Nightmare Neighbour

[merylpeep]

a friend of mine lives in a flat here in the UK, and one of her neighbours is a total nightmare - shouting, screaming, playing music throughout the night, at least several times a week every week. What can my friend legally do about it? Can she get the neighbour evicted and, if so, how?

[factor-fiction]

Is this neighbour a council tenant or private tenant?

[emmie]

no, but she can ask the council for advice to start off with, even if it's a private residence.

[Cloverjo]

See if the council has a noise abatement department. Complain to them while its happening. Also, complain to neighbour's landlord if your friend knows who it is. My sympathies to your friend. I have had a similar neighbour and I know it can wreck your life.

[merylpeep]

a private tenant, and frustratingly a friend of the landlord

[sandyRoe]

I'm not joking here, would your friend think of moving?

[Tilly2]

Has your friend spoken to her neighbour about this problem?

[merylpeep]

Tilly2, yes, and it's made no difference. SandyRoe, I mean this nicely, but why should she? - it is the neighbour who is being anti-social. And it'd then be the same for future tenants with this nightmare neighbour.

[emmie]

she can still talk with the local authority, and tell the landlord that she has done so, it might spark him into asking the tenant to keep the noise down.

[boxtops]

She needs to look at her tenancy agreement and see what it says about behaviour, not making noise at night, etc. What applies to her should apply to the other tenants, then make a formal complaint to the landlord. Make a note of the times, what happens, tape the noise if necessary. The fact that the neighbour is a friend of the landlord should not be relevant. The other thing she could do is speak to the other tenants - there is more power in numbers, if they all got together to petition the landlord.

[EDDIE51]

You need to keep a careful detailed record of all the times there is noise and after a while , say a month report it to the council. They should send someone to monitor the noise level and see if it reaches 'nuisance level' if it is loud enough then the council will issue a warning. If they ignore the warnings then they can be evicted but it takes time and most cases never reach that stage. It needs to be both loud and frequent to stand much chance of action though.