Not sure if this really qualifies as an AIBU question, but here goes… strap yourselves in, it’s a long one:
We have a neighbour who has relentlessly pursued us through the council about the installation of an air con condenser unit that was installed in 2020. We were reassured that it was not in contravention of any existing regulations by the supplier who initially put it up on the side of the house overlooking the neighbour’s garden. The neighbour’s garden sits to the side of our property, and the unit was positioned on our wall at second storey level, above our garden path which separates the properties (so visible from the end of their garden).
The neighbour started berating the installation team as they were working, complaining that it was against the planning act and that they should stop work immediately. At no point did they try to talk to us - instead they put a snotty letter through the door. It got to the point that the installation team called the police (unbeknown to me) and the neighbour apparently got a warning. The supplier meanwhile reiterated that putting up the unit didn’t fall within the planning act’s limitations, as the unit was positioned further than 6ft away from the neighbour’s property.
We then received a call from the council planning dept saying they’d had a complaint and could they come and look at where the unit was positioned, as they needed to decide if we should apply for planning or not. They came out and said it was technically a moot point as the planning laws haven’t yet been updated to allow ‘air source heat pumps’ to be installed within a certain distance of neighbouring properties - albeit ours was on the limits. They recommended we moved the unit to keep the peace, so the supplier came back and put it on our back wall, well away from the neighbour, out of sight and presumably that was that.
Three months later we had another call from the council - this time Environmental Health, who asked if they could come and check the noise pollution levels as they’d received another complaint from the same neighbour. And this was BEFORE we had ever even used the air con! We duly had them round to test the noise levels (it’s a modern unit that already meets the prescribed decibel levels) and they managed to record an aeroplane overhead and a bird tweeting next to them that was louder!
Environmental Health commiserated with us for having such CFs as neighbours and reassured us that it was unlikely to go anywhere as it was all completely overblown. That was six months ago.
Today I received yet another call from Env Health, asking again to come and measure the sound levels of our unit. Luckily it went to voicemail, otherwise my mouth would’ve got the better of me.
All the while said neighbour studiously avoids all possible contact - blatantly ignores my husband when he says hello and generally acts like a bit of a prick (inviting all the neighbours except us for drinks in their garden). I wouldn’t mind if we’d been running the air con at full tilt for the whole summer and it had somehow managed to disturb them (it’s underneath and next to our bedroom windows and we don’t hear it - and we’re light sleepers) but due to the ridiculous energy pricing situation we only had it on a handful of times during the heatwave and never since.
So dear MNers (if you haven’t dozed off yet) WWYD? I’m not rushing to call EH back since I’m not feeling very magnanimous (surprisingly) and wonder if it’s unreasonable to feel persecuted and bother to get solicitors involved, or if it will only make the problem worse?