Hi everyone,
I’ve been living on this quiet residential street for 3 years. It’s always been peaceful nice neighbours, little traffic until the last 3 months, when our old neighbours moved out and a new family moved in next door. Let’s call them The Smiths: mum, dad, and two sons in their 20s.
At first, everything seemed fine. But now I’m wondering if I’m being unreasonable for asking them (again) to tone it down with sitting in their cars outside our house late at night.
They have three cars, two on their drive, one on the street (Parents). I never hear a peep from them until around 11 pm, when the two sons start sitting on the drive in their cars, playing music or talking on loudspeaker. It sounds silly, but it feels really intrusive as our bedroom’s at the front of the house, and it’s like they’re sitting with us in our room.
Sometimes they leave the engine running idle with music or phone calls blaring, and when they finally go out, the peace doesn’t last long. They often come home at 1 or 2 am, slam car doors, and chat loudly. It wakes my husband and me up almost every weekend.
About 1 month in I knocked on and spoke to the Mum who seemed apologetic about it, and it did calm down for about two weeks. Then it slid right back. When I sent a polite text recently, “Could you maybe keep the car noise down tonight? Kids in bed.”), she replied that I was being unreasonable, and it was “normal level of noise that her sons make” and of course the dreaded “We can’t hear it”.
I honestly have never been in this situation with a neighbour, I don’t want to escalate things and make bad blood, but if I say nothing, it’ll just keep happening.
So… am I being unreasonable to ask them to stop hanging out in their cars after 10/11pm? Especially when we’ve got young kids and someone working from home? Or should I just accept this is modern life in 2025 and grin and bear it?
We had this with our old neighbours, they would leave their car idling in the morning and we would get all the fumes/ noise and radio on at 4am. It was horrendous so have sympathy for you. Its all the impedning knowledge it going to happen every day, wears you down.
Do they own the house outright? If not can you talk to their landlord?
Our neighbours own their house outright but we did complain to the council and all they said was to keep a diary. Fat lot of good!
We did end up moving, which was the only resolve we found! We now have neighbours that are quiet and it’s heaven.
Yes, I second the above poster about making a formal complaint to the council. You will have to document it over a period of time.
Thanks for the replies. They own their house. I’ve started documenting times etc and trying to record the noise. I’m calling the council today to see what they suggest.
