Skip Navigation

Neighbour is deliberately harassing my family by blasting the radio on subwoofers in every room from 7:30 AM till 11:30 AM every day. Can anything be done about this? Me and my family are at wit's end

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.

92 comments
  • Ok, I have been in this situation. I was the crazy schizophrenic neighbour.

    This does not go well for you unless you avail yourself of every avenue to protect yourself. This person is mentally ill and their illness causes them to have delusions about your brother and your family. Whatever they are hearing is making them think that they need to react by terrorizing you. In their mind they are protecting themselves. It is very possible that this escalates to violence.

    You need to communicate regularly with the police and ask if there is a community mental health liason officer who you can be put into contact with. You need to keep a journal of every communication back and forth and every action the neighbour takes against you. Over time keep building a case until you can have the police detain them under whatever mental health laws you have.

    You also need to supply a constant stream of documentation of the behaviour to your landlord. They can take action to preserve their property in the face of a mental illness that very well might burn it down.

    I’m really sorry this is happening to you. Feel sorry for your neighbour if you want but advocate for yourselves and your needs first here.

    • Healthcare professional with some experience in mental health and emergency medicine here: This is the way to go . Your problem is NOT the noise. The noise is a nuisance but not dangerous. The fixation on your brother is. Because there is a high risk here,that once "noise" doesn't cut it from the point of view of the patient, he will resolve to other means.

      As said before:

      • Document everything, make a detailed protocol about everything he does or says towards you.
      • Call the police, especially when he threatens you or your brother or claims he is intruding. Make sure that every member of your household is as polite as possible to the officers. If they refuse to do something accept this but kindly ask for their names or collar numbers and the name of their chief constable. Then write a very polite letter to the CC making it clear that you understand the difficulties the officers face but how you feel threatened and miserable and ask for help and advice to resolve this. (Why being polite? Because then it is nearly impossible for any copper to frame this as a *neighbours dispute" or anything - and coppers in the UK are far more inclined to help "members of the public" they see as pure victims themselves)
      • Depending on where in the UK you live contact your "Single Point of Access" mental health team. They are, well, the single point of access for mental health and by definition also are the contact points for friends,family,etc. of mental health patients.There is a good chance of them already knowing him, so that might help. Also,if your mom gets sicker from the whole ordeal, call her an ambulance - more freely than normal, to get that on the file. (And yes,I know this is a moral grey zone)
      • Call your council both in terms of mental health and nuisance laws. Be nice,but pressure them to do something.
      • Find out who the landlord of the neighbour is (if he doesn't own) and contact him as well as your own landlord.

      Again,let me repeat: The noise is not your problem. The noise is just a symptom of your problem and when the noise goes away and the problem is not resolved something else will come up - very likely something worse.

  • I don't know the laws or systems in place in the UK for this, but I work in 911 dispatch in the US, and I can't imagine that something like this is too radically different across the pond

    As long as the cops in your area are fairly responsive (I know a couple departments in my county will take their sweet-ass time responding to a noise complaints) call every time he does something.

    Yes, you're going to get sick of it, but more importantly the cops are going to get sick of it too. They really don't want to be out at your neighbors house over this every day/week/month/8moths, or however often he does it. Before too long he's going to get hit with fines and other consequences. Once or twice they might issue a warning

    Speak to the officers every time. Make sure they're seeing and hearing what you're seeing and hearing, get it on video if you have to, don't give them an opportunity to write it off because they drove by the house and "didn't hear anything."

    Tell them he's schizophrenic, refusing to take his meds, tell them he's harassing you, that last part is important, tell them you want to file a report for harassment, discuss what your options are- pressing changes, restraining orders, whatever they may be, and pursue them. You'll probably have paperwork and court dates and such, it sucks, but that's how the process works.

    Be prepared for retaliation from him in some form. Get security cameras, try to avoid any contact with him if you can avoid it. He already has delusions that you're conspiring against him, and having the cops show up at his door repeatedly are going to feed right into that, it's not out of the question that he might get violent, or start vandalizing your property.

    Continue to report anything he says and does to you, no matter how small, each incident you document builds a stronger case for more consequences. Every time he accuses your brother of making wolf noises, or hacking his phone, any weird interaction at all, make sure you're documenting it with the police.

    Try to catch his niece when she's over, explain the situation, explain that you're going to have to take legal action if it doesn't stop, see if she can possibly talk sense into him, or possibly if she or other family might be able to pursue some sort of involuntary commitment for him (read up on your local laws about that, I have no idea what they're like in the UK except that I think it's called "sectioning" over there, I suspect that you wouldn't be able to start that process, it would probably need to be done by a relative, the police, or a medical/mental health professional)

    • Totally agree on the harassment angle. That's where you'll get the police to listen. Had to take a similar approach with a paranoid schizophrenic neighbour who equally did not take his meds. The harassment angle allowed them to involve other agencies such as mental health and care workers to improve his situation, and in turn, ours.

    • Thanks for the detailed advice! I appreciate it a ton. We'll keep calling them every time he does this. I've got the radio/TV blasting and the siren/screaming recorded. He is a frail old man, he's almost in an L shape. He did once go out into his garden shouting for my brother (my mum heard it and said it was mostly incomprehensible) with a frying pan in his hand. That was over a year ago. When he yells and screams after playing the siren we can't make out what he's saying. We already have a doorbell camera so if he comes to the door we'll receive a notification about it and it'll be recorded.

