Noisy Neighbours- What is and isn't allowed?

mahamageehad

Hi guys,

Just wanted to pick your brains about a hypothetical situation.

Just say there was very noisy people living next door. Are they allowed to make as much noise as they want until a certain time of the night or are they supposed to be quiet after a certain time? I have it in the back of my head that the Gardaí wont do anything about a complaint until it's after 11, but is that true? The houses in this scenario would be connected so there would be a fair bit of noise heard through the walls; the type of houses where if it's quiet you can hear toilets flush next door. Or does it depend on the individual circumstances e.g. house 1 has a young baby so house 2 needs to be quiet after 9 o clock?

If so what kind of recourse does the neighbour who is being disturbed by the noise have? If they were to call the gardaí is there anything they can do other than to break up the party or tell them to keep it down? In this scenario the noise has been repeatedly mentioned to the landlord in the past, but to no avail. I've tried researching this online but all I can get is that the level of excessive noise is "undefined" and I can't find anything on what's acceptable at what times, except for commercial premises. Now I don't want to paint the noisy neighbours in this scenario as the bad guys either as the level of excessive noise happens maybe once or twice a fortnight. In the noisy house there are a lot more people (3 times more we'll say) living than in the house with the baby, would that make any difference?

Finally lets say house number 1 has a bit of a temper problem and gets annoyed with house number 2 because they were making too much noise at half 10 at night so someone from house 1 calls over the next morning and continuously shouts, threatens with the guards, bangs on the door and holds the doorbell until someone answers, then launches into a screaming tirade and makes threats against the inhabitants and grabs one of the occupants and drags her out of the house to "apologize". Is house number 1 in the right because their peace was disturbed or can house 2 basically tell them to sling their hook and get off their property? Basically can this type of threatening behaviour be justified by the noise complaints? Citizens advice is very sparse with the facts about this but I'd imagine you can't threaten anyone, especially if you're on their property no matter what your reasons are, but maybe the gardaí if they became involved would turn a blind eye to this because it's "justified".

So any thoughts? I'd really appreciate some feedback on this!

Many thanks

Mahama

Carawaystick

first things would be when the houses were built
Building regulations set limits on noise transmission through walls.
In Ireland these are almost always ignored -- the Priory Hall issue hilights how badly Fire safety is taken, for a non-life-or-death situation like noisy neighbours there'll be feic all official govt support.

The owner of a property is partly liable for ensuring their properties meet the building regulations ( c.f. a consumer right lawyer on a Marian Finnucane show one weekend morning a few years ago; don't bet the farm on this)

Weylin

mahamageehad wrote: »

Hi guys,

Just wanted to pick your brains about a hypothetical situation.

Just say there was very noisy people living next door. Are they allowed to make as much noise as they want until a certain time of the night or are they supposed to be quiet after a certain time? I have it in the back of my head that the Gardaí wont do anything about a complaint until it's after 11, but is that true? The houses in this scenario would be connected so there would be a fair bit of noise heard through the walls; the type of houses where if it's quiet you can hear toilets flush next door. Or does it depend on the individual circumstances e.g. house 1 has a young baby so house 2 needs to be quiet after 9 o clock?

If so what kind of recourse does the neighbour who is being disturbed by the noise have? If they were to call the gardaí is there anything they can do other than to break up the party or tell them to keep it down? In this scenario the noise has been repeatedly mentioned to the landlord in the past, but to no avail. I've tried researching this online but all I can get is that the level of excessive noise is "undefined" and I can't find anything on what's acceptable at what times, except for commercial premises. Now I don't want to paint the noisy neighbours in this scenario as the bad guys either as the level of excessive noise happens maybe once or twice a fortnight. In the noisy house there are a lot more people (3 times more we'll say) living than in the house with the baby, would that make any difference?

Finally lets say house number 1 has a bit of a temper problem and gets annoyed with house number 2 because they were making too much noise at half 10 at night so someone from house 1 calls over the next morning and continuously shouts, threatens with the guards, bangs on the door and holds the doorbell until someone answers, then launches into a screaming tirade and makes threats against the inhabitants and grabs one of the occupants and drags her out of the house to "apologize". Is house number 1 in the right because their peace was disturbed or can house 2 basically tell them to sling their hook and get off their property? Basically can this type of threatening behaviour be justified by the noise complaints? Citizens advice is very sparse with the facts about this but I'd imagine you can't threaten anyone, especially if you're on their property no matter what your reasons are, but maybe the gardaí if they became involved would turn a blind eye to this because it's "justified".

