In the 2016-17 financial year, Brisbane residents made over 10 000 complaints about noise to the council. This number has increased from the previous 2015-16 year. This means Brisbane City Council is receiving an average of 30 noise complaints every day. With these many noise complaints every day in one council area, it's clear there is a problem with the way noise complaints are currently being managed.
It's not new for people to complain about noisy neighbours, but with complaints on the rise, let's take a look at what people are complaining about, and how you might be able to solve them without having to repeatedly file complaints.
1. Animal noise
It could be a tree full of squawking bats or a neighbour with a new dog. Either way, people in Brisbane have had enough of the unwanted sound of animals invading their ears. NoiseNet can help you with these wildlife problems by installing a noise monitor (this is very helpful if you don't know where the noise is coming from). Otherwise, our staff can make a suggestion of how you can stop the neighbours dog from barking, or issue a Noise Report to back up your case to council.
2. Builders working out of hours This one is beyond annoying because even if you manage to deal with it, it's already ruined your sleep. Sometimes the council never 'catches' them in the act, so it's hard for them to issue a warning. If you can't approach the situation yourself or have done so to no avail, we can capture the sound 24/7 and make a stronger case for the council.
3. Power tools
Does your neighbour like to test out his DIY skills at all hours of the night? Have you asked for them to stop only to be disappointed by another sleepless night sponsored by Bunnings Warehouse? Let NoiseNet mitigate these complaints by offering one of our monitoring services.
4. Entertainment venue If you choose to live near an entertainment venue, your rights to complain become slightly harder. If there is unreasonable noise after approved business hours, you, of course, are within your rights to complain. At NoiseNet, we listen to hours and hours of sound recordings and can hear and see when there is a spike in decibels in a certain area.
If you are planning on buying or renting a house, it's easy to see why it's important to consider these four major causes of noise complaints in Brisbane. It just takes a quick search of the address in our Noise Rating system to give you a rating of how sound effects the house. You can also pay just $60 to get a detailed report which will reveal what is causing the noise, and what times of the day it occurs.
This not only will save you time, money and restless nights, but it will also save you from having to pick up the phone to call the police for a noise complaint, or dealing with the local council.