Top garda’s advice on how to deal with noisy neighbours

Got neighbours from hell? - then take the advice of a top garda who was a victim of them.

Chief Superintendent Gerard Dillane said he once suffered with noisy neighbours who partied into the early hours.

His solution: If the party was in full swing at 4am or 5am and he was woken up; he’d do the same to the landlord.

And it worked, he told a meeting of the Cork County Joint Policing Committee (JPC) when asked how to deal with such situations.

However, he added that victims need to document and record (if possible) loud noise to further their case because it would be vital if it went to court.

He was responding to a question from Diarmuid Cronin, a senior official with Muintir na Tire, who said it was a problem which wasn’t being properly tackled by the authorities.

Mr Cronin said part of the problem was because many private landlords didn’t vet prospective tenants properly.

Deputy David Stanton (FG), chairman of the Oireachtas committee on Justice, said he wanted “new protocols put in place” to see that complainants were properly listened to and were updated on how their complaint was being handled.

Assistant Commissioner John O’Mahony said an initiative was needed and it had to be a multi-agency approach to deal with anti-social behaviour.

“My own cure was that I rang the landlord at 4am and I’d do it at 5am and so on if necessary. You need to document everything. You need to get the name of the landlord and ring them up and show them what’s going on,” Chief Supt Dillane said.

He didn’t say where or when this had happened, or whether he had informed the landlord of his job or if the landlord knew. But he maintained it was the way to go for any citizen suffering sleepless nights.

Meanwhile, Cork County Council chief executive Tim Lucey said his local authority had an Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy (ASB) which tackles complaints.

“The evidence is that there is a very low level of ASB across council housing estates in the county.

“We try to assist communities to create an environment which limits the opportunity for ASB to arise through encouraging greater tenant participation in estate management through our Estate Management Unit and Tenant Liaison Officers,” Mr Lucey said.

He said the council wasn’t in a position to deal with anonymous complaints, but guarantees confidentiality where examining complaints and trying to manage them. This confidentiality is guaranteed up to a point where statements may be needed if formal proceedings are necessary.

“Our protocols provide for verbal and written warnings and anti-social behaviour can impact on a person’s progression of their housing application, sale or a transfer from their dwelling.

We work very closely with An Garda Siochána and find that any incidents are generally capable of management once details of reported incidents are recorded and presented for investigation,” Mr Lucey added.