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About a year ago we had new people move into the house opposite. From what we can make out they swapped houses with some relatives, who went to live in a smaller property on a nearby farm.
They seemed a nice enough bunch, though were quite standoffish when we tried to chat to them.
The dad/granddad is your typical Devon farmer type, sun-weathered and taciturn. There seems to be a collection of children and grandchildren who come and go at irregular intervals, with sometimes up to 5 or 6 cars on the drive and road outside, plus the aforementioned tractor, and currently a caravan!
The dad/grandad seems to commute to his farm by tractor, and leaves at about 4.30 am every day, and returns at about 10.30-11pm. This in itself is bloody noisy, as he starts it up, and leaves it running for 5 minutes or so before he drives off. However, due to the ridiculous amount of cars they have in front of the house he often has to play vehicular musical chairs to get his tractor out, as often one of the kids/grandchildren will have blocked him in. Or when he gets home at night they haven't left enough room, so he leaves his tractor running on the road, moves a couple of the cars, then moves his tractor onto the drive.
Our bedroom windows (and those of our 3 year old) over look their drive, and the noise has been even more noticeable with the current hot weather and having windows open. My heavily pregnant wife is not happy about being woken up every evening and early morning either!
Now, I've tried having a sensible chat with him. The first time he listened and then just walked off without saying anything. My wife tried talking to his wife, but she was really rude back, and said that we don't understand, not being farmers (I'm originally from a small village near Oxford with 5 farms, and my wife grew up on Exmoor so we are more aware than most!).
Then next time I tried to speak to him I got told to 'bugger off'.
So, help me out....WWSTD? 😉
Couple of things I can think of:
I suspect he's probably filling his tractor with red diesel, so do I dob him in to HMRC. Would they actually do anything?
I don't currently own a set of bombers, would some old Pike 426s do?
He's pretty scruffy already, so weeing in his shoes will have minimal effect.
Tyre nails.
Failing that, a chat to your environment dept at your local council to raise an issue about anti-social noise may well be in order.
Sounds like you are dealing with the local Clampets, can't seeing you getting a win, you are already marked as trouble making townies.
noise complaint to local Environmental Health, keep a noise diary.
issues
1) your neighbours will know it was you (with whatever fallout that gives)
2) it will appear in a search if you sell.
I'd say if he's operating a commercial vehicle then he needs to avoid antisocial hours 11-7 if he's using it privately then as you say the red diesel might be an issue.
It must cost a fortune to commute by tractor. In time & diesel.
There is no debating with somebody lacking in such critical reasoning skills.
I suggest you wee in his fuel tank.
how is it commuting to his farm in a tractor, surely just driving his works vehicle (which he uses while farming?) to the farm?
What's the rest of the area like? are you like on a normal residential street with loads of other houses or are you like down a lane with just a few houses or maybe just you and them?
Tractor commuting? Red diesel. Customs.
Shop the tax dodging ****er
More likely to get him done for putting red diesel in one of the other vehicles, pickup etc. than an agricultural vehicle used for agricultural use.
how is it commuting to his farm in a tractor, surely just driving his works vehicle (which he uses while farming?) to the farm
If you're driving to and from work then I class it as commuting! They have enough cars which he could use. I suspect it's a mixture of laziness, bloodymindedness, and tightness (if he's using cheap fuel)
It's a residential street on the edge of a small East Devon town, houses on both sides, pavements, streetlamps, a primary school 100m up the road. So not in the middle of nowhere! I think the farm is about 3 miles away.
Um, aren't tractors allowed to use red deisel?
My heavily pregnant wife is not happy about being woken up every evening and early morning either!
She soon won't need a tractor to do that 🙂
yes, red diesel is fine
[i]aren't tractors allowed to use red deisel? [/i]
yes, for commercial purposes.
Um, aren't tractors allowed to use red deisel?
They are but you can only use a Red-Diesel-fueled tractor on a road for short distances and only between parts of your own farm. You're breaking the rules if you use the vehicle to travel on the road to other destinations, even other farms. Even in between bits of your own farm you're only allowed a distance of 1.5km on roads
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Um, aren't tractors allowed to use red deisel?
Pretty sure you can only use it on the farm or place of work. If you use the vehicle to drive on roads you're breaking the law. Unless you're just crossing the road to get to another part of the farm, etc.
