Excessive noise from neighbours can be frustrating and can cause a lot of unnecessary stress and worry. In many cases, the person making the noise is unaware that they are causing a problem and therefore the problem can be sorted out quite quickly.
Where an informal approach fails we can serve a notice on the offending party requiring them to abate the nuisance. If such a notice is not complied with then legal action can follow.
Actions we can take include:
- seizure of amplification systems
- asking a court to fine people who create noise nuisance.
Guidelines on noise at different times of the day
You can report noise nuisance to us, no matter what time of day it occurs. However, we use guidelines on the kind of noise it is and the time of day that it occurs.
We expect that, during the day, noise is not excessive or dangerously loud.
In the evening noise may be quieter but still audible.
After 11pm we expect no noise to be audible in neighbouring properties.
Our call-out service
Between 9am and 4pm, Mondays to Fridays you can call us using the contact details below.
At all other times, please call our main switchboard number, 020 8314 6000 and they will take a message.
During office hours and between 7pm and 3am any day of the week, we have an immediate response service who should call you back within 30 minutes and visit if necessary within a further 45 minutes.
We will want to hear the noise from your property before approaching the alleged perpetrator. We are usually successful in persuading people to be reasonable and to keep the level of noise down.
How we deal with different types of noise nuisance
Building Work
We have specific requirements regarding noise if you are carrying out building or DIY work.
We ask that you do not use noisy machinery or carry out noisy work:
- before 8am or after 6pm, Mondays to Fridays
- before 8.30am or after 1pm on Saturdays
- on Sundays or Bank Holidays.
Domestic Noises
We cannot deal with domestic noises such as:
- children running around
- doors closing
- people talking loudly
- telephones
Sounds like this indicate that the sound insulation between dwellings is poor.
Often laying a carpet in upstairs flats instead of having bare floorboards or having laminated flooring cuts down sound transmission.
Car and house alarms
House alarms and car alarms should cut out within 20 minutes and not recur unless there is a fault.
We can use our powers to enter premises and disable alarms and charge the owners an average of £500 for our time and the costs of an emergency call out service.
To prevent these high costs, we urge property owners to contact us to give us their key-holder details so we can contact them directly in case their alarm has a fault.
You can send us key-holder details by following the link in the 'forms' section on the right of this page.