Just a few weeks ago, one of the apartments in the complex where I live’s burglary alarm went off at nearly 5am.
Waking up myself, my housemates, and probably half of Dublin at that rate, I thought to myself ‘ah, it’ll knock off in a minute… ok, maybe two minutes… Jesus it’s been 20 minutes.’
While the alarm eventually died down (or perhaps I just went deaf), it proceeded to go off in the middle of the night on several other occasions — once at 3am, again at 4am, and, generously, once in the afternoon. Obviously, this wasn’t the occupants’ fault — this happens everywhere and is a regular occurrence for some people.
But it made me think, there are other neighbours from hell that sometimes just won’t shut up — be it them having a party that isn’t wrapping up any time soon, or blasting music or TV at ungodly hours. So what are your rights if you have a noisy neighbour that won’t listen to you?
What should I do if my neighbour’s alarm is going off?
You too, eh?
Burglary, fire and car alarms are there to keep people safe, but if there isn’t a fire or if someone isn’t breaking in, then they become an annoyance. And while most alarms have a button where you can easily turn it off, sometimes they’re out of reach or even faulty — and as a result, they end up waking half your neighbourhood.
There are standards and licences that alarm installers must have in place before installing an alarm — including the maximum time allowed for an alarm to blare. The European standard maximum time for an alarm to go off is exactly 15 minutes. Seems reasonable, right?
However, if the neighbour’s alarm persists, i.e. for more than 15 minutes on consecutive nights (I’m not still mad about it, I swear), then the occupants, a local authority, or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can take action under the EPA Act of 2009 — more on that later.
What if you’re renting?
If you’re renting and the person who is making all the noise is also a renter (and in this country, that is more than likely the case), you can complain to their landlord — be they a private landlord, a local authority or housing association — if you don’t get a satisfactory response from the noisemakers.
People renting from private landlords and housing associations have certain obligations including anti-social behaviour — this obligation includes persistent noises that interfere with the peaceful occupation of other houses/apartments.
If that fails, you can lodge a complaint with the Rental Tenancies Board (RTB) — under the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act of 2009, noisy tenants are required to avoid any nuisance to the occupiers of any other dwelling. If the noise persists, the tenants are in breach of their tenancy agreement and the local authority can take steps to enforce the terms of the agreement.
Complain to the District Court if noise persists
So, you’ve tried everything — and your neighbour still won’t shut the hell up.
According to Citizen’s Information, if a person breaches the peace in a public place, Gardaí actually have the power to arrest someone. However, if you have a neighbour that, despite your kindest words, won’t turn down their TV/house party/whatever else, you can lodge a complaint to the District Court.
Under the EPA Act 1992, any person, a local authority or the EPA can complain to the District Court about a noise that is ‘so loud, so continuous, so repeated, of such duration or pitch or occurring at such times as to give reasonable cause for annoyance to a person in any premises in the neighbourhood or to a person lawfully using any public place.’
You will need to consult your local clerk and refer exactly to the legislation that you are making the complaint under -– which is Section 108 of the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 and the Environmental Protection Agency Act (Noise) Regulations 1994.
You must then serve the notice seven days before the hearing to your neighbour from hell, and if the court finds in your favour, it can order the person responsible for the noise to take measures to prevent or limit the noise, which must be complied with.
