To report a neighbour driving the whole street demented

[Lagomtransplant]

We live on a new estate and most of us are homeowners. Last May our next door neighbour rented his house out and ever since it's been cigarette smoke, disco music blaring at all hours, police knocking at all hours, even a suspicion of drugs being delivered to the address. This is despite a very young baby living on the premises (I think he's 2-3 months old.

With the heat and everything, it's lately been a choice of being boiled indoors by heat or opening the windows and having my mind done in by fragments of disco beats being repeated on highest volume until it makes you physically sick, like the worst sort of an ear slug imaginable. DH measured 90 decibels at 5AM this morning!!!

I feel like I'm at the end of my tether. We have so far kept ourselves to ourselves, but I think of reporting her if this happens again. I don't want to cause trouble for anyone, but surely this is CF territory??? And whom do I report it to?

You can normally report noise pollution to your local council (but they seem to vary in effectiveness for dealing with it!).

If you think there is a child in danger/being neglected you should report that to social services.

Start with the landlord. If it were my property I'd want these idiots out ASAP.

Also call police or antisocial behaviour unit on EVERY occurrence of music/noise/whatever to build up a case.

Police if you suspect drugs. Also social services..
Environment health and the council.

** Start with the landlord. If it were my property I'd want these idiots out ASAP.

Also call police or antisocial behaviour unit on EVERY occurrence of music/noise/whatever to build up a case.**

^Good advice here

Landlord first of all

Along with social services a close second to put the family on their radar. They need to ensure the baby is safe ASAP

I'd speak to others in your road. What are their thoughts?

Council. Outline the issues and report a noise nuisance - ask for how they enforce this

Police every single time you suspect drug dealing or any criminal activity

I don't have a habit of talking on anyone, but this is getting ridiculous.

Would police even bother with this, given that the only apparent thing is the noise?

I only know the landlord's last name

Agree logging with police,
Social services if concerned for child.

Environmental health officers at your local council for noise issues.... That is truly ridiculous noise levels...
Yes the police are interested in repeat unsocial behaviour

How do you know the property is rented out?

@Clymene

DH was told so by the neighbour and I actually saw the neighbour standing in the street with rental papers and he pops by occasionally - although he doesn't do so regularly, so we never know when he'll be there to talk to him.

Above advice is good. You have my full sympathies - you must feel like a prisoner in your own home

You can go on the land registry website and pay £3 to download the deeds and the owners name will be on there, possibly his address too if he bought it as a rental property.

Nothing will happen no matter who you report it to if my experience is anything to go by

[quote Lagomtransplant]@Clymene

DH was told so by the neighbour and I actually saw the neighbour standing in the street with rental papers and he pops by occasionally - although he doesn't do so regularly, so we never know when he'll be there to talk to him.[/quote]
I asked because if there was an agent board up, you could contact them. But yes Land Registry is a good shout.

Have you never reported them? It sounds intolerable

If you are ever concerned about the child phone 111 or 999, log every instance with environmental health. I would be mindful to stick to the facts rather than speculation and assumptions though, a 'suspicion of drugs being delivered' is a bit of a statement.

Oh it’s awful. I have loud partying neighbours- well several - and loud music until 5am or later is genuinely horrendous and starts to make you miserable.

You might be able to find old rental listings online and the landlords contact info / the agency through that?

You can also report concerns for the baby through social services and I think maybe NSPCC too.

Definitely worth seeing if neighbours are interested - though I tend to avoid conflict and don’t want things linked back to me - but strength in numbers could be useful.

Call police every time. Keep a dairy of time of noise, duration and loudness and report to environmental health

Guidance from a local authority, you will have a MASH in your area too if you google.

This is one area's advice.

www.oscb.org.uk/concerned-about-a-child/

What Blerg said, plus I would speak to environmenal health because of the level of noise your husband is able to measure in your house. They have kit that they can use to confiscate her music equipment.
That poor baby listening to that. If you are worried about Social Services, chat it through with NSPCC as Blerg suggested.
Land Registry may not work if the owner lived there previously as he might not have informed them of a change of address, although he would be foolish not to have done so. If your husband saw him with the rental documents, he might not have used an agent .

Police do not deal with noise as I recently found out, they would be interested in the drugs being delivered/used I imagine.

Landlord first port of call then environmental/noise pollution dept at your local council. When I called the police recently regards noise situations on 999 the call handler gave me an out of hours number to report my neighbours

Write a diary of all disturbance at anti-social hours. When you have a few weeks worth, contact the council and ask them to install recording equipment to prove it.
They won't be interested in day time house but 90 decibels at 5am is ridiculous!!!

A friend of mine is going through a similar situation. HMO, loud music, talking, smoking weed, broken fence panels and puking in the garden 😷 They faffed about for months and months before doing anything about it. This is what they tried:

*Talking to the tenants. Nothing changed.
*Contacting the estate agents and asking then to contact the landlord. Nothing happened.
*More forcefully contacting the estate agent with specific complaints.
*Logged issue online with community police. No response.
*contacted environmental health. Not particularly helpful because the music stops at night (after blasting out all day)
*The landlord was finally contacted by letting agent and comes round to visit. He told my friend the lease expires in August, so they’ll be gone then. He couldn’t care less about the weed stench and asked the tenants to keep the noise down.
*Community Police suddenly appear! They talk to the tenants. Tenant charges round to my friend’s house to have a go at them.

• My friend FINALLY speaks to other neighbours in the street about the problems. Others are very upset about it all but hasn’t tried to sort it out. *Horrid neighbour charges round again to say the police have contacted them again and that they’re moving out in 2 weeks, so my friend can just “fuck off”.

Now, I love my friend to bits but she drove me crazy during all this. It’s been almost 2 years! I couldn’t believe they didn’t contact police/lettings agency/landlord/other neighbours sooner. It’s been utterly miserable for them and no matter how much advice was given they just seemed to put up with it. I think they were afraid of raising a formal complaint because they’d have to declare it if they sell. But, what price sanity?

From my experience:
Call environmental health, they will ask you to keep a diary, they will write to the NN (noisy neighbour).
They may install sound equipment which you use to record noise issues.
If they identify statutory noise nuisance they will warn the neighbour to stop, if it carries on they may enforce including fines.

But.... it is a long and stressful road.

DH lodged a report with the environmental health. We spoke with the neighbours on the other side and we'll speak to the owner when he shows up.

I'll keep a diary, although the thought of several weeks of this is enough to consider xanax

Our council instruct landlords to evict neighbors like this. Contact yours on Monday