neighbours noisy plumbing

[notsure123]

Hello, could anybody tell me where i stand on this issue please.

About 3 years ago there was drilling from neighbours property into my adjoining wall. She appears to have had a new plumbing system put in.....from what i can make out noisewise it appears to go from just inside her front door, along the hall where it seems she has plumbed a washing machine (i am attached to her house by this wall) and she undoubtedly had her bathroom replumbed ......

The moment this work was done there was (and still is!!) the most incredible noise pouring into my home whenever she runs her taps. (you know that noise your taps might make initially when turned on before they hit full flow....this sort of noise but muliply the noise tenfold - it is louder than running my own taps). The noise has driven me to absolute despair and all she seems to do is run her taps....up until about 1.30 am...she can do whatever she wants in her own home providing it does not affect me.

i have lived in a flat with shared plumbing and never heard this noise when other people run their taps and i know nobody who hears this sort of noise from a neighbouring property. To be honest, it has driven me to absolute despair and the noise makes me feel ill now.....

As she is very unfriendly and has never spoken to me (or anybody else in the road....except to say thanks for the tons of parcels that get delivered to neighbours) i dropped her a note during covid time enclosing my phone number to discuss it and she was welcome to come in and listen to the noise.....nothing! absolutely no response whatsoever. I told her that it was making me feel ill and i could not stand the noise any longer....nothing...nothing....complete blank and the noise continued. A couple of months later i dropped another note........absolutely nothing whatsoever.....i told her that i would have to consider moving as i could not live like this and it appears she is happy for me to do that and could not care how much distress her noise is causing......still nothing at all and the noise continued......

so 3 years of this noise and i emailed environmental health explaining the situation and asking whether it is within their premise to help with this....they replied askind for the issue address.........i feel that she did indeed recieve a letter from them last week as she has had a few of her relatives etc turn up telling her not to worry as EH cannot do anything about it. (i am blown away by her lack of thought for others....her total disrespect but thats emtions which isnt the issue here.)

I have not heard from EH yet and indeed i dont know what they would have said to her....but she has made no effort to talk to me about it ...i think that by acknowledging it she has to do something about it and i am sure that financially she is not prepared to do that......(not even an apology and let me listen to it....i am sorry its causing you distress.....blows me away).

I am trying to move as i simply cannot live with this situation. (i would have liked EH to come in and listen to the noise...get her to run her taps and come in here and listen to it....)....i only rent my home and she bought her house about 4 years ago

i dont know where i stand.....i.e...should she have been drilling into a party wall adn tracking plumbing into a party wall without informing the owner of this property. Should you even be plumbing washing machines into party walls?/surely they should be plumbed into outside walls. It sounds strange but i am a semi bungalow attached one side to her house...her bathroom is not even attached to me but the noise simply pours down into my bungalow every time she runs her taps.....could it be she has tracked the plumbing into the party wall without insulation.....i truly have never heard when a neighbour is running taps before in my entire life....i heard absolutely nothing from the previous owner and before she had this plumbing done...

If Eh do come in and listen etc...can they do anything if they feel it is indeed a statutory nuisance. i told them i worried they would class it as normal living noise - but although this is a normal living noise activity - the noise is in no way `normal`....i also just feel that in this day and age you should not hear other peoples plumbing like this....

Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. All this person seems bothered about is not how `her` noise might be affecting me but what she can get away with..

many thanks

 

[Pat ex]

Hello, could anybody tell me where i stand on this issue please.

About 3 years ago there was drilling from neighbours property into my adjoining wall. She appears to have had a new plumbing system put in.....from what i can make out noisewise it appears to go from just inside her front door, along the hall where it seems she has plumbed a washing machine (i am attached to her house by this wall) and she undoubtedly had her bathroom replumbed ......

The moment this work was done there was (and still is!!) the most incredible noise pouring into my home whenever she runs her taps. (you know that noise your taps might make initially when turned on before they hit full flow....this sort of noise but muliply the noise tenfold - it is louder than running my own taps). The noise has driven me to absolute despair and all she seems to do is run her taps....up until about 1.30 am...she can do whatever she wants in her own home providing it does not affect me.

i have lived in a flat with shared plumbing and never heard this noise when other people run their taps and i know nobody who hears this sort of noise from a neighbouring property. To be honest, it has driven me to absolute despair and the noise makes me feel ill now.....

