Jump to content

Noise Nuisance

Recommended Posts

Good evening.

 

We have in recent months moved to a council house in the S5 area, with sadly a very noisy family living next door, including their very noisy dogs. The family in question are pretty anti-social, by way of leaving rubbish all over the pavement, burning fires regularly which smell utterly awful, shouting & swearing at each other (parents at each other, parents at kids, kids at parents, parents at dogs, kids at dogs) at all times of the day.

 

They have two german shephards (or perhaps a similar breed) and a small terrier, and we have heard yelping several times, and one time over Christmas there was the sound of what seemed like the small dog yelping or screaming for 10 minutes straight, whilst the family shouted and argued. We've noticed that the father shouts all the time at the dogs and will let them out into the back garden at any time of the day or night where they will bark very loudly and mostly be unmonitored.  The mother repeatedly shouts and grunts at the dogs (as she does the children), and struggles to stay on her feet with either of the two large dogs on a lead. The oldest child has more luck in staying upright, but also goads the two large dogs by slapping them round the nose, yanking them around by their collars and generally being very rough - the two large dogs are often jumping up at him and are nearly as tall as him. I've seen them both with their teeth around the child's arm, several times. The youngest child is quite visibly scared of the big dogs when they're running around barking all the time, which they do inside and outside of the house, pretty much all day and regularly throughout the night.

 

Myself, I think the parents are putting their children in danger, and the treatment of the dogs is just not on.

 

I have been round to their front door a few times to politely ask if the noise can be sorted out when it is late on and our children are struggling to get to sleep or stay asleep because of the noise of the barking, the loud televisions and regular arguing. They mutter and grumble, and make excuses, before the noise then returns within minutes. They actively try to end conversations with anyone. This noise can go on beyond midnight regularly in the school term times, and beyond 3am in the holidays. I heard the clear sound of their television at 4am in our house when I went for a wee. Then the barking commenced.

 

The large dogs are let out into the back garden at any point in the night and wake us all up. On Christmas Eve night, it was from 1.30am until 2am, with the father coming out to get them in the last 5 minutes. My wife is a light sleeper and has been been woken up by the barking up to 5 times a night for the past fortnight. We can't go out in our garden without a large dog or two being let out to come barking & snarling towards us, and our girls' time out there is severely limited - we wait until the family has gone out as we worry about these dogs jumping over the 3ft fence. If one of the family does come out and get the dogs from the garden when they're barking at us, they'll not acknowledge us at all, no apologies or anything. But then it happens again & again.

 

I'm amazed that this seems normal for round here, or perhaps the neighbours are too intimidated. They're all above 50 in age, and several of them on this street were muttering frustrations about these people even in the first week we moved in.

 

I have recorded a couple of videos of them being rough with the dogs, on the advice of a council officer. But I have also been told that unless more of the other neighbours complain, there's nothing that can be done. She told us that our video evidence could be shown to them and they'd then know it was us from the video's perspective - potentially causing us to be targeted directly. The first time I contacted the officer, she then contacted the family next door who denied any issues, and stated that we had "been nasty and had reported them before", and that "the dogs are very well cared for". We've been here 4 months, so guessing it's the previous residents.

 

I'm in the process of talking to a few of the other neighbours, but I've not known them long.

 

The barking is so loud. Really can feel it in the floor.  It's disturbing our sleep and our sanity so much, and I wondered out of desperation if there was any advice from people here?

 

Disclaimer: I love dogs, always have done and wanted to consider getting one when our girls have got a bit older - but there's no chance of it happening when there's this noise next door. No dog could settle in living next door to this. We're considering applying to move, but won't to have to as we've waited such a long time for a house.

 

Thanks very much.

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.