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Noisy Neighbours; sometimes you can win. Be persistent!

This is a topic that has reared its ugly head from time to time and one that often makes one feel that there is absolutely no control in terms of law enforcement in this country. All it achieves is to make one feel totally helpless.
As I stated many moons ago, a large rented house which lays to the back of our house started to develope into some sort of "church" over a year ago. As time progressed, the "services" became more frequent, generated more noise and involved continuing well into the early hours of the morning. There would be speaches by some crazy cow, enhancing her already loud voice with a PA system. I have no idea what form of "Christianity" that it represented but at times it sounded like a cross between an exogesis session, with chanting and screaching and a distorted gospel church with rock (bad) backing tracks. What was particularly annoying is that we live in a fairly decent RESIDENTIAL area, not a commercial one.
We started by visiting the "church" and trying to speak to the people, who agreed to turn the volume down but never did. Then we started to contact the local police station. Sometimes, the officer on duty would sound sympathetic, promised to send somebody along and on occasions that must have happened because the volume was reduced dramatically. 2 Night/days later, back to normal. This went on for months.
My wife would normally retaliate by grabbing some of my rock CD's, volume on high and we could just about drown out the racket from our lovely neighbours.
By Christmas just passed, it became totally intolerable. From the 24th to the New Year, services every bloody day. Police did nought and we went to see them again, even volunteering that one of them came to our house to witness the noise that was being made. No joy.
This process continued until about January and my wife, via the letting agent, managed to extract contact details for the house owner. The owner understood and tried to have them evicted but no joy to date there either although we have been told that a lawyer has become involved. Great!
My wife decided to send an e-mail to the Environment department of the Alcaldia of Medellin to explain what was going on. No reply and we just thought that another avenue had been cut off: they never wrote back.
One day during April, there was a knock on the door and I answered it. A rather serious looking gentleman, calling himself an Inspector, wanted to speak to my wife. I was very worried at first (wondering what she may have done wrong) but as the conversation continued, it turned out that he was following up the letter of complaint written by my wife.
My wife told him everything, with me chipping in with my Spanglish, without needing to exagerate and he busily took notes and provided us with a phone number, where somebody was on duty 24/7, should there be any more problems. He then went to visit the church. The inspector later phoned us to say that a guy answered the door and presented himself as the Pastor. 2 minutes later, he denied that he had a church and just had "a few friends round to prey from time to time". The inspector did not believe him and visited many houses in the vicinity to see what others had to say. They all backed up our story but the strange thing was that the majority of them had never lodged a complaint "because they felt that nobody would listen or help". Wow, I found it unbelievable that our neighbours felt that they would not be heard and they just resigned themselves to a continuous torture 3 or more times per week, up to 6am in the mornings.
2 Weeks later, a letter arrived from our local police station stating that my wife must attend at a certain time/date to provide a statement. Apparently some of our neighbours too.
She was there for 30 minutes giving a statement and also demonstrated what we had to put up with by a tape-recording of some of the "services".
Since then, there has been a deathly silence from the church and at least if they were to start again, we would be in a position to phone the right people at the Alcaldia.
Moral of story. Even here, things can get done if you try hard enough. Harder than back home perhaps but systems do exist to help with this type of problem. I hope posting this does not jinx my luck; it may even encourage some of you lot to pursue your rights!
Sorry readers, a bit long-winded but I could not really reduce it!

By kenblanquito on May 14, 2009, 17:26 in Friendly Talkzone.

RogueOne says on May 14, 2009, 17:36:

Sympathies...well done...congratulations.
Maybe they've been praying for a "sign", and it came knocking at the door! Halleluja!

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adrimm (Moderator) (☼Travelguide writer) says on May 14, 2009, 17:53:

Good on you, glad to hear of your success in having the problem addressed through the channels.

Imho although one hopes this is a normal day in the life of the municipality, it never hurts to write a little complimentary letter to the press or the agency management. Can't go wrong with some positive reinforcement.

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span_colombia says on May 14, 2009, 18:56:

good work! that is encouraging.

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makopp5 (☼Travelguide writer) says on May 14, 2009, 19:01:

good job. You can achive thinks here if you want AND you know how to handle the Colombians.

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jimmymcc says on May 14, 2009, 19:06:

Good for you, I know if it was next to my house he and his misfits would not do it a second time.
I used to have problems with my neighbours and their dogs, not any more they got an f.... they wont forget. I also found out that there is a dept in the local goverment where they can come and take away any dog that is causing too many problems ie barking non stop for 8-10 hours a day.
yes Colombia is changing slowly but surely,

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Haddeman says on May 14, 2009, 19:12:

In the bad old days when accountability was a word reserved only for those in accounting,when the police were called to these persistently noisy neighbours our actions were often imaginative and direct.It usually involved sabotaging the power supply or if that didn't work luring the offender into a public place and promptly apprehending them for being drunk and disorderly in a public place.Accidently letting off CS gas usually has a positive effect too.
Oh,the happy nostalgia of those happy days!

