Noisy neighbour's complaint to Council

[pugilist]

Good evening everyone!

 

Here I wanna share my experience with you and may be get some useful advice. Here is the text I sent to the Council via their internet site form:

 

I'd like to report you a regular and continuous shouting of my neighbour at night time. Every night after around 10 pm or 11 pm a very loud shouting of a woman comes through the wall from my neighbour's (the address is xx xxxx Road xx xxxx). Sometimes she shouts for no obvious reason, sometimes she shouts at her husband, sometimes she shouts while talking to someone over the phone, and sometimes she shouts at her little son, beating him up occasionally(I may provide you with an audio where you can clearly hear sounds of hitting, her shouting and his screaming). The woman is either mentally handicapped or she abuses alcohol. Whatever the reason, but her behaviour is obviously antisocial. She is a rowdy and inconsiderate neighbour. She just prevents me from sleeping. It is an absolute nuisance. I want you to make her stop or restrict the nuisance. Please inform her that she must not and have no right to shout or even speak in a raised voice at night when people try to have some rest after a working day. The woman is most likely unemployed and has no clue that people need to sleep at night. Now the shouting happens every single day after 10 pm or 11 pm and may last for hours. I can't bear it any more. This must be stopped.

 

 

In around a week's time I got the following response from them:

 

see the attached picture

 

What would you do next, if you were me? In my opinion it was a sheer runaround, a reply without substance. They just don't want to do their job, and I pay more than a hundred pounds of council tax every month. The only thing I asked of them is to let the neighbours know that it is not good to be loud at night. As the noise is not of intermittent nature, but a regular one.

What is the best thing to do next? Reply them and try to explain to them that it is not a normal noise, or move to another step and file a complaint about the Council?

[renegadeimp]

You went wrong by putting in a lot of your own opinions and pushing them as fact. The council is right. They are very limited in what they can do now regarding nuisance neighbours, and if they were to do something, they would need weeks or months of evidence, and not just one or two nights a week random shouting or raised voices.

[ericsbrother]

2 conjoined issues here and one is easier to get actionon than the other. Report the woman to the council safeguarding team and also report the person who responded to your letter for not reporting the matter themselves whilst you are at it. They are obliged to follow this up in a prescribed time but wont tell you waht their action is but do chase it up to make sure they have followed the prescribed path.

 

As for the noise, you keep a diary and note what the noise is and when. If after certain hours the threshold for waht is noisy changes so timings important as well as frequency. Borrow a decibel meter if you can, the couincil may well have some. If you want to buy one they are not expensive at the lower quality end but work as well as a snazzy one but dont have a data logging capability so pen and paper at the ready when you use it.

Edited January 10, 2019 by honeybee13
Paras

[pugilist]

renegadeimp said:

You went wrong by putting in a lot of your own opinions and pushing them as fact. The council is right. They are very limited in what they can do now regarding nuisance neighbours, and if they were to do something, they would need weeks or months of evidence, and not just one or two nights a week random shouting or raised voices.

 

Well, but apart from my opinion were some facts, weren't they..? What i need from them is just send some letter to that address saying that it is not good to be very loud in the evening. Can the council do so? It is not a random shouting, it is a regular shouting or raised voices starting 10-11 pm.

 

ericsbrother said:

2 conjoined issues here and one is easier to get actionon than the other. Report the woman to the council safeguarding team and also report the person who responded to your letter for not reporting the matter themselves whilst you are at it. They are obliged to follow this up in a prescribed time but wont tell you waht their action is but do chase it up to make sure they have followed the prescribed path.

 

The person who responded to my letter is the Director for Commissioning – Enforcement & Safety. Hell knows what it means.. Should I report him to the council safeguarding team for refusing to take any action? He didn't tell me what other options I have apart from going to court and doing everything by myself.