^Death by pretty bullets?
I can't see a way round it. You've tried the nicey nicey approach and that's failed and you're probably not a knuckle dragging thug willing to go round and threaten him, so it looks you're left with 'suffer it' 🙁
They can use red diesel. But ONLY for agricultural/forestry operations. Even mowing the school playing field as a favour would require white diesel to be used (recent case where farmer was fined for just this). Commuting certainly would be looked on as non-agricultural use. Once or twice a year if it was due to a local job making it more sensible might be overlooked. But, day in, day out, would not cut it with HMRC.
I hope those are earplugs ^^^
Otherwise, it looks like you're suggesting that the OP beats an elderly farmer to death with brightly coloured sex toys.
Hmmm, I might go down the HMRC route then. He's been a dick, so I have no qualms about dropping him in it. Though guaranteed they'll think it was me if anything comes of it 😕
All the other neighbours are old and retired. I've chatted to a few, and whilst they find it annoying none of them want to 'cause a scene'.
Otherwise, it looks like you're suggesting that the OP beats an elderly farmer to death with brightly coloured sex toys.
Maybe he's suggesting I use sexy-boom-boom to cheer him up before asking him again to not drive his tractor around at all hours.
does he grow beetroot? Steal and eat some, and then wee in the fuel tank and he'll never know it was you
Maybe he's suggesting I use sexy-boom-boom to cheer him up before asking him again to not drive his tractor around at all hours.
Maybe....but that wasn't the vibe* I was getting.
Dildo-slap all the way.
*see what I did there?
Sorry for confusion, I meant bribe him with rhubarb and custard sweets.
One of our old neighbours used to bring his tractor home from time-to-time. Out of a farm environment they are fricken huge and I think even the most inconsiderate person would soon realise they'd made a mistake. We never said anything but having a tractor on the drive is just one step away from being sectioned.
Fortunately like most neighbourhoods we have some vigilantes - he's retired from 'the force' - and they spend their retirement tut-tutting at inconsiderate parking, barking dogs and of course people who commute by tractor. After a week or two of getting The Look Mr. Tractor started using the car like everyone else.
From what we can make out they swapped houses with some relatives, who went to live in a smaller property on a nearby farm.
Are the houses privately owned, or are they housing association tenants? If its housing association it might be worth having a word with them about anti-social tenants.
Mr. Tractor started using the car like everyone else.
He's an ex tractor fan.
He's an ex tractor fan.
Well played. 🙂
You could employ a freelance magician to make the tractor turn into a field
This is so much more interesting than doing my companies house returns.
This is so much more interesting than doing my companies house returns.
You'll plough through them eventually.
Ha, my father in law does this. Keeps his tractor at his house, and then drives it to wherever he's ploughing/bailing etc .
He also does his weekly sainsburys shop in it.
Sorry - cant help the OP, but I suspect if anyone complained to him about it, he'd just carry on regardless.
IME, farmers can be quite bullish. Even the arable lot.
You'll plough through them eventually.
Harrowing!
He's not going to change, he doesn't give a toss about what you want and he's not going to listen to reason. The only helpful suggestion I can offer is [url= http://www.rightmove.co.uk ]http://www.rightmove.co.uk[/url].
Or you could put up with a few minutes of diesel idling noise a day and display a shred of empathy for a chap who sounds like he works 100hr weeks to put food on the table for his family? If he's saving a tenner a week by running a bloody great tractor on red instead of a Peugeot 106d on white, I'd be surprised. And if he's commuting by tractor to save a tiny bit of cash, then he deserves sympathy not malicious shopping to the tax man. Honestly.
Buy a Harley, that's the internationally recognised standard for being a noisy bellend.
Feel free to start it up and time of the day or night and give it a few blips so everyone within 3 miles knows your having a mid life crisis and you enjoy all things tasseled and leather.
That I'll teach um and their farmery ways.
Contrary to most peoples belief the countryside is a giant food factory not an idyllic "darling buds of May" retreat for IT professionals and the retired.
Or you could put up with a few minutes of diesel idling noise a day and display a shred of empathy for a chap who sounds like he works 100hr weeks
This, many times over.