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Rocco81 says on May 14, 2009, 21:30:

Great Post Ken ... we need more good news posts like this! Way to be vigilant !

Sic semper tyrannis

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La_Huella says on May 15, 2009, 02:17:

It's true, the law is enforced here much more than people here would have us believe, but it really depends on where in the country you are too.

Here in BOG, I really wish they'd divert a little effort from things like noise complaints and tackle the more serious issue of street robberies. You can call the DAMA and have the noise shut off permanently within 48 hours, but good luck walking at night these days! Somehow I think they have their priorities all screwed up.

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jinksmiester says on May 15, 2009, 07:32:

It seems that manny a time in a certain barrio visiting friends there would be a nieghbor with his stereo set (outside) the house and blasting full to the nuts so you could hardly talk two houses down the street.No choice but to listen to the music..
Ive thought to myself that if i lived in that area i would buy the biggest meanest stereo system i could and over power him with my own music.I don,t understand the mentality of forcing your noise pollution on someone else....after all why park it outside and blast it full blast?To me that seems ignorant and no respect at all for nieghbors.
good work shutting that church down ken....id imagine something like that would have drove me nuts.

A man is not old until regret takes the place of dreams

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kenblanquito says on May 15, 2009, 07:57:

tomtom
Agree with the Colombians loving to make a noise.
At public events in the parks and I am not talking concerts here, they just have to have music and at a horrible volume too. And children and babies will be present too; the damage to their eardrums just is not considered.
Or in the bars. Impossible to hear somebody speak or be heard. May as well go out on your own!
It is all about education! Noise also creates stress and lessens the ability to think straight.
Oh, for that reason I cannot wait to spend a month at my former village on the UK coast.

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aztec says on May 15, 2009, 07:57:

Admitting up front this statement is stereotyping, we were told by an agent to never purchase an apartment where there lived families of Costanos(sp?). They will party and play loud music all night whenever the impulse overcomes them!

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kalder says on May 15, 2009, 08:01:

Noisy neighbours. I hate them beyond reason. I'd happily watch them die.

"A piece of cheese may entrap a mouse, but a bicycle could ensnare the Imperial Chancellor."~~An Bai Kuang

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kenblanquito says on May 15, 2009, 13:36:

At first, with our differing former environments, upbringings and enforced rules, I thought it may be us miserable foreigners who did most of the moaning. However, surprise surprise, there exists a fair percentage of Colombians who hate noisy, inconsiderate neighbours too!
We have our share of Caribean Costenos in the UK too. Those who live in the government estates can be among the worst; they are usually the "working class" ones. Some of the more educated ones living outside of that environment are super-decent. Costenos are noisy; having attended the Notting Hill Carnival several times-I know how much noise they are capable of generating!

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Miguel_Clavo says on May 15, 2009, 13:47:

Things get done here in Cartagena....very slowly, and i dont know how, but they do seem to accomplish things here.....for example, ever wonder how the hell the tall apartment buildings ever get built in the tourist area of Ctg? seems like manual construction is the cutting edge of of building things here, but somehow, some manner, they get built eventually....amazing..

RVW orderded me to remove my tagline congratulating the PBH Mods New Golden Boys. Lame.

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Darloup (☼Travelguide writer) says on May 15, 2009, 18:42:

Thanks for your useful testimony kenblanquito.

Glad to see you could solve your specific problem and also glad to see that you didn't give up and ultimately (rightfully) believed in the "rule of law". Colombia isn't as much a "free-for-all" as some PBH posters would like us to think...

Better to have tried and failed than having regrets all your life about what you MIGHT have missed

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Darloup (☼Travelguide writer) says on May 16, 2009, 03:46:

"Compared to what I experienced in over 50 years living in the upper Midwest of the US, Colombia is a huge free-for-all."

Yes, "compared to"... Pity comparisons are still the norm for foreigners and that Colombian can't be judged per se... What's the point of living in a "foreign" county if one is always going to compare how things are SO "different" from home? (I didn't say "better" or "worse").

Personally, I'd rather live in Colombia than in Zimbabwe or than in Uzbekistan. Colombia has her own sets of rules, customs and her own rythms... So what?

As the OP shows, things can obviously get done in Colombia - it's a nice positive story for those who always "compare" andf "judge".

Yep, it's different from "home"... Yep, the "rules" are different... Yep, they don't even speak English.... So what?

Better to have tried and failed than having regrets all your life about what you MIGHT have missed

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Lowell says on May 16, 2009, 07:06:

Colombians have developed the great capacity to turn a deaf ear to many things. I'd like to have that capacity. Sounds of loud music, dogs... often pass unoticed. The same would bother others. I'm learning. At least with the music, most often its music that I like.

Alfred E. Newman. "What. Me Worry?"

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