Escalation with neigbbours

[Chefpig]

I have had issues with my neighbours dog barking very frequently throughout the day and into the evening, sometimes waking me up (I have a 5am start if I am in the office). This has been ongoing since August last year.

I have tried to talk to them several times. A few times to the man in the street, to which he acknowledged an issue and was meek but said training had been delayed due to health issues (even though they'd had the dog three years by this point). I also was invited round to see the dog who proceeded to bark at me for 30 minutes straight without stopping with all the excuses in the book to why the dog wasn't trained, including her saying she didn't think the dog was trainable now after three years, despite them having her since she was a pup.

As my last visit to ask them shut the dog up as I was in a very important meeting was a failure in which he was very hostile, said that he was very busy and barged past me, I gave up speaking to them from that moment onwards.

The council got involved in May when I submitted logs. They installed a sound recorder, but the neighbours found out and kept their dog quiet that week and it fell just below the threshold by a small amount.

Now as the barking is frequent and daily without fail, I end up shouting through the walls as speaking to them hasn't worked. My mental health has become so poor to the point I think of ending my life daily. I am on antidepressants and my anxiety has hit the roof. I dread being home, I dread coming home and every bark sets me on edge. I am on edge even before the barking starts waiting for it to start.

Today, after shouting through the walls, the dog has not shut up, bar a short period this afternoon, as a last-ditch effort to save my sanity, I wrote the neighbours a very polite letter and went round to post it and she opened the door. She was really angry and I was very polite and started to say that I didn't come round for an argument, that I just wanted to post the letter and she started shouting at me about how she had spoken to the man at the council, who was lovely and then she started shouting about harassment. I then started to get scared. Was I going to get in trouble for harassment? She also shouted at me about chihuahuas and didn't I know about Chihuahuas? That they bark, that's what they do and that I needed to read up on chihuahuas. She shouted more about harassment. Then talked about how she has surgery for cancer coming up and then as I proceeded to tell her that chihuahua or not, the dog was her responsibility to keep quiet, she slammed the door in my face.

Sooo, as well as the stress of all this, I am now worried I am going to get in trouble for harassment. What makes me especially furious is that for a year, her husband used to strain his neck to look into my window each and every time he walked past. Sounds comical, but not a day went by he didn't do it each time he walked past, which was usually twice a day. I eventually spoke to him about it and he more or less stopped, but the fact she mentioned the word 'harassment' to me makes me so mad. Earlier today, before all this kicked off, I did speak to the council officer as the barking was bad and we spoke about getting another sound recorder installed, I did mention me shouting through the walls and that I was worried about harassment and he said as I am reacting to their noise, it won't be harassment, but I am very worried. I work hard to be able to keep a roof over my head. I also asked him about sending a letter, but he said not to as it could aggravate the situation, but with the time it's taking for the council to do anything, and even then the outcomes don't sound promising to be honest, with my mental health being so bad I was considering harming myself and everything else has failed so far, I decided to send a letter anyway. Even though neighbour was vile tonight, they have kept the dog quiet since our discussion.

For a bit of background, I am a single woman living here. Apart from showering, bathing and watching TV, I don't think I am loud at all. I listen to music with headphones on and listen to the TV low volume.

I am worried about this harassment thing. Can I get in trouble for it?

P.S. there's a poster who seems to get fed up of me posting about my ongoing issues with neighbours. Please don't comment that you're fed up on my post. I know you are but I'm allowed to post and do because I have no RL support with this right now. Thanks.

Focus all your energy on finding a new place as quickly as possible. Wear noise cancelling headphones and earplugs in bed to block them out.

This will only improve once you have moved out. You have exhausted all avenues of trying to quieten their dog.

Oh, that is hopeful. Thank you.

As the council are acting (is sometimes slow at responding) but sorting me a sound recorder, is it still worth me contacting a councillor?

A sound recorder was fitted previously but the neighbours kept the dog a lot quieter so it was a tiny bit under the threshold. I was devastated.

I want to take them to court myself and represent myself as I don't have funds for solicitors but if its ruled in the neighbours favour, I'd have to pay their legal costs apparently. I have lots and lots of logs, hundreds of pages I sent to the council and sound recordings of the dog, including them.screaming at it to be quiet, plus their other dog dying in the rain outside alone. These are arseholes we're dealing with. I asked the council officer to send the dog warden to check on the welfare of their dog who does the barking. Their house is filthy and the dog barked at me for 30 minutes without a break when I went round one time. It's very highly anxious and they exacerbate it in my opinion as it's quiet when they go out. The council officer makes all the excuses under the sun why he wont ask a dog warden to visit.

