Hi there, this is a follow up post asking for advice,

I live in Dublin City with my father and have done so for many years. We look after our street, pick up rubbish, donate to the area, tend to the public flowers – I’d like to think we’re good citizens, but are essentially hung out to dry now by DCC and a local hotel.

We’re used to the noises, hustle and bustle of cities and never have had issue with general city noise in all our life, but unfortunately in the past year and a half, a relatively persistent machine noise along with single tone (500Hz) has developed since the hotels reopened after covid, day, night and cannot be blocked out by windows, curtains, earplugs etc. The noise is very invasive and quite disruptive particularly when it is at it’s loudest. It’s disruptive to ourselves and also our other neighbours who are hearing the noise and have been complaining also.

We have narrowed the source down to a ventilation duct on the side of a hotel located on Harcourt street (not Coppers) purely by our own efforts without help from DCC, and from my own experience as a Mechanical Engineer, it’s probably a fan with a faulty motor or an air duct that is semi-blocked! It is also ramped up and down at times, indicating it’s potentially an exhaust or similar from either a kitchen, gym, or related. We now have a video compiled from phone recordings, which is clear damning evidence of the issue and the source. I will try to post this video in the comments if possible.

I have contacted the hotel, have met them in person, and despite them acknowledging a noise issue, they have an attitude of ‘not us, go away’ and will not admit responsibility. They similarly told our other neighbour who complained to them to go away, and gave him a bad attitude – they have no respect for the locals or the people who live here.

I have engaged Dublin City Council, but they are beyond very useless despite being our main hope, in honesty I regard them as completely negligent. The officer assigned to this issue has visited site a couple times, but has led us down goose chases with other buildings, a telephone pole, etc, despite us providing him the evidence and direction indicating the actual source. His visits have included a scheduled visit on a Friday night when the neighbouring nightclub music was blaring and drowned out the machine noise, so it was a complete waste of time. He has also told us he “can’t waste too much time” on trying to identify the problem because his boss said so. Finally, in my father’s efforts to try and get him to engage by contacting his boss – my father was ignored for the past 3 weeks by DCC, only to finally get through yesterday, and be told that ‘the officer is going on holidays the next two weeks so won’t be able to help’.

This has been the same pattern for the past year and a half that we’ve been trying to resolve this; ‘on holidays, sorry’, ‘was sick the past two weeks, sorry’, ‘the other guy we need to help us is out for 3 weeks on holidays, sorry’, we’re at absolute wits end with DCC – especially seeing as all we need them to do is officially confirm the noise is coming from the Hotel duct, and we’ll take it to the courts from there. We live with this noise every night, and the public body who are supposed to look after the citizens are completely negligent without any accountability. I have complained to the environmental protection agency earlier in the week, but I’m unsure what agency they have.

My questions:

1. Is there an ombudsman or alternate route to flag how negligent DCC have been? Re-engaging with us at our initiative after 3 weeks of ignoring us/silence, just to tell us he’s ‘going on holidays for two weeks’ is horrendous treatment.
2. What are my options to try and resolve this noise issue? I have contacted an acoustic engineer, but that costs €1k to do some monitoring, which is a lot of money to try and tackle something that is actually DCC’s job, and are being paid tax money to do.

As you can imagine, my father, myself, and neighbours are very frustrated and upset, it’s affecting our quality of lives.

I would love some help or to hear any advice anyone might have, as it’s very heartbreaking considering we love our home, but are now having to consider moving because this issue is so disruptive to our quality of life and wellbeing the past year and a half. 🙁

Thanks all.

Edit: I’ve had some great responses from everyone already, it makes me feel a bit better to know that people do care about a random strangers ongoing problem.

