Ever fallen out with a neighbour?

helpimcrap · 13 Aug 2007 at 11:34

fonzee said:
this will not solve the situation though. the neighbours will no doubt do it again if the situation is not resolved now.

he was the bigger man in the first place for going round and asking in a polite manner tbh.

agreed, he went and asked politely that on a sunday night when the rest of the working world need sleep to ask his scrounging neighbour to turn the music down at a decent hour. you don't need music so loud you can't talk to the person next to you.

go round with a big metal bar, ask him politely what he said and if he goes off on one drag him outside, restrain him, then go smash his stereo up.

then let us know.... we want pictures with a loaf of bread on top of the guys head though.

meghatronic · 13 Aug 2007 at 11:40

helpimcrap said:
agreed, he went and asked politely that on a sunday night when the rest of the working world need sleep to ask his scrounging neighbour to turn the music down at a decent hour. you don't need music so loud you can't talk to the person next to you.

go round with a big metal bar, ask him politely what he said and if he goes off on one drag him outside, restrain him, then go smash his stereo up.

then let us know.... we want pictures with a loaf of bread on top of the guys head though.

One of my mates was a big fan of implied threatening behaviour. He was convinved it always worked. He'd go round there in messy clothes, a builder's hat on his way to work with a pick axe over his shoulder... and just kindly ask if he could please turn the music down and he'd hate for a little accident to happen.

Scam · 13 Aug 2007 at 12:14

So.. err.. it was the weekend and he was playing loud music? And at midnight you asked them to turn it down, they did but had a little moan behind your back. Um, big deal? Get over it, to be honest.

233 · 13 Aug 2007 at 12:15

orbit him nuke

Welshy · 13 Aug 2007 at 12:51

melbourne720 said:
Let it go - be the bigger man.

If he lets it go, there's a chance he might think it's ok to do it again

helpimcrap · 13 Aug 2007 at 13:21

Scam said:
So.. err.. it was the weekend and he was playing loud music? And at midnight you asked them to turn it down, they did but had a little moan behind your back. Um, big deal? Get over it, to be honest.

lordrobs said:
Well I'm quite a tollerant guy but last night I had to say something to the neighbours. On the whole they are cool but ocassionally play loud music, sometimes on a weekend very loud music. Fair enough.

not quite the once really... and its only because he heard him insult him and threaten damage to his car hes a bit annoyed.

SpeedFreak · 13 Aug 2007 at 13:31

Reason with the person. Explain what happened and make it clear that you were aware that it was just the drink talking. Tell him that you feel this is a poor excuse but none the less, want to let it go this time as you'd rather not fall out about it. Ask him to try not to let it happen again and then invite them round for dinner a couple of days later to ensure the air is truely cleared.

sam83uk · 13 Aug 2007 at 13:32

Be the big man go round and batter him then do stuff to his car. then threaten action against his wife and kids if he goes to the police

lordrobs · 13 Aug 2007 at 13:44

Well I went home for lunch and spotted that he was heading out so I went to "get something from the car". He came straight over and appologised about the noise, saying that he hadn't realised how late it was and he realised that he was out of order.

I said that I thought he'd taken offence that I'd asked him to turn it down and his words were "not at all, I'd rather you say if we're too noisy"

Which means that either I put 2 and 2 together last night and came up with 3.146 or it was the beer talking and he has no recollection of it :confused:

Chatting to my other neighbour (not about this specifically) and he said that he can be a real idiot when drunk and that the best thing to do is to leave him to it and ignore him. Thats part of the reason that him and his other half turn down any invitations to BBQ's etc.

Guess I'll forget it this time then

Burnsy2023 · 13 Aug 2007 at 13:46

sam83uk said:
Be the big man go round and batter him then do stuff to his car. then threaten action against his wife and kids if he goes to the police

*Sigh*, remind me why you bother to post again?

Nice to hear that you're staying level headed and civil, it's the only way things like this get out of hand. Good luck, neighbours from hell can make your whole life a misery.

Burnsy

Burnsy2023 · 13 Aug 2007 at 13:48

lordrobs said:
Well I went home for lunch and spotted that he was heading out so I went to "get something from the car". He came straight over and appologised about the noise, saying that he hadn't realised how late it was and he realised that he was out of order.

He isn't a complete arse then, just someone who shouldn't drink

Burnsy

Surfer · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:09

i was fixing a floorboard at 10.30pm one night a 5 minute job.

