to think that people should be able to sit in their garden without having to listen to other peoples music?

[fufflebum]

I am wondering if I am being unreasonable but wanted to gauge some opinion.....

Here goes we live in a detatched house on an estate but our neighbours (at the back ) seem to like spending a lot of time in their garden. Nothing wrong in this but when they are out there they seem to have to have their radio on. This can go on for hours. Sometimes it is loud enough to hear the song playing, othertimes a low mumbling thump. I am not expecting to sit in the garden in complete silence, god knows my two kids prevent that! However, is it too much to ask that sometimes they could turn the radio off?
This weekend we had it all weekend and very late into Saturday night/sunday morning as they had family around and you could hear voices in the garden.
I am especially sensitive as another neighbour (side on from us) has the occasional bbq and party/disco that goes on until 1 am.
I would never dream of taking a radio in to the garden to listen to music and the children only play out in the garden for an hour or so at a time. Whilst I do expect some noise I cannot understand why I should have to put up with what feels like noise pollution! I am beginning to dread the weekend now. AIBU?

[HolyGuacamole]

I think YABU to a certain extent.

Having the radio on at a reasonable level during the day or early evening shouldn't be a problem. A neighbours right to listen to music is every bit as important as your right not to.

However, if it was going to be loud or on until late, if it were me, I'd pop round and let you know. I'd probably also say "if it becomes annoying or a problem just give me a shout". On the same note, if it were loud and on till late, I'd feel able to pop round to my neighbour and say "look, fancy turning it down a bit" etc.

Compromise, compromise.

[shelleylou]

YABU, put some music on yourseklf or go round for a request as ive been known to do

[jumpyjan]

BelleWatling - perhaps its just me who thinks aeroplanes are a lovely summer sound. I just mean the distant sound of a plane and thinking of all the people on it going on holiday. Guess if you live on a flightpath you have a different opinion though!

[EyeballshasManBoobs]

YABVU jumpyjan. They might be flying home for funerals y'know.

[ohdearwhatamess]

YANBU at all. That would drive me potty. I don't mind aeroplanes, lawnmowers, trampoline bouncing, strimmers, etc, but other peoples' music is something else.

Very selfish and inconsiderate imo. A garden should be a sanctuary where you can potter, sit, read in peace.

[foofi]

YANBU - this drives me nuts. Obviously you expect to hear noise from other gardens like children playing etc, but there's no excuse for playing music outside the house - it's really antisocial.

[mayorquimby]

"I don't think it's unreasonable to have friends and family around talking or listening to music at 1 o'clock in the morning either, so maybe I am the weird one. I actually like hearing other people relaxing and having fun. "

phew was starting to feel like a freak myself. i love seeing other people having a good time. obviously not blaring music every day and night till 5 in the norning. but realxing outside during the day with a radio or having a party or BBQ every now and again at weekends then can't see what the problem is. seems like 1 o clock is a very very reasonable time to wind down a party on a weekend.

[Morloth]

LOL, YABU.

Here we have the elephant people upstairs (who also enjoy a late night party), the baby next door who thinks he is a dinosaur and spends all lovely summer days screeching and raaring, the two little kids on the other side who like to run and scream.

The backpacking Australians over the back who play really loud music and who like to talk over the fence. Then there is us who have a BBQ if it isn't actually pouring down, I have my stereo loud enough to hear it in the garden and my very own 5yo boy who likes to pretend he is a jet plane oh and speaking of jet planes we live under the Heathrow approach.

Life is loud and in summer it is louder because we all want to be outside. If you want silence you are going to have to spend some serious money I think.

[Stigaloid]

YABu although i sympathise. i live in a semi-detached and next door's kids are noisy at the moment and i dread when they become teenagers. They seem to think it is perfectly reasonable to start their violin and piano practise at or after 9:30pm and play loudly in room next to our living room so we can't hear our tv. I am pregnant at the moment and go to bed early to failed attempts at 'All that Jazz' being played repeatedly on piano.

sigh

[upagumtree]

YAabsolutelyNBU.
You should be perfectly entitled to relax in your own garden without being subjected to other peoples music. Have a bit of consideration for others you radio/ipod/stereo blaring people.

[EyeballshasManBoobs]

You should be perfectly entitled to relax in your own garden without being made to feel that you can't play a bit of music on your own property. Get a life people. Put some cheese in your ears or move to the arse end of nowhere. Or lighten up and play some music of your own, it might cheer you up.

[Confuzzeled]

I think the point is that it's not that loud, it's just on the verge of hearing while is annoying it's part of living in a community.

