Noisy Neighbours - HELP!

[Yorkshire82]

Hi all,

Sorry! This is going to be a massive rant but I am up to my tether with my idiot neighbours who are making our life hell. It's the constant door slamming and banging and crashing. It appears they just love to hammer on different walls every day and the door slamming just goes on and on and on!

Granted the house is not very well sound proofed but they are just taking the mick. Why can they not close doors like normal human beings?

It's an ongoing thing for a long long time. Both properties are owned so the Council are not really that bothered. They say door slamming is normal household noise regardless of the time of day!!!

I know I am noise sensitive now but it just makes me so poorly. I struggle to eat and I am constantly worrying when the next slam will come.

They are not reasonable people. We've tried talking to them many a time but they just up the ante. When we told them it was unreasonable to hoover the bedrooms at 1am, they started doing it at 3am!

I would move out from here in a heartbeat but it's my Mum's house and I am her unpaid carer (arthritis, diabetes, blood pressure, depression) so even if I went, she would be stuck so I am stuck in a hard place. I don't know what to do. She has put her foot down and said I will not be forced out of my house which is understandable but it's having such an impact on my MH and also her as well. I've tried to reason with her to move but she just ends up ignoring me for days on end. I don't want to argue with her or get into a spat because she has become very frail all of a sudden and I just feel so bad for her. She should be resting and relaxing but can't due to the constant noise.

I'm sleep deprived and can't even have a rest when at home due to constantly being on edge. Most of the time, I just lay in bed and cry. I don't know what to do.

Sorry for babbling on, I just had to get that off my chest.

I've finally managed to go to the GP and she prescribed me some promethazine hydrochloride which is meant to be help me sleep but it's not made any difference even after a few weeks.

I did have a counselling session from work but that started just as the first lockdown began so didn't get very far with that.

Hi @Yorkshire82, I just searched "noisy neighbours" and found your post, but it seems you didn't get any advice I'm sorry to see. My own situation is that we have a young lad next door (flats) whose friends arrive at 10pm and shout/play music/giggle innanely all night. Perhaps we could pool resources and buy a deserted island together?

That sounds terrible but I am concerned about you sitting editing for the next slam. That sounds like you have a severe anxiety state now and need medication for anxiety as well as sleep. You need noise canallong headphones too to help

Hi, I wish I had some advice but I just wanted to say I totally understand your situation. I had similar, I had a couple move in above me once who were just incompetent, for want of a better word. Slamming cupboards, arguing late at night and making large banging noises randomly
It's hard to block out this kind of sound as it's more outfitted and jobs if reverberates through the house.
Because it's so random, it makes it worse. I'm no psychologist but I think it gave me an adrenaline rush when I heard it, if you know what I mean? And then I'd be on edge and it would take a time for the feeling to subside. Almost easier to deal with constant noise than sudden ones.
Because the house is associated with it, I could never relax.
Not sleeping is a serious issue. Is medication right, because it's an external influence and not you?
Anyway, just wanted to give some 🌷
It impacts so much, I struggled to perform at work, just couldn't use my brain and felt too tired to be anything other than apathetic. Moving was the solution.
People in the UK are rubbish at living in flats, I'm so sorry. Never got this sort of issue abroad.

Thanks for your replies. I'm glad there are others who knows what it can be like. I've tried to talk about it to friends but they think I am being dramatic!

The last few days have been mental, constant door slamming. I'm surprised their awful house hasn't fallen down. HOW!

@Carlottagiudicelli let's move to that island right away. I will pack my bags.

@LonstantonSpiceMuseum I would move in a heartbeat but Mum won't budge. I couldn't live away and look after her too. Please pray she changes her mind!

@olympicsrock I do have some noise cancelling headphones and always have something playing at night. Otherwise random door bangs would finish me off!

I honestly feel for you, it completely changes you and I wish I had practical advice :(
Let us know how you get on, and please feel free keep venting on here as that will make you feel better. I'm happy to listen and have a moan along!

