Next door neighbours from HELL

Approach your local Sinn Fein candidate and ask him kindly to call into your neighbour to resolve the sitaution.
 
I have no advice to give you but I feel sorry for you and your family.

Is your house second hand or new? If previously owned, why did the previous owners' move out? Is there an obligation on the seller to inform you that they moved out because of the noisy neighbours?

How do you know for 100% certainty that they are not renting?

As a matter of record, why don't you video tape some evidence from various rooms in your house? It might come in handy at a later stage. If your baby is distressed, then you owe it to him/her to pursue all avenues.

Good luck with it.
 
Thank you all for your comments.

Some answers to your questions...I 100% know they are the owners as a friend of mine has lived in the estate for 18 years and knows them. Also Gardai were able to see from their computer system that they own the house.

secondly, we don't want to go to court because if we have to sell up, we have to disclose legal proceedings and the nature of them to new buyers. This will mean we will have problems selling and also decrease the value of our home.

Also, the previous owners had the place rented out. The tenants who were here for the previous 4 1/2 years had a drumkit ( we saw it when we viewed the house), so obviously there was no nuisance to them!
 
+1 to Nicky K's advice

Ask you local Sinn Fein councillor or GE candidate to have a word with them.
 
The noise must be also annoying other neighbours........People are entitled to peace and quiet in a residential area. I found this on citizens information.
'The maximum fine for conviction on breach of noise regulations is €3,000 or 12 months in prison or both.'
 
This is a terribly sad story. And terribly sad that the only advice that can be offered is not to stand up to the bullies.

There must be a way of standing up to bullies surely. I would not accept anything I heard from officialdoom unless it's in writing. Such as the remark that if the behaviour only affects one person that they cannot do anything.

In relation to you selling, what rule about disclosing the noise are you referring to ? It's caveat emptor so you don't have to tell any potential purchasers why you are selling.
 
I found this on citizens information.

Some interesting sections:
What is anti-social behaviour?



Anti-social behaviour occurs where a person causes or, in the circumstances is likely to cause, to one or more persons who are not of the same household as the person:
  • Harassment or
  • Significant or persistent alarm, distress, fear or intimidation or
  • Significant or persistent impairment of their use or enjoyment of their property.
So, for example, if a neighbour is continuously playing loud music which was causing you annoyance and interfered with your peace and quiet this may amount to anti-social behaviour. Similarly, if large numbers of people are continuously gathering outside or near your property, or indeed your local supermarket, and their behaviour is causing you alarm, distress, fear or intimidation then this behaviour may amount to anti-social behaviour.
Click to expand...

Who issues a behaviour warning?

A Garda may issue a behaviour warning to you if you are behaving in an anti-social manner. The Garda does not necessarily need to observe or witness the behaviour and can act on a complaint from any member of the public. A behaviour warning cannot be issued more than one month after the behaviour took place, or in the case of persistent behaviour, more than one month after the most recent occurrence of the behaviour.
The Garda can issue a behaviour warning verbally or in writing. If it is given verbally the Garda must record it in writing as soon as reasonably possible and then serve it on you personally or by post.
The Garda may require you to give your name and address for the purpose of the behaviour warning or for the written record of the warning.
Click to expand...

When can the gardaí apply for a civil order?



Before the Superintendent can make an application for a civil order at least one of the following conditions must be met:
  • You have already been issued with a behaviour warning and have not complied with one or more of the demands of that warning
  • You have been issued with 3 or more behaviour warnings in less than 6 consecutive months.
Click to expand...

So it looks like you could go down the anti social behaviour route and that way if they up the ante (like for example throwing the rubbish over into your garden), then you go back to the guards looking for another behaviour warning - 3 of those in 6 months and there is a possibility of an ASBO.

The above seems to imply that you yourself are not opening legal proceedings - the guards are the ones who are issuing the behaviour warnings etc on the basis of your complaints.

Do you think these people will continue to up the ante if they are getting repeated visits from the guards for anti social behaviour?
 
