****** Windchimes

Our neighbour - who's out all day and sleeps at night with every window closed - and is a real ar**hole - - put up windchimes 2 years ago

The noise drove us out of the garden in summer

We asked him nicely - to take them down - he refused

We asked again - he refused and swore at us - (we have a right of way for our car over his front garden and he keeps blocking us in and is sooo vile and nasty at moving it when we ask)

His wife then said she was surpirsed we hadn't got used to the sound - they all had and never heard them!

Its driving us mad

The environmental health came round and said the noise was below their threshold for taking action

But it keeps us awake at night and stops us using the garden

Any suggestions? Can't afford to move
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Comments

  • When I'm in a no-win situation like this I generally go on a charm offensive. Could you bring yourself to do it?
  • Is it possible to train a cat/bird of prey to hunt wind chimes?
  • Sassie - I tried.... but he just takes advantage - and started dumping his rubbish over the fence into our garden - so the charm offensive disappeared pretty quick

    Would rather train a Big Cat to hunt him

    He doesn't pay tax...'employ's' 2 people on the dole to help him...only accepts cash for his work ... has recently 'bought' a conservatory / a Land Rover 4x4 car thingy .... a caravan...and is now extending his house...and threatens anyone who stands up to him..... grrrr
  • An anonymous tip-off to the Inland Revenue?
  • It sounds as if they are just leaving them there to annoy you, especially if 'His wife then said she was surpirsed we hadn't got used to the sound - they all had and never heard them!'. If none of them can hear the chimes then why do they bother with them!

    Don't worry if he gets annoyed when you ask him to move him car, just keep your cool and treat it as an ordinary day action. Perhaps the more he gets annoyed, then the more you should do it! Popping out for a few minutes every time you see his car blocking yours.
  • I thought that too Wiz..
    He refused to move his car once - jumped in his other one and drove off!

    It's a horrible situation - he's in with all the 'underworld' in the area - understandable as he pays them all cash in hand for everything - an absolute nutter
  • It sounds as though you need something to make the area so 'hot' for him that he chooses to move. Otherwise, when you are ready to go yourselves, how will you sell the house with such a vile neighbour?
  • If he is employing people who are on the dole then ring 'by phone in confidence on 0800 854440' to The National Benefit Fraud Hotline.

    If you have a right of way over his land and he is not allowing it then contact Citizen's Advice. Even going out without ensuring you right of way, I think would be a breach of this right of way.
  • Take the wind chimes off and shove them up his anus.
  • Always rely on a man for the subtle approach ;0)
  • Whoops, I've got some wind chimes in my back yard. They hang on the fence. Didn't realise they could cause so much noise!

    Have you tried creeping in the garden when he isn't there and dislodging them from their resting place? If he asks about why they fell off, feign ignorance.

    Or get someone to steal them.

    My neighbours kept using my dustbin without asking me, even though I painted a large number 2 on it (my house number). Eventually, they seemed to get the message because I put all their rubbish back in their bin and hid my bin! Bloody neighbours!

    Where do you live anyway?
  • Have a word with a friendly farmer, and arrange a delivery onto your neighbour's doorstep of a tonne of well-rotted manure. Even better, silage. Poooh!
  • I did what Nettle Lover suggested and made sure they 'fell' right in the middle of a very large bush when I had the same problem some time ago. If your charming neighbours don't hear them, then they won't miss them.
  • You do have to be careful because these things can escalate.

    Whatever possesses people to have wind chimes anyway. They'd drive me mad.
  • I quite like windchimes.

    SS - I really doubt you are gonna get anywhere with this guy. He sounds nasty.

    I think you'll just have to try to ignore the noise and TRY and let it not get to you.

    Or move
  • Oh Cougie - in moderation maybe - but all day and all night there's this bl88dy tinkling - and I never have the confidence to sneak into his garden and cut the thing off the middle that hits the chimes as he has 6 kids (well 2 are his own - 4 his wife's previous partner) and you never know if one of them's in or not

    Thought of the Inland Revenue - but worried about retaliation - he's driven his landrover straight at me when I've been out jogging - swerving at the last minute laughing all over his face - and we've got MiniSS - whom he just stares at... weirdly - I hate living here because of him - but whose to say we wouldn't be next to someone worse?

