AIBU to complain again about neighbours talking loudly in the communal yard?

[EmptyTheFrickingBins]

My neighbours have taken to sitting in the communal yard and having loud conversations and video calls. It literally sounds like they're in the room with me and it's seriously starting to effect my mental health and quality of life.

I work shifts including overnight and got in at 6am. I managed to get maybe an hour's sleep before they started. I'm currently absolutely exhausted and I'm back at work this evening so really need sleep.

They also leave the security door wedged open which makes a really awful high pitched sound that cuts through earplugs and white noise.

They both have very strong accents that really carry and they genuinely might as well be in my bedroom with me right now. They have access to a nice garden outside of the flats but have decided they'd rather sit in the yard where the bins live.

It was the same last summer and it reached the point I was so exhausted I booked a hotel near work because I wasn't safe to drive home. I have asked them politely several times if they could use the garden rather than sitting directly under my bedroom windows but if anything it made things worse because they started also playing loud music.

I have tried white noise, various earplugs, audiobooks, and they don't block the voices. I honestly don't know what to try next!

It sounds awful but if you've spoken to them and they're still doing it, I'm not sure what else you can do?

Do they own or rent their home?

How did they react when you spoke to them? Any apology/ acknowledgement that what they are doing is bothering you?

I ended up leaving a house share for a similar reason - guy in the room next door took every single phone call on his balcony, right next to my window, and would talk loudly for hours at any time of day from 6/7am to 11/12 at night.

It really impacted my mental health and I just moved out because he was obnoxious and didn't care.

Vile neighbours make life hell. Could you move at all?

We all rent.

I really don't want to move- it's perfect apart from them making so much noise!

They said they'd use the garden but then returned to the yard and started playing music so talking to them really didn't help.

Vile? Really? For talking in an outside communal area?

Well, all you can do is talk to them again, say you’re trying to sleep in the daytime overhead and ask if they can use the garden instead. If this doesn’t work, I think you may need to acknowledge that, however ‘perfect’ everything else is, this is a dealbreaker.

Unfortunately if you work nights and need to sleep in the day you need to learn to sleep through noise. You can't expect the world to stop for you.

Could you sleep in another part of the flat away from them?

Is there a building manager or an agency or landlord you all/ they rent from?
I fixed my nightmare neighbour situation eventually by persistently complaining to the letting agent.

Silicone earplugs will block out all of the noise . I've slept better since using them even when there's no noise . Sometimes you have to find your own solution because it's not illegal to have a loud conversation just a bit thoughtless .

Can you try the opposite approach, instead of asking them to move just be noisy for a bit and disturb their conversation?

Speaker out your window with some sort of annoying music until they move. Dripping water off your ledge.

Of course, that might start a war but if they won't listen to polite requests then sometimes you have to try something else

Report the security door being wedged open to the factors every time they do it.

Or go down and close it. It's a security door, you don't want people wandering into the building who shouldn't have access.

I really don't want to move- it's perfect apart from them making so much noise!

But that means it's very much not perfect for you.

Unless they're being excruciatingly loud and it registers as a noise complaint - but I think that's pretty unlikely - then talking outside is considered normal household noise, and as it's presumably between 8am and 10pm, it'd be difficult to do anything anyway... it sounds like it's the layout and construction of the homes that is the issue.

Can you sleep elsewhere? Try heavier-duty earplugs?

So really your options, if talking to them and appealing to their better nature doesn't work, is to either change your job or change your home.

It does suck and I don't mean this flippantly; but from experience, people talking is unlikely to be something you can stop if they don't have the manners to want to do it themselves.

I'm not. I've worked this shift pattern for several years now and "normal" noise doesn't bother me.

Two people having a very loud conversation, yelling on video call and playing loud music isn't normal noise, especially not early on a morning.

Even if I try to sleep in my living room I can still hear them.

Noise cancelling over ear headphones

Believe me, I have tried them and they really didn't help.

Keep accidentally knocking cups of water over on your window sill right over their heads.

You have tried earplugs and they don’t work. You have tried sleeping elsewhere in the house, and that doesn’t work. You can’t stop them from doing it, because it’s a communal space and they aren’t breaking any rules. But you don’t want to move? I’m stumped! If it were me, I would move. It’s not perfect if you can’t sleep there.

They've got to be the silicone ones which block out ALL the sound . Why didn't they help ? I could have a gun going off and I wouldn't be able to hear it using them .

I tend to think this too. If you have tried everything and nothing works, your only answers are to move, or to put up with it. I’d probably move.

Start taking over the communal spaces and playing music. Do it deliberately. They're treating it as if they own it and they are not taking any notice of what you say.
I'd go out and play music or have people over for a barbecue /party more often, and especially when they are doing video calls.
If the door is wedged open, then go close it every time.
Tell them that they are being antisocial and rude and you've asked them nicely which theyve ignored, so this is on them

It is vile to ignore someone’s plea for peace and quiet when there is an alternative area to use with far less impact.

Close that door. It'll lock them out and that'll piss them off back

This is all very well if OP has the time, the temperament and the inclination to start a war with neighbours who’ve already shown that they don’t give a monkeys. Personally I couldn’t be arsed, and would just look for something that wasn’t near a communal yard.

I would be concerned about the security door being wedged open, I would complain about that