Neighbours called cops on me.

[Happyjoe]

For reference, I live in a terraced house, been here 14 years with no problems, though currently put an offer in another house far away, then need to sell this somehow.. My next door neighbours have been hell since they moved in about 14 months ago and are council tenants (which I think the council should be responsible for). They have a small 4 year old child that runs up and down some badly fitted laminate and screams her head off all day long, result is a loud banging on my wall/floor. Every footstep, from child or two adults is like someone is hammering next door. Can actually feel the vibrations through the wall.

The kid is up til the parents are up, as all sleep in same room. That can be anything from 10pm to 1.30am. I cannot sleep til they sleep and am up when they are up, as no option. I cannot read a book, I cannot watch TV. I've tried noise cancelling earphones, ear buds. Thump thump thump all day long.

They don't clean up their rubbish, recently had to get the council involved for them to clean their general waste that was full in their garden and blocking a shared alleyway at the bottom of the garden. Rotting, liquified food, been there over 6 months.. They smoke dope, it comes through the shared space under the floor. This is the point I contacted the council. Horrific. Started well with the council, next door said they would put a rug down for the footsteps. Of course, never happened. The council then just walked away from it all leaving me with my home completely destroyed by neighbours.

Anyway, the only thing that blocks them out is music. I put the radio on most days, just loud enough to cover the screams and shouts, but not loud enough to block out the bang noises. Occasionally, like today, I lose it as I've just had my fill for the day. I then put on the stereo, which is a very very powerful stereo and put some old punk music on loud, shake the ground loud. It's just an albums worth, about 40 mins worth but enough for me to feel better.

So about 30 mins ago they called the cops on me. 3 policemen came indoors. I explained, played them a video of the noise they create. All 3 were totally understanding, one of the policemen couldn't believe the noise I had to endure daily, another had just been through the same with his own neighbours. So they are going to write to the council, complain on my behalf, explain that I am at my wits end and that they do not appreciate the tenants wasting police time.

So kinda backfired, I don't suppose the neighbours expect that outcome? Best thing, I said to the police that I was going to put the music back up when they leave and they said totally understood.

Why is it that people are so bloody entitled these days that they cannot see the issue they cause others? Or do they just not give a toss?

YABU to keep playing more music, more than I normally would just to piss them off back?

Yes, it has crossed my mind, another neighbour too because of the sheer amount of noise from a little one. The late nights I don't think are a social services issue. One tired child and it's going to be hard for her when she starts school and that is a real shame, almost being set up to fail.

The drugs seemed to have stopped now for the most part, due I presume from a warning from the council. Just very occasionally. Council told them to smoke in the garden, no interest in having a kid and drugs at all.

If the neighbours are smoking weed in/on their own property then that's legal and SS won't get involved re the child. Not right of course but they are doing nothing illegal.

Sorry, no dope is illegal, no matter where you smoke it.

@Happyjoe* * I am genuinely surprised because it is so prevalent where we live - and that's in a village! It stinks in the summer!!
But realistically, what are the chances of the police or SS involved if OP reported it? I would guess pretty much zero.
Be interested to hear if someone has reported and action has been taken.

They wont be bothered about the drugs as long as the children are kept away from it as a volunteer parent helper I was asked if I wanted to support a drug family the rules were clear as long as the needles etc were out of reach and the child's basic needs were met social services were happy...I didn't feel able to support the family so someone more experienced went in

@Theunamedcat Agreed. The poor kids 😢

That’s not true. Anti social behaviour can be any hour of day or night and councils have noise teams that will come out in the day. Regular household noise will be disregarded but other noise not so. I was given a noise monitor to record my neighbour’s dog which barked incessantly all day.

@StephensLass1977 if she's not walking the dog I'd phone animal welfare.

Noise monitor from the council.

Hard for you and neighbours alike!

In Australia the Police come out.

The Police responded immediately after I called them because a neighbour’s visitor parked in such a way that she blocked traffic.

The Police called her out of the house and made her look at her shitty parking before moving her car.

The entire thing was over in minutes.

Cars were actually going through our front yard because her car was so badly parked.

I don’t think I would cope living in England.

so your mental health needs loud music, try head phones
two wrongs dont make a right

If they want to dish it out, they have to be able to take it back. Seems fair.

