Noise Pollution

[MollieHarriet]

Hi everyone,

My neighbours are currently having extensive refurbishments to their house. Drilling and hammering starts every day at 9am (even on a Saturday) and continues until late afternoon. Glasses have fallen from our fireplace because of the vibrations. They're old terraced houses and the walls are very thin. Does anyone know what my rights are her? I work night shifts at the Royal Free and need the mornings to catch up on sleep. I am being treated for insomnia at the HGP so could possibly get a doctor to write a note if that would help?

Spoke to the neighbours and tried to resolve it amicably and they were extremely rude, they refused to give me the name of the building contractor or their number, saying 'it's a private company'.

I'm at my wit's end. It's set to continue for three weeks (making it six weeks in total) and I was not notified beforehand, so couldn't reschedule my work or make other arrangements. Also, am a single mum renting following a divorce, so will have to do battle alone.

Any advice or experience would be very welcome.

Thank you,
Mollie

Hi Mollie,
I don't have the requisite knowledge/experience to help with definite advice but here are a few suggestions:

• the citizen's advice bureau should be able to inform you of your legal rights.
• the environmental team of Camden Council may also have some relevant information (and if the works are especially noisy or happening at unreasonable times, they may have some duty to check/intervene).
• try everything you can to minimise the impact on your sleep/health - it may be worth trying to get your working schedule changed (at worst they'll say no), get a noise-cancelling headset you could get used to wear in bed, ask someone you know for noise asylum and go to sleep/rest in quiet surroundings there (or maybe some place at work?) even if only for a couple of hours every now and then

Good luck, I've been through something similar and it was very tough. Knowing that the noise would stop at a set date helped me, as I kept reminding myself: "one day I probably won't even remember this episode" (that day hasn't come yet ;-))