EMMA'S & MARK'S NOISE STORY
SETTING :
A semi - detached house, with big, not insulated interior walls, and bedrooms on the side of the joint wall. An unfortunate design.MAIN PROBLEM :
1) Indoor noise - caused by a loud television, played in the master bedroom, and often simultaneously in the recreation room, by the owner of the semi, Ms. X. This problem started about three years ago and has not been solved.
2) Outdoor noise - caused by loud music, played regularly (whenever we go to the backyard) and projected to the garden by the family Y. - the house is about 10" away. The problem started in the summer of 1993 and worsened in 1994.
Otherwise the area is wonderfully quiet, with basically no night traffic, limited weekend traffic, green belt in front of our windows, birds singing, and mostly aged community.HISTORY :
Indoor noise - We had no problem between 1989 - 1991, the first two years after we moved to the house. We heard faint sound of TV in the master bedroom of our neighbour, but it was minimal, and not disturbing. About three years ago, in the summer, we started to hear more TV in the master bedroom and in other rooms of the house. We had the impression that a new, powerful TV was installed, and (or) the old one was moved close to the joint wall in the room on the ground floor. Gradually the noise from the bedroom was getting stronger. One night we were woken up by the three different sources of noise - two TV sets and some music. We called police. Our neighbour did not open the door, but they did turn the noise down.Family X. consists of a mother, a woman of about 60, with three grown up children. A daughter, about 30, and two men between 30 - 35. Both women are on some kind of a pension, a daughter with possible mental problems. She was described as "slow" by the previous owners. Both women don't work. At that time both sons worked in the afternoons and early evenings - one of them is a cook. As a result, the family had rather lively nights, not limited by early rising. Their schedule was opposite ours, as we always had to get up early.
After the police useless appearance we felt that there was no point in calling them again, and we tried to speak with Ms. X. First, she got surprised, and then, angry. She stopped greeting us. The noise level continued high. Video games were played at night with the loud cars racing and other effects. The family has many friends and summer parties at the backyard are the tradition. On one Sunday, a very loud music was played in the house and projected outside. After about 5 hours we called the police. The officers ordered the music turned down. After he left the music was turned up and played loud for 4 hours. A few days later we tried to speak with Ms. X. again. She admitted that it was probably a bit loud, and we ended up on friendlier terms. Since then, there was practically no loud music projected to the garden by the family, although the loud parties continue.
However, the loud TV in the master bedroom and the recreation room bothered us to such point that we ordered an additional insulation of the bedroom wall. Our master bedroom got smaller, the difference in the noise level - minimal, as Ms.X. plays TV with her window wide open, even late at night. Her window is less than 1m away from our window. At that time we tried to call Ms. X. asking her to turn the TV down, especially after 11pm. We also sent her a few notes stressing how bothered we were. These did not produce any results. When phoned, she consistently hung up on me. In the meantime, the two brothers moved out to another house. Ms. X., having some night outings, often left her daughter, L. alone. The young women, bored and full of energy took full advantage of her freedom. She gave us concerts lasting several hours, a few times per week. My son could not sleep (he was 11 - 12 at the time), we had not a single room in the house where her music would not be heard. When called, she hung up.
The summer of 1993 was the worst so far, with the TV keeping us up till very late, or waking us after we were already asleep. When Ms. X. returns late, around 11pm, she opens her window wide and turns the TV on immediately. We started to use earplugs and bought a noise toner, producing the sound of the waterfall. We also started using herbal sedatives to be able to sleep. The stress and feeling of hopelessness continued.
In January 1994, I called inspector S. in the By - Law Department, asking him for help. He asked me whether I was ready to take these people to court. I said no, I hoped to resolve the problem with no court. He discouraged me to do anything by saying that, if approached by him, family X. might get aggravated and things could turn to the worse. I panicked and asked him not to approach my neighbours. I did not dare to ask for any help for another several months, until spring and summer of 1994. We were bothered night after night in the bedroom. On top of that the TV in the recreation room was played so loud that we heard it in the whole house. With no quiet place, I was so frustrated that I called inspector S. and asked him to speak with Ms. X. and eventually to give her a warning letter. This did not happen until early fall of 1994. Finally the letter of warning was given to Ms. X., but it did not change her behaviour. In fact one night the TV was so loud that we called the police again. This time the officer was very sympathetic and forced Ms. X. to open the door. The warning by police did not change a thing.
In December of 1994, after the first meeting of the anti - noise group, my conversation with inspector S. was much more firm. I told him that more people with similar problems in the nearest neighbourhood complained about the lack of help. A few hours later he informed me about the mediation centre, St. Stephen's House, where they would try to get the two parties together. The mediation did not take place. At the initial meeting with St. Stephen's volunteers, Ms.X. informed them that she was not interested to participate. For about three weeks after that meeting, till early February of 1995, it seemed that the TV noise level was low. It all went gradually up. On February 7, Ms.X. returned home after 11pm. and woke us up by playing loud music in her bedroom at about 11:30pm. When called, she hung up on me. As of mid February, 1995 we did not take any more actions.
OUTDOOR NOISE :
This is a seasonal problem, caused by a family Y. , our neighbours on the other side of the house. The woman was asked once to turn down her radio, played in the backyard. She got angry and left it playing for hours, after she returned to the house. It happened in the summer of 1993. Since then, she and her sons, one about 16 years old, play very loud music in the house and project it out to the garden whenever they see us there. We do not have a fence between the two houses. The police were called only once, the music was lowered, and again played very loud for hours. We did not do anything about it. The music is played with obvious reason to disturb us. When they start playing we move in. Then, they turn the music down. It is a mental torture to expect the noise to start, as soon as we are noticed. We stopped inviting friends during summer, do not have barbecue any more, and generally try to sneak in and out. It is quite ridiculous. I spoke to owners of the other part of the semi, joint to the Y. family. They are extremely upset, but never called the police, as they do not want to make things worse. They do try to sell the house.