PLEASE help me STW. Problems with noisy neighbours !

Situation is this. We live in a semi detached. Our neighbours (joined) moved out and rented the house out. Unfortunately to complete ****s

The main problem is noise. Banging and slamming of doors ( and by slamming, I mean slamming the front door as hard as they can, so the front of the house shakes, impossible to ignore ) at all times of the day and night. Rows and arguments (didn’t get to sleep until 3am this morning as there was another massive argument going on, again, impossible to ignore ) music and parties, not to mention the stinking chain smoking, which means I can’t have windows open, as the house will smell like an ash try.

Tried talking to them, but they are not the kind of people to take the considerations of other people to account. Basically do not give a damn, and will not change their ways, they do not have a good side to appeal to. Been to see the landlord twice now, but he just gave me the brush off last time. Doesn’t care as long they pay the rent and don’t smash the place to bits

Utterly fed up now, it’s starting to effect my work because I cannot get a good nights sleep due to noise. Can’t read a book in peace because all I can hear is banging cupboard doors and shouting, and they back door slamming shut after they have been for ANOTHER fag.

What can I do ? Do I have any kind of rights ? can I force the landlord to do something ?

So damn tired today. Really tried to ignore it and get on it, but enough is enough. The only way I will get peace is if they leave.

HEEEEELLPPP !!!!

Call the council noise department. They can come and measure and take action if required.

If you don’t want to go that far yet, tell the landlord you are contacting them. If it is managed through an agent try them first.

Take some notes of times and other stuff to back it all up. Failing that an alarm siren through the letter box at 5am should help……

You did ask on STW…

Wee in their shoes!

a) contact council

b) keep a noise diary

(or look to move – might be quickest/easiest solution if you’re renting)

Ask Landlord to fit a closer on the back door, for a start, once of those hydraulic things so it can’t slam.

If you live bang next door to people you have to expect some kind of noise from them “living their lives”. They clearly live theirs quite loudly. You will look a fool asking them to stop opening and shutting their cupboards. My upstairs neighbour has a zero tolerance policy on other people (and is not a happy drunk) and once hammered on my door shouting at me and asked me to turn my hoover off at 14.00 in the afternoon as it was annoying him so I have some experience with this ! You don’t want to come across as a nutter when they call the police to report your aggressive and bullying behaviour now do you ?

If it’s parties etc and loud music late at night you can try noise control at local council ??

We went to local council, they take noise and anti-social behaviour seriously. Our neighbour had a dog that barked constantly when they were out. They gave us a recording device then dealt with them directly, then they moved out, sorted. The guy was a vet too, he used to drug the dog when he went out, sicko.

Try the Police 101 number if it is seriously anti-social as opposed to just annoying.

If the landlord is refusing to help ask him if he’s declared the earning from the property on his tax return. If he hasn’t then that might make him take some action.

Much as it would annoy me you can’t really do a lot about people smoking outside their own house.

The smoking thing is because Landlords all demand no smoking in flats now as a standard clause, without thinking about the neighbours when the tenants all smoke outside.

I would love to go round with a set of bombers, however, we fear this would just escalate the situation.

I agree that I don’t want to come across as unreasonable, and we’re not, just don’t want to get woken up, every, sigle, night by slamming doors. Is that un-reasonable ? Ok so some people are a bit more noisy than others, but these are people who do not seem to care what sort of impact they are having on us. It’s our house, we’re not renting, so I don’t see why we should have to put up with other people’s anti social behaviour.

Yes, I doubt I’ll be able to stop them smoking (unfortunately). We are keeping a noise diary, and maybe the council is the next step.

Thanks for the advice.

Every time they woke me up through the night i’d be calling the landlords landline there and then letting him know.
Then he gets to see what it’s like to be woken up at all hours.

On a different approach, we have some god awful people living just across from us (crime, drugs, horrible children, all on benefits etc) and after i smashed the face in of their eldest son when he threatened me last year they’ve been far better. Strange how their minds work, it’s like they have some respect for me now and know they can’t get away with murder. I thought it’d make things worse at the time (red mist moment so wasn’t thinking) but it seems i was wrong.

Good luck though, it’s a horrible situation to be in and only those who’ve been through similar will know how stressful it is.

ah, sorry, thought it was your landlord wou were talking to.

call the council. if you make a formal complaint it will come up on whoever buys your house’s search but as long as problem is resolved/new tenants then shouldn;t be a problem.

Failing all the above advice you may have no choice but to cull the landlord then your neighbour?

It’s a norm to use the zombie exterminator – Benelli M4.

Every time they woke me up through the night i’d be calling the landlords landline there and then letting him know.
Then he gets to see what it’s like to be woken up at all hours.

Been very, very tempted to do this.

Thank you Mr.Tall. I would love to follow your advice, although my fear is after the red mist clears, it might well be me in handcuffs, and that’s not the result I’m after.

Stil tempted though. *Deep breaths*

Every time they have a party, play loud music or a fight call the police. Zero tolerance is the way to go

That’s how we got rid of our junkie nieghbours, they just got fed up with the police at thier door every day.

