It seems that Gooi neighbors are less annoyed by each other: the number of reported neighbor disputes has decreased slightly in the past year. That’s what the neighborhood mediators of Versa Welzijn tell you. The number of neighbor disputes is still higher than before the corona crisis, but it seems to have passed the peak for the entire region. However, the figures still differ considerably from municipality to municipality.
The number of neighbor disputes has risen sharply in the past two years as a result of the corona crisis. At that time, more people were at home to work, among other things. Many neighbors made use of sitting at home by doing a lot of work, but the noise nuisance caused complaints among home workers. In addition, there were complaints about screaming children outside, who – because the schools were closed – were playing at home more.
All in all, the neighborhood mediators for some municipalities even saw an increase of no less than three quarters.
Still have complaints
Peace now seems to be slowly returning, the number of reports of neighbor disputes is slowly decreasing. The number of complaints for the entire region decreased slightly. This is partly because the number of neighbor disputes in the municipality of Gooise Meren fell sharply by more than a quarter.
On the other hand, in the municipality of Wijdemeren, the complaints have increased by more than half. In Hilversum, Huizen and Weesp, the number of reports of neighbor disputes remained virtually unchanged.
Noise pollution and parking problems
Most neighbor disputes are caused by noise, problems with gardens, nuisance from animals and children, parking problems and bullying. It is also striking that in some places there is an increase in the number of threats.
Many problems solved
In general, a lot can be solved with the help of neighborhood mediators. For Hilversum, Huizen and Weesp, among others, two thirds of the neighbor disputes were resolved last year.
For Gooise Meren, the ‘success rate’ of the neighborhood mediators dropped considerably. Just over half of the neighbor disputes could be resolved, compared to three quarters a year earlier. According to the neighborhood mediators, this is because – despite the decrease in the number of quarrels – there were still many complex problems. The neighborhood mediators think that is because there were shorter fuses, because the lockdown continued.