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Noise complaint


keeper96
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Evening all, 

me and my partner have just received a letter of noise complaint about our dogs barking. 

The story behind this is my bitch came into heat so I put the dog in the kennel during the day on the 9th match to separate them and he started to bark, I spent about 3 hours on and off with the hose pipe out of the kitchen window until he stopped howling. This was between 3pm and 6pm. This occurred for perhaps 3-4 days but the barking was not constant, 2-3 minutes every 20 minutes ish. 

Since this has happened I have received 2 visits from the rspca for a black chow chow that has been abandoned in the kennel, both officers seeing that I have lemon spaniels and being impressed with the kennel overall so nothing has cans of that. 

We have now received the complaint letter from the council, stating they received a complaint on the 18th March, when the dogs have not been in the kennel since the 12-13th. 

I also have footage showing my dogs just chilling in the back yard while other dogs in the neighbourhood bark solidly for 10 minutes, I also have footage of a neighbours dog barking at mine through the fence and my 2 just standing watching. 

Do I have any grounds to find out who complained and counter claim against them for harassment? 

I have suspicions who it may be, and I’ve even been to the houses on my street explaining the situation before I recieved the noise complaint. 

I would normally just ignore this situation as I know that no matter how they investigate they will find nothing. 

But we are new to the area (6 months) and are already having issues with our neighbour, who I believe filed all the complaints, and I believe she is also the reason the previous owner moved on after talking to other locals. 

Any advice greatly appreciated. 

Jamie 

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Best ignored and left to die down.  

Any serious issues with neighbours should be declared when selling, so best avoided.  

 

The council wont do anything. 

 

If your dog was barking get it sorted, it’s bloody annoying and if doing for 3-4 mins every 20 mins that’s an issue. 

Other people’s dogs barking is annoying as well but that doesn’t make it ok for any dog to bark.

 

Good luck mate, 

 

 

also tell usabout your mad neighbour, that’s the story we all want to know really 😂

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The barking was for a total of 4 hours over 4 days if you do the maths, purely because he wanted to get to the bitch in the house, any other time you won’t hear a peep from either of them, as soon as she passed the point where she would stand he stopped barking and hasn’t made a noise since. 

Also, it probably irritates me more than anyone else when they do bark, hence wasting 4 days hiding with the hose....

 

the neighbour is just the the usual, complaining about parking (doesn’t have a car), complaining about us coming and going at strange times, I work shifts and the las works in a bar (both quiet and discreet) she tries taking our bins if she hasn’t put hers out and just generally pleasant things like that haha 

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Ignore it. 

If you rent they will start to annoy your landlord, if you own the place and want to sell before they do you will have to declare issues (which will tell people you have crazy neighbours so they will run a mile).

 I lived one place where the neighbours dogs barked all day every day, within weeks of moving in I found myself going bonkers but after the chap who owned them appeared under my Landy whilst I was fighting with the handbrake cable, got stuck in, and turned out to be a fantastic chap the dogs stopped bothering me. They still barked all the time but for whatever reason it ceased to annoy me. 

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That’s what I like about our neighborhood. To the right of me is a professional alcohol drag racer.  He runs top fuel up and down the street while getting ready for races.  The neighbor across the street flys helicopters with out a pilot license and crashed it and  propeller pieces into my house.  We don’t call the police here.   If fact they got mad at me when I refused to press charges in the helicopter crash.  But I have been known to blow cars up with tannerite and he never called the police on me so it’s a mutual respect thing. Here is the tail section of the helicopter landed about 40 yard from my house.  So if he ever does complain I will politely remind him that he almost hit my house wo h a helicopter he bought on eBay.  

67A3574C-9641-403E-839B-567F9472442B.jpeg

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3 hours ago, keeper96 said:

Evening all, 

me and my partner have just received a letter of noise complaint about our dogs barking. 

