Investigating your complaint

The Noise Service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

How we investigate noise problems

Our officers use different methods to investigate a noise complaint and may ask for your cooperation with this. This may include a prearranged visit to your home.

You may be asked to keep a noise diary or have sound monitoring equipment placed within your home. Some complaints are complex and will require us to work with our partners to investigate, such as housing providers or the police.

We ask that you work with our officers to support the investigation until the complaint is resolved, or we are satisfied the problem is not occurring.

What we will do about a noise problem

Following an investigation, we will act on noise problems that our officers assess to be a ‘statutory nuisance’. For a problem to be assessed as a statutory nuisance it must do either or both of the following:

unreasonably and substantially interfere with the use or enjoyment of a home or other premises
injure health or be likely to injure health

If an officer investigates the problem and determines that a statutory nuisance is happening, has happened or will happen in the future, they may serve an abatement notice on the person responsible for the issue. They may also serve a notice on the person responsible for the location where the problem is coming from. The notice will require the noise to be stopped within a specific period of time.

Not following a notice is a criminal offence, and could result in formal action, such as the seizure of noise making equipment, or being taken to court.

What you can do about a noise problem

While we make every effort to investigate and resolve noise complaints, there are some situations where we are not able to witness the noise or make an assessment. If this happens, we will be limited in the action we can take.

You could try to resolve the problem yourself by speaking or writing to the person responsible for the noise. If you know where the noise is coming from but do not know who or what is causing it, you could contact the owner or occupier of the property.

Taking legal action

If informal action doesn’t work, you can complain directly to the Magistrates Court. You will need to persuade the court that the noise problem amounts to a statutory nuisance.

You can approach the court and request a hearing where you will be able to present evidence such as recordings, noise logs and complaint records. You will also be able to ask your own witnesses to give evidence.

The person making the noise must be given at least three days’ notice of your intentions to take legal action. For detailed guidance on how to prepare your case you can read our factsheet.