What can I do for her?

Question

I have a ladie friend that is living in an apartment on her own. She is in her mid 30's. The problem she is having is the person next door is playing the music all night long and it is making her very ill from lack of sleep. It's been going on for three years. Last year her mother has been diognosed with cancer. She has to travel 30 miles to help her. She goes down 3 times a week by train. She has tried the following:

Called police
Asked the nieghbours
Called management
Told him to turn the noise down

None of these worked keeping in mind she tried more than once with each. She said she can't afford to get soundproof walls or get someone out to record the noise. She still lives there because it's the only place she can afford to do her College Courses. I have no idea what to do. She's always calling and texting me. I care for her well being and I want to help. But I have no idea what to do.

Answer 1

She must keep a diary of the noice and call her local council who have the powers to seize his stereo or what ever he is using to make the noise as well as fine him. Alternatively go to Citizens Advice Bureua or local Law Centre and get advice about getting an injunction to stop him. Police should be more sympatheti. Also should try talking to her local Ward Councillor and see if he can bring pressure to bear to get something done.

Answer 2

Has she wrote down every time this person has made it unbearable for her with his noise pollution?
Contacting the local council, Envionmentl health CAB, her own GP etc can start the ball rolling.
Most people won't tolerate this kind of behaviour & shouldn't have to put up with it, especially for three years.
The environmental health will call & place recording equipment to measure & record the noise levels over so many consecutive nights.
She must contact the police each time the person does this, that way the police will be aware of every call she's made & the case against this person will be stronger.
Is it possible for you to contact the environmental health of her behalf & say that she's so exhausted with all she has to contend with etc...

Answer 3

I have been in this situation. I even won a small settlement in small claims court. My layer advised me to move, finally. As he said, " I have won six figure settlements in these cases, but have never yet got the noise to stop". City police have no funds for noise abatement departments, now and little interest in your complaints, as this is a civil matter. Landlords can be worse than useless; mine was a co-defendant in my successful law suit. I moved. I live in California, where such uncivil behavior is tolerated, along with everything else. I hope your friend gets the justice she deserves.

Answer 4

Call your local council who can put you in touch with environmental health. They will send a form to fill in with dates times etc and they give you an out of hours number to call and they send someone round. They have the powers to enter the offending property and take away the stereo and take the person to court. I am guessing that you have tried explaining the situation calmly to this person. If they are not approachable then do as I said above

Answer 5

Try some noise canceling head phones. These are like ear muffs that reduce the noise. Or something as simple as ear plugs might reduce the noise enough for her?
If that dosen't work I suppose she could bribe the building maintance people to turn of his power every night at around 10pm :)

Answer 6

yes, call environmental health dept either thru the council or the managment... depends what sort of building she lives in, if it's private or council's. Environmental health can then come over and put microphones in her flat... once it's proved... they can evict the other tenant.

Another option would of course u being a gent, invite her to live with you. Happy end!

Answer 7

if you have tried everything else then there is only one thing left to do, you need some meatheads to go around and sort it tell them that if it dont stop they will regret it and will get hurt. its not the most logical answer to this situation but if eveything else has failed and you care about this person as much has u say, think about it it might be the last resort but is it about time u sorted it out for good, u might not be the sort of person to think about something like this but just think about it. good luck lol.

Answer 8

has she rearranged her room? put the bed on the opposite wall?

OR she could possible do a whole apartment rearrange. i mean witht he exception of the kitchen and bathroom. make the "bedroom" the new Family room/tv watching and have the bedroom be else where.

so when she'd watching tv she can block out the sound of next door.

just a thought

Answer 9

Ask her to stay with you for a bit. A change of scene & a break from the noise would do her good.

Answer 10

Try calling your local environmental health department. Make a pollution of noise complaint.