The story behind this is my bitch came into heat so I put the dog in the kennel during the day on the 9th match to separate them and he started to bark, I spent about 3 hours on and off with the hose pipe out of the kitchen window until he stopped howling. This was between 3pm and 6pm. This occurred for perhaps 3-4 days but the barking was not constant, 2-3 minutes every 20 minutes ish. 

Since this has happened I have received 2 visits from the rspca for a black chow chow that has been abandoned in the kennel, both officers seeing that I have lemon spaniels and being impressed with the kennel overall so nothing has cans of that. 

We have now received the complaint letter from the council, stating they received a complaint on the 18th March, when the dogs have not been in the kennel since the 12-13th. 

I also have footage showing my dogs just chilling in the back yard while other dogs in the neighbourhood bark solidly for 10 minutes, I also have footage of a neighbours dog barking at mine through the fence and my 2 just standing watching. 

Do I have any grounds to find out who complained and counter claim against them for harassment? 

I have suspicions who it may be, and I’ve even been to the houses on my street explaining the situation before I recieved the noise complaint. 

I would normally just ignore this situation as I know that no matter how they investigate they will find nothing. 

But we are new to the area (6 months) and are already having issues with our neighbour, who I believe filed all the complaints, and I believe she is also the reason the previous owner moved on after talking to other locals. 

Any advice greatly appreciated. 

Jamie 

So you've filmed other dogs barking in your area as a defence for yours barking. What do you intend to do with the footage? You may have more than one neighbour complaining and you will be adding to their complaints if you ever use the footage you have.

If you don't understand why your neighbours do not want to hear  your dogs barking perhaps you need to sit back and consider the situation.

2 hours ago, Lloyd90 said:

Best ignored and left to die down.  

Any serious issues with neighbours should be declared when selling, so best avoided.  

The council wont do anything. 

If your dog was barking get it sorted, it’s bloody annoying and if doing for 3-4 mins every 20 mins that’s an issue. 

Other people’s dogs barking is annoying as well but that doesn’t make it ok for any dog to bark.

Good luck mate, 

 

 

also tell usabout your mad neighbour, that’s the story we all want to know really 😂

A little consideration is all it needs!

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4 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

So you've filmed other dogs barking in your area as a defence for yours barking. What do you intend to do with the footage? You may have more than one neighbour complaining and you will be adding to their complaints if you ever use the footage you have.

If you don't understand why your neighbours do not want to hear  your dogs barking perhaps you need to sit back and consider the situation.

A little consideration is all it needs!

I believe you need to go back and read the original post properly, 

i understand why people do t like dogs barking, I’ve even been to the neighbours before any complaints where put in, he barked for a period of 4 days, for approximately 1 hour over the whole day. 

I explained to them that the bitch was in heat, and I was doing everything to keep him quiet, hence why he was barking for short periods of 3ish minutes, the time it takes to put down the paint brush, trowel, etc. And get to the back garden and soak him, making him shut up. 

Other than this short time period THEY HAVE NEVER BARKED 

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37 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

I've read your original post, your dog barked, someone complained and you feel it is unreasonable to do so. 

I feel it is unreasonable to call the rspca twice and then report straight to the council when I’ve been round explaining the situation and the issue stopped 4 days before a complaint was filed. 

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I have had dogs for forty five years and I have never allowed them to bark. Barking dogs are a nuisance whether you are a dog lover or not.

Had I been your neighbour I would have been straight round to see you and if you let the problem persist our relationship would suffer.

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What aren’t people getting? 

I’ve had dogs for 10 years, this is the very first time they’ve barked, as soon as it started I worked on stopping the issue, as we all know nothing is immediate with dogs, especially when it involves their base instincts. 

I immediately went to the neighbours and explained the situation and what I was doing to remedy it, 

what has annoyed me is the fact that the complaints are coming from the “nuisance” neighbour, who has a history of causing trouble, and has basically accused me of neglecting the dogs hence rspca visits, the complaint is an irritation but not massive as if they do investigate they will find no barking from my property. BECAUSE THE BITCH IS OUT OF SEASON. 

 

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I manage a noise service in a local authority.

