Noisy neighbor next door

Ethereal Cereal

Hi

Apologies for the long post, I own my house in a smallish town 13 years now. I have never had a problem with my neighbor next door (in local authority housing). In fact I have several times helped her when she needed assistance. Instances included her dog dying, tv not working, night inhaler thing not working, driving her to her councilor on a Sat morning, helping her when she locked herself out, contacting her sisters for her, etc etc. Its been a good few times, but its never been a problem, she is elderly, lived on her own and occasionally needed some assistance.

Recently, her daughter moved back in. And also, her daughters boyfriend calls over, and when he does, he plays music very loud. Its an adjoining house. For the most part, I ignore it, since it generally stops at 11pm. Recently, they have started playing it at 12.30 am. I have to get up at 6 in the morning, I'm wrecked the next day its definitely loud enough that it wakes me up and keeps me awake.

I want to take the following course of action, I just wanted to see if anyone can see any part where I am overstepping, or in a legal gray area, or provide an alternative take. I just hav eto do something, my days are wrecked when Im tired.

- Call in this evening with a printed out letter saying I will take the following course of action should this disturbance continue. I wont be including any of the italic details.

1. Inform them that I will not be personally dealing with them from here on in.
I'm not good with confrontation, and the boyfriend doesnt look like someone I want to be dealing with at 1am in the morning, this is just a fact.


2. Should an instance occur I will be calling my local guard station and report this and previous instances. Request the guards call to the house. Will they do this?
https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/environmental_protection/noise_regulations.html

"Domestic noise
The Gardaí have the power to arrest a person for breach of the peace in a public place. They may ask someone to lower the noise coming from a dwelling but they do not have the power to enter a dwelling with the intention of simply asking someone to lower the noise."

3. Should the instances continue I will be serving my neighbor with a copy of the Notice of Intention to make the Complaint to the District Court. This will results in a Court Date
http://www.flac.ie/download/pdf/neighbour_disputes.pdf

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/environmental_protection/noise_regulations.html
"Under the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, tenants of local authority housing are obliged to avoid any nuisance (including noise) to the occupiers of any other dwelling. If the noise persists, the tenants are in breach of their tenancy agreement and the local authority can take steps to enforce the terms of the agreement."



Maybe someone else has experience in this area and can advise?

thanks!

whippet

i'd have a chat first before going nuclear with a letter.

By all means go down the letter route if you get no where with have a chat.

Does the lady know there is a problem ? If you talk to her she might be able to control it.

One thing for sure - once you hand that letter over you will be in a confrontational situation from which there is no return - so my advise is to explore other more friendly options before opening up that can of worms

tiredblondie

I presume you have tried the first step of knocking in and asking them to keep the music down and explain that it is waking you up and you need to be up early for work? They may not realize just how loud it actually is! I done that with my neighbour and it was never a problem after just speaking to him!

TheValeyard

They probably dont realise the noise they are making. Or t how thin the walls are. A friendly chat might be the best approach first.

Xterminator

Hi Op

you don't mention any attempt to resolve this amicably, yet you point out you have fairly decent relations with the neighbour?

if you took the action above without 1st attempting to resolve issue in person i would find it very passive aggressive. Of course you are entitled to peaceful enjoyment of your house. that's not in question.

But surely you should offer your neighbour a chance to resolve issue without involving authorities. A cup of tea and a quiet work would start at least as good a chance of resolution as the 'nuclear option'. They may not even be fully aware of the nuisance they are causing.

Ethereal Cereal

ok, thanks for the replies, clearly I went straight to %100 without trying to resolve this issue amicably. I will do that first.

Why I'm slightly hesitant about this route, is that she is quite elderly, not very well, and has her own personal issues. I'm sure she is not particularly interested in listening to blaring music at 12 in the morning, which makes me wonder how much control she has on the situation.

I'll call in when just her and her daughter are home, I can tell by the boyfriends car not being present. Hopefully resolve this situ then. I would be really hesitant calling in if he was there though...

Wabbit Ears

Don't really matter is she is elderly. The correct course of action is to talk to her directly about this problem and nip it in the bud.

Chances are she will be mortified and didnt realise there was a problem until you said something and will lay down the law to the girl and her BF

Perhaps not but usually people are reasonable.

The_Fitz

Had a noisy neighbour for around 6 months.

He was a bit odd, never said hello back when I greeted him, kept himself to himself (which is grand). Anyway loud music started coming through the bedroom wall around 11pm - 3am. I knocked into him maybe 20 times. No answer. I used to lay there cursing him. One night it was the worst, I banged on his door but still no answer so I wrote a note.

Fast forward 2 weeks and he found the note. He came round and was extremely apologetic. He was very sincere. Explained he had moved his PC so it touched off the joining wall and that he completely rearranged his bedroom to fix it. Gave us his mobile number and said ring him if we hear anything again.

We didn't hear a sound after that and we became a bit friendlier.