Housing - Messy/untidy neighbour

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You should first express your concerns directly to your neighbour. Ultimately, your local authority is responsible for upholding public health and pollution laws. If you continue to have problems with your neighbour, you should contact your local authority to discuss your concerns.

Your Council role

You can ask your local council for help if the neighbour dispute involves an activity that is damaging to health or a nuisance. This is known as a ‘statutory nuisance’.

Examples include:

noise (including loud music and barking dogs)
artificial light (except street lamps)
dust, steam,
smell or insects

From business premises smoke, fumes or gases a build-up of rubbish that could harm health

Your local council has a duty to investigate any statutory nuisance. You should always try and solve the problem by talking to your neighbour or through mediation before contacting the council.

Penalties

If the council decides someone is causing a statutory noise nuisance they must issue a ‘noise abatement’ order. This tells the person what they must do to stop making a noise nuisance or else face further legal action. If someone breaks an abatement order about noise from their home, they can be fined up to £5,000. If it’s noise from a factory or business, the penalty can be up to £20,000.

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