 

ericsbrother said:

As for the noise, you keep a diary and note what the noise is and when. If after certain hours the threshold for waht is noisy changes so timings important as well as frequency. Borrow a decibel meter if you can, the couincil may well have some. If you want to buy one they are not expensive at the lower quality end but work as well as a snazzy one but dont have a data logging capability so pen and paper at the ready when you use it.

 

It is very strange that they didn't offer me to keep any diary.. They just don't want to do their job. I can just record the sounds coming from behind the wall every night at the same time – starting at 10-11 and ending around midnight or 1 pm. It is not from the neighbours above, above is only the roof, but it is a on the side. I don't know why they think that the noise comes from the neighbour from above.

[renegadeimp]

I dont think you know how it works. They arent just going to come out guns blazing when all they have is opinion, conjecture and no evidence.

 

They are VERY restricted in what they can do to noisy neighbours.

[pugilist]

Ok, I understand that. Are they restricted to come to my place at the time I specified and witness the noise? What prevents them from doing at least something? What prevents them from asking me to provide them with more evidence(log, diary, recordings)?

[renegadeimp]

yes. They wont come until they have a catalogue of evidence. Otherwise theyd have thousands of people trying to get them to come.

 

Theyre not the police, theyre not any kind of enforcement. Each council has a set procedure for things like this. Ask for it and follow it. If the council doesnt follow their side, THEN you can start formal complaints.

[pugilist]

Should I send them just a short message like this?

 

Thank you for your response dated xxxxx. Please provide me with the procedure which is set within your council for the things like that. I need to know what steps you are obliged to make when you get a complaint about a noisy neighbour.

[renegadeimp]

Nope. Just say please provide me with your current procedures on dealing with nusiance neighbours.

 

I understand how upset you are, but they have to go by certain rules. Rules that they are heavily restricted by

[pugilist]

So you recon just one phrase would do, and no need to add any extra gibberish?

 

Hi Mr XXX,

 

Please provide me with your current procedures on dealing with nuisance neighbours.

 

Regards,

 

Mr YYY

 

 

What do u think is the best way to send the message this time: by post special delivery or via online form on their site?

[renegadeimp]

Pretty much. I'd either email it. Or simply go to the council offices and ask them.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Check your councils website though.

 

For mine its http://www.flintshire.gov.uk/en/Resident/Environmental-Health/Noise-Nuisance.aspx

[stu007]

Hi

 

What you actually want to request is there Policy which will contain there Procedures and ask for both:

 

Noise Policy &

 

Anti Social Behaviour Policy. (note noise cones under this as well)

 

Could you clarify if the neighbour is a Home Owner / Private Renting / Housing Association or Council Tenant etc?

[stu007]

Hi

 

What you actually want to request is there Policy which will contain there Procedures and ask for both:

 

Noise Policy &

 

Anti Social Behaviour Policy. (note: noise is also classed as this)

 

Could you clarify if the neighbour is a Home Owner / Private Renting / Housing Association or Council Tenant etc?

[pugilist]

renegadeimp said:

Pretty much. I'd either email it. Or simply go to the council offices and ask them.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Check your councils website though.

 

For mine its http://www.flintshire.gov.uk/en/Resident/Environmental-Health/Noise-Nuisance.aspx

 

Well, my initial message to them was through their website. So, I'll do it same way again.

 

stu007 said:

Hi

 

What you actually want to request is there Policy which will contain there Procedures and ask for both:

 

Noise Policy &

 

Anti Social Behaviour Policy. (note noise cones under this as well)

 

Could you clarify if the neighbour is a Home Owner / Private Renting / Housing Association or Council Tenant etc?

 

Hi

 

I remember her husband once said that he was renting. But u can't trust such fellas. He is almost always at home, same as his nuts wifie and the kid. He may be a Council Tenant, but I just don't know.

 

What do you think if I put it this way:

 

Hi Mr XXX,

 

Please provide me with your current procedures on dealing with nuisance neighbours:

 

1) Noise Policy

 

&

 

2) Anti Social Behaviour Policy

 

Regards,

 

Mr YYY

[ericsbrother]

you afre misunderstanding what peopel are saying to you. The point I said about reporting the woman to the council safeguarding team is to do with childrend services and nowt to do with noise or housing or enforcement and safety.

