noisey neighbours.

[misdee]

i am wit ends. my neighbours moved in about 6 weeks ago, and we have had nothing but problems with them. they have people coming and going at all hours, slamming the front doors and communal doors, let their parties spill into the communal areas, openly smoke puff and leave rizla packets in the communal areas, they keep waking my kids up. i have had to put my eldest daughter into my room (smallest room) and now share the large bedroom with the baby, just so she doesnt get woken up, as the smaller room is further away from the noise. i have asked them time and again to not let the doors slam as they echo through out the whole block of flats. i feel like i'm turning into a moany old woman, but each time the doors slam it grates on my nerves. everyone in the block has young kids, and we all seem to quieten down by around 7pm, but these people (who also have a baby) seem to start getting noisey around this time. my friend lives in the flat above them, and her son also gets woken up almost every night by the noise. we're all feeling the stress, and altho the housing association has spoken to the tenants already, and have also sent numerous letters to them, the noise is getting worse. i am having to keep a noise diary to send the housing association for 6 weeks, and i'm dreading it in case it goes to court. i know several of the other tenants are also keeping diaries, so it wont just be me verus them, but i dont know how i'm gonna cope with this noise. why cant some people have some consideration to others who share the communal areas with them.
has anyone else had this kinda problem?

dee

Many years ago we lived above a family who insisted on sharing their love of Irish folk songs with us every weekend. When dh went to ask them to turn it down they kindly explained the reason we could hear it was because they had a good system. Dh (in the music business) said oh thanks for letting me know. He went upstairs, looped a sample of a pneumatic drill onto a dat player, turned the speakers from our system to face the floor and turned it on full blast. Then we went out and left it for the day. They stopped doing it after that.

they openly smoke puff around the flats. we have reported it, and the police are keeping an eye on them as far as i know. the girl looks like a junkie, i dont like judging people, but i know junkies when i see them.

and they have just started again tonight. i just want to be able to relax. fortunatly my baby is still asleep.

well an update. have found out that the young girl who lives opposite me in the flats is not so young, just looks young and has learning differculties. social services are involved with her case as she has a young baby and they are assessing the situation as they dont want her living alone without proper support. i feel a bitch for the complaints, but at the same time feel that i shouldnt have to put up with the problems they are causing becasue she has problems in her life. my life was pretty much turned upside down for alomst a year (marriage breakdown, living in temp accomadation with 2 kids etc etc), and was hoping to settle down here with no problems. seems like i'm battling for a good quiet-ish life to bring my kids up in. i want some stability for them, not them being woken up by the noise from next door most nights. its a brand new devolpement, i should be overjoy at being here in a brand new flat but all i can think about is moving again to escape these problems.
just very fed up and dont know what to do.

Have you heard anymore from the Housing Association yet?

housing officer called me at the beginning of the week to discuss the situation again. said he was now in touch with the girls social worker to try and get them to make the situation clear to her. says that she shouldnt have been put forward for housing by the council as she really needs a better support network, which isnt available here as its a new devolpment which wont be finished for about 5 more years. said if they recived the diary logs we have been making and they all indicate excessive noise then they will give her 28 days to improve the situation, then it will go to sourt, but as she has a young child (baby is about 6 months old) then its very possible she will be allowed to stay on.

so maybe i should really consider moving again?

I didn't have problems as big as any of you are having but I really do sympathise.

WE live in a cul-de-sac and there was a family who lived right across from our flat with 4 kids. The old lady who used to live above them was always telling us how much noise they made, banging doors, the boys bouncing a football off the floors all day long and the shouting that went on, one of the boys didn't seem to be able to talk at the normal level always shouted. She just left them to get on with it as they weren't that much of a nusience to her and they did quiten down at night.

The kids used to play football in a big grassy area of "common land" that is right next door to my flat, even though they had a large piece of Common land right next door to their own flat. Because it's common land I didn't mind them playing on it as that is what it was for but it used to really annoy me that you couldn't even hear the tv at night from all the shouting that they would be doing. Somtimes I would go out to them as my dd would be in bed and they would still be out playing and shouting and waking her up. It never made the slightest bit of difference they would just shout all the louder. They used to play outside until about 10pm in the holidays and the boys would be out playing football and running around screaming and shouting from as early as 8.30 in the morning.

They moved to another house in May and the other day I was sitting outside on my deckchair reading my book and I suddenly realised how quiet it was now that they have moved.

They were a very nice family but the kids were a little loud at times but now that they have gone I realise just how much noise the boys actually did make.

Obviously the problems that you are all having are a lot more major. I would want to move away if I had neighbours like you do but of course not everyone can afford or want to do that and if you were there first why should you move.

I hope you all get the help that you need with your noisy neighbours.

