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Across the road is a serious of "lockups" - 3 small wooden doored "garages". When we moved in these were used by a bunch of middle-late aged men doing up VW campers, which was kind of cool.
Fast forward a few years and in the last year the works has escalated. We are now besieged by tow trucks reversing up & down the street, banging, obvious commercial work and quite often groups of strangers hanging around F'ing and blinding whilst works gets done to 3-4 vans at a time parked around the street. I've had several polite but firm words with various visitors - a tow truck parked outside with the engine on for an hour at 9pm on a Saturday, a bunch of blokes leaning on our wall (3ft from our living room window) shouting and swearing loud enough the kids could hear them through the house, and today, a guy parked in the alley next door with Stereo and Sub booming at 1pm - on a Sunday.
I know various other complaints have been made as we've witnessed other neighbours having a word, and received a letter from the council with our address and a fake name as a "copy" sent to them.
Having made 2 anonymous complaints - I don't want to be hassled and we have 2 young kids and I'm trying really hard to remove not add drama to my life - on the council website I've had enough, this is a residential road not an industrial estate.
Whats the next step?
Burn it down.
You can find out if that sort of commercial work is allowed. Might be on the land registry documents. It'll cost you £4 to download them. Mine states that certain commercial work is forbidden. If that is the case you then need to see if anyone is willing to enforce it. This will be the hard bit. The council is pretty toothless these days. They might be in breach of planning regulations too if they haven't applied for change of use. Again the council is unlikely to do much. More people complaining might help. Wouldn't think it would be easy.
Bomb them with owners...
Whats the next step?
Move out of the ghetto?
Anti-climb paint on wall might keep the bantz at bay.
It seems to me that these are residential lock ups being used for commercial purposes(?)
I think you might be able to get something done under breach of planning or work done without planning consent. Nothing has physically changed with the building but seems its use has. I think most councils have a standard process for lodging such a complaint.
Is your local councillor any good? Once a complaint is lodged they could (if any good) keep tabs on it and ask for it to be prioritised, citing the disturbance to residents.
The owner or tenant could apply for change of use but they'd have to comply with noise and a lot of other regs. Plus you'd be able to object. Keep a log of noise if you can, which you could submit as evidence against a change of use.
If they are actually legit for commercial workshop use there will have been an assessment of the potential noise levels in the planning application. A noise complaint to the Environmental Health Officer would be the route to take in that case
Find your local council's online planning portal and search for your street. You should be able to find any applications, approved or not.
If there's a lot of obscenities and anti-social behaviour then that might stray into public order stuff? The Police will advise on 101
Don’t commercial premises need emissions and noise licenses?
however....
I did jury service on a nasty business between two characters who had lock ups... Edmonton/Enfield way.....!!!
🙂
1pm on a Sunday. Outrageous.
Post the details here we can all complain?
Could you speak to other home owners on your street and put a complaint in , more names should carry more weight . Other than that it's easy to suggest various macho tactics from the comfort of my computer room , miles away . The bottom line is that nobody likes confrontation , especially outside their home and with a young family to look after so I would tread carefully .
It can be tricky. Years ago we lived in a quite street 500 meters from the beach in the south of England. Lovely street full of mostly retired couples in all the houses except one. In the one exception lived a couple with a teenage son. The father was a wind surfer and seemed to take pleasure in electric-sanding his and his friends boards every evening almost without fail.
Complaints were made in person and to the council by a number of residents and the answer was always the same. Essentially, he was allowed to make as much noise as he wanted to until 9pm every night.
in the end he and his wife split and he moved out. Don't know if the two things were directly connected but him being a **** probably had something to do with the split I'm sure.
For noise abatement, you need to start keeping a diary of when they're being noisy and for how long. Do it for a month or so, then throw it at the council.
Or, move.
Phone Crimestoppers!!
He's not popular cos he's the VW whisperer, he's popular cos he's a dealer selling da kids dreams and shizzle.
Go to the park and pick up a bag of nice big pebbles. Buy a catapault. Stand the other side of your house at random times and launch a few over the roof. It won't be long before you get the range and you hear a loud crack as pebble hits bodywork or windscreen. A pal of mine got rid of idiots who were meeting at the back of his garden and playing loud music in this way; they never came back.
Or, move.
I'd rather not.
For noise abatement, you need to start keeping a diary of when they’re being noisy and for how long. Do it for a month or so, then throw it at the council.
I googled this on their website last night, and this is the suggested method - they have a downloadable form for doing so. Although I sent off a stern anonymous complaint yesterday through the noise complaints website, I guess I'd better start with this.
Clearly, said "hobby" has turned into a series of favors/business transactions which has exploded by word of mouth. If they want to run a business they should at least consider the neighbours, at best consider moving to a commercial area. They won't; cheap rent vs cash income would be my guess as what's happening there.
Another suggestion: have a quiet word with your local beat officer. This looks like an easy job for them especially if there are dodgy vehicles involved.
I d speak with a local legal garage, who pays his taxes, rates and rent. If he is losing business to the lock up boys he ll be sufficiently motivated to complain to mp, hmrc etc. I personlly would not confront the guys, we once had a neighbour noise dispute which could have been resolved quite easily but it did not, so we moved.
Also, if you raise a dispute yourselves and do sell in future you have to declare it.
have a quiet word with your local beat officer.
This fella?
Horrible situation.....I think all you can sensibly do is keep pushing the local authorities to deal with it.
Burning them down does sound tempting though.
If it's commercial the taxman might be interested 😉
local beat officer
I live in London, don;'t you read the news?
My understanding is that commercial premises are up the creek when it comes to noise evenings and weekends because of yer basic 'uman right to a family life.
I'd phone the council and say that there are noises from a commercial premises outside of normal work hours and what powers do they have. They will say keep a noise diary. I'd encourage any neighbours you have to do the same - lots of people all reporting the same nuisance via diaries will hold more weight.
One thing to bear in mind - if you do complain about noise formally you have to then declare it if you sell (and it will come up on a search is my understanding).
I may be worth trying to find out what the workshop has planning permission for, as above - if they're operatign beyond that then it's a big lever to get them to change their behaviour.