OP - my heart goes out to you. Although I am not faced with drum noises (thank god!) my neighbor would still call their ignorance a bliss. There are so many ways to terrorize your neighbors and it makes my blood boil. They don't need a reason so don't think they do it simply because you complained. :mad:

Anyway I agree with previous poster by saying I wouldn't sell up (yet). You can install CCTV on your property facing the fence. I am sure there is a way around that legislation in terms of using it for safety reasons and not stalking reasons. Also you don't need to set it as high in terms of you don't need faces on the camera. It's enough (I'd say but correct me if I am wrong) to see someone from your neighbor's garden throwing stuff over into yours. (the thought of it alone makes me mad :()

Also, how much worse could it get? They already overstepped the mark by throwing their nasty liter into your garden, by screaming/ insulting you in public, parking their car so close to yours that it's impossible to open your car door etc.

Also check this out Anti-Social-Behavior (playing loud music is mentioned there too) - it might give you some confidence. If not, you can always do the runner cause as you said before, you're at a loss already.
 
truthseeker said:
The above seems to imply that you yourself are not opening legal proceedings - the guards are the ones who are issuing the behaviour warnings etc on the basis of your complaints.

Do you think these people will continue to up the ante if they are getting repeated visits from the guards for anti social behaviour?
Click to expand...

I also rang Citizens Information. They were very nice and helpful and told me to contact the HSE re: Environmental problems with noise and rubbish. But the HSE gave me the advice re: it only affecting 1 family! Ludicrous! I didn't believe the girl in the local office and so I rang their head office in Naas only to be told the same thing.

I agree Truthseeker that it does imply that it'd be the Gardai who'd be opening legal proceedings. if that was the case, then that would be great...if it wouldn't affect future sales with disclosure of the proceedings. My husband is going to ask our solicitor this morning about this to be sure.

The community Garda rang me last night...such a lovely man. Really sympathatic ear and gave me lots of advice including going down the ASBO route. He gave me his direct phone number and told me to call him whenever and he would be happy to intervene.

There was no noise yesterday evening, but we were on edge waiting for it. The Garda said that nobody should have to put up with such a level of noise at any time, whether it's 3pm or 3am!

If we could be 100% sure that going down teh Garda route will not come back to haunt us if we go to sell and that it will not draw the purpetrators on us further, then that's the route we would like to take.

I hate all this. Dreadful being involved in such confrontation. We have always got on so well with our neighbours everywhere myself and my husband have ever lived.

In relation to selling up, the auctioneer said he would be confident he could sell our house, it's in a fantastic location and it's really nicely done up (well, we think so!).

Thanks everyone for your advice.
 
alaskaonline said:
You can install CCTV on your property facing the fence.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice.
I've phoned the Local Authority and they told me I need to send in a photo of my house and they will comment as to whether I need planning permission to install the CCTV cameras.

I've ordered a CCTV system and am collecting it today. Boils my blood with the amount of money that we don't have to spare that we have had to spend on sound level meters and CCTV system.

Our house will look like Fort Knox but I don't care. Just have to wait on the Planning Authority to get back to me then.

Hopefully by putting up CCTV it would show that the rubbish is being thrown from them. In saying that, there has been no rubbish since the weekend. I have my clothes out on the clothesline today with the fabulous weather and I am just praying they will not be littered with rubbish when I get in from work.
 
mrso'brien said:
The community Garda rang me last night...such a lovely man. Really sympathatic ear and gave me lots of advice including going down the ASBO route. He gave me his direct phone number and told me to call him whenever and he would be happy to intervene.
Click to expand...

Follow this up and call him anytime there is noise or other anti social behaviour that interferes with your enjoyment of your property.

mrso'brien said:
If we could be 100% sure that going down teh Garda route will not come back to haunt us if we go to sell and that it will not draw the purpetrators on us further, then that's the route we would like to take.
Click to expand...

I can see how it would come back to haunt you - its not like anything legal would be attached to your property - like a lien or anything like that? Just as an abstract example, if your home was broken into and you personally caught the burglars in the act in your home and called the guards, and then 6 months later sold the house - there would be nothing to say you had to disclose the robbery and subsequent catching of the criminals on the property?
 
truthseeker said:
Just as an abstract example, if your home was broken into and you personally caught the burglars in the act in your home and called the guards, and then 6 months later sold the house - there would be nothing to say you had to disclose the robbery and subsequent catching of the criminals on the property?
Click to expand...