[https://youtu.be/cid0lEozr-M?si=ufMjfkLn\_zPIwzb2](https://youtu.be/cid0lEozr-M?si=ufMjfkLn_zPIwzb2)

Just so you know what I’m talking about in terms of noise, I uploaded a video to youtube (link above) of some recordings I’d taken on my phone – it gives you an idea of the unpleasant nature of the sound and you can imagine how windows etc struggle to block it. Also keep in mind this is the same video we gave to DCC, and yet they still say ‘we can’t identify the source’… This is what makes me so mad about DCC, negligence.

by SeaofCrags

25 comments

  2. 500hz sounds pretty high pitched, likely a fan bearing in a condenser unit or something

  3. I went through something vaguely similar before, and agree that DCC are, for the most part useless. I only got results when I went to a local TD – I am based in Dublin, and Chris Andrews is one of the TDs in the area, and he got stuck in. So, I’d pick whoever is the most engaged TD in your area, get the neighbours together and ask to meet them. Worth talking to a solicitor too, but I found the legislation on this to be quite wolly, but a letter plus a TD getting involved would hopefully help sort it. Good luck.

  4. Compile all this info in an email, explain to them that you’ve been trying to resolve this for nearly a year and that it is impacting both your mental and physical health and that you are close to your last resort of engaging legal representation to get this resolved, and the most important part is to make sure you CC every single councillor and TD responsible for your area in the email. If there’s one thing council workers hate, it’s knowing that their work or lack of is being highlighted to and watched by the elected representatives.

  5. You need to assemble a crack team and go in disguised as a repair team. Make your way to the roof and disable the bloody thing. Make your escape and meet up back in your hideout for cigars and gloating.

  6. Ring up the corporation and ask for the Environmental department, ask for Anto.

    EDIT: Sorry I just noticed you’re on the southside, ring up the Environmental department and ask for Tony.

  7. Go to your TD, that’s what they’re there for.

  8. I have a similar experience, although on a smaller scale. There’s a restaurant beside my apartment that has an extractor fan that runs along the outside of the apartment wall. When the restaurant turns it on it’s like a giant swarm of bees have entered the apartment. Thankfully they only operate between the hours of 3pm-11pm. I talked with the owner and an EPA officer and basically nothing can be done because the owner can’t afford to get the fan moved or even upgrade it to a quieter one. A hotel might have the budget to upgrade, so might be worth contacting the EPA and explaining your situation. An EPA officer will bring sound equipment to check levels too. Good luck 👍

  9. Look at the Environmental Protection Agency – they have rules about noise and may be able to help you. I’d also second going to your local politicians, and if you can find the email address of the owners of the hotel (it might be owned by a wider group) and include them on all your emails to the local politicians. If you google you might sometimes find these details, or take an educated guess if you know the name of the senior person you need but not their exact address. Be a nuisance, you deserve peace in your home!

  10. Rent a room for a night … investigate … bring a camera.

  11. can you maybe check with planning for the site to see what has been approved? you might find that they have ‘overlooked’ something around noise for the planning.

    ​

    but definitely engage with a TD/ councillors who may be useful in your area.

    ​

    no real point going to claire byrne. its not a nationwide scandal issue.

  13. Not taking the mick but have you considered going to Liveline over it? It’s a bit of a meme but lot of companies have an internal “Code Joe” for a problem that could end up on Liveline.

  14. Just leave bad reviews on the hotel site, pretending to be a guest who could sleep due to all the noise. Get friends and relatives to leave reviews too.

    The hotel will fix it almost immediately.

  16. Skip DCC and go to the EPA. Lodge a noise complaint there.

  18. I used to work in an industrial noise consultancy, this would fall under the purview of the EPA. Make complaints to them repeatedly. They take this stuff seriously and have the power to fine companies and have licenses revoked

  20. Can you post the video? Interested to see it.

    If you had access to a van, a big poster on the side saying “This hotel is impacting its neighbours lives by not fixing its ventilation system. See video evidence here (QR code)” and sitting in the van outside the hotel for an hour whenever you can could get results.

  21. One of the hotels on harcourt st is getting a massive renovation atm so it could be there

  22. Book into the hotel , with an overnight bag full of the necessary tools and ” fix ” it for them

  24. This falls under the tort of nuisance. There is well established case law in this area.

    Go and speak to a solicitor, you will not only get it fixed quickly but could also pursue a claim against the hotel as they have failed to rectify the issue despite multiple complaints.

    It sounds like a misery to live with. The best way to ensure this sort of thing never happens again is to make them pay for their inaction this time.

  25. I have a chipper in my town that had the most annoying ventilation system that would do the exact same thing into the late hours of the night.

    Some disgruntled hero took a sledgehammer to it at 3am in the morning

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