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The standard WA by-laws (which you will find in this document) cover noise in two sections.
Section 2(b) says: An owner or occupier of a lot must … not use the lot or permit it to be used in such manner or for such purpose as causes a nuisance to an occupier of another lot (whether an owner or not) or the family of such an occupier.
Section 12 (b) says: An owner or occupier of a lot must not … make undue noise in or about the lot or common property.
So if the noise is occurring at any time during the night or day, you can issue breach notices (or whatever the equivalent is in WA) and pursue it that way.
If it’s happening at night, you can call the police on 131 444 (while it’s happening).
If it’s a persistent issue and the residents ignore by-law breach notices, you can call your local authority.
The WA EPA regulations refer to noise nuisance in five main regards (in no particular order):
- The time of day the noise occurs
- The volume or intensity of the noise
- The nature of the noise (e.g. irritating repetitive beeping rather than loud music).
- The length of time the noise lasts
- The number of times the noise nuisance occurs.
I have extracted the table below from a factsheet issued by Rockingham Council based on the EPA regulations (because it’s the most helpful I could find). It seems there are different times when different noise levels are permitted
Time of Day | Assigned level (dB) | |||
LA10 | LA1 | LAmax | ||
7:00 am to 7:00 pm Monday – Saturday | 45 + IF | 55 + IF | 65 + IF | |
9:00 am to 7:00 pm Sunday and Public Holidays | 40 + IF | 50 + IF | 65 + IF | |
7:00 pm to 10:00 pm all days | 40 + IF | 50 + IF | 55 + IF | |
10:00 pm on any day to 7:00 am Monday to Saturday and 9:00 am Sunday and Public Holidays | 35 + IF | 45 + IF | 55 + IF | |
If these LA figures mean nothing to youu (as they did to me) LA10 is the average noise lever for 10 percent of the time, La1 is for 1 per cent of the measurement time and LAmax is, as you’d think, the maximum noise level at any given time.
And you can get a guide to what the Decibels mean in real term from this chart.
Now, I’m not an audio expert so if I’ve got this wrong please correct me (and apologies for the crappy table above).