Horrible Neighbours

LegacyUser

Can anyone give me some advice on this one.. I bought a small house in a nice area in the west of Ireland a few months ago, specifically because it was a lovely quiet area and had no reputation for trouble. Its a very family orientated, housing estate.

In the last week however, a house close to mine has been inhabited by a noisy, obnoxious family. They look and act seriously as rough as a group of people come.

They hang around their garden until 3 in the morning screaming and swearing and generally sounding out of place for this sleepy neighbourhood.

A few friends have remarked that they seem to be taking pleasure in trying to stand out as much as possible.. by roaring at all hours of the morning, noon and night. If they spot any neighbours in their own gardens around, they shout and wave in a really "intimidating" way, if that makes sense.

I know all of this sounds petty, but they are a very intimidating bunch. When the kids are roaring abusive language at each other from the garden, their parents just watch on.. often at 2am.

Is there anything that I can do? If they kept to themselves I wouldnt care who lived there, but I feel my privacy is being ruined by them.. not to mention my right to sleep at 3am. Its the blatant "Fk EM ALL" attitude from them that is so antagonising.

I was tempted to ring the guards one night when they were making crazy noise that was obviosuly aimed at winding the neighbours up... but I'd honestly expect them to get me back in some way.. so I wont.

Its ridiculous.. Who moves to a neighbourhood and immediately goes about telling the neighbours to go stick their calm child friendly neighbourhood up their a*$e.

I'd love to hear people's opinion on this. Please dont advise me to go knock on their door because theres no way I'd have the guts. They look and sound too rough.

Rant over.. Advice very much appreciated.

Victor

Talk to the environmental health people in your local council about noise pollution.

Chakar

Don't be afraid of them. If they're at it now, ring the guards its not a problem and if it persists then you can complain to the council or to the "environmental agency"

Ruu_Old

Indeed, no one needs to put up with that sort of rubbish. Talk to your local council, residents committee maybe if there is one and put an end to it before it gets any worse. Its just not acceptable and you have every right to complain. Noise and so on might be half acceptable in the day time but 3am is ridiculous and they obviously have no regard for anyone else. Best of luck sorting it out.

fifth

Seriously I live next to a house FULL of czech republicans and they are pretty bad too, just ring the guards when they are at it mate, specially if its late like after 11pm, then you should have no problem getting something done.

LegacyUser

Thanks for the advice.. The thing is, they are so obnoxious, I dont want to put my own house, garden, safety etc at risk. If I did call the guards, would I be obliged to give my name or would they be able to find out who asked the guards to come out?

koneko

advice_GW wrote:

Thanks for the advice.. The thing is, they are so obnoxious, I dont want to put my own house, garden, safety etc at risk. If I did call the guards, would I be obliged to give my name or would they be able to find out who asked the guards to come out?

Tell the guards that when you ring them, that you didn't call them before because you're afraid these people will do something in retribution.

If you or one of your neighbours don't call the guard or do something, they won't stop, they sound like scumbags.

gandalf

Do they own the property or are they renting. If they are renting you should contact the landlord/owner and advise them of the behaviour of their tenents. I can just imagine the respect they have for their property if they treat their neighbours in this fashion.

Obviously if they own the place you will just have to follow the advice given above.

Hecate

Just keep calling the cops and try and persuade other neighbours to do the same. Be persistant about it and they'll soon get the idea.

Easy to say I know- but if nobody does anything and assumes "someone else will take care of it" then these people and others like them will continue their antisocial ways.

Chakar

Totally you can't put up with that noise, you've gotta ring the guards.

Vegeta

send them an unsigned letter asking them to shut up or the gardai will have to get involved, mention drugs when ringing the gardai and say soemthing like i think they are on drugs or something or that they are always talking about doing drugs

Chakar

Vegeta wrote:

send them an unsigned letter asking them to shut up or the gardai will have to get involved, mention drugs when ringing the gardai and say soemthing like I think they are on drugs or something or that they are always talking about doing drugs

That's blackmail actually its illegal.Anyway its better not to deal with them firsthand as they really sound like a nasty sort.

LegacyUser

gandalf wrote:

Do they own the property or are they renting. If they are renting you should contact the landlord/owner and advise them of the behaviour of their tenents. I can just imagine the respect they have for their property if they treat their neighbours in this fashion.

Obviously if they own the place you will just have to follow the advice given above.

Yeah they own the house I'm sure. I have no intention of ever talking to or contacting these people directly. I'd suffer for it for years Im sure. I just dont want the Gardaí to say oh we heard from X in number X that you've been making loads of noise etc. Can I trust them to A) Turn up within an hour or two when the noise is going on, and not to tell them who called?

koneko

The guards aren't allowed to do that as far as I'm aware, but as I said, when you call them, express that you don't want them to know as you're afraid they'll do something.

