Problem Neighbours

LegacyUser

Hi

I'm looking for impartial advice on how to best deal with this

We've a neighbour who is a builder... He's been kept busy even through this recession.

The issue is
- noise and nuisance. He drills, hammers at most unsocial times.
- Skips and building materials almost constantly in his front garden. scaffolding left against our garden wall

Recent Examples are:
- Drilling on Saturday 18 December at 08:00am.
- Banging and drilling…doing house alterations on St Stephens Day... started at 11am and did not finish until 7pm
- This morning (5th January) while I head off to work as my wife and two kids sleep he starts again. My wife is upset about this. I'm in work. His wife is away with his kids down the country so there's no stopping him the last few days...

In recent times I've done my best to explain to them / talk to them but they're very aggressive and invariably they blame us.. "I'm just trying to make a living for my family" "I'm entitled to make noise from 8am in the morning up to 9pm at night" "Why are you hassling us" "You don't bother us and we'll not bother you."

I order to calm things and reach a compromise some time ago I asked them to text/let us know when they planned to make noise so at least we know there's going to be noise. They agreed but they now ignored it

I've not dealt with the past issues well and my wife is not impressed with me. "you need to be stronger with them" "deal with them" etc etc

Basically I am fearful/relectuant to make contact with them now, as I said, they are very aggressive when asking them to be quiet they usually get very annoyed with us and very aggressive.

Where can I go to remedy this now? Is there a civil process I can get advice on? Is he allowed to work in a suburban area? is he allowed to make noise from 8am in the morning?

Any advice would be appreciated.

JimmyCrackCorn

- Drilling on Saturday 18 December at 08:00am.
- Banging and drilling…doing house alterations on St Stephens Day... started at 11am and did not finish until 7pm


Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Iv been on the receiving end of this before and iv done work like this before.


Where can I go to remedy this now? Is there a civil process I can get advice on? Is he allowed to work in a suburban area? is he allowed to make noise from 8am in the morning?

Yes he is.

astra2000

JimmyCrackCorn wrote: »

-

Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Iv been on the receiving end of this before and iv done work like this before.


?.

No its not perfectly reasonable, its one thing experiencing this on a temporary basis, but this appears to be an ongoing problem.
Op you are obviously living in a resisential area I think there are laws/rules that govern work been carried out from residential dwellings contact your council and epa who control noise pollution, also there is info on the citizen information website. Gather all the info you can and write a letter to your neighbour saying that as a gesture of good will, you are going to give them one more chance to rectify the problem or you will be taking action.
Best of luck.

curlzy

Go visit your local T.D. and county counceller, they can defo advise on the civil route. It most definately isn't reasonable as Jimmy(crackcorn)thebuilder says :rolleyes:. On a side note, my mother (who's mega tough even though she's 5') once put a stop to this kind of shenanigans very quickly. The neighbour was having late night parties and also doing house renevations, banging and drilling etc. So my mother got our house's biggest sound system and pushed it up to the joining wall. Then she put on my compilation of Drum and Bass on repeat with the volume very loud and went out for the weekend. Never happened again after that

Neyite

It would be interesting to find out if he has planning permission for alterations to the house (he may not need any, though depending on what type of work he is doing)

You might find that if he has no planning in place but should have, and knows you know, that he might just bend over backwards to ensure you get your beauty sleep if you know what i mean.

Planning Authorities are very strict on external features - such as certain style/material of windows or type of roof tiles, so its worth checking out local restrictions and you can look online in most CoCo websites for planning granted/refused

VinnyTGM

He's allowed to make noise from 8am in the morning.

Monkey Allen

I think Vinny is correct, he's allowed to make noise at this hour. Obviously every weekend is taking it to the extreme but he's probably within his rights.

I'd advise having another chat with him. Getting tough like your wife suggests wont resolve anything and just builds more tension. Explain that you want to be able to have a friendly relationship with him as he is your neighbour and you hope he wants the same. So, a compromise needs to be reached. If he agrees to this and then disregards it, have the same talk with him again. If the problem persists, you have a case of a verbal agreement being broken. Could be used against him.

But try and resolve it in a friendly way so that you can have appreciate having a builder next door and he can have a whinger, I mean a fellow professional next door. Take the last comment as a joke

CorkMan

If you have a reliative or something you should send your family away for a bit, then get up 8AM every morning and start drilling constantly.

Plus I am pretty sure that he can't be banging and drilling next door all day, that is noise pollution. If there is only you or your wife at home play music very loud, and if the gardai come say you couldn't hear the music low because of the noise next door. Your neighbours might get annoyed with you, but you can turn that into a plus when you say what ya man is doing.

ilovefridays

VinnyTGM wrote: »

He's allowed to make noise from 8am in the morning.

OP, unfortunetly this is true. we have trouble with our neighbours too making noises at all hours of the day and night and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it only ask them to keep it down

we have rang the guards many times and the guards told us that the hours are 11pm-7am, out of them hours they can make as much noise as they want. It's so annoying.