My neighbours play music so loud my pictures go squint. I think YABA, can you sit out the front of your house? Can you still hear it then? I mean without straining to hear it.

[Casserole]

Totally sympathise. I HATE being able to hear other people's music when I'm in the garden.

Can't work out if YABU or not, just as I can't work out if I am either. I think probably both parties are being a little bit unreasonable - ie I should accept that I don't live in the middle of nowhere and so will have to put up with some noise, and others should also be aware that they live in a built up area and not everyone wants to hear their music all day long and either switch it off for part of the day or turn it right down.

Bit of compromise on both sides, probably.

[curiositykilled]

YABU - I don't mean this to sound rude but, if you want absolute silence you should live miles from anyone else. If you have to live around other people you should learn to tolerate reasonable living noise (which is what this is). 1am is not so bad for a party to end either - if they are very noisy past 11 or they are doing it on week nights or frequently, you should complain (nicely).

There are plenty of worse things most people have to put up with from their neighbours, I've had neighbours that had constant parties all through the night every night, neighbours that really badly beat each other up ocassionally and had the police out many times, neighbours that shouted and swore at my children, neighbours that tried to have me evicted by making up lies to my landlord because they didn't think children should be allowed to live in the building, that made false reports about me to various authorities, whose children felt they could jump over our fence and come in our house without me knowing and many, many other things.... All this has taught me that you have to be reasonable and calm and try not to cause trouble or it can get very difficult for you to all live together peacefully. Do you want this to turn into a full-blown battle that you'd have to disclose when you sold your house? You really don't know how they might feel if you go round ticking them off about this. It can easily lead to malicious turning up of the radio and cutting down of trees on the boundary you share e.t.c.

[ThePhantomPlopper]

I'll swap your radio neighbours and BBQ neighbours for the screaming fox that has taken up residence in the field by my house. The bloody thing screams from 2:00am-2:30am every bloody night, scares the hell out of me every time.

[piscesmoon]

YANBU- I can't bear it. I don't mind children playing, lawn mowers or even the girl next door playing the piano through the open window (I know it will be for a short time)-however no one should ever take a radio into their garden or play music. There is no excuse-they just need earphones.

[chipmunk1]

YABU. I have to listen to my neighbours having noisy sex when its a sunny sunday afternoon. I'd much rather hear the radio (although my 20mo ds did give them a cheer and a round of applause when they finished, even though he had no idea what they were doing!)

[Blu]

YANBU.

Sitting in the garden is about enjoying some outdoor time with outdoor noises. Not being exposed to other people's music all the time.

Though a quite radio is a bit different to people who like to bring their speakers outside and turn up the volume.

[sammynixon]

i totally agree that you should be able to sit in your garden peacefully...
why should you have to listen to other peoples music. their music should be their music for their ears only..
the whole street shouldn't have to put up with it,
i think its just plain rude and inconsiderate...

[HelloBeastie]

YANBU if the radio was really on all weekend.

The thing about most of the noises mentioned above (kids playing, people chatting outside, mowing lawn etc) is they are intermittent, no-one mows their lawn all afternoon.

But it's perfectly possible to stick a radio outside and leave it blaring away all day, whether or not anyone's listening to it. And I bet it wasn't a nice relaxing bit of classical music either, was it?

[bubblagirl]

i loved this about summer laying in garden listening to people enjoying the weather etc i played my music they play there's were all entitled to do what we want

as long as its not early hours in the morning i think its great listening to kids playing and laughing listening to music its all part of summer for me

[Greensleeves]

You wouldn't want to live next door to me then, we spend half our lives sitting in the garden playing our guitars/mandolins/banjos/fiddles

I wouldn't do it late on a school night, but if we had a music-phobic miserable neighbour who complained I wouldn't just stop doing it - that would be unfir to us IMO. W ewould have to work out a fair interface between their needs and ours - and they would have to put up with listening to us some of the time.

What's the legal position on this? Presumably there is some kind of decibel limit or something?

[frankbestfriend]

Yabu

Go live in the countryside if you require silence in the back garden.

I listen to radio 4 nearly every day in the summer whilst pottering in the garden, does that make me a chav too?

[EyeballshasManBoobs]

I keep coming back to this thread because I'm so annoyed by it. People are so bloody intolerant. I wouldn't mind if you were talking about something really unpleasant like shovels scraping on concrete but it's music fgs.

[Katisha]

Am starting to feel a bit more hardline now -actually I don't think it's right to impose your choice of music on your neighbour I really don't. One person's music is another person's awful racket.

Why do people think they have the right to do this, without considering the impact it might have on someone else?