I have one day off for Easter, just one, and that little shit has his mates round playing rap at top volume under my bedroom, it's making the room shake. I hate my life. 😭

Oh dear. So sorry to hear that. We had the whole "animal" family power banging doors all week. The whole troop descended - think about 25 people. I was on the verge of getting a hammer and going round and smashing all their faces in. I'm not a violent person at all but these ** are making my life hell. Last week I was literally at melting point.

Poor Mum is absolutely terrified but she just won't entertain the thought of moving!

The horrible witch was just banging doors very loudly again so I retaliated with a loud cupboard bang back to which there were about 10 more loud door slams. I give up! How their awful house hasn't fallen down is beyond me.

Thanks for letting me vent again.

I am calm.

I am after abit of advice as to what I could do regarding neighbours I have who's teenager has adhd and is everyday and night going in the early hours of morning playing violent games on a console, shouting and scearming from the top of there lungs being very racial and using abusive language, I have knocked and spoken so many times to the neighbours regarding this explaining I have children and I know how hard and difficult it could be all i am after is abit of consideration and have been reassured that they will be dealing with the matter but unfortunately nothing has changed this issue is unbearable for all 3 of my children but especially my 1year old who has breathing and sleeping issues my 4year old the noise is keeling both up all throughout the night, my 4year old can hear swearing and racial words all the time and asks me questions, I am unable to sleep at all, when I knock on the wall I am responded with swear words all the time, along side the very loud noise it is the smell of cannabis coming into my property, I am unable to open my windows or let my children play outside, this whole matter is making my life very difficult, I have complained to the local council 3times and have been told a letter has been sent out and I was given a log sheet to fill out, is there anything else that I can do as this problem isn't getting resolved

If you and they are in Council properties, they normally get involved. The noisy family could possibly get evicted. Fill the noise form in and send it to them so they follow it up.

I contacted the Council about our issues but as my Mum owns this house and the noisy lot own theirs, they just said "nothing we can do", "door slamming is normal household noise".

I'm still stuck in this awful rut. Mum is adamant she won't move and as she is quite ill now, I can't just leave her to it. I still dread the loud door slams and the worst thing is you never know when the next one is so you are constantly stresssing!

That must be awful for you and your unwell mum, have you thought about doing soundproofing on the walls, also I believe they are private renting I have made a complaint to the council but was giving a log sheet to fill out

report to environmental hea;th..works a trear

Hello, I have advice after experiencing the same problem for five years which exacerbated a horrible medical condition I had.
People's advice was so hopeless. Oh just sound proof your house (££££?????!!), oh just move to another room....

Well in the end, and I dont know if it was legal or not so do check....aftee writing letters, requesting cooperation and getting the same "we need to live in our house we're not doing anything wrong" type rubbish... I took matters into my own hands. I got the most enormous German vintage speakers and blasted out my music for an hour or so. It worked to shock them... But they intermittently continued.

So I found a hard core reggae cd I had picked up from the Caribbean, knowing what racist gits they were, and blasted it out four about four hours solid (during the day).

Not a sound since. Oh, and I bought these bright green Spongy ear plugs to muffle the sound at night (and just assumed that they might continue rather than waiting to hear the next slam

Another good tip is to have some noise on continuous in your house esp at night so radio during the day and a fan or air filter machine at night. This will block out sound in addition to your ear plugs.

Hi @Yorkshire82 , I really feel for you, I have been on the receiving end of similar neighbours, just some of their party pieces being to come in at 10pm and procede to slam every door and kitchen cupboard/draw on repeat until about 1am. They also liked to decorate til 3am and party til 5am. How I kept my sanity god only knows. Investing in a white noise machine was the best £50 I've ever spent. Not a miracle cure but I definitely recommend.
Regarding the council, they are talking nonsense, excessive (esp til all hours ) noise is not a normal part of life. Now and again forgiveable but constant, not normal. Sleep, like food and water, is vital to health and should be taken very seriously. Could you get your doctor to write a letter along these lines and go back to the council again?
Hopefully their house will fall down and they'll be sucked into an abyss meanwhile. Thinking of you, good luck.