We have an 83 or 84 year old neighbour who is said to have schizophrenia. I live with my mum and my brother and we live in the UK.
He has it in for my brother, accusing him of all kinds of weird things like “he’s stealing my water supply” “he’s blocking my TV” “he’s cloning my phone” “he’s going out into the garden at night making wolf noises to wake me up” (we have foxes visit our garden often, and you can hear them in the streets also).
Last year he started blasting his radio every day from 7:30 AM until 10:30 to 11:30 PM. Then, on most nights at 1:30 AM he’ll set off an extremely loud siren and then start screaming and occasionally throwing stuff at the wall/his room. My mum has cancer and she really does not need this.
I went over to his house about the noise, giving him the benefit of the doubt because he’s hearing impaired and has hearing aids, but then he explained to me he’s doing this on purpose to stop my brother from sleeping during the day because my brother is “going into the garden at night making these wolf noises to wake me up”.
We ended up calling the police on him last year, and shortly after that, he stopped and was silent. We had 8 months of silence and now he suddenly started again. The radio, the sirens and the screaming at 1:30 AM. We’ve done nothing to him.
My mum found out that the radio or TV (whatever it is) isn’t just in one room, it’s in EVERY room of his house (we live in a joined house). She found out that when it goes off, they all go off at once, so my mum concluded he has his radio/TV hooked up to some speaker system aimed at the walls. He knows my mum isn’t well and he’s been doing this for 2 weeks straight now. It’s so loud you can hear it over EVERYTHING, even games, films and music. I can hear it in the garden even. Constant low frequency noise that reverberates in every room in our house.
We did call the police Friday night and he hasn’t done the siren at 1:30 AM since but he wasn’t setting the siren off every night before that either. It’s keeping us all on edge. He doesn’t have a wife but his niece occasionally visits to tidy up his garden. We don’t have her contact info though. He apparently refuses to take his meds because he is the type of person to think he’s always right.
Sorry for the long post but I can’t sleep because I’m on edge about being woken up soon after going to sleep. Wasn’t sure where else to post this where I can get some quick replies.
Phone the police again, phone the council and make a noise complaint, then phone citizens advice bureau for free advice on where you stand. If he is a tenant complain to the landlord as well. Very sorry to hear all this and hope your Mum is ok because #fuckcancer
Thank you. Will do. I was worried the police won’t do anything because it’s not blasting at night. I’ll give them a call! Mum’s doing the best she can and I’m doing my best to take care of her
Most jurisdictions, including councils and their relevant bylaws, prohibit any type of nuisance behaviour. It matters not if the nuisance manifests during day time or not. What matters in context of noise is frequency, duration, volume, intensity, droning and pitch. You, as property owner or tenant, have a right to the peaceful enjoyment of your property.
The council’s environmental health officer is typically the appropriate POC for these matters. They may ask you to provide a journal of events (you can write this retrospectively if this is a regular occurrence), and/or they may choose to attend themselves to verify during times in question or if you advise them as such.
Out of council hours, they usually ask for the police to be called so there’s a record/independent witness. There is nothing stopping you from calling the police during daytime.
The council may ask you if you’re comfortable to try and talk to the offending party to resolve the issue. Decline this vehemently and state that you fear for your safety (especially since this guy appears to be mentally ill!). Let them deal with the matter, it’s their job.
I feel bad for the bloke who’s ill, but conversely you do not need to suffer from his illness, and neither does your mum.
I wish you best of luck.
If all else fails phone the local newspaper and contact your mp, good luck
If you own the house, and you live in the UK, then bear in mind you legally need to disclose formal disputes with neighbours when selling the property. Might not be worth the hit to the property value from getting the council involved when in practical terms there is very little they can/will do.
I’d echo what others have said about phoning the police and social services. Maybe try to catch his neice next time she’s round.