Dealing with noise complaints

Operating your premises and living in harmony with local residents may at times feel like a daunting task. To assist you, we have outlined some advice below to help you avoid noise issues and what to consider if they do arise.

Review your premises licence conditions and hours​

Check the hours and licensable activities on your premises licence, make sure you are not operating beyond what your licence allows.

Review your premises licence conditions. You may find you have a condition attached to your licence to mitigate against potential noise nuisance such as requiring that you close all windows or doors after a set time, or that refuse collections only occur during a certain time of day. Make sure you are familiar with any such conditions on your licence and that you are compliant.

That said, do not forget about the deregulation of licensing requirements for live and recorded music under the Live Music Act, more information on the Live Music Act can be found here​.

Preparing for events​

If you are hosting a one off event consider any risks to the promotion of the licensing objectives, including the prevention of public nuisance, and consider completing a risk assessment prior to the event to highlight any potential issues and mitigation measures to address those issues. There may indeed be a condition on your premises licence requiring you to complete a risk assessment. Consider the type of event, the location, timings and the type of entertainment that is taking place. You may identify measures that could be put in place to monitor and mitigate against noise breakout such as staff monitoring the boundary of the premises to identify any noise breakout.

Maintain good relationships with local residents​

Good working relationships are key. It may be advisable to notify your neighbours of any events which may be taking place on the premises prior to the event, they may wish to discuss their concerns with you. If a local resident raises an informal complaint relating to noise, show willingness to work with them to resolve the issue raised promptly and be sympathetic to their concerns. Taking this approach may make it less likely that complaint will escalate to enforcement action from the council, whereas ignoring or dismissing the complaint is unlikely to make the complaint go away and is very likely to escalate the situation further.

Make sure to log any complaint made and the subsequent action taken for your records for future reference, and to demonstrate the steps you have taken to resolve the complaint.

Dealing with formal complaints​

If a complaint has been escalated to Council Licensing or Environment Health Officers be proactive and liaise with the Officer in a timely manner. Get full details of the complaint from the Officer so you are able to fully investigate the complaint. Work in partnership with the Officer to find a satisfactory solution and consider how you will prevent future issues. Ensuring you build a positive working relationship with the Officer can help mitigate issues and is more likely to lead to a more positive outcome for you.

Additionally,  you may wish to consider instructing an acoustic consultant to analyse the issues and advise on additional measures you can implement to mitigate noise and potential nuisance to help resolve the complaint.

Need further advice?​

Failure to deal with noise complaints appropriately can lead to a significant risk to your business, you could be served a Noise Abatement Notice and your premises licence could be reviewed. It is therefore important to be proactive with noise complaints.  If you are unable to resolve any noise related issue and would like some further help or advise, please get in touch with one of our solicitors we would be more than happy to help.

• Elizabeth Varley​ is a solicitor at Poppleston Allen​​​