Noisy neighbours
Neighbour disputes frequently hit the headlines these days - and that's not really surprising when you consider it's been estimated that up to one in three people in England and Wales have problems with noisy neighbours.
If you are having difficulty coping with the amount of noise coming from next door, don't start threatening people with your power tools - follow our steps to resolving the problem:
- Make a complaint to the Council's Environmental Health Officer. The Council must then investigate your complaint by coming to your home and measuring the noise level coming from next door. If they deem it an unreasonable level of noise they can send your neighbour a formal notice asking the noise to stop by a certain date.
- Keep a diary of when the noise occurs. This can be used as evidence to show the Environmental Health Officer. Recording the times is also useful as some Councils have separate powers to deal with noise that takes place after 11pm.
- Ask other neighbours if they are also affected by the noise. If they are, you could all take action together. This could help your case and prevent any one person from feeling vulnerable or taking the law into their own hands.
- Contact your neighbour's landlord as they may well be breaching the conditions of their tenancy if they are making too much noise.
- In some cases problems can be caused by inadequate sound insulation or an individual hypersensitivity to noise rather than through any unnecessarily noisy behaviour from your neighbours. If this is the situation the Environmental Health Officer from the Council or a Housing Adviser will be able to tell you and your neighbours how to proceed.
- Neighbour mediation is a way of resolving disputes using a trained mediator as a go between. It is ideal for situations in which both parties want to reach a solution, and is an alternative to calling in the authorities which may cause more bad feeling.
- If your neighbour harasses or threatens you report them to the police and the Council.
