I bought a property near a church, about 30 meters. When I bought it and years before the bells were “off” and it’s barely used.
Since a year they fixed the bell and clock and now it starts at 05:30 in the morning, 08:00, 11:00, 12:00, 01:00 and 18:00
For each 5 minutes very loud.
I talked with the people who work at the church and said it is a huge issue for me, especially cause I work nights.
They don’t care and refuse to make it quieter and won’t reduce the length of each time it starts the bells.
Long story short: I am in therapy since a year because I have a huge debt, I can’t move away and I can’t sleep anymore. I have no idea what I can do with my life I am afraid I am going to get even more mentally ill than I am now. Selling is also now no more option, who would buy a place where you can’t fall asleep or if you fall asleep you wake up by massive bell noise.
The only time I sleep is when I can afford vacation twice a year…
My therapist wrote my insurance and they are thinking of giving me the oppertunity to sleep somewhere else for one to two weeks every three months. They will pay for it, but this can’t be the solution?!
If the church is unwilling to help locally, you could try appealing to their regional leadership (though this is unlikely to work). From there, your next steps fall into 2 boxes:
Management Double-glazing, earplugs, white noise, etc.
Fighting back Rallying sympathetic neighbours sounds as though it’s not an option, so to start with, you should familiarise yourself with any relevant ordinances - if you need professional legal advice, consider bringing your sympathetic neighbour in on it and split costs. Trolling - the Satanic Temple (not the church of Satan as others have recommended) or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are your best bet on getting pseudo-legitimacy, and may have intervened in similar situations. Sabotage - cutting cables is cheap and fun - audio, data, power - who knows what cable does what, but trial and error is an option - bonus points for attracting rodents and and outsourcing the job to them. If you want to get creative, a HERF gun may be a viable option. Pamphlet drops to the congregation with something along the lines of “love thy neighbour - with 120db bells at x, y, z times” - don’t do this if you’re making less ethical moves - you’ll paint an obvious target on your back. If you can get access to the audio console, your effective options open right up - but this probably involves breaking and entering, so that’s probably more inadvisable than the rest of my advice.
Sign up to be a part of the Church of Satan. Get a massive 1000W + speaker and PA system. Blast death metal at them every time they do a service.
Cops come, it’s part of your religious freedom like a minaret or something
… profit
Does your house vibrate when the bells ring?
- if true, you might sue for potential property damage. That should make them think twice. In this case, soundproofing has little effect.
- if not, you might want to invest in better windows and/or window blinds. Neither should be extremly expensive and you can start by soundproofing the room you sleep in.
Fyi, we lived near a noisy main street. After changing the windows we were surprised how little of the traffic we heard.
Sue for nuisance.
I used to live next to an interstate.
These white noise machines are GOLD:
There are several brands, so don’t feel like you need this particular one.
Create any water features you can indoors and/or outside. These create background sound to drown it out.
Thick fabrics on the walls facing the sound can help if you can’t afford to do new windows right now. I believe they also sell window inserts that deafen sound, as I was looking into them at one time.
To your particular issue, since it’s a specific song (maybe?), a repeating catalog of songs, or at least specific frequencies/tones every time, and it’s at specific times, I wonder if you could rig up some sort of noise cancelling device or sound to play at those exact times in your bedroom?
You probably tried this already but what about ear plugs?
Came here to say the same. The wax ear plugs are the best for sleeping.
Isn’t this how fight clubs start? Maybe rent the basement of the church, invite some “friends” not to talk about it?
Seriously though, meditation/mindfulness can help a bit. Practicing incorporating and accepting the constant overstimulation.
Good luck 🍀🤞
Get a sound meter. Check the laws to se if they are exceeding the sound decibels, then complain to the police and keep asking for higher supervisors and be persistent.
Complain to city council or mayors office if police refuse to enforce the law
I’m my area, and I assume this is the case for most, shit like this is exempt from noise ordinances.
Because religious noise is ok…
Worth at least verifying.
Time to pump Islamic nasheeds through a loudspeaker at sunup and sundown
If the city tries to ignore you go to local news stations
I know this isn’t fiscally realistic but… before you leave this world, donate the house to the church of satan.
or a mosque that’s really into the prayer call.
before you leave this world
Holy fucking shit, dude. Pump the brakes.
Spoiler alert: you’re going to die and there’s nothing you can do to stop it from happening.
Yeah, no shit, but coupled with the context of the post it makes it sound like suicide.
perhaps that’s on you bud. :|
wasn’t intended. the intention was don’t let them win even if it’s driving them nuts.
You are not guaranteed to live until tomorrow. You aren’t even guaranteed to live long enough to finish typing out a reply to this comment. Its unlikely you’ll die so soon, of course, but the chance is never 0.
And considering you’ll be dead for an almost infinite amount of time, we’re all just moments away from dying on universal time scales.
If OP plans on staying in their house until they die of old age (plausible) then the comment has nothing to do with suicide. Or maybe OP is already old and going to die soon. Or maybe they’ll be hit by a car tomorrow. Or maybe they’re having a heart attack/stroke/aneurysm right now.
Point is, if there is something you want to do (gift a house to the church of Satan, for example) it has to be done before you die.
Personally, I don’t think we as a society talk about our deaths enough and it really isn’t normalized for most people. Have you thought about the fact that the universe will still be here in 800 billion years, but your body will have been ripped to shreds and spread across the cosmos to seed new life on distant planets recently?
I wonder if the previous occupant of the property you’re on was the reason the bell was out of service when you got there… 🤔
Jesus: “love thy neighbor”
The church: I’m just gonna pretend I didn’t see that
Is it legal to ring church bells at 5:30 am? WTF?
Anyways, get some ear plugs.
EPA put a 7AM limit on noise pollution.
Welp, there’s OPs answer. Reporting time!
OP used meters, so it’s pretty likely they’re not in the US.
I’m sure the EU has a similar guideline. Or wherever they are.
Better do it soon, before the EPA is dissolved!
If the church doesn’t care, send a letter to the mayor, show up to the town hall meetings or public town hall sessions, make videos about it on social media, sue them for being a noise nuisance, send the newspaper a message and describe your situation to ask for help in exposing the problem so that more people get wind of it, … Basically, air your dirty laundry since the church doesn’t give a fuck about you.
Personal opinion about loud, religious venues: fuck them. I wish more people would sue them for being a noise nuisance. If they want to remind people to show up, send an electronic message or hell, even a carrier pigeon for all I care, just stop making everybody aware of your beliefs. Many people don’t care or believe in the same things as you. These aren’t the 1800s anymore.
Does the church have a sprinkler system installed?
And of course it’s a church
Just do as I say, buy don’t do as I do.
