Noisy neighbors (Johnson City, Jonesborough: 2013, renters, how much)

[Doroty]

Hi,
I live in Johnson City. Recently I got some new neighbors. They are really noisy (I dont know how they can listen music with that much high volume. what kinda ear they have). I can clearly hear the music from my house, really disturbing. I tried to talk to them. But they are really nasty people. they did not even give a .. I wonder what the law says about this? did anybody have any experience about this?
Thanks.

[DaveinMtAiry]

Oh man, that totally sucks. Are they renters or did they purchase the home? Renters tend to be temporary, if they bought the home you are screwed. I'm thinking there are noise ordinances in JC but I'm not sure. Maybe a trip to the police station to check your options?

[kamoshika]

Originally Posted by Doroty

Hi,
I live in Johnson City. Recently I got some new neighbors. They are really noisy (I dont know how they can listen music with that much high volume. what kinda ear they have). I can clearly hear the music from my house, really disturbing. I tried to talk to them. But they are really nasty people. they did not even give a .. I wonder what the law says about this? did anybody have any experience about this?
Thanks.

A new noise ordinance went into effect last fall. You can read the ordinance here (right side of page) and the JC Press printed a related article last September.

So don't hesitate to call in the police next time your neighbors crank up the volume, and good luck w/ your situation; noisy neighbors are no fun.

[DaveinMtAiry]

Originally Posted by kamoshika

A new noise ordinance went into effect last fall. You can read the ordinance here (right side of page) and the JC Press printed a related article last September.

So don't hesitate to call in the police next time your neighbors crank up the volume, and good luck w/ your situation; noisy neighbors are no fun.

Yeah and neither is living next to people who dislike you, which will happen when the police are summoned. But I don't feel the OP has a choice, they were nasty to her from the get go so it's not like much will change.

[dreamofmonterey]

If it is barking dogs, JC has no real enforcement. Used to live near the guy who ran "Cool School for Dogs" (Jonesborough) before his niece was arrested for neglecting them. The guy still has 7-9 Dobermans and supposedly "dog-sits" even though court ordered his business to be shut down.

UPDATE: Dog-napping at Cool School for Dogs "made up" - TriCities.com: News

be careful who your neighbors are before you move in.

[queenladybug817]

Originally Posted by dreamofmonterey

If it is barking dogs, JC has no real enforcement. Used to live near the guy who ran "Cool School for Dogs" (Jonesborough) before his niece was arrested for neglecting them. The guy still has 7-9 Dobermans and supposedly "dog-sits" even though court ordered his business to be shut down.

UPDATE: Dog-napping at Cool School for Dogs "made up" - TriCities.com: News

be careful who your neighbors are before you move in.

I don't know if they really enforce it, but Washington Co has a dog barking ordinance.
http://www.mtas.utk.edu/public/municodesweb.nsf/5cde681dbdedc10f8525664000615fc4/07d9802362da8eb485256f9a006708a6/$FILE/JohnsonCity.t10.pdf

10-107. Nuisance animal. It shall be unlawful to keep or harbor any
animal which barks, howls, or whines in an excessive, continuous or untimely
fashion; creates a nuisance; or adversely affects the health or disturbs the repose
of any neighbor, or disturbs the peace and quiet of a neighborhood. Owners of
such animals will receive one (1) warning from the police or animal control to
correct the situation, a citation will be issued if the police or animal control have
to respond to repeated complaints. (Ord. #3425, March 1998)

We have a new neighbor that if her dog keeps up, we will mention it to her. (Mostly the middle of the night barking is the problem. Giving him a few weeks to adjust to the new neighborhood and the sounds before we say anything. He doesn't seem to be neglected or anything, just noisy.) If she doesn't seem to care, then we might see how much enforcement the law has.

I agree with the previous posters. First attempt talking to the neighbor, but if they blow you off about it, then start making calls. It's best to not have neighbors as enemies, but a line should be drawn.

And as for being careful of who your neighbors are before you move in? Well sure...in a perfect world. Of course we all should look for obvious issues when picking a place to live, but for us, we had a neighbor sell their house a bit after we moved in. We can't pick the replacement neighbor. I'm glad she's nice and hopefully her dog will settle down, but we were here before she was. Pretty sure the OP mentioned that her new neighbors moved in after she did as well. It's part of how life works living in a town and why laws exist for these things.

Let's be honest too...these laws aren't going to be enforced typically unless a resident brings it to the attention of those with the power. There are only so many officers around and they can't logistically know everything that goes on, especially in the case you mention above in your post. Has anyone made an effort to let anyone know this guy is breaking his court order by pet sitting?

[tdatl]

Someone should be able to help you. I lived in JC a long time ago, and I had a neighbor with a Dalmation that barked incessantly. They're heavily inbred, so many are deaf and can't hear themselves. Some of them bark for hours and hours and hours on end, no breaks. My neighbor ignored my requests to do anything about it. I can't recall if I called the JC dog people or police, but a nice lady there told me she'd take care of it. After a day or two, I never heard that dog again. Your neighbors don't have the right to disturb your peace.

It's probably anathema to say in such a red area, but your government can be very helpful. Another example: you probably have only one cable provider as an option. Well, you likely would not have any cable providers if the government didn't grant them a monopoly in your area; that's the incentive they require for the huge capital outlays wiring a city. That means they're accountable to your municipality. And trust me, it works. They know they're not getting rate increases approved if the citizens are complaining a lot.

I once had a horrible time with my local cable provider until someone clued me in: screw the cable company, contact your city attorney. I did and after that, you'd think I was royalty; the cable company fell over themselves to help me. To this day I can say that's probably the best & fastest service I've ever gotten from a company, all due to a single well-placed phone call. This wasn't in JC, but I imagine it's similar in many places. Some governments are more responsive than others. I live in a city with a fantastic one.

And I wrote to my state's PSC about a major phone company years ago, and that also did wonders. I got a phone call from the corporation's "presidential escalations office" a short time later.

[pythonis]

Id gladly take loud music over the neighbors i have who every weekend come home with what seems like 5000 rounds of ammunition each and spend the entire weekend shooting nonstop 9 am until around 11 at night.