For almost a year and a half, a family from Paterswolde has been plagued by the sound of a heat pump from the neighbors in the back. Despite a motion passed by the Tynaarlo city council, a solution seems far away. The neighbor dispute has now turned into a legal battle.
With a decibel meter in hand, the family has been in the backyard several times. At night, the device soon indicated 67 decibels. Almost 30 decibels more than allowed during the night. The night’s sleep is severely disrupted and recording material shows that the sound of the pump keeps coming back and then getting louder and louder.
Emotions
The father of the family is a heart patient and sometimes sleeps with his parents to avoid the noise at night. “We sleep with the windows closed and earplugs in, but it’s still impossible,” says the man.
“Neighbors who came to see when the heat pump was on steam wonder how we have been able to sustain this for so long,” says mother. The father and mother of the family are emotional. They would like to tell their story, but do not want their name to be mentioned.
Statement
The family tried several times to start a conversation with the neighbor in the back. However, it never came to a good conversation, so legal proceedings have now been started. A judge rules that the two neighbors should talk to each other before he mediates. But after five hours there is still no shot in the case.
Ultimately, a ruling will follow at the end of December 2021, when the heat pump has been causing nuisance to neighbors for almost a year. The family from Paterswolde is in the right. The neighbor has to place vibration dampers on the floor and build a closet around it.
Although a box was built around the heat pump at the beginning of 2022, not the same box that should be built according to the judge’s ruling. The problem is, according to the family in Paterswolde, still not solved.
8 out of 9 complaints ‘solved’
A motion has already been passed in the Tynaarlo city council to take the complaints about heat pumps seriously. According to the municipality of Tynaarlo, the number of complaints is limited and in most cases there were ‘start-up problems’.
A total of 9 complaints about the heat pump in Paterswolde were submitted. Of these, 8 have already been declared unfounded after measurement by the Regional Implementation Service Drenthe (RUD). In two cases, the noise standard would not have been exceeded. In the latter case, an investigation is still ongoing, according to the municipality of Tynaarlo. No statement is currently being made about this notification.
The owner of the heat pump in question has not yet been available for comment. The family in question from Paterswolde wishes to remain anonymous. Their name is known to the editors.