To ask for help with our noisy neighbour?

[AllaMova]

We live in a mid-terraced house and are really struggling with our neighbour.

We believe he lives alone, but we hear him shouting, singing and screaming at all hours daily. We also hear him banging and stomping around (in fact he’s doing this as I type.) My DP and I struggle to sleep due to this.

Has anyone got any advice for me please? My DP won’t entertain the idea of us phoning 101 to ask for a welfare check for him or to report a noise disturbance due to the concern of it backfiring on us. We’re also afraid to approach him directly for the same reason.

If you can’t approach him then your options are limited. Soundproof your own property, wear earplugs at night (I find the Superdrug silicon ones are very good as are the Boots wax ones). Or move.

If he has mental health issues which sounds likely you can't really talk to him about it . Is he renting and doing you know landlord. Report the noise to Council too .

You can contact adult social care and report a concern for an adult anoniminously

I agree. I don’t know if he’s renting, is there a way to find out without approaching him?

Thank you. I’ll look into this.

I think it is good to go and pay a visit and ask for the noise to come down. Or call the police and ask they say can control the noise.

I think the first thing to ascertain is to find out why - unless you missed this out of your post - as this will determine which way to go.

Is he wearing headphones and is actually unaware of how loudly he's singing or banging cupboards shut? Whenever XH wore headphones when cooking dinner we thought he was fighting off marauders due to the slamming around but he thought he was shutting cupboards normally.

Do you think he's mentally unwell or just not caring about neighbours or oblivious? Does he have carers or regular visitors you are able to approach? Are you able to record how loud he is so he can hear it? Start doing a diary of when, what and duration. Keep it factual.

We do believe he’s mentally unwell, but not oblivious to what he’s doing.

The screaming and banging went on until 8am this morning. It kept us up for all of that time.

We thought he lived alone, but the neighbour was shouting (at 3am) “what have you done?” And “leave me alone!” Along with a few angry “aghhhs!” It made us think someone else was living with him after all, so we phoned 101 in case we were hearing DV. 101 said they’d pass it onto despatch.

Obviously, we couldn’t sleep, but we just hope this leads to him getting help.

thought he lived alone, but the neighbour was shouting (at 3am) “what have you done?” And “leave me alone!” Along with a few angry “aghhhs!” It made us think someone else was living with him after all, so we phoned 101 in case we were hearing DV. 101 said they’d pass it onto despatch.

Yikes!! Next time phone 999 as it was in progress but definitely keep calling 101 if you don't hear the other person shouting back. As other pp said, contact adult social services and say you are very worried about the occupants. And keep a diary.

Either move or start the ball rolling with complaints

I did this with a neighbour in the past.

A Land Registry check will tell you who owns the house and may indicate if its rented, it costs about £3.50

NB I have just posted this link on another thread but it may help further down the line

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/anti-social-behaviour-asb-case-review-also-known-as-the-community-trigger

It's got nothing to do with the landlord
OP if you don't want to complain to him or the council then you will need to put up with it.

Leave it a few days and if his noise starts up again go and see him.

Are you a homeowner? If so then do not make any official complaints because you’d have to declare these in the process of trying to sell up, which could lead to more problems.

Depends where you are. In my area, the council push you to the landlord for noise complaints.

Thank you - moving is out of the question for us

Yes, I’m a homeowner. Thanks for the heads up!

In that case then complain

I had a similar situation with a neighbours dog, while I was likley to move it got to the point where I could no longer ignore it so I hit them with everything and it worked

If the property is rented, there will be normally be clauses in the tenancy agreement about not causing nuisance to neighbours.

If the tenant is in breach of their tenancy agreement, it has everything to do with the landlord.

Update: Noisy neighbour has been very quiet since around 6am Sunday morning. This is the longest he has been quiet for a while.

He is possibly schizophrenic and hears voices/sees delusions hence the shouting out to someone.

I thought that too tbh. I didn’t want to take any chances though, especially when he was shouting “what have you done?!” Etc.

How are you getting on op? It could be that after your call they realised he needed help and was taken for an assessment if you still haven’t heard any more sounds. Are the lights going on in the evening?

We haven’t heard a peep from him. Maybe, I hope he gets some help. I’m not sure to be honest, his curtains are always closed whenever I pass.

Oh wow, let's hope that phone call did the trick!

Hopefully he got the help he needed. It it is silent for that long its possible they have sectioned him.

I know he has gone quiet now but to me it sounds like he’s gaming with headphones on. Especially as you say curtains are closed. Anyone that has lived with a teenage boy who games knows the pain of the overexcited game where they are playing with other online with headphones on and you hear the random shouts of “what have you done” etc. Sounds like that’s what’s happening.