Neighbour complained about dryer

[alisonelli]

I have just had a text from my next door neighbour saying my tumble dryer is too loud and its "having a significant adverse impact on their quality of life".
For context, we live in detached houses, its on carpet in the utility room, I'd say there is at least 6ft gap between the houses, with cavity wall and a fence. I don't run it early in the morning or late at night. I'd say it runs between 10 and 3 if that. Its an eco one, so it does go on for about 3 hours, but uses little electricity. I have 2 kids, who play lots of sports and I have clothes I need to get dry.
What do I do?

To be fair, you were being a dick.

I think you just need to address it with him and try and keep things pleasant even if he is a pain in ass. I would text him and say ‘Hi Jim, oh I am sorry, gosh you shouldn’t be able to hear a tumble dryer from a detached house. Isn’t that odd. Let Dave and I pop round tonight and have a listen and let’s get this sorted. Then go round with the dryer off, then get your DH to go home and put it on and see what he’s on about.

Sometimes you have to kill people with kindness, even if they are complete busy bodies.

I get that you hate tumble dryer noise in your own house but OP is in a detached house from neighbour. No way is he feeling vibrations! He sounds like a bit of an arsehole.

I think OP should refer this issue to her DH

Agree with pp saying to ask if your H can go round with you and listen (both of you for witnessing it). It sounds a bit odd and I would be asking myself if the neighbour wasn’t actually tuning into a different noise. Maybe they could keep a log of when they’re disturbed, and you could log when you use the dryer and see if the times overlap. If you want to show willing, that is!

That said, unless there is a really significant noise and vibration, you won’t need to do anything because running a dryer in the afternoon is neither unreasonable nor out of the ordinary, and I don’t suppose your neighbour could show that it is. Does the washing machine bother him too?

Hilarious, but sadly so true.

Has he recently got hearing aids? And maybe they are adjusted a bit too high?

It’s not though is it? They don’t have an automatic access of her property, she can decide to take that privilege away if she feels like it. It’s probably really inconvenient for her to let them have access. Not to mention, the risk of damage to her property. If you install solar panels, it’s best they maintain them on their own property.

He's lucky he doesn't live next door to me then. I have two dryers and sometimes they both run at once.

I'd make sure there isn't an issue with the dryer itself but, if all is normal, he'll just have to find a way to deal with it.

Ignore it completely

They’d probably complain about the smoke or the noise of the fire engines!

You won’t win with these twerps.. block their number and ignore except an icy “hello” if you bump into them

How old is your neighbour? Are they old enough for dementia to be a problem?

I had a great aunt that was convinced that her neighbour was blasting music. The same song over and over.

Her sons went over and spoke to the gentleman and he said he rarely even listened to music and even invited them into his home to show them he had nothing that was capable of even playing the same song on repeat.

It was the start of dementia for her. I wonder could it be something like that.

I agree I think it's tinnitus.
I'd ask them to come over and listen outside your utility room and then turn the dryer on and off. See if they can here it. I think they will realise it's something else.

I have tinnitus. I thought it was always constant? In which case he ought to be able to work out it's not external.

Mine might lessen a little at times, but it's always there.

Mine isn't always noticeable, I thought it was the freezer to begin with and we even got noise dampening pads 🤣, obviously it didn't work. I think it depends on the severity.

Ah maybe. Because mine is constant and quite loud (it's a high pitched ringing) I can always isolate it from other things. But, as you say, if yours manifests differently it might be hard to tell from other sounds.

Doesn't sound like you have much of a relationship to maintain, so if I were you I'd go round and say that your dryer really isn't making noise at all and you have noise-deadening mats/carpet underneath, and is he sure it isn't something else? Ask him where he normally hears it and if you can go and listen yourself as it's currently on. If he insists it's noisy and bothering him, you can then truthfully say that you can't hear anything and if it's bothering him that much, he will need to speak to environmental health at the council and get some listening devices as you cannot and will not stop using your dryer.

I do agree with others though it's likely tinnitus - I have it quite severely and can be awful.

Nobody should have dryers on at night! They are one of the biggest house fire risks!! Please be careful all!

but back to the thread - if you’re only using it at sensible daytimes and you’ve already got the carpet, AND you’re detached - I don’t think they have a right to complain. It’s normal house noise. I imagine a washing machine on spin is noisier??

I think some people expect absolute silence.

as you have to live next to them though I’d go down the killing with kindness route and offer to go round and listen - but send a male! Then let them take over the conversation/texts.

My tinnitus varies quite a bit. Sometimes it is barely noticeable. Other times, especially once I have started noticing it, it is distracting. It is probably always there but it varies how much I think about it.
It is very noticeable while reading this thread.

This strikes me as something that will just rumble on if you allow him to continue to text you. You need to go round or send your husband round and talk to them.

There is probably a solution you just have to find it.

Yes, I know what NEET means, lighten up. 🙄

Do you live in Bristol? If so could he be hearing the Bristol hum?

If not, then just ignore it. It is a reasonable day to day noise item, and if he has a problem with it he can pay for soundproofing on his house which is the better house to place soundproofing on if he thinks the issue is coming from outside his home anyway from an acoustics perspective anyway.

I can hear every hum and vibration from my next door neighbours (detached) house but there comes a point where you have to accept it is reasonable noise to be made and nobody is owed silence.

I thought same !

OP, the reason your NDN messaged you is because you're the woman of the house so obviously it's you who's using the tumble dryer. 🙄
I would message him back along the lines of "I'm sorry you think the source of the noise and vibration you're suffering is from our tumble dryer, but I can't see how this could be the case since we've lived next to you for two years and used it almost every day and you've never commented on it before. Also, I have stood outside our utility room and with the window open I can hear a slight rumble, but with it closed I can hear absolutely nothing so it seems incredible that you would be able to hear any noise from it from within your house."
I wouldn't do anything else.
My neighbour and I live in detached houses (probably with about a 10' gap between us) and she doesn't have room for her washing machine and tumble dryer in her kitchen so has them under a make-shift covered area immediately the other side of our driveway boundary fence (and closest to our bedroom). I never hear her washing machine or dryer at any time of day or night. It is possible that your NDN has a hypersensitivity to noise, but I'd be wanting him to prove that the bothersome noise and vibration is actually being caused by your dryer. FWIW, he could report the noise to your local authority who would have to investigate and if they found it to be a "statutory nuisance" they could issue you with an abatement notice. However, I think it's extremely unlikely the noise from an ordinary domestic tumble dryer would be found to be a statutory nuisance. Here's a link to more info: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/noise-nuisances-how-councils-deal-with-complaints

@alisonelli I wonder if it’s something else he can hear …!

Surely the polite and grown-up thing to do is to treat the neighbour's complaint as real and factually based.

Go and check it out from the NDN's house as suggested upthread and then act on what you hear: it's real but within reasonable limits; it's real and way louder than you thought; it's entirely imaginary.

For those who think because the houses are detached that sound can't travel, it's simply not true, examples have been given on the thread. It's good of the OP to check the sound coming from her utility room, but that doesn't mean it's not louder in the NDN's house.