As she is very unfriendly and has never spoken to me (or anybody else in the road....except to say thanks for the tons of parcels that get delivered to neighbours) i dropped her a note during covid time enclosing my phone number to discuss it and she was welcome to come in and listen to the noise.....nothing! absolutely no response whatsoever. I told her that it was making me feel ill and i could not stand the noise any longer....nothing...nothing....complete blank and the noise continued. A couple of months later i dropped another note........absolutely nothing whatsoever.....i told her that i would have to consider moving as i could not live like this and it appears she is happy for me to do that and could not care how much distress her noise is causing......still nothing at all and the noise continued......

so 3 years of this noise and i emailed environmental health explaining the situation and asking whether it is within their premise to help with this....they replied askind for the issue address.........i feel that she did indeed recieve a letter from them last week as she has had a few of her relatives etc turn up telling her not to worry as EH cannot do anything about it. (i am blown away by her lack of thought for others....her total disrespect but thats emtions which isnt the issue here.)

I have not heard from EH yet and indeed i dont know what they would have said to her....but she has made no effort to talk to me about it ...i think that by acknowledging it she has to do something about it and i am sure that financially she is not prepared to do that......(not even an apology and let me listen to it....i am sorry its causing you distress.....blows me away).

I am trying to move as i simply cannot live with this situation. (i would have liked EH to come in and listen to the noise...get her to run her taps and come in here and listen to it....)....i only rent my home and she bought her house about 4 years ago

i dont know where i stand.....i.e...should she have been drilling into a party wall adn tracking plumbing into a party wall without informing the owner of this property. Should you even be plumbing washing machines into party walls?/surely they should be plumbed into outside walls. It sounds strange but i am a semi bungalow attached one side to her house...her bathroom is not even attached to me but the noise simply pours down into my bungalow every time she runs her taps.....could it be she has tracked the plumbing into the party wall without insulation.....i truly have never heard when a neighbour is running taps before in my entire life....i heard absolutely nothing from the previous owner and before she had this plumbing done...

If Eh do come in and listen etc...can they do anything if they feel it is indeed a statutory nuisance. i told them i worried they would class it as normal living noise - but although this is a normal living noise activity - the noise is in no way `normal`....i also just feel that in this day and age you should not hear other peoples plumbing like this....

Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. All this person seems bothered about is not how `her` noise might be affecting me but what she can get away with..

many thanks

Can you record the noise, noting dates, times, places of the recording taking place. etc.?
Print off a monthly planner from the internet that allows you to keep a record for each day. It doesn't need to super accurate, just to give an idea of the frequency and timings, etc. Maybe use a different colour pen for day time, night time noise.

Use that information to inform EH of the size of the problem.

 

[notsure123]

Hi, many thanks for your response.
I have done this - but explained to EH that it is pretty much throughout the day and evening with her taps running more often that not and it will continue to about 1.30 am. (There are times when they are literally on, off, on, off all day long.... I also told them that I often run a white noise machine extremely loudly now to try to mask the noise which is now making me feel ill and then i cannot hear things in my own home, etc.
I would imagine they have not asked for a diary because the noise isnt music or banging doors etc but something that happens every time she runs her water.
Honestly the noise is driving me insane and i cannot think why this noise is happening as nobody i have spoken to has ever suffered from this sort of issue. (i did ask a couple of plumbers i met during my work and mentioned it and they simply cannot understand it). I would imagine she has had cheap labour as well....and i did nearly ask one of these workmen at the time what on earth they had done.
I also wonder in my naivety (apologies, helpless female that knows nothing about these things) whether she can/legally - without asking the owner of this property, track plumbing into the party wall..they were drilling for days.....also i feel certain her washing machine is plumbed at the party wall......there is this clicking near her front door and then her water will start running.
My bunglaow is adjoined to the wall of her front door and stairs and her hallway and this is where she has tracked all this plumbing in. There was not a sound related to water running before all of this.
The noise seems to pour down into my bungalow at the back into my kitchen....but its so loud that i can hear her running water wherever i am.
I think that EH have been left in no doubt as to how this noise is affecting me and the scale of it.
thanks again

 

[RandomGrinch]

I don't see any party wall issues here.
It sounds to me as if she has a modern, high efficiency condenser washer/dryer - the sudden on/off from the inlet solenoid is causing water hammer.
She can semi-close the water isolator on the machine until the water hammer stops, without detriment to the wash.
If she doesn't, she is risking damage to her own plumbing from the constant vibration.

 

[just pumps]

Just move!

 

[CBW]

Have you tried citizens advice? Perhaps your neighbour is hard of hearing so thinks nothing of it or perhaps thinks you’re being pedantic?

