I can't think of anything more annoying than being kept awake by other people's loud music.
And a close second must be being driven round the twist by a neighbour's constantly barking dog.
What can you do about it?
Most of us know what it's like to have lain awake, desperate for sleep, but denied this basic need by someone else's noise. The good news is, if it happens in New Zealand, there's a sure way of stopping it fairly quickly.
Here's what we were told by Tony, an immigrant from Wales:
"When we first came to New Zealand we rented a house in Christchurch, in a very pleasant street, close to the University. Because we were close to the University it meant there was a reasonably big student population. This caused us no problems until a party one night was blasting out music by the likes of Pearl Jam and Neil Young. The party was outside and so were the hi-fi speakers. This saw my wife and me lying awake in our beds at 1 am in the morning, tired, miserable and getting angrier and angrier.
The music had been going on for hours and hours and I'd had enough. The council say that they'd prefer you to solve problems on a neighbourly basis but, even though I was boiling angry, I'd have been daft to walk into a large number of probably drunk students telling them to switch off their music. I phoned the Noise Control section of the City Council. They don't bother about whether you've "tried to solve it in a neighbourly way" and they don't tell the noise-makers who has complained about them.
The music stopped about 20 minutes after I called. It stayed stopped for about a quarter of an hour and then started up again. To say I was livid would be an understatement. I phoned Noise Control again and this time, after another 20 minutes, the noise stopped for good."
Another source of noise irritation can be Timothy Tool-Kit who's always banging away at something; or how about Simon Schumacher tuning his car engine and revving it at all hours; or even Angus from Aberdeen who's out in the garden practising the noble art of bagpipe-playing at 6 am?
All of these potential irritants can be sorted out by laws, which cover: "any noise which is under human control and of such a nature as to unreasonably interfere with the peace, comfort and convenience of any person."
And now we come to that other cause of aural irritation - the noisy dog, out in the garden all day long and going berserk at the slightest provocation. A passing butterfly's all that's needed to provoke this mad beast into non-stop barking for an hour.
The bad news is that the Noise Control section does not deal with noisy dogs. The good news is that the Dog Control section does, using the power of the 1996 Dog Control Act which states:
Where a dog control officer or dog ranger has received a complaint and has reasonable grounds for believing that a nuisance is being created by the persistent and loud barking or howling of any dog, the dog control officer or dog ranger may:
a. |
Enter at any reasonable time upon the land or premises, other than a dwelling house, on which the dog is kept, to inspect the conditions under which the dog is kept. |
b. |
Give the owner of the dog a written notice requiring that person make such reasonable provision on the property to abate the nuisance as shall be specified in the notice or, if considered necessary, to remove the dog from the land or premises. |
In other words if someone has a noisy dog, and after a complaint and a warning does nothing about it, the dog can be removed by the Animal Control Section.
In my opinion, New Zealand's noise laws are well-thought-out, and help to make our neighbourhoods more pleasant places to live.
Noise Laws - Additional Note
New Zealand's laws on noise are actually quite sensible. They are administered by local authorities working under the Resource Management Act 1991.
Although each local authority operates slightly differently, Noise Control officers are generally available 24 hours a day. Upon receiving a complaint, they investigate it as quickly as they can. If, in their opinion, the noise is excessive they issue an immediate direction to stop it. If the noise continues, the equipment can be seized immediately and the perpetrator required to pay for its recovery. Most complaints are for stereo noise.
