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[chavivi]

I have a real problem with my neighbours always knocking on my door all the time complaining about any noise we make. I am a musician by profession and spend most my time working on that from home. I play acoustic guitar and sing, I also have my own studio where I create electronic music but I have not used that at all since my new neighbours have moved in, not even in the day time. I also suffer from mental illness, paranoia, anxiety and depression.
We live in a maisonette and when we first moved into this property we had a different neighbour living bellow us for the first month, who never complained about anything. She actually said we were the quietest neighbours she had in the ten years she had lived here.
Our new neighbours moved in and had builders working for 2 weeks from 9am right through till midnight. Within a week of them properly moving in to the property they were knocking on our door and complaining about our music, footsteps, doors closing, me and my partner talking. If my kids visit over the weekend they complain about the noise they make when they are playing. If we have guests round on the odd night they complain about anything like talking or laughing, and worst of all when we had the flu they complained about us coughing!
I understand that they have a young child but there is only so much we can do without completely stopping our lives to suit them. We have band anyone from wearing shoes in our house, we keep the TV volume down as low as possible and we never play music from our stereos. Also when we have guests round we are always telling them to keep their voices down or even whisper so it doesn't disturb the neighbours.
I work for about 3-4 hours, 2-3 days a week, on my music (acoustic guitar and some singing), not continuously, just 20-30 mins here and there, and always during the day in working hours, normally between 11am-5pm, and not everyday. I even try to keep that down as low as possible.

It was causing them such a problem that they spent £5000 and had their ceiling soundproofed and we had carpet and rugs put down to try and dampen the sound. Even that has not stopped them from complaining all the time. They have called the police round many times and are looking to take us to court for noise pollution, mainly due to my work during the day!

The man of the house works all day and his partner stays at home looking after their young son who is about 2 and a half years old, and they make plenty of noise all the time whilst I'm stuck creeping around my house unable to do the things I need to do through the day. They even wake us up almost every morning at 6am with their kid banging on the walls with his toys!!

I decided to rent out a sound level recorder and record the sound levels of everything we do, from my hall way, through 3 days and didn't exceed any levels of sound that would be damaging to anyone's health. Even my partner has said that she can hardly hear me playing my guitar or singing when she is sitting in the room next to me.
I have lived in many other places and have never had any complaints from neighbours before. If anything they tell me how quiet I am as a neighbour to live next too!
I have asked all my other neighbours if they have any complaints about noise and they were all happy and didn't have anything to complain about!

This problem is really damaging to my mental health and is also causing arguments between me and my partner, and now we are stuck!
We don't know our rights, the laws of playing music as a musician in our property during daytime working hours, or what we can do about these complaining neighbours??

This is really causing us misery and we don't know what to do?? We have tried to compromise with them but they just seem to like knocking on our door and complaining all the time!

Can anyone give me advise on what I can do about this problem without having to move out??

I'm half tempted to punch him in the face next time he knocks on our door, or teach him a lesson by getting my 500watt PA out that I use for live gigs and showing them what real noise is!!

[lundie]

I have a real problem with my neighbours always knocking on my door all the time complaining about any noise we make. I am a musician by profession and spend most my time working on that from home. I play acoustic guitar and sing, I also have my own studio where I create electronic music but I have not used that at all since my new neighbours have moved in, not even in the day time. I also suffer from mental illness, paranoia, anxiety and depression.
We live in a maisonette and when we first moved into this property we had a different neighbour living bellow us for the first month, who never complained about anything. She actually said we were the quietest neighbours she had in the ten years she had lived here.
Our new neighbours moved in and had builders working for 2 weeks from 9am right through till midnight. Within a week of them properly moving in to the property they were knocking on our door and complaining about our music, footsteps, doors closing, me and my partner talking. If my kids visit over the weekend they complain about the noise they make when they are playing. If we have guests round on the odd night they complain about anything like talking or laughing, and worst of all when we had the flu they complained about us coughing!
I understand that they have a young child but there is only so much we can do without completely stopping our lives to suit them. We have band anyone from wearing shoes in our house, we keep the TV volume down as low as possible and we never play music from our stereos. Also when we have guests round we are always telling them to keep their voices down or even whisper so it doesn't disturb the neighbours.
I work for about 3-4 hours, 2-3 days a week, on my music (acoustic guitar and some singing), not continuously, just 20-30 mins here and there, and always during the day in working hours, normally between 11am-5pm, and not everyday. I even try to keep that down as low as possible.

It was causing them such a problem that they spent £5000 and had their ceiling soundproofed and we had carpet and rugs put down to try and dampen the sound. Even that has not stopped them from complaining all the time. They have called the police round many times and are looking to take us to court for noise pollution, mainly due to my work during the day!

The man of the house works all day and his partner stays at home looking after their young son who is about 2 and a half years old, and they make plenty of noise all the time whilst I'm stuck creeping around my house unable to do the things I need to do through the day. They even wake us up almost every morning at 6am with their kid banging on the walls with his toys!!

