What happens to your noise complaint

Once you report the issue to the City Helpdesk, your case goes to the Noise team. You’ll get a letter asking you to fill in a noise diary. This means writing down the dates, times, and type of noise you’re hearing.

You must return the diary within 21 days by post or email. If you don’t send it back, your case will be closed.

We look at your diary to decide what to do next.

• If the noise is something we can’t deal with, or it doesn’t seem serious, we’ll send you a letter explaining why and how you can take your own action through the courts. Your case will then be closed.
• If the diary shows that the noise might be a problem, we’ll accept your case and send you a letter with instructions. This includes how to contact us during the day or night. Please check your email inbox and junk folder.

We’ll also send a warning letter to the person causing the noise. We won’t tell them who made the complaint.

We’ll investigate the noise for 35 days. During this time, you need to call us every time the noise happens and feels unreasonable. We’ll try to send an officer to your home to listen.

Please note: Our night noise service is run by one officer who covers the whole city. They may not be able to come straight away.

If you don’t call us during the 35 days, we’ll assume the problem is sorted and close your case. If we don’t hear the noise during this time, the case will also be closed. Sometimes we may extend the case if more time is needed.

We use three ways to check noise complaints:

1. Reactive visits – We come to your home when you call us to hear the noise. This includes evenings and weekends.
2. Planned visits – If the noise happens outside our normal hours, we may arrange a visit in advance.
3. Recording equipment – We may place a sound recorder in your home. You control it, and we only use it if we can’t witness the noise ourselves.

If we find that the noise is a serious disturbance, we’ll take action. If the problem continues, we’ll increase the action until it stops.

This could include:

• sending a legal notice (called a statutory notice)
• giving a formal warning (caution)
• taking away the equipment causing the noise
• taking the case to court

If the noise is coming from student housing, we often work with the University of Portsmouth to fix the issue.

You can also contact the university directly:

• call 023 9284 3214
• email student-neighbourliaison@port.ac.uk
• post: Student and Neighbour Liaison Service,
  Student Housing,
  The Nuffield Centre,
  St Michael’s Road,
  Portsmouth,
  PO1 2ED

If the noise is coming from a business or venue, we investigate it in the same way. Complaints will be activated immediately unless the Investigating Officer feels a noise diary is required.

We may contact the business to help solve the problem. You can call us again if the noise happens again.

We aim to help you with noise problems. If you’re unhappy with how we handled your case, we’d like to hear from you.

When we close your case, we may ask you to fill in our feedback form.

If you want to make a formal complaint, contact your investigating officer first. They may be able to sort things out quickly.

We take all complaints seriously. If something has gone wrong, you can use our complaints procedure.

• Portsmouth City Council complaints
• Read our complaints policy