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First Complaint!
Marlon - 29/5/09 at 04:02 PM

Well I think my neighbours are grumpy! I've had a complaint from a few doors down across the road complaining that i've been waking her on a morning with the revving of my windy. Ooops! To be honest I haven't taken it out at all before 8 but yes i do rev it a bit as i have quite a steep drive to get out of. I only think it's only been out 3-4 times so far this weekso do you guy's think she's got a point or just grumpy?


blakep82 - 29/5/09 at 04:04 PM

no one likes being woken up unnecessarily, but if its after 8, doesn't she go to work or anything?!


Dangle_kt - 29/5/09 at 04:14 PM

How big is your drive? Surely its up and out in a few seconds?

I used to know a guy who insisted on "warming the engine" by reving it for about 10 minutes. He didn;t have many friends down his road...


richardh - 29/5/09 at 04:16 PM

ah the green eyed monster has awoken!

tell her to p off
rev it like you stole it...............


blakep82 - 29/5/09 at 04:20 PM

quote:
Originally posted by richardh
ah the green eyed monster has awoken!

tell her to p off
rev it like you stole it...............


i read that as "get her top off" instead of tell her to p off.
that might work too, or at least distract her for a while


Benzine - 29/5/09 at 04:24 PM

Take her out for a spin. Scare her so much that she'll be like Bishop Brennan after Father Ted kicks him up the arse


mistergrumpy - 29/5/09 at 04:24 PM

I've a steep drive too. When I've had mine off it I just start it and let it warm for a few minutes then a quick blast up and off and keep it quiet. I just find that it's best not to upset the neighbours when I can. Pity some of them don't follow the same principles but their time will come.


Humbug - 29/5/09 at 04:35 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Dangle_kt
How big is your drive? Surely its up and out in a few seconds?

I used to know a guy who insisted on "warming the engine" by reving it for about 10 minutes. He didn;t have many friends down his road...


Sounds like the b/f of the girl across the road. Every time he arrives or leaves in his old Corsa (roundy shape Mk1) he feels the need to rev unnecessarily. This is on a flat road, mind. He's known in our houseas ("K)nobby"


speedyxjs - 29/5/09 at 04:44 PM

I dont start working on my cars until 10 oclock in the morning and still get complaints


blakep82 - 29/5/09 at 04:50 PM

i'm surprised i don't get any lol i've been out angry grinding til 1am before. also, one day when it was really hot outside 2 years ago, peopl ewere out in their gardens in the sun, i took the car on the drive to do some bodywork with all sorts of power tools. they went in soon after. still, no complaints though


Benzine - 29/5/09 at 05:09 PM

quote:
Originally posted by speedyxjs
I dont start working on my cars until 10 oclock in the morning and still get complaints


drop a jag engine on their toes


stuart_g - 29/5/09 at 05:25 PM

quote:
Originally posted by richardh
ah the green eyed monster has awoken!

tell her to p off
rev it like you stole it...............


I have to totally agree with that statement.


mr henderson - 29/5/09 at 05:31 PM

Well, I haven't heard your car from her house, so can't say whether the noise you are making is unreasonable or not.

I assume the anti-social remarks on this thread are being made in jest. If it was a neighbour of mine I would go and speak to her and show her that you respect her opinion on the subject, and explain that you will try to be more careful in the future.

That's all most people want, just to know that their feelings are respected.

John


MikeR - 29/5/09 at 06:52 PM

I don't make noise after 8pm, don't make it before 10am. If its a really nice day i'll keep the garage door down when making noise ....

if i get on with my neighbours they won't hassle me.

What ever happened to being nice to each other? Can't believe some of the comments on here.

As for the driving the car thing - like Mr H, i haven't heard it but it doesn't sound that unreasonable. Perhaps a quiet chat. Also I believe you are allowed to make noise after 8am as a general rule.


Moorron - 29/5/09 at 06:54 PM

I would just ignor it. Ive got a grumpy old couple about 50 metres from my front door who are really odd. The old bloke just stands on his drive and stares at me or my GF all the time even when we are just on our own drive. His wife stormed round one night in tears telling me to take my nitro RC buggy 'round my way' when i pointed out the house she is standing outside of is mine. She then threatened my with the police! it was like 5pm and i had only been out for 5 minutes and i understand its a noisey toy but all she had to do is ask me kindly!

Anyway i do tend to be as quite as possible in the morning at 7:45 but i failed the other day. I tried to start the kitcar up to go to work for the first time in ages so planned on just starting it and cruise up the road on tickover. Well the car didnt like this and stalled right outside the grumby couples house which is on an incline. It took me 3 attempts to start it and pull away so in the end it would have been better to just rev it up on the drive as it would have been quiter!

made me chuckle for a mile or 2.

