I live in a terraced house, recently had new neighbours move in next door with young children.
Now the weathers nicer and days are longer they’re outside for long periods of time screaming and kicking a football repeatedly against their garden wall. The sound vibrates through my house really loudly and I’m finding it very hard to deal with, I’m autistic and loud, repeated sounds and sounds I can’t stop/control are very distressing to me and I can’t just ignore it no matter how hard I try.
They’re not kicking the ball against my fence or house and they’ve every right to play in their garden, so asking them not to isn’t a reasonable option so I’m after some tips or advice on how to try and adjust and live with the noise. At the moment I’m just putting music on really loudly to block it out which doesn’t trigger me as I enjoy music and I can control the volume and start/stopping of the sound, but I worry that’s unfair on my neighbour on the other side if they can hear my music.
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How comfortable are you with ear defenders or ear plugs?
I’ve got neighbours like that. They’ve broken five plant pots as well with their footballs.
The thud, thud, thud, screaming, shouting and shrieking is driving me nuts.
All I can do is sympathise OP. I don’t know what to do either.
There’s a bloody great field a few yards away where the kids could play without disturbing anyone, but they don’t.
Thinking outside the box a bit, you could buy a portable goal, and be the cool neighbour who offers to let them borrow it. https://www.amazon.co.uk/BAGAIL-Football-Portable-Assemble-Recreational/dp/B0CX5BX3HJ
Then you would only have to hear them when they miss the goal.
Knock down the garden wall and replace with a thorny hedge. Or if it isn’t your hedge perhaps look at simply installing some kind of spring based cushioning under your house.
Get a dog. They’ll bark at the noise so much you’ll forget about the ball!
I think it’s reasonable for you to politely go over to your neighbours and let them know how loud and distracting this sound is. Explain you realise they have a right to play in their garden but if there’s a way you can come up with a solution together. Perhaps take a small peace offering with you (just some chocolates, or sweets for the kids) to show youre not going over to be the grumpy neighbour.
Totally with you on this – it’s such a jarring noise like someone invisible following you round the house and clapping their hands next to your ear when you least expect it.
Way I see it, you’ve got two options:
Deal with the noise – one way which helps a bit is white noise because it densitizes your own ears – it also is unlikely to bother the neighbours. Another option is ear plugs although that comes at some cost to your own enjoyment of your property
Negotiate with the neighbours – either simply asking nicely for a compromise. Kids need to play but perhaps they don’t need to kick the ball against the wall? Or you could go for passive aggressive “I’m autistic and the noise of your kids playing football bothers me so I will be covering the sound up with music – hopefully it won’t bother you. I’ll turn it down when the kids aren’t playing football.”
Normal form is to join in, twat it away whilst muttering “‘ave it”
Why don’t you listen to the music using headphones? Or get some noise cancelling headphones to block the noise when it’s too annoying and you don’t want to listen to music. Also if you’re watching something at the time use headphones. Very useful item
Get a decent pair of noise cancelling headphones and enjoy some relaxing music!
You’re right that you can’t really do anything about ‘reasonble’ noise (and the great thing about younger kids is that it tends to quieten down by mid-evening).
During lockdown I was in a similar post with upstairs neighbours. I invested in noise-csncelling headphones. That way you can have the music you like, as loud as you like, plus white noise cancelling out any remaining background noise. It will let in phone calls, alarms etc, so you won’t miss anything important.
If normal headphones are uncomfortable for you, the headband version people for exercise and sleep might be worth a try.
Not much you can do if they aren’t even kicking against your wall.
You are completely within your rights to “quiet enjoyment” of your home. You should not have to put up with a ball being kicked against your wall every evening.
The first step is to appeal to the parents to get it to stop.
Escalation is through the council’s Environmental Health Officer. This might qualify as a statutory noise nuisance.
Keep a diary of occurances as evidence.
This has to stop, whether you are autistic or not.
Noise cancelling earphones are a gift from god. They will make you completely deaf though so be ready for someone in the house to scare the living shit out of you.
edit: you can still listen to other things on the headset or even tune out a select noise.