Noisy Neighbours!

[cazkid]

Hi Everyone!

Im here to ask of some advice,

we have terrrrribly noisy neighbours and am wondering what we can do about them,

we live upstairs in a victorian masionette, im sure its not insulated at all! we rent so i dont think i should have to fork out for insulation + laminate flooring and floorboards it wouldnt be the easiest to insulate.

they like to play music loud and quite often and in the end room the bed above (in one of the bedrooms) vibrates from the bass of the music, its not reallly early but it would be nice to be able to sleep in on a sunday morning until after 10am!

they are not the nicest bunch of people in the world and im sure we make noise but not on par with them, is there anything i can do regarding the council/ noise control, we have tried talking but it seems to go through one ear and out the other,

anyone help? cheers :)

[katie1997]

heya you have my sympathy...noisy neighbours have GOT to be the most irritating problem to deal with. It really can make peoples lives a misery and there a lot of inconsiderate people out there. I think you should firstly inform the landlord about the problem and if they value you as a tenant then they will look into helping to solve it by better insulation.

I don't know the number but I am sure there is a noise pollution dept at southwark council that you could contact too (esp as you have already tried talking to your rotten neighbours about this). Best of luck...

[Laurie Eggleston]

Cazkid,

All the info you could ever need about what action the council can take with regards to noisy neighbours can be found online here: http://www.southwark.gov.uk/YourServices/environment/NoiseProblems/

Good luck!

Regards,

Laurie Eggleston

[Laurie Eggleston]

Number is 0207 525 5777

[cazkid]

-- moved topic --

[The Eye]

May I suggest.

http://www.armouryinaction.co.uk/media/shotguns/sawnoffdb.jpg

[PeckhamRose]

How does the above recommendation help?

An idea I have is to take up a tray of cakes or something nice. Put them on the back foot sort of thing.

[woofmarkthedog]

I had the neighbours from hell, rap music, garage mc's with speakers like wardrobes bought in one day. They'd have 3 day parties , guests would smoke crack & heroin or weed on the balcony till the whole thing petered out.

I did fantasize about drilling holes in their walls at head height so I could randomly fire a pistol at them.

In the end I found out who the landlord was and approached him, he lived with his mother so I'd call round there whenever there was an issue. We got to know mum quite well and it slowly put the pressure on him to do something about his tenants.

I did make a point of getting to know each of the 5 or 6 boys that lived there over time, telling each one that " I know it's probably the others making the noise but could you have a word with them " In time things slowly changed, the main idiots moved out & things calmed down.

By the time we came home with our first born they had taken us on as "neighbors" & we never had another issue with them.

It was hard though, we did at times wear industrial earplugs to bed. When we complained to the council & received a leaflet on racism toward neighbors which was unhelpful to say the least.

It did put us through hell. I did fantasize many violent ways to get them back & I'm sure it contributed to my son coming 5 weeks early. It was not a nice time but...

It doesn't go away on it's own, it takes careful handling but things can change

Good luck though, I feel for you

W**F

[iaineasy]

hey its Christmas!! Of course they will be partying, perhaps if it's still bad in the new year chat to them again and offer them a schedule when they can make noise and when its inconveiniant for you, if they are a lovely bunch they will try to stick to it im sure!

till then live and let live, or face the risk of a bah humbugness reputation with your neighbours!!

hugs.x

[The Eye]

"How does the above recommendation help?"

Apologies. The original recommendation was nudging the OP (cazkid) in the direction of Edward Woodward's The Equalizer due to the popular asscoiated newspaper ad that put people in touch with our fictional vigilante: "Got a problem? Odds against you? Call the Equalizer."

A prudent suggestion at the time but the new recommendation is, I feel more blunt, and to the point. Because when your knee-caps are in jeopardy, the music goes off.

Good hunting.

[Pickle]

I'd love to be able to sleep past 10am on a Sunday morning - wonder if the noise control people would deal with my noisy kids?? ;-)

I hope you get it sorted Cazkid, what a nightmare. Some good suggestions above. Would your landlord help out by putting in some more insulation? Might be worth approaching him/her about it, as in the long run it makes their flat better.

