Before I start, I need to say that if you Google noisy neighbours, you get a wealth of information and, also details of many horror stories. Reading those, I'd say we never had it that bad. But here is how our noisy neighbours affected me:
1) It takes over your life. Noises, which you would have considered innocuous in the past become a source of endless uneasy and discomfort. You become obsessed with little sounds. You may even find yourself with your ear to the wall!
2) You dread going home. We never knew if they were going to be noisy or not, but we knew it would be a stressful night finding out.
3) The anticipation is often worse than the noise. Once the noise is started, at least you know you can take an action, whether it ends up being inaction. The worst part is often worrying about whether they will be noisy or not, the not knowing.
4) You can't do much about it when it is going on. You could of course, knock on the door and ask them to be quiet. You can't always do that, and it may be safe to do that at 3am when your neighbours are drunk. You also cannot call the police, because they don't deal with noise. All you can do is dwell, keep a record and try to get some sleep
5) You want to move house. Ironically, the previous tenants of the problem house did just that due to another noisy neighbour. During the whole time we were actively looking at moving.
6) You despair about humanity. A little strong maybe, but you start thinking, how can anyone be that bloody inconsiderate? Who would dream of playing their music at full volume without considering the feelings of others?
Our story started with a new next door neighbour. A young girl and her very young daughter. It was let by a private landlord but to a council tenant. On News Years Eve night, we had a taste of things to come, awoken by loud music and shouting at 5am.
One year on, we had a knock on the door on NYE evening - the same neighbours said they were having some friends over but would try and be as quiet as possible. So what happened in a year?
The Noisy Beginnings
We started to notice the noise with a bang. Loud music at 7pm and would only stop when we knocked. Then the noise would be very late at night, playing very loud music. The worst nights woke us all up, two adults and two young children. Rather than feeling helpless, the next morning we would be angry.
The worst night had the police called by a neighbour on the other side. This was because they had a disturbance where one of the guests in the problem house threatened violence. The police came out and checked out what happened with the female neighbour. Weirdly, after the police left the loud music continued.
The next morning, very early I knocked on their door. Some pleb answered the door. The tenant was apparently too ill (hungover) to come to the door. I said I want to talk about the noise. The pleb said yes, there were some rowdy people here but the police were called. I said I don't care about your problems, I was talking about playing music all night and then put my head through the door to shout through to the tenant not to be so bloody inconsiderate. She said sorry, it won't happen again.
It did of course. A while later, my wife was riled and she did an early morning knock. Some other pleb answered, and she asked to speak to the tenant. The pleb said that she didn't know what tenant meant. That hit home at the level of intellect we were dealing with. We had taken some action by then....
What we did
We had assumed that knocking and shouting was not getting through to our neighbours. There was another house on the other side of the problem neighbour, and those neighbours were equally annoyed as us, but did very little about it. However, knowing that they were not happy (they were also thinking of moving) gave us the impetus to press on.
We first contacted the council and they sent us a diary to complete for two weeks. We had anticipated that and had already kept a diary, so we completed the council form and sent it by return. The problem neighbours apparently got a letter saying there was a complaint against them and to turn the music down. Three days later, the music was as loud as ever in the early evening. Fortunately, the council had a phone number to call where an officer would come out to witness the noise, and so we called them and they did witness it. After the person left, we knocked and asked our neighbours to turn the music down.
As a result, a few days later the tenant got a letter saying that the complaint had escalated and that by continuing the noise they were at risk of prosecution. This stopped the music. But.....
The aftermath
Our lovely neighbours no longer played loud music, but continued to be noisy. They would sit out in the garden until the early hours, shouting and swearing at each other in a way that only very thick people can. This was the height of the summer, so it meant we couldn't leave our bedroom window open otherwise we would be kept up all night.
We did some investigating and discovered they were private tenants with a landlord liaison officer at the council. After a few weeks of putting up with idiots shouting, we sent a strong, detailed email to the officer. We saw an official looking person enter the house very soon after, and the noise stopped overnight. It turns out that landlords are equally responsible for any problems, and these actions are a direct breach of a standard tenancy agreement.
Complications
The actions of another neighbour, on the other side of the problem house in the terrace, demonstrated how not to handle the situation. They regularly threatened our hard work by playing very loud music in retaliation. This approach never works and just makes it harder to complain about your neighbours, as you have no credibility.
Ironically, now our problem neighbours have been largely silenced, these other neighbours are still periodically noisy. We are still considering whether to pursue them as well......
The End?
That's our story. I didn't publish it straight away, just in case the noise came back. I am taking a risk, but I hope this blog gives hope to those in a similar situation. There is hope, but it can take a while and takes persistence, but it can be done.
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