Downstairs neighbour was raging. ran upstairs and hammered on my door. Screaming about him needing his sleep as he has to get up early.

fair enough but i dont like the way he threatened me (screaming and shouting at me while i was almost shallow-grave like calm)...

/added him to ***list.

lordrobs · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:17

burnsy2023 said:
He isn't a complete arse then, just someone who shouldn't drink

Burnsy

Nail on the head there I think Burnsy.

Explicit · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:19

the shadow said:
call the council noise police next time.

Agreed.

It's nice to hear that you have resolved it this time. Next time, just call your local council. They have a department that deals with noise pollution and nuisance. They are normally open 24 hours a day.

Environmental Protection Act 1990 said:
s.79(1) the following matters constitute "statutory nuisances"

(g) noise emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance;

and it shall be the duty of every local authority to cause its area to be inspected from time to time to detect any statutory nuisances which ought to be dealt with under section 80 below and, where a complaint of a statutory nuisance is made to a local authority by a person living within its area, to take such steps as are reasonably practicable to investigate the complaint.

They will handle everything for you. They will normally pay the person a visit and ask them to turn it down. They will then investigate further and if necessary, they will serve an Abatement Notice.

The best thing is that your details will be kept strictly confidential!

IMO, this is far better than being confrontational and trying to deal with it yourself because anger will often get the better side of you. Leave it to the council, they will handle it professionally.

georges · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:27

Is it possible to report threats to an authority?

You might be able to say he said he was going to key your car.

Then if he does, they'll know it was him.

lordrobs · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:29

Explicit said:
The best thing is that your details will be kept strictly confidential!

But seeing as its the house we are semi'd with it wouldn't take a genius to work it out

Thanks for the info though, hopefully it won't come to that. As I say its once in a blue moon and this is the first time I've felt the need to speak to them, they normally drop the noise well before that time.

melbourne720 · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:32

lordrobs said:
Guess I'll forget it this time then

Good call, tbh.

If you were right about what he said, then he ends up looking a prat and won't make comments like that again (and we've all said things while drunk that we regret).

If you misheard his comments, you saved yourself the embarrassment of putting yourself in a difficult position.

Either way, you won

n3crius · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:40

Scam said:
So.. err.. it was the weekend and he was playing loud music? And at midnight you asked them to turn it down, they did but had a little moan behind your back. Um, big deal? Get over it, to be honest.

So you'd sit through this sort of thing quite happily. Both the music when you needed kip, and the abuse. Seems rather odd to me, but that's your choice.

lordrobs - glad it's sorted for now. Nobody has the right to keep you from sleeping - you pay your bills like the guy next door does. You handled it sensibly anyway

Explicit · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:41

georges said:
Is it possible to report threats to an authority?

You might be able to say he said he was going to key your car.

Then if he does, they'll know it was him.

You could notify the police. If he then proceeds to damage your car (e.g. he dents the door, scratches the paint etc) and you have sufficient evidence, he may be tried for criminal damage. If all the elements of the offence are made out and he has no defence, he will be convicted. The maximum punishment is ten years imprisonment.

lordrobs said:
But seeing as its the house we are semi'd with it wouldn't take a genius to work it out

But you mentioned that the noise could be heard at the end of your road (and you could make out all of the lyrics), so it could be anyone on your street.

Scam · 13 Aug 2007 at 15:12

n3crius said:
So you'd sit through this sort of thing quite happily. Both the music when you needed kip, and the abuse. Seems rather odd to me, but that's your choice.

Who said anything anything about sitting through it? As i see it the OP went round when the noise annoyed him sufficiently, and although the guy moaned behind his back, he turned it down. So the OP is just pissy because the guy said something behind his back? :rolleyes:

In my experience police/council etc. wont come out unless it's a regular occurance. Ringing them about a one-off is a complete waste of time.

I've been on both sides of the argument really. Someone once called environmental health when i was having a band practice in my garage one summer. They came because we'd been doing it regularly and had no idea that the garage offered no noise protection whatsoever (i.e. it was as loud outside as it was inside).

On the flipside, at uni we lived next door to a complete ****head who quite often made a hell of a lot of noise. Anything from drilling our walls in the early hours or evening.. or playing music ridiculously loud late at night. There was no point complaining to him (he's the kind of guy that would step up to your face and try to shout you down), and there was no point complaining to anyone else as they just wouldnt come round. Anyway, we had great pleasure when we had a massive party and bothered him probably until ~5am. Not on purpose, but we were having a party, you see. And it was only the once.

At the end of the day if you live in a semi or whatever you're gonna have to put up with the neighbours. That's one thing i learnt.