My nan used to live in Houndslow right under the flight path for Heathrow. The house would shake every three minutes as planes came in. She never once complained and, because it she didn't let it annoy her, she rarely even noticed the 747's passing over her house at 300ft. My point is, what is the bigger issue, the amount of noise or how much you are letting it annoy you?
Neighbour disputes rarely end well for anyone. If you watch any of those nightmare neighbour programmes you usually see deeply unhappy, bitter parties on both sides, often each as bad as each other.
I honestly think you just need to let it go.
I am sure he could if it did not wake him up and why run it for 5 minutesOr you could put up with a few minutes of diesel idling noise a day and display a shred of empathy
It might be just me but my neighbours waking me up constantly at unsocial hours when just a little forethought could negate this is the sort of thing that would get on my nerves
perhaps I just like sleeping and not being woken by inconsiderate folk more than you do ?
why run it for 5 minutes
To warm it up.
Difficult isnt it.
His working day starts a lot earlyer than yours and goes on a lot longer.
I see loads of tracktors out working at odd times. Its the countryside so no one to really upset apart from you.
I can see it would be annying, not sure what the answer could be though.
Even with red diesel a car would be cheaper but try and pursuade him that....
My observations are:
- Living near other people is generally the pits.
- Farmers have a very binary view of the world: you're a farmer or you're not. And if you're not, you're barely shit on their shoe
- It'll get quieter in the winter because (1) you won't have your windows open and (2) he won't be out as late (though it will get worse in August obviously)
- Once the baby arrives you'll find the sound of the tractor running is the only thing that will get the little sod off to sleep when you've been woken for the sixth time that night....
leaves at about 4.30 am every day, and returns at about 10.30-11pm
Leaving 6 hours to eat supper and breakfast, shower, sleep, and do everything else. And you're surprised that he's a bit grumpy.
He does sound like a bit of a bell-end IMHO...
IME noisy neighbours don't often a F about disturbing others, in fact I think complaining just encourages them.
In some part of their weak brain it's a win for them if they've wound someone up. An attitude I've never understood & never been able to reason with...
why run it for 5 minutesTo warm it up.
buy him an engine heater and then he won't have to warm it up for so long.
buy him an engine heater and then he won't have to warm it up for so long.
It's 30 degrees out there, so should take less than 2 mins to warm up...
Just talk to the council and let them decide if the fact he works long hours justifies driving around a village in a tractor in the middle of the night.
[i]An attitude I've never understood & never been able to reason with... [/i]
Avoid Twitter 😉
it's customs and excise for evading the duty on fuel, and hmrc if you think he's getting benefit from using a company vehicle to get to/from work without paying the tax.
i'd be more inclined to get an air con unit personally. it's an affront to manhood but it's never going to end well if he won't even have a conversation about it.
if you were going to make a problem for him though i'd give fair warning, and if he still behaves badly, do the above and also the noise route. if you're going in you'd better go balls deep.
To warm it up.
Well, considering it sounds like he might be using it 13 hours a day I don't think warming it up is really necessary. Not as if he's popping to get the Sunday papers in it!
Nick it while he leaves it idling, go and do doughnuts in his field, then burn it out.
Always works for me.
To warm it up.
Which is not needed
"While it does take longer for motor oil to pump in extreme cold temperatures, we are talking milliseconds, not minutes," she said. "Your engine will warm up the oil much faster when driving at full speed — not to mention idling wastes gas.
the worst point is the start point/cranking after that the oil is flowing anyway
IME noisy neighbours don't often a F about disturbing others, in fact I think complaining just encourages them. In some part of their weak brain it's a win for them if they've wound someone up. An attitude I've never understood & never been able to reason with...
+1
As a farmer, he will have access to a whole arsenal of creative ways to get his own back. Wouldn't be one of my top ten people to start a feud with.
As a farmer, he will have access to a whole arsenal of creative ways to get his own back. Wouldn't be one of my top ten people to start a feud with.
Or you could put up with a few minutes of diesel idling noise a day and display a shred of empathy for a chap who sounds like he works 100hr weeks
I used to love this place... I'd stroll into a debate, drop one of my trademark slightly fascist or intolerant "thread bombs" and watch the liberals running round like headless chucks trying out out-do one another in the mock indignation stakes.