Also contact the council anti social team.

I like Mr Tall techniques.

Put it this way some people need to fight fire with fire …

If you go around pussy footing they will think that you are there to be bullied. However, before you start roughing them up do check if the person is ex-SAS, Commandos or martial art expert … then kick their heads in including the landlord.

You’d be surprised, the police were on the scene very quickly with my incident – called by the dodgy family before i even got a chance but they were great with me and almost congratulated me for doing it.

They told me i’d given him more of a punishment than they could give and mine would be more likely to have a positive lasting impact. I got the impression they would all have shaken my hand if the other family wasn’t still out watching! When i told the officer ‘i think i may have hit him several times’ he responded, ‘i think you mean you just hit him once sir’ 🙂

Buy a very loud motorbike.
Get up very early.

When i told the officer ‘i think i may have hit him several times’ he responded, ‘i think you mean you just hit him once sir’

Corruption is everywhere…. calls IPPC 😉

Must stop looking at the Benilli site 😈

I do know what you mean. I have wondered if they are taking me for a ride, because I have let them get away with it. I only haven’t so far because I don’t want to sink to their (very low) level.

Would it be illegal to put land mines outside their front door ?

My neighbours used to be incredibly noisy. Feral kids screaming their heads off and the parents having really, really loud fights all the time.

During one particularly vigorous bout between the two ‘adults’, I phoned the police and reported what sounded like domestic violence going on next door. Since the police attended, they’ve been considerably quieter; whether that’s due to having cops on their doorstep or the realisation that they don’t live in a soundproofed bubble, I’m not sure.

trailofdestruction – Member

Must stop looking at the Benilli site

That will be my toy of choice to deal with zombies …

Would it be illegal to put land mines outside their front door ?

Naahh … that’s not much fun. You should try using sniper toy like this … M24, AWSM, L115A1 or AWM-F or G22 in Bundeswehr nomenclature with attached suppressor (my favourite).

😈

You’ve really been thinking about this haven’t you. 😀

I do actually know an ex army sniper. Hmmm…

I’m going through the same thing… Just started a small extension on the back of the house before the new neighbours arrived. She is 21 and addy bought her the house as a birthday present! We went round and said hello, explained the parking situation and we have two small children, but it seems to have been in vain. She like her music loud, smokes outside and generally acts like a diva. The neighbour on the other end (a policeman) doesn’t seem concerned which kind of leaves us in the unenviable position of being the bogeymen nextdoor.
We almost considered knocking the extension down. What should be a nice moment for us is being ruined by the cosntant thought of “are we doing the right thing?”.
We are keeping a noise diary., but want to avoid the council thing.. please let it stop!

“addy”?

Like Daddy, but with out the D..

When i told the officer ‘i think i may have hit him several times’ he responded, ‘i think you mean you just hit him once sir

ha ha ha, funny funny 😆

My partner and I think of ourselves as fairly quiet people.. we don’t like the TV turned up loud.. we are softly spoken, reasonable and step lightly.. certainly no slamming doors or raised voices..
A downstairs neighbour at our old place slipped a note under our door one morning..

apparently the earplugs that she wore every night were no longer enough.. she couldn’t take any more and last night had spent a tearful frosty night trying to sleep in her hatchback..
we were flummoxed.. how could this be so..? We’d recently had plush wool carpets and thick rubber underlay fitted, and the only habit that had changed was that mrs yunki, being pregnant, had taken to getting up in the night for a pee..
perhaps the bed and floorboards creaked a little more due to the extra weight..?

This was in a block of flats in a busy town centre..

We apologised to the woman, and explained our confusion, but she met that with a very condescending and wry and motherly accusation of us being heartless liars..!

So.. we tried extra hard to be quieter still, and due to the pregnancy were always tucked up in bed by 10pm. We heard no more until a couple of months later when another note appeared, informing us that our neighbour was leaving, she could take no more of our midnight shenanigans and was moving somewhere where the neighbours had a bit more decency and compassion.. I dread to think how she would have coped after the baby arrived..

She should have tried living there before I met Mrs yunki.. drunken parties round the clock, fights, police, doors kicked down, windows smashed.. week in and week out.. and that was just the sweet old dear next door..

what I’m trying to say perhaps, is that after the bliss of your previous neighbours, are you overreacting to what might just be a normal level of noise from a busy (maybe slightly uncouth) family with teenagers..?
Or like the neighbour in my story, have you considered that you might be completely barking mad..?

Offer to buy next door from the Landlord ?
With you living next door they will think twice brfore making a racket at 1am.
Your not in Chelmsford area are you ?
I am friends with a local EHO on the noise team.

m,c,w,c,b 😆

Sounds like my neighbours OP.
They are noisy, music etc at all hours, unable to close the front door normally.

I have been filling in noise diaries for two years for the environmental health department and they have yet to do anything more than send the noisy neighbours a few letters.

Good luck.