Chakar, can you put the link in your sig underneath the picture instead of beside it? You're breaking the page (far too wide).

Static M.e.

Id call the cops first chance I got.

Call from a concerned neighbour and just tell the Garda exactly whats bothering you. Not 100% sure about this saw it on an English version of cops but they had some sort of Law where if people keep getting complaints / about you / Cops called out to you, they can force you to move? Could be just a corporation house thing, but might be worth looking into. Contact a lawyer.

They wont change, it will only get worse.

I know of an estate in my home town where 1 bad family moved in, same kind of crap, people left it alone, then people started moving out, cousins of the same family moved in and things went from bad to worse. More people moved out and more bad familys moved in. Now the estate is a sh!t hole the people who own the houses have lost out on a considerable amount of money because they cant sell the houses for what they should be worth because the estate now has a name for a bad area.

Darragh29

Static M.e. wrote:

Id call the cops first chance I got.

Call from a concerned neighbour and just tell the Garda exactly whats bothering you. Not 100% sure about this saw it on an English version of cops but they had some sort of Law where if people keep getting complaints / about you / Cops called out to you, they can force you to move? Could be just a corporation house thing, but might be worth looking into. Contact a lawyer.

They wont change, it will only get worse.

I know of an estate in my home town where 1 bad family moved in, same kind of crap, people left it alone, then people started moving out, cousins of the same family moved in and things went from bad to worse. More people moved out and more bad familys moved in. Now the estate is a sh!t hole the people who own the houses have lost out on a considerable amount of money because they cant sell the houses for what they should be worth because the estate now has a name for a bad area.

I'd be careful calling the cops on this one, I know someone who was in the exact same situation and however bad things were before they went to the cops, it got ten times worse afterwards and they were tormented day in and day out. What started off as a major inconvenience turned into something more sinister, their wheely bin was emptied out onto the street, tyres slashed, sh1t being smeared on the front windows and fireworks launched at the front of their house one night. It was never ending and the cops involvement only made matters very considerably worse. Unless you are prepared to put up CCTV cameras all over the place, I wouldn't bother with the cops. The only thing you can do is move house, the system does not support you when you have this problem, it's all about THEM and THEIR rights, you're rights don't come into it...

chump

I'd be VERY careful as well.

These people sound like skumbags. And most skumbags I've come across don't give a billix about anyone but themselves, particularly people who call the gardai on them.

Best advice I can give is round up as much neighbours etc. as possible. Try to round up the whole neighbourhood, have a meeting, and tackle the problem as a group.

Whatever about them picking on one house and one family, if everyone in the whole streets bands together - you could easily get these feckers. Then once you do report them, literally every thing they do wrong should be reported to the Gardai. You and your neighbours need to become a collective pain in the ass.

Victor

Remember that is their home, they are entitled to use it. The Garda will be very slow in getting involved.

r3nu4l

They are entitled to use their house but noise pollution laws do not allow them to disturb the neighbours after 11pm (I think?).

Either way, even if your neighbours don't know who called the cops they will probably begin to take it out on the entire neighbourhood.

Talk to other neighbours, see if you can as a group, contact the gardaí. They are more likely to listen to a group of people. Do you have a residents association? Contact them and look for advice.

God, why can't people just be considerate of their neighbours? It's ridiculous. Goes to show you that these problems are everywhere, not just in the cities.

shinners007

im renting a house at present just for another two months thankfully, im in the same situation. at the beginning the gardai came out straight away now there vry slow about coming out. the noise these people make is a disgrace the son was arrested yet just warned still it continues.
there is rubbisb piled up front and back so we and other neighours rain the environmentalist and council, next door got a bin for three months then stopped it. they even took out the bin every tuesday morning and carried the full bin back in when the truck left!!!!!!

all neighbours have complained and signed pitutuions including landlords etc.. nothing has changed. a load of cars were damaged and broken into mine included recently yet the neighbours fro hell cars werent... coincidence i wonder??

its a difficult situation to be in but in this day and age behaviour like that shouldnt be entertained. everytime there at it now we all ring the gards tell they come out, they will get sick of this and do something about it. (i hope).

were all still onto the council and enviromental health and will contine untill its sorted as a community.

talk to your other neighbours and vent your feelings i bet they'll be as annoyed as you. then decide what to do as a community.

as for the gards we always have to give our names as they wont come out otherwise yet they cant say who called them to the noisy crowd as they have to respect our confidentiality.

i find its best to say" id like to report a group of individuals creating a lot of noise and suspicios behaviour" then if the gards want you to witness this all youve to say is you heard people shouting/roaring or wahtever yet couldnt see who exactly as it wher dark... if it ever gets that far that is.

i personally wouldnt approach them on my own anyway op.
best of luck

FlutterinBantam

From the description you give and the apparent attitude thry seem to have..You have only one option imho..... sell up and move on.

