Case law has held that for the malicious and willful elements to be met in Penal Code Section 2 , the subject making the noise must know that there is a person being bothered by the noise. The absence of awareness means the absence of will, and the absence of will means the absence of malice.
As a result, law enforcement in meeting the requirements of case law seeks to first establish awareness when addressing noise complaints. Assuming unreasonableness is established, the common procedure for law enforcement in addressing noise complaints is as follows:. Once a call from a reporting party i. Neither the name of the reporting party nor the location of the reporting party is given. With this advisement, the case law criteria of awareness is met and so, too, is the element of willful malice met should the noise continue to be made following the advisement.
Penal Code Section Apartment List Blog. Share this Article. By: Susan Finch. April 6, What is a Noise Complaint? Final Thoughts What is a Noise Complaint? Here are a few ways to handle noisy neighbors : Communicate with Your Neighbor.
Directly inform your neighbor of the issue. Chances are, your neighbor will be willing to make changes or compromise. Make a Compromise. Speaking of compromises — make them. For example, if you need to get to bed by 10 p. Understand Unreasonable and Excessive. Know your stuff. A dog barking a few times at 6 a. If the Issue Persists If you find yourself in this situation and want to handle it well, then follow these steps: Is the complaint valid? We do not take sides, instead we are trying to establish the facts and if appropriate give informal advice on reducing noise.
Unfortunately, a few people choose to knowingly cause excessive noise and in these cases, we will carry out noise monitoring, either in person or using electronic sound recording equipment to prove existence or likely occurrence of a statutory noise nuisance.
If it can be proved that the noise amounts to a statutory nuisance, we will serve a statutory abatement notice, requesting that the noise is stopped. This may be done immediately or after seven days. The notice will ask that steps are taken to reduce the noise nuisance within a specified time. There is no set time period as the works required to reduce the noise will vary, for instance a factory will require more time to replace a fan, whereas a stereo can be turned down immediately.
Not every neighbor dispute can be solved through self-help. Sometimes, a situation merits police involvement, particularly if an actual law is being broken. The most extreme such situation would be any physical threat to you or your family.
If you feel physically unsafe—perhaps your neighbor has exhibited violent tendencies in the past—call your local police. Even if you do not feel that you are in imminent physical danger, you might call the police after you have exhausted all self-help remedies to fix your neighbor's activities.
It also helps if you know that they're breaking an actual law, even if it's only a misdemeanor, not a higher-level criminal offense. Common misdemeanors that come up in the neighbor context are:. A misdemeanor means that the state has a possible a legal claim against your neighbor, and can press criminal charges. Don't forget that you might separately have a civil, not criminal claim against your neighbor, and could recover damages if you were harmed in a way that can be financially compensated, perhaps in small claims court.
What will the police do? Officers will likely come to your neighborhood and start an investigation. That might mean a knock on your neighbor's door, at which point the police might reveal that you were the one who called.
You might be asked to file a report or appear as a witness in court. Your local police might not actually be the right agency to call about your neighbor's inappropriate and unlawful activities. Besides, if they're responding to a lot of local emergencies, they might not be available to respond as quickly as would make a difference to you. In the coronavirus context, some cities, such as Indianapolis , are seeing so many tips and complaints that they've set up a separate email hotline.
The state of Kentucky set up a government tipline for calls and online reports. A quick online search will tell you whether there's such a system in place in your area.
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