 

people suggest what o write so just copy the wrodring they have used in their response, it will ake more sense to the person receiving it.

[ericsbrother]

my spelling mistakes are caused by me having multiple sclerosis and so I struggle to get my body to co-ordinate itself. Peopel do understand my "gibberish" becasue they bother to read it carefully and apply some thought to exactly waht is siad rather than just scanning over it and jumping to the wrong conclusion.

 

This doenst apply to just my words though, peopel HAVE writtenm out EXACTLY what you need to just copy out and you then paraphrase that as somehting that is totally different and carries no useful request. Look at what was written by STU and look at your version Stu says ask for a specific POLICY and you translate that to procedures with noisy neighbours where no council will have such things because there isnt a statutory regulation that applies should they decide to be jobsworthy over this ( and they will beacuse neighbour disputes are a legal nightmare).

Edited January 18, 2019 by honeybee13
Paras

[pugilist]

my spelling mistakes are caused by me having multiple sclerosis and so I struggle to get my body to co-ordinate itself. Peopel do understand my "gibberish" becasue they bother to read it carefully and apply some thought to exactly waht is siad rather than just scanning over it and jumping to the wrong conclusion.

 

This doenst apply to just my words though, peopel HAVE writtenm out EXACTLY what you need to just copy out and you then paraphrase that as somehting that is totally different and carries no useful request. Look at what was written by STU and look at your version Stu says ask for a specific POLICY and you translate that to procedures with noisy neighbours where no council will have such things because there isnt a statutory regulation that applies should they decide to be jobsworthy over this ( and they will beacuse neighbour disputes are a legal nightmare).

Sorry for your condition bro..

It seems that I really misinterpreted STU's words. Most likely, that he didn't express his thoughts in a clear way!

 

Well, not I am really at a loss of what he wanted to say and what is wrong with my paraphrasing of his words..

[stu007]

@ pugilist

 

Simply read my post properly

[pugilist]

@ pugilist

 

Simply read my post properly

 

I've just done so. It looks like you suggested me asking them if they have those policies at all, am I correct?

If this is the case, my message should look as follows:

 

Hi Mr XXX,

 

Please tell me if you have any specific procedures on dealing with nuisance neighbours :

 

1) Do you have any Noise Policy that you have to follow in case you receive a complaint

 

&

 

2) Do you have any Anti Social Behaviour Policy that you are obliged to follow in case you receive a complaint

 

Regards,

 

Mr YYY

 

 

If I am wrong again, is there any chance you could rephrase your answer to clarify the meaning of it?

[honeybee13]

I would word it exactly the way stu007 did in his post, otherwise you're changing the meaning slightly. You want to see the policy for a) noise and b) antisocial behavour. [stu says the procedures will be within the policies.]

 

I would start it with Dear Sir rather than Hi.

 

HB

[ericsbrother]

agree, just copy what he has written then it will be clear to the council what you want and they wont be able to wriggle out of supplying the info because your wording doesnt use the exact terminology.

[pugilist]

I would word it exactly the way stu007 did in his post, otherwise you're changing the meaning slightly. You want to see the policy for a) noise and b) antisocial behavour. [stu says the procedures will be within the policies.]

 

I would start it with Dear Sir rather than Hi.

 

HB

Thanx

 

Dear Sir,

 

Please provide me with your policy for:

 

a) Noise

b) Social Behaviour

 

 

Regards,

 

Mr XXX

[pugilist]

agree, just copy what he has written then it will be clear to the council what you want and they wont be able to wriggle out of supplying the info because your wording doesnt use the exact terminology.

Ok, i see. Check my previous post pls. Does the wording make more sense now?

[honeybee13]

Looks OK to me.

 

HB

[ericsbrother]

it is ANTIsocial behaviour.

please take note.