Artmakerjenny
Member
I'd like some advice on this please. I live in a VERY RURAL township in SW Michigan. (Van Buren Co.) Our township has NO sound ordinance at all. Years ago the corner bar started putting outdoor stadium size speakers on and blasting karaoke. The owner informed me they were going to do this every weekend all summer. I walked around town and got a dozen home owners to come with me to the town board meeting and suggest they could write an ordinance any way they like. I suggested they simply say no outdoor speakers without a permit which would give them control over when, how long, how loud etc. BUT they voted it down. Bar burned down so end of problem.
UNTIL.....
My neighbor to the south of me decided to put outside a HUGE speaker and they BLAST their awful music starting in mid afternoon until 9 or so at night. I cannot get away from it. We have two houses side by side and inside the furthest one from them with the door and windows shut I still can't get away from it. Knowing there is no sound ordinance, fight fire with fire. I happen to have a pretty big and loud speaker I use to practice my drums with. (During the day when none of my neighbors are home.) I dragged that outside, put Wagner on full blast and left it on a loop. BUT my speaker, loud though it may be is totally drowned out by theirs so makes little difference. I left it on for several hours even after theirs stopped and thought I made my point, that was over a month ago.
UNTIL Last Sunday they did it again. This time I decided to leave mine on ALL NIGHT. They have kids, maybe if their kids are kept up they would get it? It's only fair, a beautiful evening I would have loved to build a fire and sit outside but could not. SO I'll keep them up all night until it sinks in. BUT my neighbor on the other side of me, who happens to be a friend of mine, complained that MY speaker was keeping HIS kids up. So by 10pm I turned it off.
So again I emailed the board super to pass some kind of ordinance and again they say no, "too hard to enforce."
I'm going to the board meeting tomorrow night and revisit the idea of some kind of ordinance. They have a few different board members from the last time I tried this, so maybe I can try again with fresh ears. Make it simple, applies to outdoor amplifiers or very loud stereos only. I don't expect everyone with a lawn mower to worry, this is specific. I would even be ok with certain days being exept, say the 4th of July which is always a loud holiday anyway, go ahead. Just not any and every weekend any time they want. And to word it in a way that kinda gives discretion to law enforcement. With a rather open guideline of this, if you made a phone call with this noise right next door could you or the party on the other end hear each other? If not, it's too loud. Too vague?
I tried to find other similar ordinances but not being a lawyer, not sure how to look up something this specific I'm not finding much help. Seems my ONLY recourse is fight fire with fire even if my friend hates me for it and the rest of the town has to suffer all night. I really don't want to do that.
More....
Before you say talk to them WE HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Many times both me and my husband tried. They seem so nice when we speak but then go right on doing what ever anyway.
FYI they also have chickens who kept wandering onto my property. I had a macaw and explained to them poultry can carry a few diseases that is real bad for parrots. The covid of the bird world and please contain your chickens. But nope.... even though they say ok sure we will, the next day they are around his cage again. I had to dig but it turned out we DO have an ordinance about that. Chickens are considered farm animals and as such must stay on the owners property. Once I pointed that fact out to our local cop HE printed out all the relevant paperwork and paid them a visit. ONE warning is all it took and chickens haven't been back again. (Meanwhile my macaw I had since the 70s, died last Thanks Giving. Roughly one year after chickens started appearing here. Don't know if that was the cause or not, just saying. He should have had another 20 years of life.)
So I think it may only take one visit from a cop to say you can't play music outside that loud for this to stop. Clearly talking with these people is useless.
Last point, they had music on all day this day BUT in the form of a smaller radio, behind their house (not right ON the property line) and I have no problem with hearing other peoples noises. It's when it's so loud I can't hear anything else that drives me insane. ESPECIALLY RAP they just started playing. And they have kids and are blasting M Fer F this F that every other line. It's beyond disgusting.
Lastly, there is no, and likely will be no sound ordinance from this board. Without one, do I have any legal recourse to sue them in small claims? They certainly are infringing on my right to live in peace on my own property. Or does the fact there is no ordinance in place mean there is nothing I could do in court?
