Who is the letter off?? Council / solicitor??
Hi need some advice
We have have a letter saying our neighbour had made a noise complaint saying that we are revving our car engines and that there is noise from
mechanical work. It all started cos they where blocking the shared drive so we could not get to our garage and we asked them not to block it, I do not
rev my engine and do keep noise to the mininum and think they are just trying to get back at us, Where would this go from here and what it the actual
noise limit?
Locostbuilders meeting round your place at 7am tomorrow then??
Who is the letter off?? Council / solicitor??
quote:
Originally posted by rich201283
Hi need some advice
We have have a letter saying our neighbour had made a noise complaint saying that we are revving our car engines and that there is noise from mechanical work. It all started cos they where blocking the shared drive so we could not get to our garage and we asked them not to block it, I do not rev my engine and do keep noise to the mininum and think they are just trying to get back at us, Where would this go from here and what it the actual noise limit?
Ask them around for a cuppa or a beer to discus, dont leave it so it gets out of hand, keep the communications open and try and keep it friendly.
These things tend to get ugly very quickly which can affect your lives in general.
That is what I would do, in fact I would probably go out of my way to sort it out quickly, apology ect even if I thought I was in the right whilst
trying to find out what it is that annoys them, obviously something is, do you let it warm it up before driving for example, so if you dont rev it, is
it just very load, I know I'm consous to just start my car and pull away slowly and quietly and warm it up gently around the estate before I
drive it normally if its early on a sunday for example.
Just a few ides comments
Cheers
Rich
[Edited on 16/10/10 by RichardK]
The letter is off the council, We have gone past the talking to each other, They are just been alkward, I have wrote to the council explaining why we fell out with them and advised that im happy to discuss it with them. The worst thing about it is they dont even own the house.
If I may speak from expereience of just such a complaint against me (and my neighbour who had borrowed my grinder one weekend to cut some tiles)
The first thing I did was call the council and actually speak to the person who sent the letter. Try to get more information, and explain that you
haven't been revving the engine and so on. The coucil will usually leave you alone, especially if you sound surprised and concerned 
If you get
angry it will not help in the slightest. From my understanding, unless you are running a business, or being a persistent pest, there is little they
can do. The council probably will not say which neighbour made the complaint (data protection) so best not to get too excited with next door.
BTW the "proof" is the fact they have received a complaint. And it means the complainant has to declare they have had a problem with you (!)
should they try to sell their house. And that can cause them REAL problems, trying to sell a house with "noisy" neighbours
My wife works for our local environmetal heath department.
It will be a standard letter you have recieved from your local Environmental Health department, that they must send out after a complaint is
recieved, if it continues, your neighbour could recieved noise monitoring equipment, and record sheets, which they fill in to build a case against
you, for loudness, time of day, how often it occurs and how long it lasts, so if its only now and again, and not late at night or early morning you
should be ok.
quote:
Originally posted by RichardK
Ask them around for a cuppa or a beer to discus, dont leave it so it gets out of hand, keep the communications open and try and keep it friendly.
i think you should run a monthly locostbuilder BBQ we'll all turn up in our cars, i might even leave my zorst off for the drive.
I'm on my way to Cleveland now with my backbox removed
Just like Will from the Inbetweeners, keep it very amicable. Take the moral high ground and be as helpful as possible. If your truly not making a noise nuisance you have nothing to worry about.
As said it is a standard letter from the council because of the complaint. Your neighbour will have been asked to record all the times from now on you
piss them off. The thing is I think you can make noise upto about 9.00 / 9.30 then it becomes a problem.
DIfficult one really as you could build plenty of chassis by the time it really becomes a complaint. I would ignore them if you cannot befreind them
and make sure your noise is reasonable, just treat your neighbours as though they have young kids and need to go to bed by early evening. Do the
tinkering in the evening and the metal work late afternoon.
Bye
Unfortunately, noise is a public nuisance issue and there are no hard and fast rules about levels or times. A member of the public just has to complain and the Council is dutybound to investigate. As a result of the investigation, noise levels and times may be set. You don't want it to go this far as some of the noise limits I've come across are below background levels for a typical library, never mind a street!
If you want, i can fire up my 4 amps 2 subs and 8 sets of speakers and play music for the BBQ.
If you have a battery charger though.
If the drive is for access only and not a parking space they have no right to use it as such even if they owned the house. If they park on it you should ask them politely to move. Tell the council the noise is from your lawnmower.
If you don't rev your car, etc. then you've got nothing to worry about. If the neighbours get noise measuring equipment etc. the
worst they can do is continue to claim a problem and get the council noise police to come and monitor it as well. If they see it is all
"reasonable" then you should be fine.
Oh, it might be useful to keep a log yourself of when you start up the car, do "noisy" things etc. and for how long, in case you do need to
defend yourself
[Edited on 17.10.2010 by Humbug]
I'd be talking to the owner/landlord.
About the access on the shared drive, and letting them know they are making a complaint that could cause the landlord a loss in value of the house if
they want to sell.
I'm with the keep it friendly brigade. Is there someone in their household that you do get on with, the males of our specie are often less
stressed.
Just thoughts,
Matt
I had the same thing, and a visit from the council, due to my nosey old biddy neighbour next door.
I was very pleasant to the council chap, and called to clarify the details later on.
Nothing ever came of it, and I would think it would be the same with you.