Sorry to be so blunt

Darragh29

chump wrote:

I'd be VERY careful as well.

These people sound like skumbags. And most skumbags I've come across don't give a billix about anyone but themselves, particularly people who call the gardai on them.

Best advice I can give is round up as much neighbours etc. as possible. Try to round up the whole neighbourhood, have a meeting, and tackle the problem as a group.

Whatever about them picking on one house and one family, if everyone in the whole streets bands together - you could easily get these feckers. Then once you do report them, literally every thing they do wrong should be reported to the Gardai. You and your neighbours need to become a collective pain in the ass.

What happened in my friends case was that when they tried to get the local community together to deal with the matter, as is always the case in a community, you have people who are proactive and what you might call leaders or "to the front" when there is a social problem and you have the rest following like sheep. What happened was the people who were sending out letters to other residents outlining the problem or who were being the most vocal at community meetings were utterly tormented morning noon and night, (kids being beaten up, cars set alight, tyres slashed, take away food, taxi's, etc. ordered to their house as hoax calls), and of course the rest of the community who sat at meetings and said nothing of substance, who are happy enough for someone else to do the fighting talk, don't have the same hassle. The outcome of this strategy is that any attempt to get the problem sorted out collectively with other residents is always effectively decapitated. The Gardai won't want to know, because unless you have just murdered someone or are importing drugs, you're not on their radar. Prime Time did a documentary on this very subject recently enough and the outcome was that every second house in the estate (I think one of the esates was in Limerick) was for sale, because that was the only way people could live normal lives...

Vegeta

Chakar wrote:

That's blackmail actually its illegal.Anyway its better not to deal with them firsthand as they really sound like a nasty sort.

Whats the difference between telling them to their face that if they don't keep the noise down you'll have to ring the garda or sending them an unsigned letter from the residents committee saying the same thing.

This is no blackmail

Darragh29

Vegeta wrote:

Whats the difference between telling them to their face that if they don't keep the noise down you'll have to ring the garda or sending them an unsigned letter from the residents committee saying the same thing.

This is no blackmail

Residents committes have secretaries, treasurers, and key people who can be targetted. Sending an unsigned letter from a residents committee asking them stop terrorising others living in the estate is just sending these people a letter that they are feared.

What I would suggest is get together a small group of proactive residents who will take no sh1te and meet covertly to discuss the problem. Don't tell anyone else outside the group that you are meeting like this and make sure each person in the group can maintain complete secrecy.

Monitor their behaviour and decide how much more you will put up with. When their behaviour surpasses what you are no longer prepared to accept, write them an anonymous letter telling them that they are no longer welcome where they live due to their behaviour (make sure the letter is worded in such as way as it cannot be construed as having been associated with the residents committee) and that there is now a campaign underway to remove them from where they live by whatever means might be available to secure their removal from the estate. Make sure there is nothing in the letter to identify any particular incident or witness to an incident, by speaking in general terms. I'm not suggesting anything illegal, but I'd do everything possible from this point forward to p1ss them off to the point where they will want to live somewhere else. What these type of people cannot deal with is having their income cut, and they are often involved in social welfare scams. Gather as much intelligence on them as you can, if they work, where do they work, are they claiming social welfare or disability benefit as welll??? If they are, you can get in touch with the Fraud Investigations Unit at the Dept of Social & Family affairs and report them for this and they'll get a visit. Whatever crime they are involved in, (and they are probably involved in crime if they are causing this amount of hassle, it's just a matter of observing them and doing your detective work), ring the Garda confidential phone line and give them a tip off. Are they dealing drugs from their house??? It sounds like they might be if there is a load of activity around the house at night. If they are report them to the National Drugs Survellience Unit... Have some government agency calling to their house on a weekly basis and through your anonymous letter over time they will associate this with their own behaviour, a bit like house training a dog.... The key is keeping your activities untargettable and being patient, so that when they start feeling the heat, they will have nobody to target. Eventually they will move somewhere else and will be someone else's problem...

Dave!

Is it possible to get permission (from the Gardaí, court, or council) to record their behaviour? I don't think you're allowed to record them with no permission, but I don't know if you can get permission from the law as opposed to from the actual neighbours.

Perhaps a legal person can shed some light on it!

Anyway, if you can, then record them and go down to the Garda station with the video. Surely the Gardaí have to respect your right to confidentiality too, and won't go blabbing your name around.

Good luck to you anyway!