Any suggestions are most welcome.
oh.... though my phone doesn't capture nearly the volume, I took a short video to send to the board super. Here.
http://artmakersworlds.com/testing/LOUDneighbors.MOV
UNTIL.....
My neighbor to the south of me decided to put outside a HUGE speaker and they BLAST their awful music starting in mid afternoon until 9 or so at night. I cannot get away from it. We have two houses side by side and inside the furthest one from them with the door and windows shut I still can't get away from it. Knowing there is no sound ordinance, fight fire with fire. I happen to have a pretty big and loud speaker I use to practice my drums with. (During the day when none of my neighbors are home.) I dragged that outside, put Wagner on full blast and left it on a loop. BUT my speaker, loud though it may be is totally drowned out by theirs so makes little difference. I left it on for several hours even after theirs stopped and thought I made my point, that was over a month ago.
UNTIL Last Sunday they did it again. This time I decided to leave mine on ALL NIGHT. They have kids, maybe if their kids are kept up they would get it? It's only fair, a beautiful evening I would have loved to build a fire and sit outside but could not. SO I'll keep them up all night until it sinks in. BUT my neighbor on the other side of me, who happens to be a friend of mine, complained that MY speaker was keeping HIS kids up. So by 10pm I turned it off.
So again I emailed the board super to pass some kind of ordinance and again they say no, "too hard to enforce."
I'm going to the board meeting tomorrow night and revisit the idea of some kind of ordinance. They have a few different board members from the last time I tried this, so maybe I can try again with fresh ears. Make it simple, applies to outdoor amplifiers or very loud stereos only. I don't expect everyone with a lawn mower to worry, this is specific. I would even be ok with certain days being exept, say the 4th of July which is always a loud holiday anyway, go ahead. Just not any and every weekend any time they want. And to word it in a way that kinda gives discretion to law enforcement. With a rather open guideline of this, if you made a phone call with this noise right next door could you or the party on the other end hear each other? If not, it's too loud. Too vague?
I tried to find other similar ordinances but not being a lawyer, not sure how to look up something this specific I'm not finding much help. Seems my ONLY recourse is fight fire with fire even if my friend hates me for it and the rest of the town has to suffer all night. I really don't want to do that.
More....
Before you say talk to them WE HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Many times both me and my husband tried. They seem so nice when we speak but then go right on doing what ever anyway.
FYI they also have chickens who kept wandering onto my property. I had a macaw and explained to them poultry can carry a few diseases that is real bad for parrots. The covid of the bird world and please contain your chickens. But nope.... even though they say ok sure we will, the next day they are around his cage again. I had to dig but it turned out we DO have an ordinance about that. Chickens are considered farm animals and as such must stay on the owners property. Once I pointed that fact out to our local cop HE printed out all the relevant paperwork and paid them a visit. ONE warning is all it took and chickens haven't been back again. (Meanwhile my macaw I had since the 70s, died last Thanks Giving. Roughly one year after chickens started appearing here. Don't know if that was the cause or not, just saying. He should have had another 20 years of life.)
So I think it may only take one visit from a cop to say you can't play music outside that loud for this to stop. Clearly talking with these people is useless.
Last point, they had music on all day this day BUT in the form of a smaller radio, behind their house (not right ON the property line) and I have no problem with hearing other peoples noises. It's when it's so loud I can't hear anything else that drives me insane. ESPECIALLY RAP they just started playing. And they have kids and are blasting M Fer F this F that every other line. It's beyond disgusting.
Lastly, there is no, and likely will be no sound ordinance from this board. Without one, do I have any legal recourse to sue them in small claims? They certainly are infringing on my right to live in peace on my own property. Or does the fact there is no ordinance in place mean there is nothing I could do in court?
Any suggestions are most welcome.
oh.... though my phone doesn't capture nearly the volume, I took a short video to send to the board super. Here.
http://artmakersworlds.com/testing/LOUDneighbors.MOV