Has anyone else read these posts with first complete sympathy for those who are suffering and then a quick twinge of concern hoping that our family doesn?t upset our neighbours so much?!! We don?t have late, wild parties, swear loudly outside or fight etc. but I am sure some of our habits must irritate our neighbours.

Our DIY work did cause one of our neighbours to come round shortly after we moved in and asked us if we could stop as it was making her DD cry!! I was so mortified and embarrassed - we went round the next day with a card, massive grovelly apology and big box of chocs. Even though they were decent about it and always say hello etc., it has made me really nervous about any noise at all. Our house is in a terrible state and needs so much noisy work doing to it that I can see it is going to be quite stressful at times! Just don?t want to become the neighbours from hell and discover one of you guys complaining is in fact living right next door.....(we moved house because we had neighbours from hell and don?t want any more hassle from anyone ever ever ever again!)

i'm not about to complain about anyone doing DIY during the daytime. i think in flats u expect a certain amount of noise during the day and as it is a building site still, someone hammering or drilling isnt gonna bother anyone long as it isnt late at night. the problem we have is the late night parties, the fact her music is so loud u can hear it clearly 2 floors above, the openly smoking puff around the flats and the fact she soesnt seem to know how to close doors just lets them slam shut even late at night.

Please advise-my neighbours are total nightmares ,all day yesterday we got rock music as he worked in the garden,i had to leave the house and go to a friends as it was unbearrable.I was out today but was told by friend they had music on all afternoon,it was on when i got home at 5pm,it is still going on now ,it can be heard at the end of our street as well as their shouting and messing around in the garden.I have been up to 9mth dd about 4 times and ds aged 5 has eventually fallen asleep,but ds age7 who is autistic(they know this btw) cannot even go to bed,they are totaly unaproachable not that i would even go there with them as i am on my own in the house and they are nutters.my question is would it be acceptable to phone the police to come out and have a word or is it too early and am i being a square boring person who should get a life?

I think if they're still making that much noise, that after 10pm it's not acceptable and in your shoes I would probably call the police.

mind you, maybe I'm also a square who needs to get a life...

its a nightmare isnt it. mine have been very quiet this week, but i know they had a court case this week about their kid so maybe they are behaving for the courts.

are u private rent/housing assication or council/homeowner?
if your a homeowner, then u could ask them to turn the music down, keep things quiet, but if they are really unapproachable then u can go to the police or contact enbiromental health. keep a noise diary as i am doing, they should be able to help u, tho i have found there is no quick fix in this situation unless u're neighbours dont realise they are being a problem (and by the sounds of it they are fully aware).
hth

I rent my house but theirs is bought,we live in a housing association area,i have spoken to the housing people before and they basicly said phone the police or environmental health. i think i will give them a phone as i really need to go to bed but there is no point with the rabble next door and dd has just gotten up again.

call the police. dont let them fob u off either!

Loobie, personally I would start by trying to ask them nicely to turn down the music. Just explain that your children are napping/sleeping/unwell/etc. and could they please turn the music down. The worst that could happen is that they refuse. And maybe they aren't as bad as they look....

If anyone has actually managed to get the police to respond to noise complaints I'd be interested to know how they did it, because IME they are just not interested. Are they new neighbours? Do they make a habit of this? If it's just a one off, I'd be tempted to ignore it, but if it is a regular occurrence then I would speak to them first, as SofiaAmes suggests. (But I have my doubts how effective this is - anyone halfway reasonable would know how unacceptable this level of noise is). Some areas have 24 hour environmental health noise patrols, so it may be worthwhile giving them a ring to see if they can monitor the noise immediately. If not, then env. health is still your best bet - they will write to your neighbours and you will need to keep a noise diary as Misdee is doing. Some areas also operate a neighbour mediation service which will help you both reach an agreement on acceptable levels of noise.
It's all very stressfull, and you have my sympathies.

I'd be amazed soothepoo! The police don't really have any powers to do anything I was told. They can ask for the music to be turned down, but not enforce it. We had to go through environmental health a few times with different neighbours, it took ages and wasn't that great but seems to be the only route. Give them a call like soothepoo said, and they will ask you to keep a record and send it to them. Good luck.

It is so frustrating. Noise can have such a negative impact on your quality of life, but there are very few effective avenues of complaint. Yes, env. health can (eventually) stop the noise, but you still have to live next door to the same people. More stress. I think ultimately the only solution is to move.
Four years ago we made the decision to move because of noisy neighbours who did not accept that there was a problem, made even more noise after we complained and who were unwilling to participate with the neighbour mediation service. Luckily, we managed to sell to a young couple who were probably (hopefully )even noisier than our neighbours.
It is a horrible, horrible situation to be in and just typing this out has brought back that sick, sinking feeling that was part of my life for two years. I know there have been a couple of other threads about noisy neighbours but I posted on this one as I didn't want anyone to think that calling the police was going to solve their problems.