Neighbour's noise complaint?

**vr4king** · 6th February 2011, 20:11

Like I said I tried to be the nice considarate one im my situation and it didnt work...........Some people just dont get it

Im all for working things out as calmly as possible and I know all to well how loud our bikes are

Hey lets all buy an apartment above a night club and moan about the noise

ZacV · 6th February 2011, 20:24

Originally Posted by vr4king

Like I said I tried to be the nice considarate one im my situation and it didnt work...........Some people just dont get it

Im all for working things out as calmly as possible and I know all to well how loud our bikes are

Hey lets all buy an apartment above a night club and moan about the noise

Yeah exactly im all for working things out considerately but from when they came on to our property complaining they were unreasonable and just wanted us to stop riding or go ride on the beach which is illeagal. So who knows what is going to happen, if they are going to be unreasonable then they are going to have a problem because im not going to stop riding on my own property and it is not like i ride at an unreasonable hour, i would only ever ride between 11am-5pm, so they will have to suck it up

**oldguy** · 6th February 2011, 20:25

Originally Posted by Bikemad

and by the way............can you get the cows to Moo between the hours of.........

They be the sort of people who would complain about the smell of cow shit.

**morg_nz** · 6th February 2011, 20:29

To find out what the deal is you need to go onto your local councils website and look at their district plan for the noise regulations for the zone you live in. If it is a lifestyle block, it might not be fully rurally zoned (could be rural/residential or even fully residential) but each will have (probably) different noise regulations for the 'amenity values' applicable to that area - so residential you would expect people to do things like mow their lawns for an hour or so in normal daylight hours etc - rural you would expect to hear tractors and farm machinerary working etc. One problem with noise in rural areas is that they are typically open and as such, noise can travel a long way without decreasing in volume very much. If you really wanted to make sure you were ok you could contact a noise expert/and or a consulting planner to discuss the noise your bike can be measured at on the boundary and whether or not the activity (riding your bike) and the noise level of you doing so is in compliance with the district plan.

**Smifffy** · 6th February 2011, 20:32

Originally Posted by morg_nz

To find out what the deal is you need to go onto your local councils website and look at their district plan for the noise regulations for the zone you live in. If it is a lifestyle block, it might not be fully rurally zoned (could be rural/residential or even fully residential) but each will have (probably) different noise regulations for the 'amenity values' applicable to that area - so residential you would expect people to do things like mow their lawns for an hour or so in normal daylight hours etc - rural you would expect to hear tractors and farm machinerary working etc. One problem with noise in rural areas is that they are typically open and as such, noise can travel a long way without decreasing in volume very much. If you really wanted to make sure you were ok you could contact a noise expert/and or a consulting planner to discuss the noise your bike can be measured at on the boundary and whether or not the activity (riding your bike) and the noise level of you doing so is in compliance with the district plan.

Or the neighbours could pay for the noise expert, and then get him to cease and desist.

**morg_nz** · 6th February 2011, 20:40

Originally Posted by morg_nz

To find out what the deal is you need to go onto your local councils website and look at their district plan for the noise regulations for the zone you live in. If it is a lifestyle block, it might not be fully rurally zoned (could be rural/residential or even fully residential) but each will have (probably) different noise regulations for the 'amenity values' applicable to that area - so residential you would expect people to do things like mow their lawns for an hour or so in normal daylight hours etc - rural you would expect to hear tractors and farm machinerary working etc. One problem with noise in rural areas is that they are typically open and as such, noise can travel a long way without decreasing in volume very much. If you really wanted to make sure you were ok you could contact a noise expert/and or a consulting planner to discuss the noise your bike can be measured at on the boundary and whether or not the activity (riding your bike) and the noise level of you doing so is in compliance with the district plan.

I just found out where muriwai is (gisborne lol!) the gisborne district plan says 55db at the boundary in the daytime (it is quoted as an L10 number which is something about an average maximum but i dont know enough about it to know what that means). 55db is pretty quiet though, but as vr4 king said if they really have a problem they cna complain and get the experts to prove you are doing sometihing not allowed for in the plan. personally i think its rubbish - in the city you have to put up with boy racers, people partying all day with their stereos up loud but you do it because we all have to live together, its pretty pathetic to complain about someone doing somethign in the middle of the day in my opinion - its not as if you are riding at 3am (which is when our neighbours choose to party till!)

The most silly thing about the noise though is that farming activities are not inculded in the rural noise limits, so you could be driving a big loud tractor around the paddock from dawn till dusk making as much noise as you like (i think - dont quote me on this lol!) and they couldnt do a thing about it!