Are you, or do you have any friends who are Muslim or rather who, by wearing a hijab could be better believed to be a Muslim?
Were said "Muslim" to turn up at your house when ideally you or do eonr in the house had your camera on your phone on, and assuming your neighbours may say something racist or islamophobic then the police will be out lickety spit and the council will take a dim view of islamophobic behaviour.
You don't need to be a confirmed card carrying Muslim or even brown skinned for this is all if the perpetrator says something.

Or as some on here say, sell and lose a lot of money. Don't - fight, fight fight.

So your mental health solution of loud deliberate noise isnt required when only certain neighbours are home or out

You will have to declare this noise dispute to any prospective buyer when you try to sell your house, so it sounds like you’ve shot yourself in the foot massively here.

At what age would you put old people away? Would this be compulsory? Do you ever speak to anyone who is not your own age?

I wonder of the wheelbarrows are ready to cart them off

Sorry op, I think you're right in that your best option here is selling up and moving.

I think the difficulty the council likely have is that the noise of children running and playing is considered normal household noise. Children are noisy some more than others depending on age/personality/sen but they have a right to play in and enjoy their home. Equally footsteps are normal noise within a home. Not everyone can afford to put down rugs big enough to cover full rooms nor carpet a house they've just floored.

Obviously some people will naturally be more noise sensitive than others. My previous ndn were very noisy because they had loads of kids, sometimes it was annoying but they're kids and sometimes they will be noisy when they play. I think it's the downside to living in a terrace. This type of noise is also treated very differently to intentional nuisance noise - which is what you are creating when you are blasting the stereo (intentionally trying to annoy them) so by doing this you're completely weakening your own hand and they can put a complaint into council against you if you do that regularly as unfair as that may sound. The noise falls into different categories of normal household vs nuisance which is why you're not seeing the council act.

The smoking weed and the rubbish is a separate issue and you're completely right to have reported it. I'd continue to report the rubbish because that's got the potential to create a rat issue in your area and the smoking because that's a tenancy agreement breach, but also on top of all this it sounds like there's a child safeguarding issue here if there's a small child in the house, if the house is not being properly maintained and rubbish is left lying, if there's no bedtime or routine and if there's regular drug use in the home when the child is present. Depending on the child's birthday would they not be in school at 4 for at least part of the day? Id be inclined to submit an anonymous report to social services.

I understand why you want to get back at them and blast the music etc, but realistically you need to look at this long term. You're working on getting moved you don't want this getting worse between now and then. Make the reports that are absolutely necessary and try to focus on the move otherwise. Could you take out a second mortgage and rent out your home? Are you able to get out and about as the noise will be more of an issue if you are sat at home every day? Can you work from an office base/ shared workspace hub if you wfh or if you aren't working could you get out volunteering or similar to fill your time and have a purpose you enjoy while getting space from the noise?

Huge sympathies OP, you could be describing somewhere I used to live. They also never left the house! It was family noise, so we were evil child haters with no right to complain and that was it. Although the previous tenants had young kids and were really lovely and considerate and we all got on…

In the end we rented our place out so we could move asap. That is another stressful story but just wanted to say that I hope you get your situation sorted as I understand how awful it is x

@Happyjoe I’d still report them not meeting your child’s needs is neglect, that child’s needs are definitely not being met.

Have YOU ever lived with that sort of noise?

No! I thought not!!

Are you the neighbour? If you act like the ops neighbour, shame on you, and perhaps have a think about your own neighbours

No I don’t behave like the neighbours! I imagine they’re a pain in the pissing neck but you can’t win with people like that.

Oh, I do feel like playing it a lot because it totally blocks out the noise. Believe it or not my neighbours the other side go out quite a lot. I do not play loud music every time they go out because I try to keep calm and do my very best to stop it getting to me. Sometimes though I reach breaking point when the nice neighbours are in or out but I do not play music when they are in because they are considerate people.

My nice neighbours have heard crashing from my noisy ones, even through my own house and I wasn't even here at the time. We left for a few months to look after FIL end of life care and my house empty. They are more than sympathetic and very understanding.

I don't blame you OP. We once had neighbours that would play ridiculously loud music and were just loud in general. I once had to report them to social services as I could hear them slapping their child through the walls. The violence certainly calmed down after they had a visit from social services but the music didn't. To get our revenge, I put my amplifier against the wall, turned it up to "11" 😉, plugged it into my computer and put "Star Trekkin' " on repeat. We then went out for the day. It was the last time they ever played music.

My builder BIL does a lot of refurbs for a property company that buys houses to lease back to councils in exactly the way you describe.

It could be a good option, OP.