Neighbors from hell.

[spidermike007]

Three potential solutions.

1. Move

2. Crank up your stereo to an very loud level, point your speakers at their house, and leave it on day and night. See if they get any sort of message out of this.

3. Get a megaphone. Use it to joke, cajole, and play with their heads. Engage in all kinds of zany and crazy behavior, at terrible volume. You may get a message across, or you just may be able to have a rollicking good time of it.

4. Record their nonsense on an MP3 player. Play it back to them in the evening, when things calm down a bit. Maybe hearing their own noise will allow them to be conscious enough to realize they are disturbing the neighborhood. It is a long shot, but what the hell.

[Bluetongue]

So the advice you asked for seems to be, move or quietly get some Thais on your side, which in my view would be quite hard as building shanties is tolerated as is all hours drinking, vehicles have to be parked somewhere, and the work has to be done somewhere. And quietly getting Thais to help will be quite hard, the Poo Yai Bahn or their boss would probably march straight in and say the farang has been complaining, tone it down, and then you've probably got a bigger problem

[spidermike007]

Menat four. Sometimes I can count.

[Wordworx]

Down in Northwest Bali I paid off the farmer on the other side of the wall, got him to relocate his many roosters (started up about 03:00). But could not come up with a similar solution for his constantly howling, demand-shrieking, banging on pots and pans small male child.

I relocated.

Unrestrained constantly barking dogs, screaming kids, blasting crap pop music, TVs at full volume nobody is watching, shouting down hotel corridors late at night and early morning, leaving hotel room doors open so they can *converse* with their associates and family in the rooms down the hall, letting their spoiled children cut loose in residential common areas and restaurants, chintzy speakers at shop storefronts slamming pedestrians with distorted, Gitmo-style audio assaults, yelling to speak to their comrades rows down the aircraft cabin... Some of those are more mainland China-style, but most you can’t escape down here, either.

Best to give up and move, perhaps with more strategic parameters of location for the future.

[KRaymond]

I totally understand how you feel. I have people making hospital in my moo-ban with BIG cranes. They yell from top of the crane to communicate EVERYDAY from 7am till sometimes midnight. It totally sucks that we can't do anything about the disturbance.

[stuartd1]

Thank yourself lucky you didn't buy! One of the main reasons I would never seriously consider buying here, you never know what's going to happen next, condo or house, and you are vitually powerless to change things.

[robertson468]

So sorry to hear about your rotten luck. Short term solution regarding the dog is get a plastic spray bottle and fill it with vinegar. Every time the brute launches himself at you give his eyes a good squirt, he will soon get the message. As for the house you are renting, I can only advise you to move and the sooner the better. You do not want to get into a confrontational situation because you are the minority and things could turn nasty. Cowardice does not come into it. Remember, discretion is the better part of valor and you are merely deploying a discretionary option for you and your Family's welfare. Good luck

[ghworker2010]

another good reason to never buy but only rent in LOS. At least its easy to move on when the hill billies move in next door

[CIHUAHUA]

Had a similar problem back home in Tennessee in a rural spot with little or no law and certainly no order. Everything was going well for my neighbors till my water main broke. I just could not get it fixed and the water kept flooding their tent area and must have gotten into some raw chicken I forgot about. Never could find the rot but the smell kept getting worse. In the end they didn't seem to care and I moved. You know that saying about wrestling with the pig - they like it and you get dirty. Good luck

[Mr Brown]

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate situation iamariva1957 . I have only just gone threw a similar nightmare myself.

In my case I decided in the end, that the stress and problems were to much and I moved on.

An old saying that goes; 'you cant pick your neighbor's is 100% spot on especially over here and there is NO guarantee that I wont be on the move again in the near future.

Anyway, good luck and I hope it works out for you in the long run.

[flyingdoc]

I agree with Mousehound!

Swallow hard, and take them some beers, then they will find it harder to refuse your requests in the future, as you will have become an instant 'mate' !

[bangkokstick]

Enjoy living in a house <3

[Pinot]

Reason #783 never to buy in Thailand.

[arminbkk]

Thais in general are rather inconsiderate of how what they do affects others.

Just my impression.

Maybe it is because Thais don't complain, not quickly anyway. So everybody can just go ahead with what

they are doing.

As for 'bad neighbor' issue: I understand that is always in the top 2 of most annoying things in western countries.

I realized later the same happens in Thailand. Another disappointment.

I live in an apartment building in Bangkok, not real problems from neighbors, except for a couple that fight regularly next door.

When I lived in Ubon, we had a neighbor who was always up at 0530, and of course outside, TV on and sound level up

so as to not neglect the hearing impaired, cooking and all the sounds and smells that go with that.

Then karaoke in the afternoon. And TV and cooking again in the evening.

We finally moved. My wife owned that house by the way so we needed to sell it first.

As for a solution to OP's problem: cannot think of anything really.

OP has to deal with laborers and this is how they are, same as in the west.

And they don't like to be told to tone down. He could get really friendly with them, but then just might find himself

drinking and playing cards himself all night every night.

He could get other Thai neighbors to talk to their boss when he is around.

[The Usual Suspect]

I agree with the other posters who suggested moving. Although it may be a hassle, it is nothing compared to putting up with the &lt;deleted&gt; quality of life they have created in your neighborhood. Worse than that, if you get into a pisser with them, I guarantee, you will lose. It's just not worth it.

