Noise dispute from Semidetached house

They do sound difficult people to live beside as you describe the situation. Have other neighbours in the semi detached houses there noticed similar noise problems with their neighbours? If so, perhaps there are insulation or soundproofing issues in general or perhaps just between you & your neighbours.

Legal advice isn’t really a thing on Boards & even if it was, I have no idea but I’m not sure a solicitor is where to start. Maybe the builder might be an option for advice, if they’re still on site. Perhaps a surveyor to make sure everything is built between you to acceptable guidelines. I think the council sometimes evaluate nuisance noise levels but I’m not sure if that’s just for council owned property.

They sound like a nightmare.

I would keep a log of all incidents where they complain times etc.

This is bordering on harassment; You should be prepared to go to the gardai with a complaint of harassment, as everything I have read is unreasonable.

Have they purchased the house or are they renting? If renting you could complain to their landlord.

This will not be and easy fix but 100% keep a log of every incident and if they are using foul language already record every incident of this on your phone.

"Things have gone worse where they started using foul languages and threatenings where we completely ignored them. Garda was involved where they were hitting our front door and gave out.

They started hitting the walls during the night or day time intentionally to disturb us and putting loud music intentionally to annoy us."

This sounds like harassment to me. I get the feeling that no matter what you do they won't stop. Are you renting or are they renting? I had a family member renting beside a family who got increasingly difficult, similar to this. The intention was to get them to move out so their sister could rent the place instead. Headbangers.

I think I have a similar issue to you on this. I can hear quite a bit from my neighbour, mostly TV, talking and impact sounds. It's a new build with a fully complaint party wall construction (sound test passed). However, we do seem to have an unfilled cavity wall in front of the block work. This seems to be creating a reverberation effect and amplifying the sound from the neighbour. We're going to try and fill that cavity and see if it makes any difference before commiting to the full on sound insulation as each room is the guts of 4k to do.

When thr builder says it's tested he may be stretching slightly.

Under building regs, part E, not every single house in a development is tested. A representative sample if each type is tested. If you're in a development of a load of semi-d then there's a chance you're specific house wasn't tested and the builder messed up something.

Be worth getting it tested, unfortunately that would really require cooperation from next door......

I bought a new build last year myself and i’m hearing pretty much everything from my neighbours (I haven’t mentioned it to them) - Impact and airbourne sounds (loud talking, moving around rooms, doors closing, plug sockets - normal day to day stuff). I feel personally it’s poor construction on the party wall, i might as well be living with them. I complained to the builder and they have said that they are in compliance with part E of the building regulations (my unit itself was not tested however). I have contacted pretty much every acoustic engineer i can find in Ireland and i’m having no luck with getting any of them to look at the issue. I have also looked into getting soundproofing material added to the walls, the multiple companies i spoke with told me they get multiple calls every week for new build sound transfer issues, the prices to do it are huge and there is not a guarantee it will do much for impact noise. If anybody has any luck with resolving this type of issue please let me know.

House design has a lot to answer for. I grew up in a semi-d where the two front doors were side by side. This meant that the halls, stairs and landings were between us and our neighbours' living spaces.

We rarely heard a sound from next door.

You’re neighbour is an idiot.

when working night shift you have to expect regular day time noises. It’s one of the reasons why he’s getting a shift allowance. , for inconveniences.

If he wants complete silence he should have bought a detached house

as he has let it bother him. He’s just getting more and more wound up.

get a doorbell camera. And ignore the prick, but do keep a log in report him for harassment.

My first house was like this. Front doors and hall/landing were adjacent so it meant I could sleep ok and living room was unaffected.

A small group of the residents took the builder to court or threatened to do so. The builder installed sound insulation for them. Only that small group had their houses done as they acted in secret. No idea if it resolved the problem and I moved on not long after.

Im going to come at this from the opposite direction from someone who is dealing with the problem of noisy Children, and people are going to say im a tosser etc etc but I dont care, the house im talking about is a rented property and anyone is just thrown in there so long as they pay rent the landlords dont care and everyone that goes in there has been a problem in one way or another. The present tenants are a couple with 2 children and the noise levels are beyond belief not just shouting and roaring but screaming to the point of distraction all hours of the day. Yes people have said to me there children thats what they do, I say I have no problem with playing but thats not what these children are doing and basically spend time in this house youll quickly change your tune. Its gotten to the point where I have to roar at them to shut up just to get some peace, I dont harass these people I do knock on the wall when things get out of hand in there ive not gone to there landlord or anything like that, but I do think in a housing estate where everyones on top of each other with semi detached houses some consideration should be given to everyone I dont think thats to much to ask.

In closing they havent been in there the last 3 weeks and its the longest run of quietness since they moved in its been heaven.

Shin

Hi OP. Firstly, If you’re living a normal family life in your home, with normal sounds then you’re doing nothing wrong.

Unfortunately there’s a lot of houses like yours across Ireland. I lived in a house once for awhile where next door was rented to a group of young Eastern European casual workers- they worked Mon-Fri without much incident but the weekends were a nightmare. The soundproofing was really bad- simple things you could hear like you included light switches, someone walking on wooden flooring or even slightly raised voices etc - so you can imagine if a party took place with loud music, what the levels of noise would become- you may as well have been in the same house.

As you say, sound proofing is expensive, needs to be done on both sides and there’s no guarantee you’ll be noise feee. You obviously have a tolerance level for normal family sounds that your neighbour refuses to accept. Your neighbours are in denial that the issue is not you in any way, but the deplorable way the house was built.

My recommendation is this. Keep a notebook close to hand and document every time your neighbour becomes threatening towards you- whether it’s a bang on the wall or the door or whatever- note the time, date , whose in the house, describe the aggressive behaviour and the impact on you. Once you have built up this evidence, present it to the guards- a case of harassment may well be called for.

You have accepted that your house is not sound proofed and you are trying your best to minimise normal house sounds- your neighbour is too thick to recognise this situation - keep calm, never respond to his aggression in any way, but keep a log of everything - one day I think you’ll have just enough to make life very difficult for this chap.

Article in the Indo today

"Stefanie Preissner: We are moving house — what if we get the neighbours from hell?"

It got me thinking, if you've new people moving in beside you, what if it's - Stefanie Preissner?!

Yeah, I bought a semi D build in the early 60s.

Whilst renovating I saw some of the blocks they used back in the day, they were huge and weighed a ton.

We've a young couple next door with a new born, I've not once heard the child nor themselves in any way.