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?

ask them what time they are hearing it? If it's not at the time you run your dryer you can tell them that.

If they can accurately tell you when its running then yes its the cause. It doesn't make it a reasonable complaint but it does get you somewhere because then you can ask to listen and see if it is genuinely loud in their house for some weird reason (vibration through a gas pipe or they have a wiretap in your utility or whatever) or they are being oversensitive

Then you can either do something, even if its to say you're baffled and ask them to come listen in your house so it becomes their problem to track down the issue in their own house, or say sorry but you can't hear it and they'll have to live with it or if they can get an independent report to explain the problem to come back to you.

Its 15 minutes of faff to be a good neighbour. Or, more importantly, to prevent them being shit neighbours and starting some type of vendetta.

My neighbour told me my COFFEE GRINDER was waking him up!

It wouldn't have occured to me a million years as it's such a short burst of noise.

Anyway, now I grind coffee after 9am.

I feel like most of the people on this thread would get up earlier just to make a point.

Tell them to complain to the council - environmental health. They will come round and assess and feedback back what is acceptable noise.
When I had environmental health sent round to me, they almost laughed at what the neighbours had complained about. They weren’t allowed to complain again.

Some people are totally unreasonable.

I think he may have the wrong source of noise personally.. how this can be a prob I can't see.
Am all for trying to help neighbours as I live next to horrible, noisy inconsiderate people but no way does this dryer cause issues!

I’d say to them that you have been outside when it’s running and can’t hear it so they must be mistaken

This!
The situation isn’t going to be resolved by ignoring him or responding in a negative way. It could, however, be easily resolved by going round, getting someone in your house to put the dryer on with a load in and opening the window, listening with the neighbour then closing the window and listening again. You could even download a decibel app to measure the sound levels in his presence.

This seems like an excellent use of Council resources, as opposed to, say, nipping over to speak to them.

It would depend very much on how my relationship with them was. The ones to the left of us could take a running jump, but the ones on the other side are great nieghbours and if they suddenly started to complain after being lovely people for years I'd be happy to investigate.

Working on the assumption that yours are somewhere in the middle, I would reply to say that I couldn't understand how a tumble dryer that distance from them would be so disruptive, but the next time they hear it to let me know and I'll pop round. Round I would then pop, and unless the sound was being amplified in some bizarre way, I would tell them that I don't agree it's noisy but if they wanted to raise it with the environmental health dept then to go ahead.

Engaging with them doesn't mean you will accommodate all their demands - it simply means you will listen to them and then decide whether you are prepared to make adjustments.

I’d also be asking them how long it has been a problem if you have lived there for two years. Has the noise become worse recently because if so then a service of the tumble dryer or some other easy action could resolve the issue.

Love it 😂

It's a weird thing to make up. I think you at least need to entertain the possibility of working with them to figure out what the issue is.

The noise from your dryer is living noise and not using it is not an option, it seems that your nieghbour is making an unreasonable request.

The nieghbour should use ear plugs and wind their neck in.

Your kids need clean, dry clothes, they are active and sporty, just as you have said in your post.

Really? It sounds incredibly and unnecessarily spiteful to me. Did you miss the part where the neighbours said it was affecting their quality of life? How is that amusing to you?

If they've not complained about noise before I'm also in the find out camp.

Is there perhaps a vent that is rattling rather than the dryer itself making the noise?

Or are they confusing something else with the sound of your dryer?

There has to be some basis for their complaint, even if you are doing nothing wrong.

It's better to sort it out and get on surely.

I wouldn't. I'd not grace this bullshit with any response at all. I wouldn't give it any credence at all either.

If you do then it will never stop and there will always be something else further down the line.

EHO would laugh like a drain at them.

Have they got other stresses in their life currently?

@WithIcePlease When I went on an interrailing holiday for 5 weeks, that is exactly what I did! The 1st job on entering the holiday apartment/cottage was to load the washing machine and get all the laundry washed and dried before we moved on. We were away for 6 weeks with only a 40 litre rucksack each.

Why wouldn’t you care that you are negatively affecting your neighbours life and try to sort it out with them? It’s nonsense to suggest that would lead to further issues being raised

Do nothing of course. Your neighbour is being a prat. What does she want, a monkish silence 24/7? Good luck with that.

What a snotty text. Tell them that the amount of time they spend with their ears pressed against their wall isn't healthy.

It's a drier. It cannot be that nosy through a gap of six feet which includes a fence. It's on carpet, too and there are cavity walls either side of the gap. Neighbour disputes are always better avoided and if one looks like starting then don't feed it.

Why would it 'never stop'? They've lived next door for two years and have never raised anything before. Why do you think their motivation is to suddenly launch a campaign of aggressive harassment?!

I didn't ask them to

Earplugs don't help, so it's not really a solution.

It’s just a justification for being selfish

Because I wouldn't believe them and won't be pushed around by them.

It's a tumble dryer, not heavy rock music blasting out thunderously at full volume.

Negatively affecting their life is overly dramatic bollocks. I'd not give it time of day.