AIBU to think our neighbours' pool and garden noise is excessive?

[Foxy200]

I’m really trying to be fair and not overreact, but the situation with our new neighbours is starting to affect our ability to enjoy our own home.

They’ve installed a pool, with the heater right on our boundary, and it runs constantly at around 50 decibels in our garden. It’s not just a faint background hum, it’s loud enough that we can clearly hear it inside the house, even with the windows shut.

They also have a young son who plays football most days. I completely understand children playing (we’ve never had an issue with normal family noise and have kids between the ages of 12 and 7) ), but this can go on for long stretches (around 3 hours today), with the goal set up right next to our patio despite them having a large garden. So we get a constant thudding against the fence, again loud enough to hear from inside.

The main issue is weekends. Last year they entertained every single weekend. Families over, lots of children in the pool, which in itself is fine, but the overall noise level is extreme. It’s not just children playing; it’s also adults shouting and screaming.

If this was occasional, we’d just accept it as part of life. But it was every weekend, all day, often into the evening, and sometimes as late as 11pm or beyond.

I honestly can’t overstate how loud it is, at times it feels like living next to a holiday resort rather than in a quiet village. Today it’s already the same: hours of football right next to where we sit, plus people over and constant shouting.

We live in a quiet village and other neighbours (including those with children and pools) are nothing like this, which makes it feel particularly intrusive.
Last summer we barely used our garden at all because of it, and even being inside the house didn’t escape the noise. I really don’t want a repeat of that this year.

So… am I being unreasonable, or does this cross into excessive? And how would you handle it ?

I’d speak to them first about how it could be reduced, whilst they still enjoy their garden, and if you don’t get any understanding from them, go to the council re noise nuisance.

We have someone with a hot tub near us. Not an adjacent garden but probably the next one or two over (I don't know exactly).

The noise of the pumps is pretty loud. God knows what it is like living next to it.

Our new neighbours have recently erected a massive garden room close to our fence. Nothing we can do, except plant more trees along the fence, which we have done. We don’t want to fall out with them, but I wish I’d known how big it was going to be. They’re also building a pergola. I’m sure, when it’s all finished, there will be weekend gatherings, with noise. They have a dog too, which has recently begun barking at anything and everything.

This is a small cul de sac, which we expected to be fairly quiet.

As the family who are the ones making the noise I think there are absolutely some areas you can challenge and some you have to accept.

The pool pump is probably your best bet for getting some change, I would speak to them, invite them over to hear and see if there is any way it can either be relocated further away or if it can be boxed in the try and reduce the noise.

In terms of the kids playing and socialising noise this is going to be far more difficult. They are unlikely to stop having friends over etc but you might be able to get them to be a little quieter after say 9pm.

We are lucky enough to have a neighbour one side who has kids the same age and socialise just as much as us (regularly have evenings together), the neighbour the other side has kids a few years older who love being outdoors and the houses backing onto us all have kids too. Most of the houses have dogs as well so the whole area is loud and no one house stands out.

@Foxy200 OP - how are things since you
posted last month?

Those who advocate moving - trouble is, you never know what your new neighbours are going to be like. It’s hard to catch loud neighbours at the back when visiting houses, unless they’re being noisy when you view the house or are so loud, you can hear them from the front when you check out the area. Even if there are no telltale structures when you view, anyone can build a pool or install a hot tub at any time and may use them considerately or noisily