Now the liberals have cottoned on to my little game, and I'm not sure I like it! 🙁
Does sound like you're a bit screwed after the being reasonable approach failed, I can't see the HMRC route going anywhere and if it did chances are you'd end up regretting it as they would be pretty sure it was you that shopped them 🙁
I'd be pissed off in your circumstances though and think you have every right to be, the muppets posting otherwise should try putting up with being woken at 4:30am every day and see how they like it. Fair enough if you lived next door to the farm, you should have had that expectation when purchasing the property but in a residential area screw that.
IME noisy neighbours don't often a F about disturbing others,
IME, most of them do not have a choice. They *have* to get work done, at a time not of their choosing etc.
the muppets posting otherwise should try putting up with being woken at 4:30am every day and see how they like it.
Feel free to borrow my daughter/cats/neighbouring farmers/my alarm clock for work and I'll have my first lie in for years!
Serious suggestion - tell the **** to ride a bicycle to his ****ing farm.
I'd put up with it for about 18 months. Then, one bright, shiny morning get out there and nice and early so you can hear him wail as he realises that he's toasted his livelihood by voting for brexit.
Be kind-give him fifty quid for the tractor, then burn it, in front of his house, screaming "HOW YOU LIKING IT NOW WURZEL!!".
Just a thought.
IME, most of them do not have a choice. They *have* to get work done, at a time not of their choosing etc.
Did you think this one through?
Our old noisy neighbours used to break out the kareoke machine at 2am. The whole family. Kids and all. Parents were on benefits. No work was getting done. It was definitely at a time of their choosing.
I thought the overwhelming desire of the british was to get back to the good old days?
this is pretty much how it was done in the middle ages. although then it was a noisy cow that was fed on red turnips.
Difficult isnt it.
Not really. There are laws covering noise, antisocial hours and the use of red diesel (assuming he is of course, but it's a fair assumption). It's easily resolved by leaving his tractor at work and commuting by car / bike, the only justification I can see for his behaviour is "because I can." He probably gets a kick out of the fact it winds up others.
Council, Environment Agency, Customs & Excise and HMRC might all have an interest in his antics. Get some emails sent.
Now the liberals have cottoned on to my little game, and I'm not sure I like it
Now the Moderators have cottoned on to your little game, it'll earn you (another) ban.
Now the Moderators have cottoned on to your little game, it'll earn you (another) ban.
[hypothetical]
If one were to report people for outrageously provocative liberally über-tolerent trolling, would it be taken seriously but the mods? 😉
[/hypothetical]
If one were to report people for outrageously provocative liberally über-tolerent trolling, would it be taken seriously but the mods?
It sounds like you could do with a break from your computer screen TBH pal.
Even mowing the school playing field as a favour would require white diesel to be used (recent case where farmer was fined for just this).
Please cite the case and the law, cheers.
We look into all complaints, no matter how deranged they are.
Please cite the case and the law, cheers.
Literally the first hit on a google search was this
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-13805083
Not a school playing field but still, close enough.
IME, most of them do not have a choice.
DIY at 11.30pm come under that category?
Some good suggestions from both sides of the lefty liberal do-gooder/loony brexiteer divide.
Look, I totally understand he has to get to work on his farm, and that he works bloody hard and really long hours. I grew up working on a neighbouring dairy farm - basically child-labour, earned a pittance, and up at the crack of dawn to be shouted at by the owner, one Mr Freeman.
On the other hand, he chose to move away from his farm to this house. So why can't he just leave the tractor at work, and drive there in the mahoosive pickup truck that sits unused outside the house day in and day out.
I'm actually not that bothered by the noise (years of tractor noise and other assorted farm machinery as a kid has rendered me pretty much immune) but every morning and night it wakes up our 3 year old. In fact she now wakes up and has a massive screaming fit that 'the noisy monster is going to eat her'. It is also making it impossible for my 8 month pregnant wife to get a good night's sleep. Yes, I know that in 4 weeks time the tractor noise will probably be the least of our worries, but his attitude still peeves me.
but his attitude still peeves me.
...then you must kill him.
With kindness?
Actually maybe that's it. I'll make him a really nice victoria sponge, take it round and flirt outrageously with him. He'll be moved out within the week.
Actually maybe that's it. I'll make him a really nice victoria sponge, take it round and flirt outrageously with him. He'll be moved out within the week.
Do this and covertly film it.