The neighbour attached to our rental property has contacted us to complain about the dogs barking. We have spoken to the tenant and visited in person and the dogs do bark when they play but they are not barking out of distress or upset.
The neighbour is used to a 90 year old lady who used to live next door before we bought it. It is now let out to a family with older children from teen age. The neighbour is complaining about doors closing “slamming” in their words at 6:15am when one leaves and again at 7:15am when the other leaves.
I feel like this is just a family “living” in their home and that maybe the neighbour isn’t too happy about it being a rental property. I feel like it wouldn’t matter who it was (previous tenants were in 50’s they still complained about doors shutting) I just think they have a thing about it being a rented property. They can’t dictate the tenants we put in there especially when it’s a 3 bed semi detached that will attract families.
Unless you are getting complaints from multiple neighbours I would leave them to sort it out between themselves. Maybe have a word with other neighbours to get the bigger picture.
Why are they slamming it? Can the door lock fittings be adjusted so it shuts more easily without your tenants feeling they need to slam it to make sure it’s shut?
For the door (assume it is the front door) you could try fitting the foam insulation strips used for draught proofing. 6 quid from screwfix and saves tenant £ on heating too.
You could also fit a door closer. These are 50 quid and can be adjusted for how fast/slow a door shuts.
Much more expensive would be sound proofing but doubt it’s effective and unless the dogs are barking or howling in the small hours then assuming there’s a garden they will be audible from there anyway
Always best to see if an adjustment to the door (s) helps. Send a joiner round after explaining the issue. All parties will be happy that something has been done to reduce the tension.
Being woken daily by slamming doors does get on a persons nerves. I would not like it. Would anyone? I routinely fit damper patches to all my cabinet doors to silence them and where possible to house doors. Little things can escalate if left. Happy Tenants, Happy Neighbours, Happy Landlord!
Slamming doors and dogs barking is not a minor issue. If I was living next door I would be smashing your door down till you did something about it. A guy down our street murdered the next door neighbour over this sort of thing, it can escalate if not dealt with. People and yourself need to be more ameanable to other peoples distress caused by your tenant and not have a couldnt really care attitude.
@Leslie1 don’t think any of the advice from people above has been ‘couldn’t really care’ people have proposed investigating etc, seeing if door noise can be solved etc
Nor has anyone said it’s minor.
LLs aren’t social workers or paid to solve neighbourly disputes.
But @recxdevelopmentsltd if gathering evidence indicates a significant issue and tenants dont work with you to resolve, the tenants can be warned as a breach of tenancy agreement (check but most have clauses about not behaving in an anti social way or causing problems with neighbours) and ultimately evicted as a result. Remember tenants are there only a couple of years on average, neighbours you need to keep onside. As @Leslie and others have said best to take action to try to investigate/address and stop things getting out of hand. If you really thought you shouldn’t bother because these were just neighbours who will complain no matter whom is renting there, I’m guessing you wouldn’t have posted here asking for advice..