Noisy neighbour's kids. Advise needed!!

[Anxioustaurus123]

Hi There,

We needed some advice on noisy neighbours. We live in a mid terraced house and our next door neighbours have 3 daughters. They have loads of visitors over every weekend and the house is full of kids. We do tolerate kids playing around the house on all days but they get very noisy at times and we can hear constant hammering hours together in our house.

We have to go over every weekend and remind them to keep noise levels low. I feel embarrassed to go over and tell them, not sure if they feel embarrassed at all!!

Totally understand kids play and we cannot control them,but don't all of us have right to peace and quiet? Can we complain about this to council? Have anybody else dealt with a situation like this? Any advise will be much appreciated!!

Thanks
Anxioustaurus123

Do you own your home? Do the neighbours own theirs?

If you do, and if you do go round the Council noise complaints route, you'll have to declare the issue if you come to sell your home.

I suffered for 4 years from the noise from my downstairs neighbours in a flat, they also had really noisy kids and constant visitors at weekends/evenings. Complained constantly to them and to their landlord with no effect. Eventually I moved out and it's absolutely blissful to finally live somewhere quiet. That's probably not what you want to hear, sorry.

Yeah we own our home and our neighbours own theirs too!

I guess it makes sense not to complain then. We searched over 3 years before buying this house and rather unfortunate that we have such noisy neighbours.

On bright side though, they do reduce the noise when we tell them. Am not very sure how long that will happen for. Can only hope they understand and remain considerate.

You can complain about specific loud noises I guess, but you can't expect them to not have visitors just to please you, or for the kids to stop playing.

Well it's not really about pleasing us, it is about being considerate and sensitive towards neighbours. Thanks for the advice TheLeftOvermonster!!

Hmm, when does all the noise stop for the evening? When the children are in bed? Are you in a new-ish build of a house 30 years or younger?

Im worried about my neighbours (young-ish retired couple) as we are having a very noisy spell with our 6 month old who wont sleep during the day (cranky/ grouchy crying) and our tantrum-y elder child.

Things die down in our house when the big one is at school and bedtime of 8.30.

I try sooo hard to keep noise down with the kids but its very hard. We also try to leave the house for at least 3 hours in the daytime during the week. To give me a change of scene but also to give the neighbours peace.

When baby is having an inconsolable stretch of crying, I try to take to the side of the house which is not the wall we share with neighbour.

Also, we never watch TV, radio in frequently, so never have that horrible blaring tv coming through their walls.

Do you have kids? I ask because before we had kids I used to be constantly complaining to DH about nextdoor's toddler whose tantrums we could occasionally hear through the wall. I'm embarrassed to think about it now as fast forward 10yrs and we have 4 very noisy children who, when the weather allows, spend hours charging around the garden playing very loud games. When it's cold and wet they're indoors listening to music/tv/games console much too loud or charging around the house like a herd of buffalo, slamming doors and screaming at each other. We only have neighbours on one side thankfully and again, thankfully, they also have 3 very noisy children.
If there was just us, I couldn't cope and I'd move.

You say that you searched for 3 years to find this house.
This probably isn't what you want to hear but, play the long game. You spent 3 years looking for that house, how old are the children next door and how old will they be in 3 years time? Will they even still live there in 10 years time? If you were willing to spend 3 years to look for the house then can you wait a few years until they grow up.

What kind of noise is it? What time of day?

I really sympathise - we moved out of a semi-detached house into a detached one for just this reason (plus others including parking nightmares). I should think that if you are complaining to the neighbours every weekend, the atmosphere must be pretty frosty :-(

I know it's horrid right now, but honestly it could be worse - what if these people moved out, and heavy-metal music fans moved in? Or someone with baby twins that were teething? That would be horrible indeed.

If you are in this house for the long haul, and moving to a detached house is out of the question, then how about trying to make a difference to something you can control? Consider investing money in very good soundproofing, that would be much more effective than trying to control other people's behaviour (which is not working anyway) and it would make a difference to your quality of life - no matter who is living next door to you.

We used thin insulation boards as sound proofing it is quite effective. DP was able to do it so cost was minimum Could you do this? We have 5 DC and our neighbour with 2 DC was louder than us

I really do sympathise, some children are alot noisier than others and some people find noise upsets them more than others, so its really harsh to say wait 3 years or ignore it. It would drive me insane and I would have to move!

I saw on TV once some insulating boards, but they were pictures, mirrors etc. that you put on the adjoining walls. Maybe playing background music would help? Def sleeping with earplugs.

Thank you all the messages.

Kids are Kids and they cannot be controlled. I agree with that, however I also believe every family should also behave responsibly and show consideration.

As one of you said, we will probably think about sound proofing our house. I an not against kids playing, but it would be nice if they can give us little breaks in between long hours of noise, so we can relax too!!

A young family have moved next door to us. We're detached but when their kids are in the garden they scream and yell all the time. It's a very quiet neighbourhood and all you can hear is them. So when they start I put music on full blast. When they go quiet I turn it down. Seems to be working!

When it's cold and wet they're indoors listening to music/tv/games console much too loud or charging around the house like a herd of buffalo, slamming doors and screaming at each other.

god I am so glad I don't live next door to you #nighmareneighbour

There is literally no reason for children to scream inside or outside.

I paid a small fortune soundproofing my house when next door bought a feckin parrot.

Poor thing is kept in its cage most of the time and constantly makes telephone ringing noises.

It made a big difference. I soundproofed upstairs and downstairs. Only thing is it doesn't really work if you're on a different level to the noise. I tend to hear the noisy fecker at crack of dawn as it's downstairs and I'm upstairs in bed.