[Neil McRae]

Folks,
The reason these people get away with this stuff is because people are too scared to challenge them on it.

Obviously any threatening behaviour should be reported to the police at once

You MUST MUST challenge them directly. Not initally in confrontational way but friendly as in some cases they don't know that they are causing a problem.

If it continues then its +vital+ that you record what happened and if you see any behaviour then record it if possible. The more detail you have the stronger your case will be. For noise your local council are required by law to respond and investigate any claims of noise nuisance. Quite a few council are very good at this, Brent and Harrow amazingly in my view take this issue very seriously.

Contact the Noise or Environmental health people during the day and speak to them in a friendly way asking them for advice. They will write to the neighbours and remind them of their legal obligations.

If this doesn't help then most councils run an emergency helpline where they will turn up and assess the noise levels. They can then issue a noise abatement notice and if the noise continues then they can confiscate hifi equipment etc.

2 years ago our neighbour went to work in HK on business and rented his place out to a bunch of young polish guys. They were a nice bunch but they liked to party hard. I went through the full process of having them issued a noise abatement notice primiarly because one weekend they had a party starting Friday that finished Monday morning. Going to work on the M4 I dozed off at the wheel and nearly killed myself. That was the final straw for me.

A few months after this they were successfully issued with a noise abatement notice. They moved out 2 days after they recieved it. When the new tenants moved in I explained what had happened to the old tenants and they have been very good. Unfortunately across the road [!] a new tenant has moved in and has wild parties on Sunday afternoons with a really loud soundsystem that plays on til late into Monday morning. He was issued with his second warning before noise abatement notice and I think they've got the message now. Don't get me wrong I don't mind people having a party every now and again but every weekend is too much for me.

A friend of mine had an issue with neighbours urinating in their garden, got it on camera and the guy was arrested and fined £150. Its never happened again but you only make progress if you act.

It is important to build relationships with your neighbours as it helps in these situations, but please, don't put up with other peoples ignorant behaviour as your are effectively giving them the all clear.

Regards,
Neil.