How would you..

.. word a nasty letter to the neighbours about fireworks..

Everyone else in the street last night set theirs off around 9pm. I thought that was pretty good, it wasn't late and everyone seemed to do it together which is awesome.

Yet the neighbours right next to us decided to let them off at 11:30pm!!!!!! And it is a very much a family, small kiddies cul de sac.

I think that's too late for fireworks in a street full of young kids..

DH couldn't get to sleep (I was out to it thanks to a sleeping pill), it woke Daniel up so DH had a hell of a job getting him back to sleep at that hour of the night. Our dog is a freaking lunny today, we waited til we hadn't heard any for 1/2 an hour before we put him out in his kennel because he is freaked by them thanks to the same neighbours efforts last year.

And again, they seemed to be aiming them at our property. DH said he heard them landing on our roof.

He wants to wait and see if they let them off again tonight and then bollock them over the fence but I think it needs something now, otherwise year after year they are gonna keep doing it.

Can you call noise control? That would be my first point of contact, as the whole "confronting neighbours" thing can go horribly, horribly wrong. It's sometimes better if the complaint is anonymous to start.

I wouldn't write a "nasty" letter to them, for several reasons. First, because it can be perceived as threatening behaviour on your part, and if it's in writing, they can take it to the authorities and point the finger at YOU. It's your word against theirs in a case like this, unless other neighbours back you up from the get-go. Second, inflammatory remarks often produce a defensive response, when what you really want is for them to listen to you and not do it again. Receiving a rude letter will only make them think less of you than it sounds like they already do, if they're really aiming fireworks at your house, and may irritate them to the point that they do even worse things, just to get a rise out of you.

Fireworks can be dangerous and can start fires, so I would check your roof and yard for evidence and see if there are any burnt-out firework cones or other bits and pieces laying around. Collect them in a bag so that you have proof. Then I would consider confronting them in person, presenting them with the bag, and expressing how dangerous fireworks can be and how you're not sure they realise that you have a baby and a dog in the house, both of whom were very unsettled last night. Tell them you understand they are excited about the holiday and you would appreciate if they could let off fireworks at an earlier time, say by 9.30, so that you and the rest of the neighbourhood with young children are not unduly disturbed. You have to stay calm and rational, no matter how upset you are, because you don't want to get into a slinging match with them -- you want to leave them with the impression that you're willing to work things out.

Yeah, don't write a letter. I'd be pissed too, if they woke my baby up.. but it only happens once a year, and as long as they don't keep letting them off every night, it's probably best to just forget about it.

I don't want to just forget about it since its two years in a row now that they have done what we consider is dangerous with fireworks.

They are the type of neighbours that complain at us.. for example, the first night we got our puppy he barked a bit because puppies do on their first night away from their litter. He only barked til about 830 but the guy next door came over and really bit our heads off about it.

And when the power went off for a few hours a few months back our alarm is kinda dumb and annoying and will beep every minute to tell you it has no mains power. There isn't a way to shut it off (we have had couchmans here to try and figure it out but to no avail).. the beep could barely be heard from outside, but again they complained at us. And I don't even know how they heard it when we couldn't even hear it from our mailbox.

They have left letters in our mailbox a couple of times recently complaining about my "music" which is apparently loud. Though I don't know how my music can be loud when I haven't even listened to a cd since Daniel was born.

So if they are gonna complain at us about stupid little things why should we be expected to put up with dangerous behaviour??

Maybe I'll send DH over later. I don't want to go over cos I know I'll just blow up at them because I'm sick of their complaining and them being stupid last night just really made me mad once I heard about it this morning. That's why I thought of a letter. I can re-read what I say before giving it lol

IMO those kind of neighbours should be ignored...maybe take action of a diff kind next year...if they are making a noise past a certain hour call noise control, or if you can see them firing fireworks at your house call the police or report them as a fire hazard...

GandT wrote: IMO those kind of neighbours should be ignored...maybe take action of a diff kind next year...if they are making a noise past a certain hour call noise control, or if you can see them firing fireworks at your house call the police or report them as a fire hazard...

Agreed. We had neighbours like this when I was younger and the more mum wrote letters/complained, the worse it got. I would also worry about retaliatory (sp?) behaviour. I would just ring noise control etc. Are they renters? You could see if you can get in touch with land lord/land agent etc. Good luck.

I'd not write a letter either. I think it would make things worse with them. Also if I wasn't a mum I would have liked to have set off my fireworks for midnight too.