He’s elderly (84 or 85). My house is joined with his. There’s a third house that is partially joined to his and they recently had a new kitchen fitted, so there was a lot of drilling in the morning. Since then, he’s been blasting the radio on what sounds like a subwoofer aimed against the wall every morning at 7 AM. I live with my brother and my mum, and it wakes us all up. It’s a very deep bassy noise so it’s hard to block out or drown out. It goes on until 1 PM.
He is doing this on purpose. He did the same thing in 2023 and I went over to his house assuming he didn’t know he was being loud and politely told him to turn his TV down in the morning because it’s waking us up. Then he told me he’s doing it to wake my brother up because “every night at 1:30 AM he wakes me up making wolf noises in the garden so I’ll wake him up too since he’s obviously not sleeping during the night since he’s making noises all night” (foxes frequently visit our garden at night). He’s also accused my brother of “cloning my phone”, “stealing my water”, “stealing my food deliveries”, and other crackpot things.
All Summer this year he was blasting one of those 120 dB sirens at 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30 AM each night. He’d then scream at the wall for a minute or two after sounding the siren, seemingly to do with my brother. Sometimes he’d then wake up at 7 AM and immediately go and blast the radio all day. He would also come outside into his garden with a frying pan calling my brother’s name. The sirens stopped in July.
The kitchen work on the third house is done and was completed on the 24th of November, but they’ve left a fridge next to my neighbour’s drive. A few days ago he came outside and my mum heard him yell “move your fridge, [brother’s name]!”.
In August and September and much of October he was quiet but now he’s blasting the radio multiple days in a row for weeks on end. I have health problems and don’t need this. I have other things going on in my life and recently this was the straw that broke the camel’s back and I had a mental breakdown on the 1st of December which caused me to knock stuff off a shelf which caused a very old and very sentimental item of mine to break (I did not mean to break it, just to knock stuff off the shelf). I feel on edge because I can’t really sleep early because he also blasts his TV until 12 PM. It’s not just the loud noise, it’s also the reason he’s doing it.
We have complained numerous times to the council (environmental health), as well as the police. They have sent him letters but he has ignored all of them and continues the harassment. He is obviously refusing to take his medication.
He has also called the police on us and we had two police officers arrive at our door because of his slander. All 3 of us are not well, we don’t make any noise, and need our sleep. I don’t want to move as this was my grandparent’s house that was given to us by them after they died.
We are at wit’s end here. We just want the harassment to stop. Is there a way we could get him sectioned under the mental health act? From what we know, he stopped taking his medication in 2020. This is when most of the bizarre texts my mum received from him began (she still has them all saved).
edit: For non UK readers, being “sectioned” means being involuntarily hospitalised and forced to take medication
Make the police do some work for a change. The next time it happens, call 999 while it’s happening. Tell them honestly you’re concerned for his welfare. And keep doing it until some resolution happens. It might take a few 999 calls but eventually they’ll have to do something.
I swear I’ve seen this post before
Did you call the police when he sounded the siren at night? Like 999? From what I read here there is enough there to get him cited if not arrested.
You need to keep a paper log of every incident. Keep it factual, just answering the w questions, no “dickhead was a dickhead again”, just “Mr Smith turned on his radio at very loud volume at 6:30am on 6th December.” “I asked Mr Smith about the loud noise on 6th December at 6:30am when I saw him outside in his driveway at 9:23am. He told me he did it on purpose.”
I would call 999 for every noise complaint in the night and every threatening remark made against your brother at any time. You need a stronger paper trail for people to do something. You’ve complained to your council and you’ve talked to the police. It seems that wasn’t enough.
Don’t retaliate with loud music or deliberate harassment yourself. It might be hard not to. But you need to be spotless victims. You don’t want a ‘let’s look at both sides’ to give the impression you provoked anything at any time.
How is the third semi detached party feeling about this old guy? They must feel some of the nuisance? Surely they could corroborate that your brother isn’t doing werewolf things at night? See if you could get them to write letters or call the police as well. The more neighbours join in, the better (but don’t start a poster campaign, it should look “natural”).
Is there something that can be done to stop foxes from coming into the gardens? If they are the “werewolves” here then this could be a way to root out that delusion.
Does the old guy have family? Is there a way to reach out to them? Not in “reign in your fucking dickhead father!” but “we are really worried about your father’s mental state because he keeps making outlandish and unsubstantiated statements.”
Can you google if there is a solicitor in your area that will maybe hear your case for no or a low fee to see if you can take this to court? Either the old dickhead or the council for not doing anything about him? That’s where the paper log might be useful.
The only word of warning I would leave here is this: you said you’re all not at your best. Taking legal action will be additionally stressful and will cost money and time. Another thing that would cost money and time is selling the house and moving somewhere else. In the interest of your mental health, you should probably discuss this first, which path to follow. And although it is cynical, you also need to factor in that this problem will resolve itself naturally, probably within the next decade.
Neighbourhood disputes are not great. Your home should be your castle and somebody is shooting cannonballs at it. I’ve seen one case in my parent’s friend group that started with a fence encroaching on the other property, more than a decade of lawyers going back and forth, accusations of tyres being slashed, police calls for any minor infraction. This can consume people. Don’t get consumed.
Not from the UK, but according to Peep Show you can get anyone sectioned.
No, but you if he’s going to call the police on you should definitely call the police and make noise complaint and harassment complaint so they come and they can come inside and hear what it’s like and tell him to lower the volume and stop and mind his own business. He won’t listen, but there will be a record and witnesses so if he does need to be sectioned it isn’t his word against yours.