Slightly off topic, but still noise and chaos related:

We live and are building a house in a small ban of about three soi's that can get incredibly loud and chaotic at times (t.i.t.). Rather than try to change it, which has about as much chance as re-floating the Titanic, we decided to build our house far to the rear of our property which borders about a thousand rai of rice land. We are going to put up a substantial wall across the front of the property facing the road which will help to cut down noise. The house is going to be filled block with a tile roof and double glazed windows again, noise reducing. Of course, the best laid plans of mice and men...........................

Edited October 28, 2013 by The Usual Suspect

[slipperylobster]

You need to politic this one. They seem to be of a lower class, and on Government Pay. Go to municipal hall for that area with any reputable Thai Businessman/or Land owner. Have them work it out Thai style.....but I would invite the Public Works Chief out for a damn good night....you know..whisky and eats. I do not think they will "resettle" the workers, but they might tone down a bit. We have a similar problem, but not as harsh. People using vacant land for their cows to graze (in the city). I took pictures and my wife called the Municipal Hall. Two of the cutest gals you ever saw came driving up the street in a municipal vehicle... High heels and pink skirts. 10 meters from my kitchen was a pile of cowpies 2 foot deep by 30 foot square. They could not even breathe! They put on masks and those high heels were just clacking away as they ran back to the car. Two days latter, the owner of the cows were shoveling the stuff in bags, which were promptly removed. I paid not a dime. But this is Udon.

[Zodiac]

OP: I agree with a lot of other posters. Better to move as soon as possible since you surely do not need the hassle, and life is too short etc. Your story is yet another example of the Thais and their lack of empathy- but abundance of selfishness- in this case with the rights of neighbors.

Edited October 28, 2013 by Zodiac

[crazykopite]

Gutted for you matey if it happened to me I do not know what I would do few years back when living on another island a karaoke bar opened about 2000 mtrs away from where I lived it was a nightmare fortunately it shut down after a month because it was out in the sticks only a few customers came but that did not stop whoever owned it ( THAI ) from whaling until 3 every morning it then stood empty for well over a year and by then I had moved on as I got fed up with people dumping there kittens on my doorstep !!!!!!!!! I suppose you could always give the local policeman a couple of hundred baht to call and tell them to keep the noise down or better still call immigration who would check that they were legal workers

[watcharacters]

do u own your house or are u just renting?

if renting then just don't pay the rent for the last 2 months so u have no worries about not getting the deposit back

.

Do you really think something like that would actually work? Heck the landlord isn't the one making the noise.

[schbang]

We're in a similar situation, noise-wise, and looking for another property. As lovely as they are, Thai's have little capacity for empathy and impact in these 'neighbour situations'. Seems like you will never negotiate an agreeable outcome with the size of the group you're dealing with. As we've experienced here. Best of luck. A gorgeous new place will soon come into your sights. You will find it.

[HerbalEd]

You can do absolutely nothing ... and you probably know it already.

[rascalman]

You have a complete mess to contend with. I think you are going to have to move. I have a bit noise to deal with but not like this. I know you have invested in setting up your life. However you can not compete or win. MOVE! Good luck!

[Whidbeyboy]

I have had some bad neighbors in my life as I have lived many places. I know moving seems a cop out and why should you right? But it may be the best bet if you want a quick fix. Just know that you could always end up with another situation like this better or worse.

Do what I do and move to the country. I rarely see my neighbors and love the peace and quite.

One question, what are the other residents doing or reacting to this. No locals raising a stink?

[lucjoker]

I'd send my wife over to speak with their boss.

Maybe she wont come back ?

She will feel more home there that in a nice farang house?

If she doesn't come back ,i will sent you mine .

[aussiebebe]

My advice to the OP is that the situation is temporary until the power lines get built so it's not a big problem. Why not just rent a cheap place for a while? Move back when the work has been completed.

[sawadee1947]

buy some nice loudspeakers and teach them nice western music. Play your favourite songs as often you like and loud is very important. Thais like loud music. Maybe you can Karaoke? And that all night long....I'm very sure they will like you after a while....

[circusman]

Sounds like the pikeys have moved in, 'd'ya like dags'.

Sure, use all the slang from your country and who the F else is going to understand you Constan...

[circusman]

MOVE. Not what you want to hear but the quickest way to get relief.

[Gandtee]

Live with it or move. Take the advice given to the British Colonial Ladies, 'When being raped, lay back and think of England'

[DeeMockMark]

I'd say you're between rock and a hard place. If they're there for a year, you can guarantee that means longer and possibly the boss will move other contractors in afterwards as he'll have a nice little setup.

I'd quietly relocate. If you're renting then you'll ,lose your bond but that's probably a small price to pay for your sanity.

Trying to negotiate with them will be impossible, and wait until the rellies turn up complete with a couple more trucks, dogs, and kids.

Cut your losses and move on. Don't consider it surrender, look on it as a chance to find a better place than you had before they turned up.

The mate is right mate. Move on. This is your chance to find another place that is better. And there are better places. Life is too short. I would tell my landlord exactly why I am moving in a calm and collected way. Don't appear upset. For some reason when you have a right to be upset and you don't put that energy out there good things always happen. Good luck. Sorry to hear. But remember s**t happens. Be flexible.