Not Your Ordinary Noisy Neighbors

“Murder.”  “Unnatural.”  “Frightening.”

Those are the adjectives that the neighbors of British couple Caroline and Steve Cartwright use to describe the couple’s sex life.  Yes, you read that last sentence correctly.  More specifically, the neighbors have been complaining that the noise keeps them up at all hours of the night, thus causing them to oversleep in the morning and make them late for work.  The problem happens almost every night.

So what do they do about this problem?  The neighbors decided to charge the wife with noise violations and seek an abatement, which they subsequently won.  The noisy couple appealed, but despite their best arguments that their Human Rights were being violated, their appeal was denied.  Since the initial ruling, Caroline has been found to be in violation of the noise abatement order three times.

Aside from the humor of this situation, there are some interesting legal issues dealing with noisy neighbors.  According to a U.S. Census Bureau survey, American consistently rate noise ahead of traffic and crime as their primary reason for wanting to move.  LegalMatch has a helpful recommendation for dealing with the problem of unreasonably noisy neighbors: approach them about the problem before seeking legal recourse.

I totally agree with this approach and the rationale that friendly communication should be used before the police and the courts get involved.  After all, theses are your neighbors and if you can salvage a friendship or at least a peaceful relationship then you should try.   There are also simple solutions such as caulking and sealing the edges of windows, doors, and outlets that face the noise source.

If that still doesn’t work, then you may be forced to hire a lawyer to seek your own noise abatement and/or money damages.  So for all you readers who have annoying neighbors who start construction too early, let their dogs bark at all hours, and have loud late-night parties, just think how much worse it can be!