[Edited on 29/5/09 by Moorron]


blakep82 - 29/5/09 at 07:04 PM

mike just so you know, i didn't do that stuff on the drive to annoy them, i was out enjoying the sun in my way i only thought about it after...

my streets full of noisy anti social people so we all get on

the guy right accross the road specifically. between the 5 of them they have 5 motorbikes. 4 of them noisy dirt bikes which the youngest rides up and down the road, which is fine. the dads a gardener and uses the hill on my front garden to load his lawn movers onto his pickup. don't think he ever asked, but thats fine
the guy next to him has a motorbike too. a quiet one though, actually, he's got 2. he never starts the other one though.

we all understand we make noise, so we all get along

[Edited on 29/5/09 by blakep82]


tommyab - 29/5/09 at 07:07 PM

I had one that was about 2pm on weekend. Had the grinder out for about 2mins and heard f*** this and f*** that from next door. My thoughts were, if they are going to act like that instead of speaking reasonably then they can go to hell! and i carried on.


BenB - 29/5/09 at 07:27 PM

I think you can only do your best to avoid annoying the neighbours. If they still get annoyed then screw 'em (not literally though in this case).... I tend to run my engine up to heat in the garage and then switch it off, push it outside, lock up the garage then restart and off we go (not reving about 2k until well out of the narrow alleyway my garage is off). Although I love the sound of 8+k of V4 bouncing off their windows I doubt they do


mr henderson - 29/5/09 at 07:38 PM

One of the reasons why people sometimes fail to ask nicely is that they have to work themsellves up to say anything at all.

Then, when the 'confrontation' actually happens they come across a lot nastier than the situation really warrants. But usually they are not really nasty people, but are just keyed up.

I tend not to worry too much about what I see as the rights or wrongs of the matter, but prefer not to have enemies and so go to some trouble to avoid annoying people, even if I think I am entitled to.

Actually noise is one of the commonest complaints people make against each other and it's not hard to understand why.

John


Danozeman - 29/5/09 at 07:40 PM

quote:

His wife stormed round one night in tears telling me to take my nitro RC buggy 'round my way' when i pointed out the house she is standing outside of is mine. She then threatened my with the police! it was like 5pm and i had only been out for 5 minutes and i understand its a noisey toy but all she had to do is ask me kindly!



Some of mine come out and want a go!!

I have a moody woman next door to me. If my cars running on the drive she comes and asks me to turn it off as she can here it in there house. The exhaust is on my house side and you cant here it in mine so i doubt you can really in theres.

Theres motorbikes in my road that go out at 6 in the morning and a bloke in a mini that goes out at 20 past 6 every morning that i use as my alarm clock so i dont give a toss what noise i make.

But yes try not to fall out with your neighbours. You never know when u might need them.


matt.c - 29/5/09 at 07:40 PM

My neighbours are grumpy. (ask flak!) They even complain about the colour of my fence! Its wood colour!

Dont worry about it, they will get use to it!


Keith Weiland - 29/5/09 at 07:43 PM

I would suggest if you are only revving it enough to get it out of the drive and no more then there is nothing you can do, if you can manage without revving it so much then do so, if not then don't worry about it.

Worst she could do is call the local authority who will have to investigate and they will come out, see you are just getting the car off the drive then leaving and tell her there is nothing they can do.

I think it is always best to do what you can within reason to get along with neighbors but if they are unreasonable then there is no reason for you to continue trying to appease them. They will complain no matter what you do.


Simon - 29/5/09 at 09:06 PM

Whilst I try not to make too much noise (even thinking about buying some of CBS's silencers (as car is prob ott), I do wonder about some peoples motives.

When I was flying model planes, I heard of one RC club that had received a complaint, and it turned out the moaner lived approx 17 miles away!

ATB

Simon


ashg - 29/5/09 at 10:37 PM

get in it and drive it. you will be gone before she can get round to moan.


next time she comes round to moan. say "i appriciate your concern but that is the noise the car makes". if she is still unhappy with it she could allways give you the money to buy a quiet exhaust system.


at the end of the day your car prob passed sva at that noise level so she hasnt really got a leg to stand on.


Richard Quinn - 30/5/09 at 06:31 AM

Unfortunately noise is a subjective and emotive issue with no real set limits. As with all public nuisance issues, if you produce a noise that interferes with someone's ability to enjoy their property then they have a right to complain. If they complain to the Local Authority then the EHO is required to investigate. If he/she upholds the complaint then you could be faced with a noise limit being set and enforced. In the absence of any sensible guidelines, these limits can often be ridiculously low. So those of you who had trouble meeting the 101 for SVA think about what it would be like having to reduce this to 85 or 80 because you upset your neighbours. Best to keep them on side if you can!!