**fossil** · 6th February 2011, 20:42

Originally Posted by ZacV

Hi guys, iv'e just been out riding around my lifestyle block out Muriwai only to stop and see some neighbours that we have never met before come and complain to my parents about the noise from the motorbikes.

they were saying that they were going to be making a complaint to the council about us,but i can't see what there problem is as we have only ridden on our place about 4 times this year and only ever for about an hour at a time. The neighbours arn't even ones on our boundry they would live at least 500 meters away.

I am just wondering what i should do to resolve this with them and also what rights i have in reguards to it all with noise control.

Theres a guy in the Rodney Motorcycle Club who will know what to do.His name is David Yardley.

**scott411** · 6th February 2011, 20:45

Originally Posted by morg_nz

I just found out where muriwai is (gisborne lol!) the gisborne district plan says 55db at the boundary in the daytime (it is quoted as an L10 number which is something about an average maximum but i dont know enough about it to know what that means). 55db is pretty quiet though, but as vr4 king said if they really have a problem they cna complain and get the experts to prove you are doing sometihing not allowed for in the plan. personally i think its rubbish - in the city you have to put up with boy racers, people partying all day with their stereos up loud but you do it because we all have to live together, its pretty pathetic to complain about someone doing somethign in the middle of the day in my opinion - its not as if you are riding at 3am (which is when our neighbours choose to party till!)

The most silly thing about the noise though is that farming activities are not inculded in the rural noise limits, so you could be driving a big loud tractor around the paddock from dawn till dusk making as much noise as you like (i think - dont quote me on this lol!) and they couldnt do a thing about it!

the 55db they quote is a average noise tempreture, which is basically the average of the noise over a time period,

the mx track at harrisille has a 55db noise boundry to most its neigbours,

**Smifffy** · 6th February 2011, 20:47

Originally Posted by morg_nz

I just found out where muriwai is (gisborne lol!) the gisborne district plan says 55db at the boundary in the daytime (it is quoted as an L10 number which is something about an average maximum but i dont know enough about it to know what that means). 55db is pretty quiet though, but as vr4 king said if they really have a problem they cna complain and get the experts to prove you are doing sometihing not allowed for in the plan. personally i think its rubbish - in the city you have to put up with boy racers, people partying all day with their stereos up loud but you do it because we all have to live together, its pretty pathetic to complain about someone doing somethign in the middle of the day in my opinion - its not as if you are riding at 3am (which is when our neighbours choose to party till!)

The most silly thing about the noise though is that farming activities are not inculded in the rural noise limits, so you could be driving a big loud tractor around the paddock from dawn till dusk making as much noise as you like (i think - dont quote me on this lol!) and they couldnt do a thing about it!

Umm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriwai

HTH

**EXCDirt** · 6th February 2011, 21:40

So.... Whens the race around your property?
I've got a headlight. Any night is good for me!

**avgas** · 6th February 2011, 21:53

Originally Posted by ZacV

only had one solution and that was for us to stop riding

I had exactly the same problem.
So I cut the exhaust off my vauxhall and drove it down to pick up the mail every day.

and I kept riding.

I got accosted over it once again, told them that if they kept probing, I can make it worse. But if they left it alone I would weld the exhaust back on the car and tone down the bike.
They were all uptight about it.

Funny thing is now their kids have bikes - fucking sweet justice

**morg_nz** · 7th February 2011, 05:25

Originally Posted by Smifffy

Umm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriwai

HTH

woops - i just googled it and the first result i got in maps was next to gisborne

**mfordy** · 7th February 2011, 07:40

We had a similar problem with my horse neighbours as well.
He tried threatening me with a $800 vet bill after one of his mad yearlings impaled itself on a fencepost after we apparently scared it.
Spoke to our solictor and he reckons as along as we keep our track low key (Dad and 2 boys and a couple of mates), the neighbour didn't have a legal leg to stand on as considered normal farming activity.
Out of neighbourly respect, I've moved the track to the other side of the farm and planted shelter trees in between. Now a new neighbour has moved in further down the road with 4 really noisy thumpers!

One think I have noticed with the horses is if they can see where the noise is coming from they don't seem to get too upset - they go bananas when contract bale wrappers come in at midnight

**FROSTY:Me** · 7th February 2011, 08:37

OP- My kids are in sorta the same boat as you but it ain't the neighbour its the dad (me).
Not that I personally give a rats arse about the noise but better me keeping a cap on it tha some bitchy neighbors.