Angry residents make 200,000 complaints to councils over nuisance neighbours

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Fife was one of the councils to receive most complaints. Credit: Andrew Milligan/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Angry residents made hundreds of thousands of complaints about their nuisance neighbours last year, new research has found.

More than three quarters of councils across the UK revealed they received nearly half a million complaints from householders about their neighbours' behaviour, pets or properties, according to research by Churchill Home Insurance.

Some 200,120 complaints were about noisy neighbours between January and September last year, while another 104,828 raised concerns about the condition of nearby homes such as poor hygiene, messy gardens and vermin.

More than 93,500 complaints were about rubbish being dumped in gardens or private alleyways, while 46,539 complaints were related to nuisance pets including dangerous animals or vast numbers of pets being kept at properties.

Some 21,090 complaints were about parked vehicles causing disruptions, Churchill said.

In total, 466,156 complaints were made about nuisance neighbours, according to Freedom of Information (FOI) responses from 318 councils across the country.

Dalgety Bay in Fife. Credit: Andrew Milligan/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Of the local authorities to respond to Churchill, Fife, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Westminster in London received the most statutory nuisance complaints - when a council has a duty to investigate - per head of population in the UK, the company said.Councils handed out more than 4,200 noise abatement notices between January and September last year, including 583 in Westminster alone, while 644 notices were broken during the period, the insurers found.

Fife council received the most complaints per head with 19,070 statutory nuisance concerns - equivalent to 53 complaints per 1,000 people, according to Churchill.

This was followed by Newcastle with 45 complaints per 1,000 and Westminster with 40 complaints per 1,000, the company said.

The Isles of Scilly was described by Churchill as "perhaps the most harmonious place in Britain" after its local council recorded a single nuisance complaint and no statutory complaints between January and September last year.

Nottinghamshire county, Worcestershire county and Gwynedd in North Wales also appeared to have the most peaceful neighbourhoods, with less than one statutory nuisance complaint per 1,000 people, Churchill said.Meanwhile, London boroughs - Westminster, Tower Hamlets, Southwark and Wandsworth - each received about 5,000 residential noise complaints, it added.

Elsewhere, Bristol City Council received some 3,970 statutory nuisance complaints along with 1,894 in Plymouth, Churchill found.Leicester City Council received 1,746 complaints, Hull had 2,635, Swansea received 2,851 complaints and Gloucester had 1,227, the insurance company revealed.