What can you do about noisy neighbours?

Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, you will live in the middle of noise. It is an inevitable part of daily life.

You get used to the background hum of noise: traffic, voices from the street, children shouting, dogs barking, and perhaps planes going overhead. In one way it’s quite comforting, hearing evidence of life all around us. In fact, one of the things people noticed particularly during the first lockdown was the eerie silence.

But there’s another kind of noise that is not comforting at all. It is intrusive and stressful and can take over your life. We’re talking about noisy neighbours.

Wherever you live, there needs to be a bit of tolerance on all sides. Sometimes you will hear your neighbours, sometimes they will hear you. That can’t be helped. But what if the noise from one neighbour is becoming a major problem? 

Whether it’s loud TV or music, shouting, door slamming or dogs constantly barking; what can you do?

In this article we look at five steps you can take to deal with noisy neighbours.

 

Talk to them

This sounds obvious but is the best starting place. It may be possible to resolve the whole issue amicably. Your neighbours may not even realise that their noise is carrying outside the home or how much it is disturbing other people.

If an initial chat doesn’t help, you may want to try again, perhaps with other neighbours to back you up. Be polite, not threatening, but make it clear that you are concerned about the problem and intend to get something done about it.

But if you don’t feel you are getting anywhere, there are other steps that you can take.

 

Keep a record of the noise

In parallel with talking to your neighbours, it is a good idea to start keeping a log of particular issues. So record in a notebook the dates and times when the noise is particularly bad, and what type of noise is causing the issue. It may even be worth recording examples on your phone.

Also include any action you had to take to cope with the noise, and any interaction with your neighbour. Keep copies of any messages they send you.

You may feel a bit uncomfortable doing all this, as if you are spying on your neighbours. But you may need evidence of the problem to be able to get it sorted.

 

Contact the Council

Your local or district council will have an environmental health department who can help you. So your next step is to get in touch with them. They can send a team round to your home to check out the noise. This is where your notes can help, because you can make sure they come at a time of day when the noise is particularly troublesome. 

If they agree that the noise is excessive, they will visit your neighbours to give them a warning. This will be followed up by a letter explaining that if a second visit is needed, another warning will be given. If both warnings are ignored, the Council has the right to serve a notice that can lead to prosecution and/or seizing of equipment.

 

Legal action

In most cases, the above steps should sort out the issue. But if this is not the case, you may want to take your neighbours to court. This could result in the police having the power to arrest your neighbour if the problems continue.

Legal action can be expensive, so if you are at this stage, you need to get advice. The Citizens Advice Bureau is a good place to start. You can also read more on the Gov UK website.

 

Soundproof your home

In parallel with any of the above steps, you may also want to consider taking measures to soundproof your home. Not just because of the noisy neighbours, but making your home quieter in general could have lots of benefits.

There are various measures that you can take to reduce noise coming into your home, ranging from simple everyday things to more complex and expensive structural alterations. 

Some of these measures are:

• Ensure that you have lots of soft materials in the room – such as carpets, rugs and upholstered furniture – as these can absorb sound.
• Use sound absorbing acoustic tiles or panels on walls and/or ceilings.
• Ensure windows are double-glazed, or that you use a soundproof window curtain or blanket.
• When replacing doors, install thick heavy doors rather than lighter ones, as these help to block sounds.
• If you are doing structural work on your home, consider incorporating structural sound-blocking measures such as thick brick walls or double walls.

Any of the above could help your home to be quieter, whatever the situation with your neighbours.

 

We hope that the above information helps you to realise that you don’t have to put up with noisy neighbours: there are steps that you can take to sort things out.

If you want to soundproof your home and need a financial boost to get started, remember that Simple Fast Loans offer unsecured loans that may be able to help.

Remember to check back here soon for more financial and lifestyle tips from Simple Fast Loans.