Neighbour nuisance

Firstly, you should try talking or writing to your neighbours to explain how their behaviour is affecting you. They may not be aware how their activities are affecting you and will often stop when told. Fortunately most complaints are resolved in this way. For further information on resolving neighbour disputes, please visit the GOV.UK website.

If telling them doesn't help, you can contact us and we will look into the matter. We may visit and speak to all parties concerned to try and resolve issues and where necessary direct them to other partners or agencies that may be better placed to help.

You will need to fill in a neighbour nuisance report form. We will investigate further to see if it is a statutory nuisance. You may need to record when the noise happens on diary sheets.

Please be aware, the Council will not investigate anonymous noise complaints.  To determine if a statutory noise nuisance is present, the Council must establish if the noise is unreasonable and having a detrimental effect on someone in their home. This may require the complainant to keep noise diaries, the installation of a noise recording device and/or having an officer witness the noise from inside the property. If the evidence demonstrates that a statutory noise nuisance is present, an enforcement notice will be served on the perpetrator.  If this notice is breached, and the case is escalated to formal action, all records/ recordings will be used as evidence in Court. Please be aware, should a case reach Court, the Council would need to disclose complainants details as part of the evidence and the alleged perpetrator would be entitled to know this information so they can duly defend themselves.

Therefore, if the Council is not provided with the complainants details, the investigation cannot be pursued.

If a statutory nuisance is found to exist, the Environmental Protection Act 1990 gives us powers to address the issue. Sometimes this may mean that we may have to go to court or carry out certain works to ensure that the nuisance is removed.