstairs neighbours. I wear earlplugs, have tried white noise and noise blocking headphones. Some noises - especially a rapidly vibrating machine get through all that . It can make you on edge all evening and night and cause anxiety. Our issue is that they actually need to work on their flooring ( which they’ve admitted needs sorting ) while it’s not always perfect , until that’s done, they are not doing ‘loud’ activities after 11pm . This has made a big difference.
I think we all have responsibilities as neighbours , especially when crammed together in flats and terraces to be kind and try to accommodate easy requests to help others . We have dc and downstairs said noise was loud in morning - so now we do quiet games til 9 . Yes we could say ‘ no way it’s our lives /flat’ we will do what we want . That doesn’t leave us harmoniously living together in close proximity to others though does it .
It’s a shame at the moment you can’t go and visit them and talk about it face to face again. They may have just forgotten or like others said have a reason for putting it on at that time . When you first raised it did you text?

I don’t think YABU at all
This is why I have my washing machine and my tumble dryer both in the utility and try even then to avoid using them late into the night as they would disturb us.

I once loved somewhere where this was a fairly regular thing. The taps also used to whoosh and clang according to the water input in the cycles in the middle of the night and their machine was on for hours. It wrecked our sleep.

Until you’ve had to endure it it’s easy to imagine someone is being a bit OTT. But it is incredibly disruptive

YABU re the washing machine. Maybe the children wet the bed? Maybe one of them works in healthcare and needs to wash scrubs overnight?

@yearinyearout

Who does a bloody three hour wash?

Blokes An economy two and half hour wash with every bit of clothing / bedding/ towels they can cram in in any colour