Noise

When it comes to noise, what's reasonable and what's a nuisance?

We ask all our customers to be considerate of their neighbours and do what they can to limit noise in their homes.

Remember, no home is totally soundproof so you’re always going to hear some noise from your neighbours.

What is antisocial noise?

Noise can be considered ‘antisocial’ if it's persistent, which we would usually define as happening for 30 minutes a day across five days a week.

Noise which happens after 11pm and before 7am can be considered more anti-social. However, this would still depend on the type of noise and the evidence we had of this.
Noise can still be considered anti-social during ‘daytime’ hours. If, for example, we have evidence of persistent loud music happening during the day we would still challenge this.

If you're experiencing this kind of noise nuisance we will ask you to provide evidence, usually through a noise app, for two weeks so we can assess whether we can challenge the behaviour further.

How you can reduce noise

The first step is to have a chat with your neighbour. Explain politely that the noise they’re making is bothering you. You might find this a bit awkward but it’s surprising how often people don’t even know they’re being noisy!

Most neighbours are happy to do what they can to keep the noise down. But if that doesn’t sort things out, let us know. Please use My Coastline or contact us to report the problem and we’ll do what we can to help.

Get the My Coastline app

What we can do

When we’re looking into a report we need to know:

what time and how often the noise happens
the type of noise and how long it lasts
how loud the noise is

We’ll look at all the details and decide if any tenancy agreement rules are being broken. If they are, there’s lots we can do, depending on how serious the problem is:

advise you on making a sound recording, either with your phone or via Cornwall Council's environmental protection team
arrange mediation with an independent person to try to sort out the problem face to face
issue written warnings
take out a court injunction
start eviction proceedings

Other sources of advice

Serious noise complaints may be referred to Cornwall Council, as they can enforce measures if the issue is considered to be a statutory nuisance.

You should also contact the police if you think the problem is

Domestic abuse or violence
Harassment or hate crime

Citizens Advice Cornwall Council Social Housing Regulator

More about noise

My neighbour has reported me for noise nuisance - what can I do?

If your neighbour asks you to keep the noise down, try to help and respect their right to peace and quiet in their own homes.

Maybe you don’t even realise how much noise you’re making. Things like slamming doors, playing loud music, having lots of late-night parties and barking dogs can make your neighbours really unhappy.

If you regularly cause unreasonable noise or nuisance you’ll be in breach of your tenancy agreement and could end up losing your home.