Good point Truthseeker. I'll have to get onto our solicitor to verify this for us. As my husband said last night, 'if we are going to sell, then we may as well at least try the Garda route first.'

Thanks a million to everyone for all of your advice.
 
mrso'brien said:
I also rang Citizens Information. They were very nice and helpful and told me to contact the HSE re: Environmental problems with noise and rubbish. But the HSE gave me the advice re: it only affecting 1 family! Ludicrous! I didn't believe the girl in the local office and so I rang their head office in Naas only to be told the same thing.

.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't accept this. Get it in writing by writing to the Naas office. My parent had to get the environmental officers out in relation to car wrecks but it took a lot of effort to get them going. They try to fob you off.

When you write to them (by registered post) it forces them to act. It's easy to brush off people with the girl in the office telling you they can do nothing.
 
This type of disgusting behavior has become more common place. It appears to reflecta lack of appreciation of other peoples right to live in peace. These morons shouldn't be allowed to get away with tormenting the ordinary decent people who work hard to provide a decent lifestyle for their families. There is a portion of the population who have an attitude similar to that of dare I say it, a pig. Possibly that would be an insult to a pig.

Again this is a typical example of how society is set up to protect the wasters and those who enjoy nothing better that destroying the quality of life for anyone else around them. This situation should be easily resolved but it's not. I feel really sorry for the OP and after reading your posts my blood boils. I hope you get some resloution to it, if it were me I'd probably pack up and sell. Over your life time the loss of 40K will work out at a small amount and you cant buy peace, happiness and time so that's what I'd do.

Best of luck and keep us all up to date.
 
Bronte, amh and everyone else..thanks for your support and comments.

Yes it is a dreadful situation to be in and as amh said, it should be easily resolved but unfortunately it's not.

As my husband said, if we were as rough as they are, we would give it back to them twice as bad. But we are not and we would never ever do anything to them in retaliation or to draw them on us.

We haven't even raised our voices to them. I am very conscious of not doing anything that could come back to haunt us.

We just want to be left in peace to raise our child and to have a happy marriage without this stress. There are enough problems in the world and we are lucky enough to both still have jobs and to have our health. We don't need this trouble in our lives and while we are all fit and healthy we should be able to enjoy life in our home and as a family.

Thanks again
 
I had this problem when I was renting years ago, I kept calling the landlord and Gardai after months of pleading with the next door neighbours because their teenage kids kept playing techo music at top volume at night. Their parents worked nights so didn't care about the level of noise.
I was about to move out when my brother offered one last attempt at solving the issue.
He moved in (he was student at the time!) and I moved out for a few weeks and he played Pavarotti and other operatic music really loudly...I'm talking sub-woofers all over the place and all the loudest equipment he could borrow.
Did this in shifts with his friends, days and nights.....non stop.
Thankfully I wasn't there....dson't think i would have done that. Few large burly students were off-putting and there were no complaints.
Their all night techno music playing stopped 2 weeks into the non-stop opera-fest in my house.
Not saying its the right moral way to go but worked for me !!!
 
I did something similar re alarm clock. Neighbour was setting their clock for 5.30 and not getting up til after 8 every morning. I set my alarm and went off for the weekend , hasn't happened since. Again this might not be something you would feel comfortable to do something similar
 
While I appreciate the sentiment of the previous couple of posters, if I were the OP I would not get into a retaliation situation - its not worth it if these people decide to come back harder again.
 
Hi Mrs O'B.

Sorry to hear about your situation.

I would record a log of when the drumming starts / stops over the next 3 weeks and get recordings if possible.

I would then:

Report the matter to the Gardai along with your log and recordings. Make sure if you can to get written confirmation from the Gardai that this matter has been reported

Contact your solicitor and get them to write a letter outlining the next legal steps you will be pursuing along with a copy of the report submitted to the Gardai.

After that I would proceed with the matter legally...the pen is mightier than the sword.

HTH.

F
 
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