Good luck

[Eileen]

I empathise with you cazkid ? it can become unbearable to live beside noisy neighbours who become uncooperative. I know it from experience.

I notice that the Council?s noise team website recommends that people troubled by noise do not approach the ?noise offender?. That seems a bit draconian. In some cases that will be very relevant, but maybe in the minority of them. The Council's noise team is hugely important and we didn't always have it. It was hell before that was set up. But calling in the noise team I feel should be the last resort.

If it has got so painful that friendly overtures have become impossible, there is another half way house that I thoroughly recommend. This is the local Southwark mediation service. You can find out about his through the Southwark Mediation Centre. It has been going for a long time and has an excellent track record. They operate with paid skilled staff and trained volunteers. They are always looking for volunteers to be trained. It is a very valuable community service, so anyone interested in volunteering and learning in practice all about this wonderful service should visit mediation volunteers

PS they do fantastic work teaching schoolchildren to be peer mediators at school. Not only does it have brilliant results in handling school disputes which can otherwise get very nasty, but they learn significant skills which are relevant evrywhere and also are effective role models for not only other children but for adult family members as well. I confess I am a long term fan of mediation! A wonderful human social invention.

[The Eye]

"I had the neighbours from hell, rap music, garage mc's with speakers like wardrobes bought in one day. They'd have 3 day parties , guests would smoke crack & heroin or weed on the balcony till the whole thing petered out."

Although (thank god) I've never actually suffered such an invasive problem such as these brats, I'm more than aware that these so called parties never really are the kind of parties where anything exciting or fortuitous happens such as meeting members of the opposite sex, branching out socially or simply enjoying yourself.

No...

Rest assured that those attending these soirees will no doubt all be huddled around an Xbox or some other socially stunting contraption, smoking whatever they can get their hands on whilst listening to awful music in awful surroundings. They're in the false hope that they're winning by coming across as unapproachable/intimidating and generally pissing everyone off, but are in fact the one's loosing out in the sense that they'll be the one's always kipping on a mates sofa whilst everyone else gets on with their lives.

I hope this provides some small comfort.

[woofmarkthedog]

Thanks Wolfie

I'm sure it will, you know "provide some small comfort" to those concerned

W**F

[jimmy two times]

It's radical, but I find violence or the threat of violence will solve this problem. It takes balls though. If you can't threaten them yourself do you know anyone particularly hard who will do it for you?

[intexasatthe moment]

Hi - don't know if this is possible ,but mediation works on the basis of making a contract ,a deal with both sides gaining something.

Could you approach them by suggesting that you realise they must hear noise from you and is there anything in particular that they find irritating that you could tone down ? And then obviously move on to the noise they make .....

I know ,they'll probably shrug their shoulders at your opening gambit .

Anyway ,horrible for you - try Southwark Mediation.

[beaver14uk]

I thought this was very funny - the Council if they are like others will take ages to do anything and the Police are not interested.

The Eye Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> May I suggest.

>

> http://www.armouryinaction.co.uk/media/shotguns/sa

> wnoffdb.jpg

[matthew123]

I might have misread what you have said but if the worst of it is 10 a.m. on a Sunday I'd let it go rather than risk creating a situation where they decide to deliberately crank it up at more irritating hours!

[computedshorty]

?

[daizie]

Haha! Love it :))

[James Barber]

If you have a noise problems then as Laurie posted call the Southwark Council noise hotline 020 7525 5777 24/7/365. They are on site within 45minutes when the noise is happening. The more residents that report a problem the more they can do.

No point ringing them after the noise has stopped as they can;t witness the anti social problem.

They have powers to deal with - amplified music, TV's, parties, nightclubs and pubs, DIY, contruction sites, barking dogs, alarms, odour, fumes, smoke.

If the noise is unreasonable whether daytime or night time then call the number. Often neighbours just don't appreciate the havoc they are causing and would prefer to know.