Citizens' Advice Bureau

Anyone had any recent experiences with their local CAB?  I am thinking of calling mine shortly but am not sure if it will be a good use of time.

In other matters, anyone know a good way to deal with incredibly noisy neighbors?  These are 2-3 young men who come in at 3AM (likely drunk although I admit I have not seen them), play music at top volume, shout, throw things, etc.    I have not yet gone down the route of talking directly to them (I'm a bit scared I admit) but was thinking first talk to the concierge.

Oh and the CAB question is for another issue! This one with the council.

We've dealt with our CAB a few times on differing issues. I've found them to be very helpful and informative.  If they can't help, they usually can point you in the right direction of someone who can.

Noisy neighbours: call their landlord? call local council? i'm assuming talking to them directly doesn't work? talk to police?

Whatever you do, best of luck!

In other matters, anyone know a good way to deal with incredibly noisy neighbors?  These are 2-3 young men who come in at 3AM (likely drunk although I admit I have not seen them), play music at top volume, shout, throw things, etc.    I have not yet gone down the route of talking directly to them (I'm a bit scared I admit) but was thinking first talk to the concierge.

Oh no! And I thought that we had it bad with the dancing elephants we have upstairs.

Oh no, I hope this gets resolved pretty quickly and painlessy. That's the problem with this side by side, underneath and over the top kind of living. I'm in a semi and although my neighbours are pretty good, it does aggravate me when I hear them, I feel like they live with me and I paid way too much money for this house to have built in roomies. Good Luck.

Oh no! And I thought that we had it bad with the dancing elephants we have upstairs.

i think some of their friends live above me too!!  but they are foreign (nothing wrong with that...i'm not intending to offend anyone) and their "normal" voices sound like a constant argument!!  oh...and they love to run their washing machine (which is right above our bed) at 2am!!! 

Some larger councils have 'environmental wardens' who issue on the spot fines for loud behaviour at inappropriate hours.  Edinburgh has them, b/c much of its housing stock is flats and semis and it's a strain on the police w/all the noise issues in the city.  They give out £100 tickets to people who come in at 3AM and start blaring music, owners of dogs who bark nonstop, etc. 

If they're having an argument, I'd phone the police.

You can see if you council has environmental wardens by checking out their website.

Meanwhile, start keeping a log of all the times you are disturbed by the noise.  Some people in Fife Council even kept a video diary that later resulted in the neighbours being evicted.

I'm with twisted I used CAB with matters regarding sorting out my visa..perhaps contact your council ..I'm guessing the CAB will probably say the same.

could you nicely write a letter saying can they be a bit more mindful then if they continue keep an journal on the number of times they disrupted you then go to the council with that?

Yeah when it happened Thursday I was thinking of using my camera to record the noise as evidence.  I don't know if a letter or talking to them will do much - they seem to be what I would call 'frat guys' or what you'd call here 'wide boys' maybe. 

I don't know who their landlord is because we live in flats that individuals own - so there is a different landlord for each flat so to speak.

I have thought about going over there when it's happening but who wants to go over at 3AM in your pajamas to speak to some drunk guys?  Not me and apparently not DH either.   

I'm guessing the police would probably laugh at me if I called them?  But don't know - haven't tried.

Our walls are very thin - you can literally hear people going to the bathroom above us!  It's really gross.  But I'd rather have that than being woken up at 3AM with this nonsense, especially on a night before I have to get up for work!  They were much quieter since the first of the year (before then it was almost every weekend) but I've had enough.  It is probably one of the very few reasons why we'd move from this flat!

Honestly, see if your council has environmental wardens.  If you don't want to confront them, just tell the coppers or whoever that you buzzed their buzzer, knocked on their door, etc. but they didn't answer. 

Your council has probably had to deal w/this.  A LOT.  And has procedures in place for handling widdos like that - they probably just try to act wide.


And no, the cops don't laugh, they will come out.  We had a neighbour who used to wake us w/drunken Eminem karoke at 3 or 4AM.  But one night, we heard the polis instead, telling them their voices sounded like nails on a chalkboard and to shut up and go to bed.  We weren't the only ones who heard them!