noisy neighbours

[beverleymot]

ok not sure if i put this in the right section ut here goes...

i get on absolutely brilliant with my neighbour- never had hassle and we could talk for ages about general things! but recently the music level from her house has become ridiculous.

her girlfriend has recently moved in with her and every dayw hile shes at work the girlfriend has her music on SO loud all day every day!

i dont want to ask her to turn it down or speak to my neighbour about it as i dont wanna cause upset but i have my 2nd child due any day and im worried that im gonna eventually have to say something.

she has a 14 yr old daughter who has friends outside the house all the time shouting and mouthing off at other neighbours and causing trouble. they kicked someone elses fence and when my other eighbour went out and asked them to stop he got a mouthful of abuse and has had harassment everyday since. the daughter also comes home drunk at 1-2am and lobs stones and things at the back window so her mum can let her in and it wakes me and my son.

is there any other way of me getting the music lowered? i know the council will prob tell me to speak to her first before they do anything about it but i dont wanna cause upst and i dont want kids knocking at my door and harassing me while i have my kids in the house! thanks

[loonytunes]

Keep an accurate diary of what happens and when and let the Environmental Health Dept of your Council know. They will not expect you to talk to your neighbour first. They will warn the person concerned and, if nothing gets done to abate the nuisance they could, in certain severe cases, seize the equipment causing the problem. As to the behaviour problems, there are things that can be done under the Anti Social Behaviour Act. Speak to the Police about this. I suspect that you will, at come stage, need to speak with the neighbour.

[beverleymot]

thanks loony i just didnt want my neighbours know ing that it was me altho im probably the last person they would expect it to be!!

[Cheatseeker!]

Looneytunes is absolutely spot on here!

The local Environmental Health Officer would initially send out 'standard' letters to both you and your neighbour. Your will probably include diary sheets so that you can monitor the noise.

If there is a specific problem out of office hours then they will have an 'out of hours' contact number that you could use but this may vary from one Authority to another.

After the neighbour has had a warning, if the noise problem is continued and, this is key, witnessed by an officer of the council, then a noise abatement notice can be served on them.

Following this, if the noise still continues, any breech of this notice can result in the equipment that is used to cause the noise nuisance being seized which will more than likely be followed by legal action (a court summons).

If there are other obvious anti social behaviour issues to go with this, the authority may request an anti-social behaviour order from the courts(ASBO) ... or something similar.. a CRASBO (Don't ask!! lol)

But for your part.. all you need to know really is to contact Environmental Health, get diary sheets, complete them and send them back as requested.

One other thing.... Write down on the sheets how the noise is affecting you at the time... such as... I was sat watching the television at a reasonable level and could only hear the base from a song that was playing... (if you know the song, write down what it is). If you had to go out of the house for peace and quiet, write it down.

Don't hold anything back or feel that you are 'bothering' the EHO because many people feel this way and don't bother calling which means that the case cannot be proven and will no doubt be closed de to lack of evidence.

Hope this helps... Good luck!

Cheatseeker!

[pink-kittens]

I don't get this.
If you have always "get on absolutely brilliant with my neighbour" and "never had hassle and we could talk for ages about general things" then why can you not just mention the noise? You just need to word your sentence properly so as not to offend. Why would you want to alienate a person who you have always got along with?

[beverleymot]

pink kittens- my neighbour would understand if i asked her to turn it down and she would do it but its not her causing the hassle if you read what i said. i said its her girlfriend. and her daughter who has friends who cause hassle in the area- and my neighbour cant tell her daughters friends to behave can she!!

Thanks cheatseeker- i have started writing everything down since sunday.. inc yesterday wen the noise was ridiculously louder than normal!! They dont have the music on past 9:30ish pm luckily but its all day every day. i have in the past text her to ask what time her son goes to bed so i can turn the music down myself at that time ( a hint really!!) but she doesn't get the hint.. she just said thanks for thinking of him!!