how to record noisy neighbour?

arnoldma

arnoldma

arnoldma

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23 Nov 2004
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my parents have had problem with this noisy neighbour for months now since he moved in! he keeps playing loud music from 3 (he is a doormen, thats when he finishes) till way past 8 in the morning - when they go to work. also, he is always swearing and arguing with his girlfriend and shouting on the street. When i go home i can hardly sleep at all!

when trying to talk to him or knock on the door he will ignore you, or even if he answers he just gives u the worse depressed face and turns music back up later.

they have tried to call the police, but there really nothing they can do about it, as soon as the police are gone they get worse, shouting "call the police you ****ers"...

the police advised them to record it when he is been deliberately noisy like shouting and swearing to intimidate, unfortunately i dont know anything about recording at all.

can anyone advise the best and cheapest way to record them?

Thanks!
 
You can try a computer microphone. Just crank up the level and boost to maximum and test if you can pick anything up. I just tried it with my headset's mic and it can clearly pick up the floorboards creaking from upstairs.

Windows 7 has a feature where you can listen to the microphone live. Turn this ON and put some headphones on then adjust the levels.

You can use Audacity to record to mp3 or whatever.
 



LOL noisy neighbors.
They are so annoying last time I was so annoyed with our noisy downstairs neighbors as there music is so loud and it is 1:00am in the morning so
I drop a 20kg box full of junk on the floor and I heard a glass like sound breaking downstairs, I think there flourescent lamp falled down there
ceiling after that I can no longer hear music from there place at night.Not that you should do this click the link above on how to report them to your local council.

Recording them through the pc might be cheap as you only need a mic and your pc but it may not be convenient or you can buy a cheap usb voice recorder from
the auction site it cost about £7 from a seller in hongkong but its about £16 from a uk seller if buying from the auction site is not an option you can buy some
handheld voice recorder from the high street stores.
 
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Got roughly the same problem but many times worse lol. Contact your council and keep a written diary of times he is noisy and any shouting, threats etc. That should see you through.
 
Nah they wont have asked for direct recordings, unless its different under your Local environmental health department. First steps are a diary of noise. After that if they don't get a resolution they use a tamper proof sealed unit as anything you record could just be made up twaddle (Not saying you would do this) and wouldn't be able to take further action on it if they needed to.
As for the police dealing with it I dont really know, but they don't usually deal with noisy neighbors (threatening or harassing ones maybe but shouting what you quoted I dont think is construed as either, although reading again it seems like disturbing the peace or some public order offence I'm sure they could pull out if needed, suppose it depends on the person it effects to be honest.) but they usually throw you off to the local environmental health.
Either way hope you get sorted.
 
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thanks guys, they are already doing all the environmental stuff with the council, its taking AGES! yeah, it is a log, for the council.

the police said if we had what he said the other day - straight after the police left, they could have arrested him! Basically he apologised to the police when they showed up, and say it'll never happen again, etc... but as soon as police leave, he was shouting "call the police u ****ers"... apparently that's not just noise anymore, more like ASB i guess? and police CAN do something about that.

think im just going to get a PC mic, and get it ready for them the next he trys something dumb like that.
 
Sounds terrible :(

Some people are just completely unreasonable. I used to live above a woman who didn't work, who would play music until 3 or 4am every night, and then moan when I was playing a game or watching something with the volume turned up a bit on my days off.

PC mic sounds like the cheapest option if you can get it to work, otherwise you could just buy a hand-held recorder. If the police want recordings, try asking them to provide you with something to do it?
 
there's no point recording the noise, that won't show how loud it is. and it is the noise level that may exceed allowable levels. it's not illegal to play music during the night, the neighbour is allowed to do that, just so long as he does not exceed a certain noise level.

basically you (or preferably the councils environmental protection department) need to measure the loudness of the noise with proper calibrated equipment.

and as has been said, a diary recording the occurrences of the disturbance will help.

but first off speak to the council's environment dept, and maybe try citizens advise, it's likely they've come across this sort of thing plenty and may be able to assist.
 
The local Councils and their affiliates allways recommend you should try to sort out a problem with your neighbour first before getting others involved. You could try the Anti Social behaviour Team in the town/city where you live. You can drop them an email with complaints. The ASBT work in partnership with your local police, this applies to council or private tenants.

If you are in a dispute with a neighbour, you can get help from neighbour mediation services. In mediation, an impartial person can help you discuss your problem with your neighbour. Find out how neighbour mediation works and how to get in touch with a local mediation service.

I was told by an anti-social behaviour team member that they can arrange and set up a noise recording system if problems persist.
 
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