I decided to rent out a sound level recorder and record the sound levels of everything we do, from my hall way, through 3 days and didn't exceed any levels of sound that would be damaging to anyone's health. Even my partner has said that she can hardly hear me playing my guitar or singing when she is sitting in the room next to me.
I have lived in many other places and have never had any complaints from neighbours before. If anything they tell me how quiet I am as a neighbour to live next too!
I have asked all my other neighbours if they have any complaints about noise and they were all happy and didn't have anything to complain about!

This problem is really damaging to my mental health and is also causing arguments between me and my partner, and now we are stuck!
We don't know our rights, the laws of playing music as a musician in our property during daytime working hours, or what we can do about these complaining neighbours??

This is really causing us misery and we don't know what to do?? We have tried to compromise with them but they just seem to like knocking on our door and complaining all the time!

Can anyone give me advise on what I can do about this problem without having to move out??

I'm half tempted to punch him in the face next time he knocks on our door, or teach him a lesson by getting my 500watt PA out that I use for live gigs and showing them what real noise is!!

I think you're the problem, not your neighbors. Do your music somewhere else.

[gerard]

How about asking to go into their house and hear the noise level for yourself? That way you will truly know who is in the wrong here.

Either you make more noise that you think or they are making a mountain out of a molehill.

[caspar99]

I would talk to a lawyer about getting a restraining order against them knocking at your door. Do not answer them. Ignore them. It is your house too. Tell your landlord they are driving you crazy. When your lease is up move.

[patwin87]

ask them if they're aware that it's a shared property and this goes with the territory...?
if they're unaware, let them know this, or they can buy their own home instead.

[leonie36]

its day time, do what you want and tell them if they keep harrassing you you will tell the police

[mohammed47]

I understand where you're coming from--I really do. The thing is that despite your profession you have chosen to live in a shared wall community. That means two things: 1. that you understand it will not always be quiet despite the efforts of your neighbors and, 2. you understand that you have to make sacrifices on the level of noise you can make to be considerate to your neighbors.. It's more restrictive when you live on top rather than the bottom.

Life happens and most people will accept the occasional party if you're polite enough to inform them in advance. They also understand you may occasionally drop things or slam a door. But as a musician who practices his music on a daily basis, I can see how that would interfere with someone else's expectations for the quiet enjoyment of their home. No one should have to undertake the expense to soundproof their home because of your activities. Ordinary daily living is one thing. A rehearsal studio is another.

You mention your mental health as an issue that should matter somehow. It doesn't. All things are judged on the basis of ordinary and expected. Ordinary noise, expected mental wellness. If you're having too many problems with this as a result, I suggest consulting your doctor and moving to a place where your walls, floors, or ceilings are not the joint property of another person. It's not all about you.

[mace]

I'm in that position myself and the only thing that works is holding your ground.

Some people just like annoying others. Others are too sensitive and expect the world to cater for them. They seem to be the former, so I would *not* creep around. In my case, reminding them that they live in shared accommodation and, regardless of how little noise someone makes, you're going to hear some of it worked for a short while. We live above a single mother whose child wakes us up every morning running up and down the hall. He's 2, though it sounds like a herd of elephants.
One thing that does shut her up is pointing out how much noise she makes. My boyfriend dropped a cup and she complained about it, so the next morning when her son was running around, my boyfriend stamped on the floor. We didn't hear anymore running for a while and we didn't get anymore complaints for a couple of months. Creeping around obviously isn't doing any good, so maybe it's time you pointed out they're not very quiet, maybe by asking them to keep the noise down before they tell you.

Seriously, stop creeping around. They're being ****holes, when it's getting to the point you're telling people to whisper in your own home, it's going too far. Like I said, some people get off on making other peoples lives difficult, you're giving in to them too easily. I understand that it's irritating to have noisy neighbors. Music is irritating but you're not excessive, I've lived in apartments with walls so flimsy I could hear the guy next door peeing. Complaining about stupid little things like coughing is taking it too far and they need to be reminded that you're alive, you're going to make noise and if they're that sensitive to noise then the problem is theirs, not yours.

Also, are you sure they really went to such lengths to soundproof? They might be exaggerating and trying to guilt trip you. And has your girlfriend volunteered to stay in their apartment for a minute while you've played your music to see if it's really that noisy (or vice versa)?

[colten]

They are quite clearly being utterly ridiculous. Next time they knock on the door tell them you're reporting them for harassment, and follow it through, be it landlord, council, police or all of them. You are so well within the legal limits for noise it barely counts as sound! As tempting as it is to blast them with the old Marshalls (and to be honest, I would've done that by now so you're a better person than me......lol) you can bet your life that the day you do that is the day someone comes round to 'investigate' the problem and then have them stand there going 'see?! THIS is what we have to put up with!', with that smug look on their faces that hysterical tw@ts like that do when they get a crumb of justification. And as for complaining about your kids, are they taking the piss?!
I think either they're lying about the soundproofing or lying about the noise, probably both.