Start going out in the garden at night and making wolf noises. This sounds like an untreated mental health issue. If no one (council, cops, ambulance) is going to respond to the current levels, try to increase them. Consider calling in a welfare check rather than a noise complaint.
this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
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The answer is contained in your post. You called the cops once, and it stopped for 8 months. You called them again and it has stopped (or just the siren?).
Call the cops. It's working, and you owe him no more courtesy.
When the niece visits again, let her know what's been going on. Maybe she can get him into a long term care facility.
The siren has been absent since last Friday night we called the cops. He wasn't playing the siren every night before (referring to this episode of him starting up again 2 weeks ago) so we're not sure if it partially worked or not, either way we're recording everything so it's all documented, and from the answers I got in this thread, we'll be calling the cops every time he does this and getting in touch with the council too. We'll try and catch his niece when she comes over next too
Record a video of it with a decibel meter (not an app, like an actual separate device) pointing at the direction of the audio source. Works best if there's like a apartment clock in view to prove the time.
I mean, if cops arent doing shit, and the neighbor aren't listening to reason, you have to take matters in your own hands.
Make the same noise they did while they sleep. See how they like it.
Maybe don't engage in a war of escalation with unstable people
In game theory, the best strategy is called "Tit For Tat": Be nice at first, but strike back (in equal proportion to what they did) if they refuse to cooperate.
OP already tried being nice. You can't live life being a pushover.
A society cannot be tolerant of the intolerant.
This only works with rational actors
Thus is childish and unlikely to lead to a solution.
Yeah do that if you want to get stabbed to death. The neighbor has mental health issues.
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Having dealt with similar situations before, that definitely sounds like schizophrenia. Unfortunately, short of just moving, there won't be much that you can do directly, as ultimately getting any real solution for anybody involved is going to require professional intervention. You very likely won't be able to convince him out of whatever incorrect beliefs he's dug his heels into.
I would try seeing if he has any family you could reach out to. It's likely not safe for him to be living alone anymore, and he needs somebody to help care for him. If not family, it may be worth putting in a call to whatever social services you have in your area.
Mental disorders like this generally don't get better on their own. Especially not at his age. He needs help before he hurts himself or somebody else.
Exactly my thought. I had a next door neighbor develop schizophrenia, accuse my roommate and I of talking to him through the electrical sockets, and eventually attack us outside our door. He was taken away.
Ok the only people that can help you are the council, noise complaints are the responsibility your local council unfortunately, given the cuts that have happened over the years this means that they are underfunded. What you need to do is get the local noise complaints number and call it every single time it happens. This is what is called a statutory noise complaint. Just Google it. At the same time you need to start a noise complaint diary,
the columns are date, start time, end time, severity*, weather, and details.
Severity is on a scale of 0 to 4, with 0 been nothing and 4 been OMFG argh. Details need to include what type of noise it is and most importantly how it affects you. Headache? Lack of sleep, emotional distress? Got to town however remember that this is going to be a legal document that could get used in court eventually. Also important is to do it daily even if there is no noise. Include if you are away on holiday etc if it regularly happens on a weekend etc. The council should send you this info after the first couple of incidents
Now for the nighttime banging on the walls and screaming, if it just randomly starts in the middle of the night that sounds to me like someone is or could be having domestic abuse. I apologise in advance if this upsets people. You should contact the police and let the know that.
If any of your neighbours are affected try to get the in on it as well, it's much more effective with multiple people.
Eventually you will be asked to place a "noise recording device" in the room that is most affected, at this point you know something is finally going to be done about, eventually...
If you have any remote possibility of moving house in the next year or so don't go down this route as i believe that you have to declare it to the next house buyer
The problem we have in the UK is that most of the laws, procedures and police are built around people not wanting to be complete knobheads. Unfortunately the people have realised this and also realised there are no consequences for their actions
Disconnect his apartment from electricity. Maybe his breakers are outside. His main water valve is definitely outside, close it frequently. While he showers. Make him tired, fond out when he sleeps then ring his doorbell, call his phone, knock the door, etc…
Schizo accelerationsim. Don't know if I approve but either way it'll be interesting.
I'm surprised the police actually came out at all, they usually don't give a fuck.
As someone else said you need to go to the council, they will have a department specifically for noise complaints and anti social shit like this. You will probably need to fill out a form online and then they have officers for this specific problem who will call you and probably come out to visit. They will be your best recourse to finding a solution to this.
I've had success imagining the reaction a bully is looking for, or expecting; Then giving them a reaction that confounds whatever they had in mind. Don't play their game. Make a new game for you to play. One they won't understand.
My first thought in this case, is to stop by and give him a list of requests you'd like him to play the next morning. If he immediately refuses, just ignore what he says and thank him, because his sound system is way better than yours. That interaction will confuse the hell out of him. He might just stop. If he does or not, go back the next day and ask why he didn't play your request list. If he did play your list, go back and thank him. Then give him another list of music from someone else in your family.
That's just off the top of my head, maybe you can come up with something better. Just remember to make it your game, not his.
Yeah, I ain't got the energy for this.
If you want to go the unethical route, tell the police that he’s wandering naked in his yard waving a knife and yelling threats.
Maybe after enough calls, he’ll get committed, which it sounds like that’s where he needs to be.
This is the best idea in the thread and will yield immediate results. If the neighbour is unwell enough to harass a random family then getting them committed might actually be doing them a favour.
Somehow I read it as your brother having schizophrenia and got really confused.
Continue to involve authorities, but u fortunately mental health funding keeps getting slashed. There may be a social worker centre you could reach out to for more information.
A friend of mine had a similar issue. Also UK, West London a guy was blasting his car stereo every night in front of his garage, often till 8-9 pm, in some cases during the night while having some weird people over. It was very loud, walls vibrating, etc
Various neighbours called the police on him at least 5 times but nothing happened, he turned off the music for a while, ignored the cops and turned it back on after they left.
They told them they need hard proof to do anything, this would involve getting a regular recording of the music and they should measure the decibels and vibrations to prove how disturbing it is to start anything. It was just the most bizarre way of telling people the local council and police will do nothing. Who the fuck has this kind of equipment and knowledge to do this?
Needless to say nothing happened. My friend moved to another place because of work within 6 months.
I do hope in your case the local law enforcement will be more competent, I wish I could give you an actual advice instead of a story :(
I'm an American so I don't understand why you haven't just put a couple 30 round mags through the wall with your AR-15?
Dudes probably got dementia or something
Kick his ass
This will resolve OPs problem by moving them to prison but their mother will still be in trouble.
You need to get a wolf statue to put in his garden so that can become the locus of his night terrors, be sure to put a speaker in the wolf statue so you can make it talk to him, then claim that you (as the wolf, naturally) are God, and you have granted him the power to walk through walls
I'd have said the power to stop trains with tactile telekinesis. You're a better person than me.
Get like eight to ten shitty things delivered to his house every day. Either something he’ll have to pay for like a pizza, or something just completely useless, like a cheap spare part for something he doesn’t have.
Obviously, use his name and don’t use your real phone number. He'll have to deal with all the trash constantly.
Won’t really solve your issue, but it’s good revenge for him being an asshole.
Oh and sign him up for all the flyers and coupon books you can. Just like a torrent of junk every single day, never ending.