 

[notsure123]

Hi, thank you.
No, it isnt her washing machine as such that is the issue....it is every single time she runs her taps....her bathroom taps i feel....i dont think she runs her washing machine very often 9she is a single person living alone...i jsut get a sort of flicking noise at the wall when i know her washing machine or drier are on.....the problem is her taps...every single time she runs them the noise pours into my home. (i was hoping that if it was a party wall issue she may be made to remove this plumbing)......
Literally there is this clicking noise by her front door and then bang....on comes this horrendous noise from her taps.

 

[notsure123]

Have you tried citizens advice? Perhaps your neighbour is hard of hearing so thinks nothing of it or perhaps thinks you’re being pedantic?

She is young. She absolutely knows there is an issue here i feel and this could be part of why she has not responded to my notes about the situation. (she will sometimes put the taps on for a second (its incredibly loud so she immediately turns them off and then its on and off and on and off)..she 100% knows there is an issue and that it is affecting me profoundly.
she simply does not have the respect to acknowledge how the issue is affecting me and i feel that if she came into my home, listened to the noise and i asked if she thought this was acceptable and would she like to live with noise like this in her home, she would be forced into doing something about it and i dont think she is prepared to spend any money putting the plumbing back as it was which caused no noise at all.....Basically she doesnt give a jot how it is affecting me...

 

[StephenStephen]

It sounds like there is a problem with her plumbing.
One possible tack you could take is to offer to help her to sort it out, from a starting point that you're confident that there will be a solution, and that you're interested in solving it together.
...and be aware that it might not be that she doesn't care, it might be (for example) that she's so stressed about it that she can't think about it.

 

[kingandy2nd]

Can you post a video of the noise/issue? That may make it easier to diagnose.

I've lived in a flat before where the running of water was noisy in certain rooms (where the pipe was in the ceiling/floor between me and the neighbour.

Could you ask your landlord for soundproofing?

 

[notsure123]

Just move!

well yes, sadly this is the last resort option..

 

[notsure123]

It sounds like there is a problem with her plumbing.
One possible tack you could take is to offer to help her to sort it out, from a starting point that you're confident that there will be a solution, and that you're interested in solving it together.
...and be aware that it might not be that she doesn't care, it might be (for example) that she's so stressed about it that she can't think about it.

she will not acknowledge it!! I dont think she is stressed about it at all. she wont even come in and listen to the noise. this is what i have told EH that she will not acknowledge it and i get no response whatsoever...

 

[StephenStephen]

she will not acknowledge it!! I dont think she is stressed about it at all. she wont even come in and listen to the noise. this is what i have told EH that she will not acknowledge it and i get no response whatsoever...

So, to be clear, you're guessing what she's thinking and feeling, and then you're reacting to your guesses.

If she's refusing to acknowledge, and refusing to engage, then that doesn't sound like she's relaxed and not bothered, it sounds like she's more likely to be one or more of scared, overwhelmed, angry, frozen etc...
...but those are also just guesses

My suggestion is that it is in your best interest to try to assume goodwill on her part, and work from there - even if that's not the case, it could help it become the case...

 

[notsure123]

Can you post a video of the noise/issue? That may make it easier to diagnose.

I've lived in a flat before where the running of water was noisy in certain rooms (where the pipe was in the ceiling/floor between me and the neighbour.

Could you ask your landlord for soundproofing?

The noise is literally the noise when you first start to run taps.....you get this sort of shhhhhh noise until it hits full flow. hers never gets to the full flow bit where it quietens....it stops when you hear this `shunt` noise with her water turning off. As she starts to run it the noise is preceded by this clicking noise in her hallway by her front door. The `shhhh` noise is louder than the noise of running my own taps in my own home and it pours in from the back of my bungalow into my kitchen (a loud, very harsh almost graty shhhh noise) her bathroom is up there (but not attached to my bungalow obviously....
i have no idea why she put this plumbing in as there was not a noise or a problem before she did so. i have asked other people living in these small bungalows if they hear anything like this and it is a resounding, no, of course not.
i can understand that you might have been affected living in a flat (have lived in a flat and heard nothing).....but her bathroom which is where i feel the noise is coming fro when she runs her taps is not even attached to me....
I wouldnt mind if it was a sort of muffled noise (in my notes to her i mentioned that we all make noise and you have to relax in your own home but the noise of your tap running is seriously affecting me and making me feel ill).
i feel that i literally live with her running taps noise....

 

[just pumps]

well yes, sadly this is the last resort option..

And perhaps the best one for your own mental health as I see lots of assumtions being made in your posts.