MakeEverything - 30/5/09 at 09:30 AM

Our neigbours sven doors down, used to have a Caravan on their drive, which is right outside our house, next to my drive. No problem, it blocks the light a bit, and doesnt look particularly nice, but i dont stand there staring out of the window (yet).

Anyway, theres a 6' piece of land in front of their drive that belongs to us. So, i used to park on it. The caravan never moved, and when they did want to move it, i moved my car. So, one day, he started parking his car in front of the caravan, so i knocked on the door, and asked him if he could move his car, so that i could park mine.
The conversation lead to getting the title plans out, and showing him that the plot he was parked on, was out property.

Anyway, i didnt think anything else of it, until one saturday i was out cleaning the bike, when him and his missus came over all angry, and asked if id done anything about our conversation two days previous. I politely explained that no i hadnt, as i had been at work, and today was saturday!

They thrust this paperwork in front of me, and got all shitty about access rights etc, so i said ok, ill look into it on Monday.

Long story short (ish), they were right in that we had to provide them with access, with reasonable notice but the way that they approached it was aggressive and offensive. So, because their caravan was overhanging their drive and encroaching onto ours, we instructed our solicitor to kindly ask them "to resolve this issue" which lead to them removing their caravan to a storage ground.

The moral is, if they had approached it sensibly, then they wouldnt be stuck with a £300 a year pitch fee to store their caravan.

We havent spoken since, which is fine by me, but they do stare a lot!! - Hey ho. Theyre known in our house as "The Weirdo's".


C10CoryM - 2/6/09 at 01:23 AM

My landlord grumbles about how loud my neighbors V8 Lotus Esprit is.
I just sort of laugh to myself and think of my last Camaro. It used to make house windows 50ft away pulse in time with the engines idle
Cheers.

Edit: Actually found an old (and lousy) audio clip of the thing idling.
http://www.geocities.com/chevroletc1070/idle.html

[Edited on 2/6/09 by C10CoryM]


coozer - 2/6/09 at 06:55 AM

I've got a councillor 3 doors away... loves my car AND stihl saw.

Was revving the knackers off the stihl last night two fingers to the nosey neighbour... bah humbug


RK - 2/6/09 at 12:24 PM

Mr Henderson is right. Talking to her would probably go a long way.

Unfortunately, last week I didn't follow that advice when I yelled down the road "Not everyone likes ACDC as much as you!" to the guy blaring it out for the third full day in a row - all new stuff - not the good old Bon Scott stuff. I was chastised by the neighbours across the street, who agreed with his choices, as well as by the missus, who said I was rude. I dunno, is that rude?


MakeEverything - 2/6/09 at 03:17 PM

quote:
Originally posted by RK
Mr Henderson is right. Talking to her would probably go a long way.

Unfortunately, last week I didn't follow that advice when I yelled down the road "Not everyone likes ACDC as much as you!" to the guy blaring it out for the third full day in a row - all new stuff - not the good old Bon Scott stuff. I was chastised by the neighbours across the street, who agreed with his choices, as well as by the missus, who said I was rude. I dunno, is that rude?


Ummm, it probably didnt help!


Ninehigh - 8/6/09 at 03:59 AM

The noise limits apply between 8pm and 8am, I recieved a few talkings-to off the council over this one when I was taxi-ing. Thing is if the car and exhaust are legal can they do anything...

As for being able to hear your car from next door I can hear my neighbour shut his car door, maybe you could point that out next time...


MakeEverything - 8/6/09 at 08:13 PM

Sit outside the house revving the engine, then when theyre looking out, give them a big smile and leave a big fat number 11 on the road in front of their house!!

I thought of doing that to the weirdo's in my road...... hmmmmm....... brb.


Ninehigh - 8/6/09 at 08:17 PM

When we had problems with our wierdos next door swmbo threatened them to swap with one of her friends at work and they'll be begging for us to come back. Some people are much worse than a bit of engine noise!


nstrug - 12/6/09 at 11:30 PM

Hmm, my neighbours' cars include a Tuscan S, a TVR 400SE, a seriously loud RX-7 Turbo, and to cap it all a Ferrari 575 Maranello - there's quite a lot of noise on a Sunday morning, especially when it's Goodwood Breakfast Club!

The worst however is a chap with an absolutely hideous Harley, complete with ludicrous tassled panniers. He drops it on a regular basis too, and lies wailing in the street until someone calls an ambulance...

Nick


MakeEverything - 13/6/09 at 09:56 AM

quote:
Originally posted by nstrug
He drops it on a regular basis too
Nick



Lol, sounds like me when i dropped my TL 25m from the house!