    Going to get a Big Dog soon - maybe if it barks and he complains we'll tell him the dog doesn't like the wind chimes!
  • SS, I COMPLETELY sympathise as our neighbour used to have windchimes which would keep us awake all night on a windy night. My partner got up one night and cut one of the chimes down (and hid it in my golf bag!) but that failed to quieten them so the next plan was to steal them completely. I was against asking them nicely to take them down in case it came to stealing them as it would then be very obvious it was us. Fortunately we went off on a skiing holiday and when we got back they had disappeared so I can only think that one of the other neighbours took action or asked them to remove them. Your neighbour sounds like a horrible person to be living next to and I think the advice above re reporting him to the inland revenue etc may not help with the chimes but should make you feel better. You could remove the chimes but he would most likely replace them with something even louder....
  • rusty - thanks for making me feel I'm not mad...yet!

    There's only two 'family' houses on our estate - ours and his... everything else is old people's bungalows and they are all deaf so don't 'hear' the problem.
  • I wish I could hear windchimes instead of the south circular :o)
  • sneak over and put pipe lagging over the bangy bit...

    or better still get a bigger better set, preferably in a different key :) saw one at the garden centre today that was just a giant gong with bangy bit.

    i'd definitely do the inland revenue thing though
  • oooh.. how about a big forumite training run... followed by all night pishup in the back garden... one of them might even get drunk enough to hop over the fence..
  • Still trying to keep on the legal tack.

    If his car is blocking your's in overnight, get up at 5 and politely ask him to move it.

    Slightly less 'polite', note when he is out and his wife is in. Every time this happens, get a different female friend to ring up and hope that the wife answers. Get your friend to ask to speak to the husband.
  • Oh Wiz, thats wicked.

    A nephew of mine made a minor coplaint to a neighbour. The next thing he Knew his car had been paint strippered. He's a lad with a bit of a short fuse but for once gave it some thought. He didn't have the car resprayed or claim on his insurance, he said nothing about the incident to anyone. He put the house on the market straight away, no board and moved away.

    I think he has been back since though.

    The phone calls would be really funny though.:o)
  • Ummm - would like to try the Inland Revenue - and the phone calls....but I'd hate to see anyone lose their house / marriage cos of me (I'm sure he would lose his house - everything he's 'earnt' is thro illgotten gains - he's reputedly widely suspected of 'sheep rustling and worse....' - whatever that could be)

    Why is it that honest people get nowhere and others do really well for themselves...
  • Suffer it for 6 months, keep your nose clean and behave as if there's nothing wrong.

    Then ring the IR. Hopefully he won't suspect you.

    Get some earplugs meanwhile!
  • and he wouldn't lose the house because of you, he'd lose it because of him.
  • Good aproach Bryan, having a plan and knowing his time will be up will make the whole thing easier to cope with.
  • I know I've posted already, but I truly believe in 'swings and roundabouts'. What goes around, comes around, etc.

    He'll trip himself up eventually, and when he does, you can innocently watch as they come to take him away. That new-millionaire from somewhere south of me was causing stress to neighbours with loud parties and racing cars around his garden. He recently got done for possession of drugs. See? What goes around, comes around!

    Believe in fate, my son!
  • If he really is as bad as he sounds, I'm afraid I would give up on this guy and move, even if I thought I couldn't afford to. Nor could I afford to be terrorised like this by a neighbour. Too much stress.

    I'm not being unsympathetic - far from it. But I've had similar problems in the past and I couldn't stand it again. Ultimately, either your mental health or your finances are going to have to suffer I'm afraid. I'd get out, and offset the financial cost against the peace of mind I'd regained.
  • We had a nasty pair of sisters living next door when we lived in Thetford. They hated kids and if any ball landed on their front or back garden they put a knife in it. They moaned if our tv was on even though it was kept down so low it was at times hard to hear. If our kids were laughing or making any noise past 9pm they complained as they went to bed themselves then. If we had a BBQ they moaned about the smoke in their garden, also moaned about the noise from the grass mower etc etc...

    In the end I got so fed up with them I stopped trying to keep the kids quite and brought them a swing ball to play with in the garden. When the sisters moaned about the noise of the bat and ball pinging around I told them to keep out of it, the ball was not in their garden, and Kids will be kids and I was not going to keep them quiet. We moved shortly afterwards due to husbands job. The estate agent sold our house quickly and did not put the board out so they did not know until the day we moved out what was happening!
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