      My mum has all his texts he sent her accusing my brother saved. These texts go years back so it's all documented. When his niece comes over again we'll see if we can talk to her. She did hide his siren before but she says he'll probably end up ordering a new one from Amazon which is what seems to have happened here.

      In the UK it is called sectioning. I'm not sure what the specific criteria are besides causing harm to others or ones self, I'll have to research it more in the meantime. Once again I really appreciate the advice, we've all been so stressed out lately and something has to be done because we're not putting up with this every day for months or even years

      • And I do want to just reiterate that the harassment angle is really what you want to play up with the police.

        I don't know the specifics of how policing and such works in your area, but there's a pretty big difference between "my neighborhood is an inconsiderate jerk who plays his music too loud" and "my neighbor is intentionally targeting me with loud music and sirens to disturb our sleep"

        The first one is a noise complaint, that's low priority for the police and depending on where you are maybe not even a police issue but something like code enforcement.

        The second one is a police issue, it's harassment. This will vary from one jurisdiction to another, but where I work depending on some of the details I might enter that as "suspicious activity" or even a "disturbance" (basically a fight) which should get police there with some urgency.

        And some of the other things you've said, like him walking around outside with a frying pan, I could definitely make an argument for putting in those calls as a "wellbeing check" or "suspicious person," and if he's acting particularly threatening maybe even "armed subject," or possibly as a psych emergency to also send EMS to hopefully get him taken to a hospital for a psych eval.

  • I'm really sorry this is happening it's fucking rough. I'd refer him to social services as well, he needs MH treatment but won't do it himself. He may be bad enough for them to section him IDK.

    He's also likely with your local doctors I'd ring them too.

  • I don't know how it works in the UK, but if possible I'd look into getting a protection order against harassment. Definitely gather whatever evidence you can (a security camera might be a good investment), but with someone like this they may very well tell on themselves if it goes to court. A reasonable person wouldn't be doing something like this in the first place, so they may well make it readily apparent that this is the sort of thing they think is acceptable in a court room. Especially if they've admitted to you to doing it on purpose.

    If you're able to request police body camera footage, it might be worth it to do that after calling in a noise complaint, and if you share a hallway you might be able to record the interaction yourself if not. If you rent and do share a hallway, consider asking your landlord to install a camera in a shared space so that you can get footage that way. Make sure to check the laws in your area regarding consent for recording. If you're allowed to record secretly, maybe you can get them to admit it again on camera.

    I had a similar situation to this with a transphobic neighbor who was doing this for about 6 months. A court date got it squared away, because she told on herself to the police while on our hallway camera. It might help in your situation too.

  • Ok the only people that can help you are the council, noise complaints are the responsibility your local council unfortunately, given the cuts that have happened over the years this means that they are underfunded. What you need to do is get the local noise complaints number and call it every single time it happens. This is what is called a statutory noise complaint. Just Google it. At the same time you need to start a noise complaint diary,

    the columns are date, start time, end time, severity*, weather, and details.

    Severity is on a scale of 0 to 4, with 0 been nothing and 4 been OMFG argh. Details need to include what type of noise it is and most importantly how it affects you. Headache? Lack of sleep, emotional distress? Got to town however remember that this is going to be a legal document that could get used in court eventually. Also important is to do it daily even if there is no noise. Include if you are away on holiday etc if it regularly happens on a weekend etc. The council should send you this info after the first couple of incidents

    Now for the nighttime banging on the walls and screaming, if it just randomly starts in the middle of the night that sounds to me like someone is or could be having domestic abuse. I apologise in advance if this upsets people. You should contact the police and let the know that.

    If any of your neighbours are affected try to get the in on it as well, it's much more effective with multiple people.

    Eventually you will be asked to place a "noise recording device" in the room that is most affected, at this point you know something is finally going to be done about, eventually...

    If you have any remote possibility of moving house in the next year or so don't go down this route as i believe that you have to declare it to the next house buyer

    The problem we have in the UK is that most of the laws, procedures and police are built around people not wanting to be complete knobheads. Unfortunately the people have realised this and also realised there are no consequences for their actions

  • Keep calling the police. If they don't want to do anything I've found that telling them if they don't help you that saying something like "okay well me and my mates will 'sort him Jim out' ourselves" kicks them in to action.

    I did something similar 2 years ago when I found the address of a guy who stole my bag. They didn't want to help until I implied I might confront him myself, possibly with a weapon.

    • I don't really have any experience with situations like this, but I'd be cautious of suggesting such things to the police. Worst case they don't do anything, and something happens to the neighbor and suddenly you have a lot of trouble waiting for you.

      I know here in Germany you can create a log of all the occurrences of your neighbor being loud, and if it is excessive a court can order your neighbor to be silent. If your neighbor then breaks the order, the police will actually do something. Not sure how things work in the UK tho

  • A friend of mine had a similar issue. Also UK, West London a guy was blasting his car stereo every night in front of his garage, often till 8-9 pm, in some cases during the night while having some weird people over. It was very loud, walls vibrating, etc

    Various neighbours called the police on him at least 5 times but nothing happened, he turned off the music for a while, ignored the cops and turned it back on after they left.

    They told them they need hard proof to do anything, this would involve getting a regular recording of the music and they should measure the decibels and vibrations to prove how disturbing it is to start anything. It was just the most bizarre way of telling people the local council and police will do nothing. Who the fuck has this kind of equipment and knowledge to do this?

    Needless to say nothing happened. My friend moved to another place because of work within 6 months.

    I do hope in your case the local law enforcement will be more competent, I wish I could give you an actual advice instead of a story :(

92 comments