Hi, thanks for your reply. I told my landlord yesterday and he's going to also put in a complaint with the environmental team at the council.

I understand that the council have to follow steps though, and as the neighbours have clearly ignored two letters from them, I do wonder what else the council can do. I'm waiting for a sound recorder to become available but have to align this with when I'm home and not at work, otherwise I wont be able to record much noise. Its a very slow process.

They can keep it quiet though and do when my parents are here. All day long and often overnight. Soon as my parents car goes, they let it start again.

@Chefpig my experience would suggest that councillors can get actions speeded up. I’d show them all your evidence, (which you have been very diligent in collecting), and tell them how badly your health has been affected. Council tenants sign a tenancy agreement, your neighbours are breaching theirs.

Not buying that they are getting the dog to bark on demand tbh. That’s nuts and not consistent with them feeling harassed. With cancer diagnosis they have much more important things to worry about.

@JenRummy

Who cares if the dog was there first? It’s still massively antisocial and selfish to have it barking so much.

They may not even know OP is moving but even if they do they should still be considering her as well the mental health and wellbeing of the person who moves in next.

What if their next neighbour is struggling with a serious physical illness themselves and that’s exacerbated by lack of sleep?

It’s massively important they get this under control. If you don’t want to train your dog don’t own one!

Yes I’d agree. You have done well to collect this evidence and it should hopefully enable a councillor to properly support you in this. Sleep deprivation and stress is no joke at all. Your home is the one place you should be able to relax if nowhere else.

We are in the same situation. Except we've just moved and the neighbours are also criminals. It's absolutely intolerable. The only thing I can think of is when the dogs are outside put one of the ultrasonic recorders out so it emits a frequency when it detects the dog barking. Hopefully the neighbours won't know it's doing it because it's above human hearing but it will help to keep the dog quiet. That's what we are going to do. Because I absolutely refuse to stop using my garden (which is what they threatened us with) and we are stuck here. It's so so shit and just sending solidarity.

I would join others in suggesting you give notice and leave. Its not worth the stress x I am so sorry you have experienced this though. It is SO stressful to not be anle to enjoy your home quietly

Be honest, how much is the dog barking? I'm fairly sure in one of your (many) earlier threads, it was a few seconds every hour, which has now morphed to 'continuously' in later threads.

If it is occasional barking (which would be backed up by the council sound recordings finding it under the threshold), then yes, if you keep hounding them about it, it will be harrassment.

Ultimately, neighbours come with some amount of reasonable noise. You cannot expect silence. If the barking is below the noise threshold set by the council, you need to stop harrassing the neighbours.

If you believe it is over the threshold, go back to the Council and ask them to record again. At some point you may have to accept that this is a 'you'/ your mental health problem and not a noise nuisance.

Neighbours aside and they dont sound very nice. If a barking dog is making you suicidal there is more going on here and you cant blame it all on a barking dog as annoying as it may be. Your neighbours probably are feeling harassed.

Hi thanks for your post. They're owners of the house unfortunately. Been there forty years so think they own the street.

Not being funny, but how are they keeping it quiet when you have visitors? A barky dog is a barky dog, you can't just take the batteries out to stop it barking on a specific day or night. Dogs either bark or they don't. Some bark a lot, some hardly at all. It is possible to discourage them from excessive barking, but that takes time and training, it's not just an instant "you must not bark next Saturday".

I do sympathise; we had our lives ruined by noisy neighbours and it did affect my mental health. But I'm just not convinced about the convenient on/off barking that is happening just to annoy you. Sorry. Perhaps when your parents visit, you are too busy to think about the neighbours dog, so you manage to tune it out better.

I really don't know how they do it, but they do. I assume they have ways of making the dog shut up or when it's about to bark of shutting it down or distracting it but when I have no visitors which is most of the time, they simply don't give a shit. Its the fact that after they have kept it quiet for a while, they then let that go and the dog seems to get hyper anxious and barks relentlessly because that structure has gone. They're shit owners.

I really don't tune it out when I have visitors. They can stop it from barking. I am convinced that they choose not to when convenient for them.

They're not getting it to bark on demand but theyre letting it bark each and every day whereas when I have visitors or I have shouted at them through the wall because working is impossible, they have kept the dog quiet for hours and sometimes days. Proof they can keep it quiet, they choose not to and that's shit on the dog and shit on me.