If your neighbour is having work done privately on their home that you feel is too noisy or inappropriate, you can take certain steps to reduce the noise or restrict it to certain hours.
If your neighbour has approached you or gotten in touch before work starts, it might be best to chat with them about the noise. It’s the least time-consuming way to please both parties before lodging a formal complaint. The neighbour, for example, might not realise the impact of the noise, and you can do your part to help them understand your concerns.
If talking with your neighbour becomes unreasonable, you can contact your local council’s Environmental Health team to file a noise complaint or contact your neighbour’s landlord.
If the noise is excessive and outside of normal working hours on weekdays (8 am to 6 pm) and weekends (8 am to 1 pm on Saturdays), you’ll be in your right to make a formal complaint and enforce noise regulations by issuing a noise abatement notice to your neighbours.
When disputes occur, about 80% of cases are resolved through the involvement of a party wall surveyor without needing to go to court.
If you’re dealing with construction noise from next door, and the works involve a party wall, you’ll have several more options to address the situation. For example, the building owner should have informed you, the adjoining owner, of the planned works, and a Party Wall Agreement should have been drawn up. Not been formally informed of works? Click here.
First, if you have a Party Wall Agreement in place, it should specify the working hours and noise restrictions. Review the agreement to see if the construction violates any terms. If it is, you can raise this with the adjoining owner or their surveyor to do something about it.
Contacting the surveyor appointed in the process can intervene if the noise is unreasonable or if any of the construction work is not being carried out in accordance with the agreement.
