Shocking impact of noisy neighbours *Content warning: mentions suicide*

[Eastie77Returns]

I’ve been reading the awful news about the poor HA tenant who took his own life after being subjected to noisy neighbours (family living above him).

I know it sounds extreme but AIBU for thinking there should be minimum term prison sentences for people who purposely cause this kind of distress? I know it’s not always intentional but when it is I feel that people who do this deserve to be punished.

I lived in a flat above a man who insisted on keeping his TV on at an extremely high volume until 3/4am, regularly played an electric guitar and sang (badly) until the early hours as well as blasting music. I will never forget the stress and misery he caused, it truly impacted my mental health. I now live on a lovely quiet street in a semi detached house but I still get pangs of anxiety if I hear ‘noise’ late at night from any neighbours (very rarely happens).

This is completely unrealistic.

The thing is that twats will be twats. It doesn’t matter how good the sound insulation is if someone is the kind of dick that plays shockingly loud music at 3am.

There should be better legislation, more teams of people who can actually do something about it. It should be possible to call someone at 3am and they come and get them to turn it off. 3 call outs and a prosecution.
To get this sorted would require proper funding and changes in the law. I do think though that a political party could put this in their election manifesto and it could sway the vote.

Sounds like this is a soundproofing issue, not the neighbours' fault.
I've been on the other side of this - living in an upstairs flat and receiving repeated complaints about being "noisy" for carrying on our daily lives. Our washing machine/tumble dryer /dishwasher were apparently so loud the neighbours couldn't hear themselves think, let alone sleep through it. The TV at a bearly-audible-to-us volume apparently sounded like it was on full blast in their own living room. Us walking around sounded like we were jumping up and down, and caused their ceiling lights to shake. We were "ridiculously unreasonable" for making the most of our economy 7 electric and using appliances at night. We were "wholly inconsiderate" for using appliances during the day when they were on night shifts (that we didn't know about..).
It was a nightmare for everyone involved! Flats need better soundproofing, there should be minimum amounts of soundproofing by law.

I lived in an apartment with excellent soundproofing (because it was modern) after I left the neighbors from hell and still heard unreasonable volumes of noise. But in the main even though I was surrounded by much more people it was quieter

Years ago I lived in houses converted into flats with no soundproofing and we were just considerate. There was some noise, just everyday living but when you've got loud music, shouting and people going out of their way to make noise soundproofing isn't going to help.

Having a city that is weak and will not tackle noisy neighbours means you are stuck. Even the police didn't stop my noisy neighbor from screeching for hours and waking everyone up.

I can remember feeling trapped and hopeless. I couldn't hear any music or loud voices. I cried most days. It left me with constant anxiety. But I could move and this gentleman couldn't. Because it didn't affect the HA.

My ex neighbors are selling up and I hope it's because they are now by noisy neighbours. That's what these people need.

We've all got to live together so it means being considerate.

I’ve been on the receiving end of noise and have also been accused of being overly noisy by a neighbour who ended up sending us a threatening letter after the council noise equipment turned up nothing. I agree with the previous poster, it can be anyone being unreasonable, some people need to assess their own noise sensibility and move/adapt their house accordingly, others need to be more considerate about noise making.

I agree that the housing stock in this country is woefully prepped in terms of sound proofing, it needs to change so people can live without anxiety.

What I find interesting is that noise can be perceived differently depending on who’s making it. My first house was a terrace with lovely neighbours, we’d be woken by one set screaming at their kids to find their shoes and the others would spend evenings with friends singing folk songs, because we really liked both sets we were fine with it. Had we disliked either it would’ve been a problem. It sounds ridiculous but our later noise sensitive neighbour liked us until we got a particular car which he remarked on being ‘expensive’ and it started after that, I think he disliked us from that point and any normal noise was then amplified by his own dislike. So if someone making noise is threatening to you then try to find something - anything - you can find likeable about them. Know that’s impossible with some.

I’m also now extremely sensitive to noise. As mentioned I now live on a lovely, quiet road. You can honestly hear a pin drop 99% of the time. Last year the neighbours 3 doors up threw a party. As soon as I heard music and people talking/laughing my stomach started churning and anxiety kicked In massively. It wasn’t even especially loud but I just felt panicked.

The party ended at a reasonable hour and it was all fine but I didn’t realise until then how the experience with my awful former neighbour had traumatised me. No-one understands unless they’ve been through it.

Im in four in one block,no privacy at all,next door moved her friend another woman,2years ago,its been terrible made living room a bedroom never out of it,sit 24/7 with a tv,got a humidifier 3 months ago on night and day,no respect for me.

There are few things worse than really noisy neighbours. We lived in a suburban semi some years ago, in a street that you’d think would be quiet.The family on the other side of the dividing wall liked to do karaoke, music came on at all hours, you could never predict when it was going to start. Meanwhile in front of our houses was a small green space on which 20 or 30 local kids used to gather after school every day, all weekend, and every single day of the holidays - football, screaming, shouting until dark and sometimes later, you could hear it all through the house and in the back garden. I developed anxiety to the point I couldn’t eat anything (lost tons of weight) and for years after we moved I was hypervigilant about noise, especially when I heard music coming through the walls in other places. We now live in town - not much traffic, blissfully quiet!

I haven't read the thread so apologies if this has been covered

But why can these people not be repeatedly charged for breach of the peace?

The thread is 2 years old I’m afraid.

Oh, oops, hadn't spotted that

The lack of wall insulation is the problem alot of the time.
I used to live in a Victorian Semi. You coukd hear next doors phone ring, the toilet flash, the alarm clock going off.