contacting your local authority

If talking to your neighbour doesn’t work, the most common kind of formal action is complaining to your local authority about the noise problem.

Local authorities have a duty to take certain steps to investigate complaints about noise coming from land, buildings, vehicles (excluding general traffic), machinery or equipment in the street. Under the law, local authorities have a duty to deal with any noise that they consider to be what’s known as a ‘statutory nuisance’.

Who do I complain to?

To complain about noise, you should contact your local authority, usually the environmental health department. The number will be in your local telephone directory.

If they visit or witness the noise and agree that it is a statutory nuisance, they must take immediate action. If the noise happens from time to time, they may ask you to keep a diary of when the noise happens, or leave equipment to record it.

Sometimes they will measure the noise as part of their investigation into a complaint. There is no set level at which noise becomes a statutory nuisance.

Serving an abatement notice

If the local authority thinks that the noise is a statutory nuisance, or that a statutory nuisance is likely to occur or recur, they must serve an abatement notice which is an order to deal with the nuisance. This may demand that the noise stops altogether or only happens at certain times of the day.

Once the local authority has confirmed that a statutory nuisance exists then they must take steps within seven days.

If the noise continues

If a person receives an abatement notice but carries on making noise without a good reason, they will have committed an offence. For offences from someone’s home or a private vehicle, the magistrates’ court can fine someone up to £5,000 with a further fine of up to £500 for each day the offence continues after conviction.

Local authorities have the power to gain entry to premises to stop noise. This power is normally only used to stop misfiring burglar alarms but noise making equipment such as stereos can also be seized.

Anti-social behaviour orders

Local authorities and the police can work together to get an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) against someone who is causing harassment, alarm and distress to others.

ASBOs would not be the first step in a case where noise nuisance is the main problem. However, they are an effective way of tackling more serious anti-social behaviour which may include making noise. For example, ASBOs could be used when dealing with families whose behaviour, when challenged, leads to verbal abuse, threats or graffiti, or where noise nuisance is part of a pattern of behaviour which intimidates others. As well as dealing with existing problems, these controls also cover noise that is expected to occur or recur.

Complaints about the local authority

If, after allowing time for the local authority to act, you are unhappy about the way the local authority have handled the case, you should make a formal complaint to the relevant chief officer or the chief executive at the authority. Alternatively, talk to your elected councillor .

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