Quiet neighbours now making noise.

[OpalBird]

My neighbours talked to us about the noise coming from our property. OK, my son has a hobby that does make an annoying noise. Since then we have made sure he's doing it less but we obviously aren't going to stop him completely. They haven't said anything since and I think we've been considerate in reducing the number of hours our son does his thing.

It seems like they've now decided that they are allowed to make more noise. We've been neighbours for years and they've always been quiet. Now we get occasional music or radio in their backyard. When I asked them about it they said they have always worn headphones to be considerate but they don't really like listening that way, so they thought it was fair they got to have their hobbies the way they enjoy them best as well.

Would I be unreasonable to complain to them again? There is a difference between children playing and music when they have the option of headphones.

So would that be 3-4 times a day at half an hour each? So 2hrs a day? You’re not the sharpest tool in the shed OP, they should be cranking their music up every time he’s out there.

You are lucky that you can ignore intermittent unpredictable bouncing ball noise. For most people that element of Chinese torture is way way worse than music or a continuous noise at a slightly higher volume.

Pretty much everyone is telling you the same thing, the answer isn't less basketball it's further away basketball

Its not clear why can't your 13 year old go to a park?

Even if the park is driving distance it cant be more than 10-15 mins... you could drop him before work and you could make his own way back or you could collect him at lunch.

He clearly LOVES basketball so presumably can fill 3 hours of time?

It's not directed at you, they've just realised they were going to too much effort to stop you hearing them, when clearly noise isn't a problem for you and they have changed their habits and enjoying their home more freely.

Send your kid to the park where he can play as much basketball as he likes.

It obviously didn’t work for them before….it worked for you. But they’ve just thought stuff it, we are going to enjoy our space as we like too

THUD THUD THUDTHUD….THUD..THUD THUD …….THUD THUD THUD THUDTHUD …..THUD THUD THUD THUD….THUDTHUDTHUD…

That’s about five seconds worth and I bet it was annoying to read.

At 13 your son should be out roaming and doing his basketball in the local park /court.

No reason for him to be doing at home.

It probably is directed at you.
They were being considerate neighbours but you weren't repaying that favour, so they've decided to no longer be considerate.
Don't blame them.

99% of more than 500 posts say I'm unreasonable. Can't really argue with that.

Isn't there a park nearby? The ball bouncing and slamming for 30 minutes four times a day would kill me. A radio isn't comparable.

No park with a hoop.

You're just like a vile ex-neighbour of mine who agreed that his son would cut down from two hours of random drum practice a day (sometimes from 7am, sometimes in the evenings, sometimes in the afternoons after school) to 'just' an hour a day and a couple of hours a day each day at the weekend. When I put the house up for sale years later (when the son had gone off to university) the neighbour stuck his head over the garden wall and said very aggressively that I'd better not sell to a large noisy family because he and his wife liked the peace.

If your son was playing basketball for two hours a day and ruining my peaceful enjoyment of my garden all summer, I'd be playing music loudly all day and doing a lot of noisy DIY. Teach your son to be a good neighbour by limiting him to an hour at time that works for your neighbours, a couple of times a week. The worst thing about random noise is that you're waiting for it to start and then when it does start you don't know when or if it will stop. The rest of the time he goes to the nearest park and shoots hoops there.

You're complaining you hear their music for 2 hours a day...
But that's what you've reduced your sons basketball playing to

Well then, take it up with your local community council/ local authority and get on installed.

These would be my thoughts too- clearly my neighbours dont care about noise so I will enjoy my home as I see fit.

You really have no leg to stand on here- if you make noise yourself people will assume you are fine with it- its just common sense.

Of course, noone would seriously expect people to listen to music on headphones in their own home?!

Basketball 30 mins at a time 3 or 4 times a day sounds HORRENDOUS. They are not being unreasonable to make less effort to be mindful when they have to listen to that.

Fair play OP you’ve taken the feedback on board. Hope the rest of the thread reflects your change of perspective and people don’t continue to give you a hard time.

My son plays basketball in the garden, not as much as yours does, but I let him play.
My adjoining neighbour is a piano and violin teacher. I'm sure the basketball is a bit annoying, as is listening to their awful violin students. We are really happy as neighbours and get on great. live and let live! But it has to work both ways.
Soon your son will probably get bored of so much basketball, it just goes in phases usually.

Our neighbours’ kids play basketball for half hour once a day, and I can cope with that.

I would struggle with 3 or 4 times a day. The person above who doesn’t understand how the noise carries has obviously never lived near kids that play basketball - it’s nothing like the noise of kids running around playing football for example (our next door neighbours’ kids play this and we barely notice). It’s also not in the same league as work building going on that will finish after a certain length of time!

@OpalBird - The basketball is only about half an hour at a time, a few times a day. Their music yesterday was for two hours. We've got our son down to no more than three or four times a day now, so it's not excessive. It used to be twice that. So we've done something about it.

YABVVVVU

basketball bouncing for 2 hours a day is fucking awful. A really annoying repetitive noise. And you're complaining about your neighbours' noise for the same time?? You're bonkers and very unreasonable.

And he used to play for four hours a day?? Your poor neighbours.

Stop being so bloody selfish, and send your son to the park to play.

Oh come on OP - this has to be a reverse or a wind up because no one could possibly think its ok for someone to be playing basketball right next to the neighbour's house 3 or 4 times a day for half an hour at a time.

Basketball is a very annoying repetitive noise. To remedy the situation which I assume you want to do, you need to agree times for the basketball and times for the music. I do not blame them for retaliating. They are probably past themselves.

I was just going to say this.

OP has accepted she is BU and is going to talk to the neighbours again. No need to keep at her!