So any thoughts? I'd really appreciate some feedback on this!

Many thanks

Mahama

" grabs one of the occupants and drags her out of the house"
if you can prove this,you certainly have a case for assault,i can assure you the cops will take a very dim view of that,but will have to be able to provide proof that it happened.

mahamageehad

Carawaystick wrote: »

first things would be when the houses were built
Building regulations set limits on noise transmission through walls.
In Ireland these are almost always ignored -- the Priory Hall issue hilights how badly Fire safety is taken, for a non-life-or-death situation like noisy neighbours there'll be feic all official govt support.

The owner of a property is partly liable for ensuring their properties meet the building regulations ( c.f. a consumer right lawyer on a Marian Finnucane show one weekend morning a few years ago; don't bet the farm on this)

Hmm very interesting. I'd have to figure out the year the house was built tho, and I suppose it would be different in different county councils etc for the regulations. Very useful though, thanks. I'll google the marian finnucane thing tomorrow after work.

Weylin wrote: »

" grabs one of the occupants and drags her out of the house"
if you can prove this,you certainly have a case for assault,i can assure you the cops will take a very dim view of that,but will have to be able to provide proof that it happened.

Well there was witnesses and it did happen in broad daylight but in this scenario I don't think it would be much use because the witnesses were all either friends or family of the assaulted/assaulter so it would basically be a big game of he said/she said. And the assaulted etc don't really want to get the guards involved because the other lady is a bit of a headcase, threatened to make their lives a "living hell" and mentioned that she knew where they lived, where they work and what cars they drive, and garda presence would probably only make things worse.

So it still seems that there is no direct time that you can tell people to stop making noise, or no-one has mentioned it yet. If I worked night shifts then would I be within my rights to tell the people next door to be quiet during the day because I'm trying to sleep and they are interfering with my quality of life? Even though that they are well within their rights to do whatever they want in their own house, at least during reasonable hours of the day. Just doesn't seem right. House 1 has threatened to get house 2 evicted as well but I don't think thats possible, as they can only claim unsocial behaviour as a breach of contract (as far as I can see) and that doesn't seem to fit the case so unless the eviction is a result of intimidation and abuse by house 1 (seems likely to be honest- apparently she as driven neighbours away before in a short period of time, she boasted about this) can't see how their could be a forced eviction by someone other than the landlord, unless maybe the county council is involved, would be possible.

not even wrong

Section 108 of the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 allows individuals to take private action through the District Court should they find the noise to be “so loud, so continuous, so repeated, of such duration or pitch or occurring at such times that it gives you reasonable cause for annoyance".

The other thing you can try is making a complaint to the PRTB about anti-social behaviour. The PRTB can then oblige the landlord to enforce their decision on the tenants, up to and including eviction.

mahamageehad

not even wrong wrote: »

The other thing you can try is making a complaint to the PRTB about anti-social behaviour. The PRTB can then oblige the landlord to enforce their decision on the tenants, up to and including eviction.

Thanks not even wrong, that letter is very interesting. I just don't know if causing noise- music and talking/laughing etc, that happens at most once a week and is always finished by 11pm would actually count as antisocial behaviour! Surely its not the dwellers problem if the walls aren't adequately soundproofed, either in house 1 or house 2, and they should be allowed enjoy themselves in their own house provided it's rare and it finishes at a reasonable hour?

MagicSean

Noise pollution and noisy parties are nothing to do with the Gardaí.

If you have a problem with neighbours the correct procedure is

1) Speak to the neighbour
2) Speak to the landlord/owner
3) Complint to PRTB
4) Bring a complaint to the district court


And you cannot defend an assault and trespass charge with claims of loud neighbours.

bernyh

Can i just interject and not in a legal sense..... but if you "happen" to be house number 2, people don't "Just crack" it takes more than reasonable noise to make people lose it and attack people physically, I know this personally so to be honest I wonder if you have a bit of a cheeck, what you consider reasonable and what others with different commitments consider reasonable are totally different.

Is house no 1 up early for work? do they have children? are you already aware that the sound proofing is inadequate? if so then aren't you being unreasonable? Nightclubs and pubs are for parties... homes are for peaceful enjoyment.

If you are already aware that noise is an issue with the building and you know that you will be annoying your neighbour by having late night parties then you are being irresponsible and I wonder is there a legal route for house number 1????