Published on 12, July, 2020
I just want to hear from ayone who has experieced council property issues, and have engaged in their complaints process. To date, I've found it to be extremely stressful, attempting to engage with what I can only describe as complete unprofessionalism on their part. One of the issues is noise pollution, that affects my hearing condition: Hyperacusis, however, I havn't disclosed ASD, and wondered if I should, or would it make any difference... - I'll leave at at that for now. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
NAS93815 said:One of the issues is noise pollution, that affects my hearing condition: Hyperacusis,
The process of making the complaint is here:
https://www.gov.uk/how-to-resolve-neighbour-disputes/complain-about-noise-to-the-council
You will need to gather evidence to make a case here so I would advise getting hold of a decibel meter to establish if there are any rules being broke.
There is quite a good guide to all this here:
https://www.ellisandco.co.uk/news/noisy-neighbours
You will find it really hard to use your hyperacusis as the base for the complaints though. I don't think there is any requirement for your neighbour to take care just because of your condition - the onus will be on you to soundproof yourself agains normal environmental noise such as grass cutting, some dog barking, cars in the street etc.
Excessive noise can be picked up by the decibel meter and you can record it to prove date, time and location with the reading.
Finding an officer from the council willing to do something about it is another problem - they are probably understaffed and carry little actual power to enforce changes by your neighbours.
You will most likely have more success in speaking to your neighbour directly and asking them to be understanding - let them know when suitable time windows are for stuff like grass cutting, DIY etc so you can get your ear defenders out.
Be wary of antagonising your neighbours now - there are other posts here of neighbours who were approached and created a vendetta against the person with the disability - see here:
https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/38502/neighbours-the-long-running-english-version
The diplomatic approach is one I would recommend in your situation, possibly starting with taking a gift (muffin basket maybe) and get to know them first.
Sorry to be negative but I think there is no chance.I tried a light pollution complaint and they made me gather evidence for a month just to say which they knew all along the threshold has not been met.
I would insist on a meeting and explain your concerns and your diagnosis and see if they look like they can help.
Would the GP writer a supporting letter ?