Everyone wants to be able to feel safe, secure and happy in their own home. Most people, thankfully, are reasonably considerate neighbours, and although we might have a bit of a grumble about them occasionally, on the whole we get along perfectly well. In some cases though, neighbours from hell can make your life a misery. This site has been written to guide you through the maze of issues that can crop up in an everyday neighbourhood, help you deal with troublesome neighbours and hopefully become a better neighbour yourself!

So you’ve got new neighbours?

OK, so you’ve moved into your new home, or new people have moved in next door. It’s all a little bit unsettling, but you can make it work right from the start if you have the right approach.

There’s more to being a good neighbour than just not being noisy. Why not approach people as soon as you can, if it’s you who’s the new arrival perhaps a moving in party to which all the neighbours are invited, a cordial hello if you see the neighbours on the street or an introduction would go down well.

If you’re the newcomer, it pays to make a little bit of effort right at the start to get to know your neighbours, perhaps become part of a local group or get involved in a Neighbourhood Watch scheme. You can also welcome people by inviting them for a cup of tea, telling them about local activities, or just saying hello. It all helps make the neighbourhood more friendly right from the start and opens up channels of communication for the future.

Minor Irritation or Big Issue?

With the best will in the world, the ideal of a harmonious neighbourhood doesn’t always prove to be possible. It might start with the occasional party, a bit of loud music and general lack of consideration, but there’s no denying that if you don’t nip a problem in the bud it can escalate to the point where you’re not speaking and a minor disagreement has escalated out of proportion.

The most common neighbourhood disputes include noise, arguments over boundaries (who should repair a shared fence for example) children trespassing on your garden and causing damage to your property, parking inconsiderately, messy and unkempt gardens and generally being noisy. This sort of thing is best dealt with by calm discussion if possible.

When things become problematic

Speak to the parents about noisy or inconsiderate children where possible. If the children are older or generally hanging around as a gang and being a nuisance, you might want to have a chat with them – if they are just being annoying rather than menacing. If they really are causing a problem it’s time to start keeping a diary, collecting evidence and involving the police or authorities, but that’s really only a last resort. Most gangs of teenagers are pretty harmless, just bored.

It pays to try and thrash out a boundary dispute, parking disagreement or similar without involving anyone legal if possible, because once you start involving professionals and talking about legal action the whole thing starts to become prohibitively expensive and a point of principle can end up eating up all of your life savings.

Turn it Down!

Noise, whether it’s from children, pets or parties can be stressful, especially if it’s repeated. Again, a quiet word with an offending neighbour should be your first choice. If the neighbours are aggressive, approach the issue with a short note through the door. There’s always a possibility that they don’t realise how thin the walls are, and will be mortified that your peace and quiet is being disrupted.

Most people don’t set out to deliberately cause stress. Similarly, if it’s a one-off party in the back garden that’s upset you, or a couple of hours DIY on an otherwise quiet bank holiday, it’s irritating but it’s just part of life. Making a big deal out of a small incident could be considered as unreasonable on your part and ruin an otherwise good neighbourly relationship. It’s all about give and take.

Noise Pollution

For excessive noise, there are laws governing noise pollution. You’d need to contact whoever deals with noise pollution at your local council - in many councils it’s the Environmental Health Department. They will probably ask you to keep a diary of the noise, and in some cases will come out to measure the decibel level if the problem is bad.

The council can decide to issue a noise abatement notice on the offending neighbours if they consider the noise levels to be “prejudicial to health or a nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990”. If they do this, they can either ask the neighbours to stop making the noise in question completely or restrict it to certain times of the day.

Involving the Authorities

Unfortunately, not everyone is as reasonable as we might like, and it can be frustrating when repeated requests for the noise to be turned down are treated with indifference, or parents ignore the fact that their little darlings are happily running around on your flowerbeds on a regular basis. The next step after a polite request (or two) is to escalate the dispute and contact other authorities if necessary. If the property is a student house, or privately rented, you could contact the landlord, and if you’re both local authority or housing association tenants you could contact the housing officer. Some areas have official tenant’s associations you could ask for help too. If the homes are privately owned, there are other options.

Anti-Social behaviour

If the problems are more serious, or you suspect that there might be criminal activity going on, it’s going to take more than a quiet word to sort the problem out.

If you think there may be illegal drug activities going on in a neighbour’s home, you need to be sure of exactly what you’re accusing them of before you drop yourself in it (and the neighbours) unnecessarily. Keep a diary – include times, dates, locations and descriptions of people coming in and out. Then, if you still believe there’s criminal/drug related activity taking place, approach your local police. They should be able to guarantee that your identity is kept confidential.

If the anti-social behaviour is more general, you have other options. Contacting your local police, housing association, local authority housing officer or ‘anti-social behaviour co-ordinator’ are all options that you could take. Before you leap into accusing anyone of anything though, think about whether you may be overreacting. For example, the menacing gang of teens that are hanging around the street corner could just be a group of bored teenagers looking for something to do and larking around.

What about Mediation?

You might not have heard about mediation – it’s like a logical next step between neighbours when communication has broken down but the situation isn’t irretrievable. Mediation can be helpful if you’re unable to agree about a boundary dispute, can’t decide who should fix a broken wall or fence, or for more everyday issues like noise, dogs barking, problems with children, even accusations of victimisation or bullying.

The good thing about taking a neighbourhood dispute to mediation is that the person who mediates is not only a professional but is also completely impartial and can see both sides of the dispute. It’s not just a case of a judge deciding who’s right as in legal action, both parties are encouraged to come to an agreement and stick to it. It can also be legally binding.

If it gets serious...

There will always be cases where nothing works. For anti-social behaviour that won’t stop, harassment, violence, stalking or anything else serious, sometimes your only course of action is to inform the police. They will keep your details confidential, and may ask you to make a note of incidents in a diary so that they can build up evidence against the offending neighbour(s). If this happens to you, don’t see it as a failure – unfortunately, despite our best efforts, sometimes people just aren’t reasonable, and there’s not much we can do about it if we want to preserve our sanity.

When all else fails...

If you really are at the end of your tether, you might think that the only way out is to move. If you’re in rented accommodation it’s not a problem – you can ask to be moved if you’re a local authority or housing association tenant. If you rent privately you can just give your notice according to your tenancy agreement and off you go. If you own the property though, it becomes more difficult.

When you sell your house, you do have to tell your solicitor if there have ever been any disputes with your neighbours. So if the situation has become so serious that you actually want to move house, you can pretty much guarantee that it’s going to have to be recorded.

Your property, your rights?

You might think that if you own a property, you can more or less do whatever you like within your own four walls. Up to a point, yes, your home is your castle, but planning laws and general consideration dictate that you can’t just ride roughshod over your neighbours’ wishes.

When you’re planning building work, in many cases your neighbours will be given an opportunity to object to it, so it’s a good idea to sound them out first. Certain types of building work also need your neighbour’s permission, for example anything that involves a party wall between your two properties.

It’s general courtesy to let the neighbours know if you’re planning any work that might disrupt them too, so if you’re expecting skips or lorries outside (maybe in a shared parking area) or you’re going to be noisy, a quick visit to the neighbours to forewarn them will be appreciated. You might even need to get their permission for a tradesman to get access to their property, so advance warning isn’t just polite, it can be essential. In the same vein, if you’re planning a party, having a lot of visitors or doing anything likely to cause noise and disruption, it’s wise to let the neighbours know in advance. Maybe even invite them? The chances of a complaint to the council about the noise levels are vastly reduced if you give them enough notice to go out – and only the most churlish neighbour would complain about a party that they’d been invited to!