CdeC

DO the Drum and Bass thing,
Anytime you leave the house, fulll volume on the sound system and bass on full, it is so annoying and it goes through the house.
I know it seems petty but you have tried to be nice now it is time for some of their own medicine.

Mark27

Problem Neighbour - Keep a record of everytime you have asked him to stop. Make a note of the time he was started and finished work but most important keep asking him to stop. Tell him if it continues you are going to take a liability case against him for nuisance and seek damages. i'l give you more details if you want..

Not certain of this but i thought it was illegal to carry out work of this sort beyone 17.30

weatherguy

What do the other neighbours say?
Are they affected by the noise too?
If so, get a petition signed by everyone and presented it to the noisy builder neighbout.
The petition should state clearly that everyone deplores the anti social behaviour of this neighbour and 'demand' they reduce the time spent on building in the house, otherwise they will take the matter to court under the Noise Pollution Act.
Maybe club together and ask a solicitor to take up your case.
That should sort him out.
He obviously doesn't understand words like 'reasonable' 'concern' and 'neighbourly'.

weatherguy

I had a problem with a couple renting the house two doors away. They fought every second night, screaming and shouting at each other. Yes, TWO houses away but I could hear everything. The house in between was always vacant at night as the guy worked shiftwork.
However, despite my pleadings to the couple to keep the noise down, they continued on rowing.
Next was a call to their landlord. He did nothing. Suggested I chat to them again.

End of the road, I called the guards. They showed up and spoke tothe couple. Three different times the guards had to call to the house. Cops said neighbours were entitled to peace and quiet.

Landlord eventually kicked them out. One of the cops contacted him directly and advised him of the situation.

But in the end my perserverance worked.

mikemac

CdeC wrote: »

DO the Drum and Bass thing,
Anytime you leave the house, fulll volume on the sound system and bass on full, it is so annoying and it goes through the house.
I know it seems petty but you have tried to be nice now it is time for some of their own medicine.

curlzy wrote: »

So my mother got our house's biggest sound system and pushed it up to the joining wall. Then she put on my compilation of Drum and Bass on repeat with the volume very loud and went out for the weekend. Never happened again after that

The thing about this though is the OP will be annoying the neighbours on the other side as well.
And what did your other neighbours do so they'll have bass and music thumping non stop.

I never liked that solution at all though I don't know the perfect solution here, OP you've been given a few options

irishh_bob

sounds like the noise is being made inside the permitted hour period but even he was working a power tool at 5 am in the morning or 11 pm at night , you might aswell be pissing in the wind as reporting him to the local authority or the guards for that matter , the cops will tell you its a civil matter and the local authority is a toothless tiger when it comes to issues like this

sorry

LegacyUser

All

Thanks a lot for the advice. It's good to get the feedback

From some advice given from an official point of view it looks if I will have no civil remedy... but he's so inconsiderate... He was at it again with electrical power tools at 7.55 this morning and as I left the house with my wife was annoyed and young kids asleep (but not for long)

Just to confirm... yes he's effectively banging and drilling next door all day and this can be seven days a week at different times.

I will start documenting the times and perhaps talk to my other neighbours to see if they wish to get involved again. One of the other neighbours has had issues with them previously but for different reasons and are very reluctant to confront them again. I can understand this.

All houses are semi detached. We're the unlucky ones to be attached to them.

I've enough music in the house to blast away but to be honest that is lowering us to their level

He has planning in place for the alterations that he commenced in 2006/2007 that he's yet to complete externally but the work he's doing the last year is internal. Then there the business work he does before he heads off every morning and when he returns... including the weekends

Has he the right to use his house as his place of business? Now that might be worth checking out.

As I said in my initial post, any attempt at communication on this issue is met with extreme hostility and veiled threats (You don't bother us and we'll not bother you.") so I'll make contact with a local county councillor with the documented times I'll take in the coming months and ask for further advice before taking it further. (if we don’t go insane with the drilling and banging )

Thanks all again. It's focused my thoughts on the matter.

Best

JimmyCrackCorn

Noisy Neighbour wrote: »

All

Has he the right to use his house as his place of business? Now that might be worth checking out.

Yes he does.


Could you not just approach him and at least ask him how much longer is left on the project. So at least you know how long is left.

If it bothers ye that much you could offer him a hand to speed things along and maybe it might help your relationship with him.

But then again i obviously think about things differently than most.

astra2000

JimmyCrackCorn wrote: »

Yes he does.


Could you not just approach him and at least ask him how much longer is left on the project. So at least you know how long is left.

If it bothers ye that much you could offer him a hand to speed things along and maybe it might help your relationship with him.

But then again i obviously think about things differently than most.

I didnt get the impression that it was a project, but that he is working from home presumably a garage/workshop. I would have no problems someone carrying out home improvements and the noise that would entail, but I get the opinion that this appears to be a long term problem with no end in sight.