They will not confirm who complained, and there will no be enough grounds for police to consider harassment based on what you are saying.

The issue appears to be resolved so won't go anywhere.

People's tolerance to noise varies greatly, and the Council have a legal duty to investigate to determine if a stat nuisance is occurring. Most the time noise is an irritant rather than actionable nuisance. The LA can also take action against multiple households if each are contributing to the occurance of stat nuisance, so the 'everyone else's dogs are barking too' won't necessarily wash - but most L.A. officers are unaware of those provisions.

You appear to have resolved the issue, and bearing in mind the evidence required to pursue a case I don't see this going anywhere.

T

 

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8 hours ago, Tford said:

I manage a noise service in a local authority.

They will not confirm who complained, and there will no be enough grounds for police to consider harassment based on what you are saying.

The issue appears to be resolved so won't go anywhere.

People's tolerance to noise varies greatly, and the Council have a legal duty to investigate to determine if a stat nuisance is occurring. Most the time noise is an irritant rather than actionable nuisance. The LA can also take action against multiple households if each are contributing to the occurance of stat nuisance, so the 'everyone else's dogs are barking too' won't necessarily wash - but most L.A. officers are unaware of those provisions.

You appear to have resolved the issue, and bearing in mind the evidence required to pursue a case I don't see this going anywhere.

T

 

This ^^^^^^^

Unfortunately for you, you have a less than tolerant neighbour. Despite the fact that you and I might feel a friendly `chat` might solve the issue, a lot of people either don't want the confrontation (as they see it), or they just like to complain.

It's happended - you feel agrieved, the complainant probably feels totally justified. 

I get where you are coming from but common sense and civility don't always win the day. 

That's why I live in the country and all 3 neightbours have dogs.

 

Edited by hedge
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Dont think he could buy the spray stuff to put around the bitches rear end because he isn't 100% sure who the bitch that complained is. Ignore it - the complainant has to get video evidence of your actual dog barking for an unreasonable amount of time on several different occasions before the wheels of the council begin to slowly grind - the RSPCA have no rights whatsoever to enter your property as far as I know so you can ignore them as well.

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11 hours ago, Tford said:

I manage a noise service in a local authority.

They will not confirm who complained, and there will no be enough grounds for police to consider harassment based on what you are saying.

The issue appears to be resolved so won't go anywhere.

People's tolerance to noise varies greatly, and the Council have a legal duty to investigate to determine if a stat nuisance is occurring. Most the time noise is an irritant rather than actionable nuisance. The LA can also take action against multiple households if each are contributing to the occurance of stat nuisance, so the 'everyone else's dogs are barking too' won't necessarily wash - but most L.A. officers are unaware of those provisions.

You appear to have resolved the issue, and bearing in mind the evidence required to pursue a case I don't see this going anywhere.

T

 

Good sound professional advice, I've been on the receiving end, and believe me we all have breaking point. Who says the council can't do anything ???

 

How many clay grounds are shut due to noise pollution???

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28 minutes ago, Dougy said:

Good sound professional advice, I've been on the receiving end, and believe me we all have breaking point. Who says the council can't do anything ???

 

How many clay grounds are shut due to noise pollution???

Cheers.

Councils can and will do 'stuff' where they have the grounds too - we're all to often the target for critisism either for not acting (where there's not enough evidence) or for acting (and stopping someone's fun). Restrictions on clay grounds are just one tiny example of noise controls being applied... in fact where satisfied of a stat nuisance councils have a legal duty to serve an abatement notice. 

That being said there are some Councils that seem a little ineffectual - housing associations and tenancy action are by far the worst I've seen in my time.

Edited by Tford
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  • 5 months later...

So to update this the council where in touch again within a month of the original complaint saying that they found no grounds for the complaint to be made. 

However this has now happened 3 times in all. 

I clearly have a disgruntled neighbour but no body is saying anything in person. 

Surely after 3 investigations all coming out in my favour there is something I can do to find the identity of the complainant and take legal action? Surely this must class as harassment? 

3 False complaints in 6 months? 

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