Loud parties & calling the cops

Ok, it was Saturday night, so people have parties. Sure.
Very, very loud parties. Sure
But it's reasonable, still, to dial it down a bit after midnight, no? Or sometime before 6am perhaps...?

Do you call the police and complain about noise in these situations? We did last night, at around 2am. The party was in the next street over and I could hear the music very clearly despite ear plugs. I think they turned it down for a bit, as we did get some sleep. But it was going again when I woke at 5am.
I know the police have far better things to deal with than this, so should we just suck it up? I might if I wasn't so utterly sleep deprived already. In any case calling didn't really help much.

Once (elsewhere) we went to a neighbour's place to ask in person for them to turn it down. They were rude, abusive and turned the music up even louder. So that didn't work out too well for us.

What do you think?

You definitely did the right thing by calling the police. Gee, i would have repeatedly called until the music stopped. That's what nightclubs are for IMHO!

I don't think you have over reacted at all love.

There was a party next door not long ago. The music was cranked till 3am... I rang the police at 12 and just after 2.45ish And they said they'd come out straight away. (which they did) and confiscated the surround sound system lol!

There was a lot of screaming yelling and banging, I couldn't sleep, was alone and scared. (they were smashing bottles over my fence)


Sent from my iPhone (via Tapatalk) so please forgive the spelling mistakes...

I would have done it too. If it's keeping you awake, you know it is keeping all the other people who live around you awake too. It's not stupid, there are real laws in place to deal with it so you are more than entitled to make the most of those laws.

Yep, I would have too. It's illegal for them to be so loud. And it is not unreasonable for you to expect so manners in the situation. I would have called the cops again if it didn't work the first time. Especially if they have parties often.

IT doesn't seem to be a regular occurence, so that's something. I don't get why noone else called the police :dunno: So I thought maybe I'm overreacting.

*Personally* If it's not a regular occurance (sp?) I would have let it go.. Or go and ask them yourself.. Cops are not cool at a party..

You never know - they may have had multiple complaints :dunno:

Normally it is polite for the party thrower to advise neighbours that they are having a party and if neighbours are so inclined they might like to come and have a drink too. The neighbours then say thanks but no thanks and how nice of you and polite of you for letting us know so that we can be prepared. At least that's what generally happens around these parts.

I'd make the call if it is frustrating you. There is a time and a place for loud music and after a reasonable time it is only fair that the noise is turned down. If people want to go on partying they can move on to a venue but residentially, it is not fair to keep everyone awake, keep people drinking and possibly getting out of control.

With regards to the question of asking yourself or calling the cops, it depends on whether you know the people or not and what time it is. If I do know them or it is only early (11 - 12) I might drop by to ask them to turn the volume down but if they haven't had the decency to inform me of the party, if they are unknown to me or if it is too late and there is a possibility of aggressive drunken party goes on mass I would call the cops. There is nothing worse than a revved up group of drunks and I'm not willing to take them on. I also don't want to invite vandalism in my streets. After living inner city for the past 20 years I am sick of waking up and finding junk thrown into my yard, things stolen from the yard, cars vandalized, bins emptied or stolen and general trashing from drunks in the night (maybe I am a bit burnt and bitter from past experience!) I always make a call now early on before a party gets too drunk and out of control. I am sick of letting it slide and paying the price later for that 'generosity'. And I do make that call now as seems to me that everybody else thinks that someone else will make a call to the cops and nobody does. We all sit at home stewing about the noise and getting frustrated believing that surely someone has complained.

Don't get me wrong, I support a party but I just think that a lot of people get inconvenienced when things go on too long. So, in short, no, I don't think you should suck it up, especially when you are dealing with a baby and sleep deprivation.

Yes, I would call.

Everytime we have a bash here, (probably at most 2x a year) I go around, tell all the neighbours, invite them over etc.. they never come though LOL.

that being said we have the cops here at 9pm, 12am, then if its still going (my 30th this happened at) 2am threatening to confiscate the stereo. (we had a DJ and full setup, but had turned it down at each request)

I'm not fussed at them calling the cops, a bit annoying at 9pm, but thems the breaks.

Lol, I am a cop and I call the police when the young chap across the road has a noisy party (which is like every 3-4 wks) once it gets around the 3am mark. But usually he shuts them down around 3am...so he's learning!

Whereas the guy next door had an all nighter, but he only has a party once a year, so I let that one slide ;).

I call the cops, not necessarily late but if they're loud, but this depends on the council guidelines of noise complaints, if it is a regular occurrence then I will also make a formal complaint to the council.

When we've had parties in the past we've notified the police beforehand especially when teenagers/early 20s are involved in the party. We have had the cops come and break up a party at our request, when we couldn't get rid of some of the guests after the end of the party, we'd gotten them off the property but they wouldn't leave, this was a party that we had notified the police about beforehand and they'd come and checked up on during the night (and they had offered to come back if we had issues and had given us their mobile numbers). We also notify the neighbours & invite them.

We used to get a few around here that used to get out of hand but not so much now so either they have moved or stopped.

The police here said that at 11 they had to turn it down then keep it down. They also said when you ring to not to have any lights on in the house and not to go outside.

Nothing gets to you more than the thump, thump of a beat when you are trying to get some sleep. I feel for the shift workers (police, firemen, nurses etc) when there has been a loud party and they have to get up early for work

I have called the cops on neighbours at our last house when they were still playing drinking games and music outside in their yard at 2am. I don't think I ever did that, not even at the numerous 21sts I went to. I think it is incredibly rude and self-centred. If it takes a police officer to let them know that, well and good.

I too have and would call the police. The music gets a little hard to ignore if its still going after 2am.....

I agree with feeling sorry for the shift workers and mummies out there. Really inconsiderate of the hosts I think.

Yup I always call the police if its after midnight and the music is still unacceptably loud. Depending on your state, there are laws that stipulate music must be turned down after a certain time - here I think its 11pm, but I always give people extra time because I'm young too and I know 11pm is a bit early on a weekend night in a lot of peoples eyes, especially when half the time people don't even start to show up until 10pm!

There are also some council districts that have a requirement for you to notify neighbours of a party prior to the day/night of - that was the law in the district my parents lived in. For my 18th birthday we had to let all our neighbours with adjoining properties know there would be a party and to expect some disruption - we dared not not do it either since our back neighbour was a police sergeant!

You did the right thing IMO.

Our neighbours had 30ish people squashed into a tiny court yard the weekend we moved in here. They were making more noise than the 100's of people in the pub over the road and it was so loud that in our bedroom (furthest away from them) we still couldn't talk to each other without screaming. DH approached them and like you had abuse hurled at him, so we called the cops and when it went back up after the cops left we called again. In total we called them 3 times that night.

We've had parties and we've played loud music but some people just go over board! There is NO need for it to be that loud.

I'm pretty sure the law states music has to be below a certain number of decibels after 10 or 11pm. No idea what the allowable volume actually is though. I would've called the cops, too. I've done so in the past, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

It's one thing to have a party, but another to completely disregard your neighbours right to 'peaceful enjoyment' of their property.

:hug: