Neighbors

[augustaga]

I have a question and need your advice from a legal standpoint.

My husband has a car that he drag races for a hobby.
He has made it street legal to drive. It is on the louder
side but is breaking no laws. He works on it inside our garage
and within the time frame of noise ordinances where we live.

We have a neighbor that screams at him from her porch that he
and his car annoy her and disrupt her life. She has called the
police while he was working on the car and the officer had no
problems with the loudness of the car he even stated that
it wasn't that loud.Since the visit from the police he went
and put normal mufflers on the car to quiet it down even more.
The loudness of the car doesn't rattle anything off our walls
and it isn't loud in our home which is connected to the garage.

The woman again came out today and screamed at him, called him
names and swore at him. It upsets him. We have asked the neighbors
across the street and around us whether the car bothers
them or not and they said they rarely hear it. No one else has
complained.

Is there anything we can do legally to stop her harassment??

 

[CdwJava]

What state do you live in?

If you live in a state where there are statutes against disturbing the peace and citizen's arrest laws, she might just figure out one day that she can have him arrested for disturbing the peace regardless of what the officer thinks about the level of noise while he is there.

If you are lucky enough to live in a place where these two statutes do not exist or are not strictly enforced, I doubt there is much that anyone can do. I suppose if she starts causing a scene you can call the police, but being a bad neighbor or yelling is not generally going to be a crime. And if your husband's auto work and engine noise is not unlawful, I can't imagine her much softer voice is going to be, either.

- Carl