Been Targeted by one of My Neighbors

My trouble started pretty much in the last couple years with our neighbor across the street complaining about my loud car(s). It got so bad in the last week, I have had the state police at my house 3 times, and had to meet with them twice already down at the station as well as the town supervisor.

She claimed in text messages to us I spooked her horse and she thinks I am the reason her husband fell off and "allegedly" broke his neck. I was not even home the day in question, and a week later, when I saw him wandering around his yard with a walker, he had no neck brace on. Not to mention, his F150 has not been seen since that date at his house.

And then yesterday I got a notice of a Code violation and a $350 fine / imprisonment for what the town supervisor and state police have determined is not breaking the law in any way.

The code is vague, unconstitutional, and lacks any actual way to fight it. But here I am, with a problem I do not know how to fight.

I am out in the country on 3 acres, and the neighbor has 12 acres. She is across the street on a very high traffic truck route which generates way more noise than the couple of times a week I do. This is my issue and I open to any good suggestions or advice. This has gone way past being diplomatic. I have reached out to at least one lawyer, and will be talking with others shortly.

Town Code Link:
https://www.ecode360.com/28005192

Looks like they got you...
"B. No internal combustion engine shall be operated at any time or place in the Town of Royalton without an adequate muffler designed and manufactured to suppress exhaust noises to a minimum for the vehicle."
but how do they get the $350 fine?
"§ 95-4
Penalties for offenses.
A violation of this chapter is an offense punishable by a fine of not more than $250. Each day's violation shall constitute a separate offense."
it would be tough to keep your noise from staying within the boundary's of your property...you say she has Horses, can you hear them...maybe you find the noise of a horses whinne /neigh emotionally disturbing.

Put mufflers on your car. I did and love it.

"an adequate muffler designed and manufactured to suppress exhaust noises to a minimum for the vehicle."

Couldn't be more vague. Get a lawyer.

get the town out there with a Decibel Meter and do the test

I went through this 10 years ago, whack job blamed everything on my big block truck, even when I wasnt home. People are strange with hate when they think you're doing something to deliberately antagonize then when you arent. I ended up living in the boonies and commuting more so I could run my chassis dyno whenever I felt like it.that stuff never goes away, one of you will have to move+r it becomes a shity game of oneupsmanship in retaliation until someone gets hurt. A-hole across the street from me attempted to burn down my house by dowsing the hedge in bbq starter. He was spooked by my wife during the act and the police wouldn't do anything. Good luck, start acreage shopping, some of us just don't belong in towns.

Our town went through this years ago. The chief of police argued against any kind of "noise ordinance" because there are no accepted methods of determining if something is "too loud". The topic of dB meters was discussed at length with the result being that there are too many variables that affect a dB meter to insure consistency and accuracy. Bottom line was that we still have no "noise ordinance" and the police depend on "disturbing the peace" as the ordinance. My thought if you want to pursue this is use the "arbitrary and capricious" approach with an attorney. Just as a comment, looking that the entirety of the town code, that is one miserable document. I can't believe that your town has gotten away with this kind of "regulation".

consult with a lawyer, put mufflers on the car. You will be amazed that they really have no leg to stand on anymore. Good luck and i have been through this before.

For those that don't know me.....My "Street car" has mufflers......She calls the cops on either though.....So I don't think its going to matter.

And Bill, thanks for the vote of confidence.

Drop the unconstitutional" claim, its a worn out overused political catcall of the times, and IMO in your case, not valid.

The requirement for a muffler to reduce to a minimum, is only achieved by stopping the engine, however the legal expenses to prevail against that requirement in court, ais likely rather expensive,
My lawyer always said he would defend me until my last dollar, so there is some hope

Adding mufflers is the min your should do to resolve, but it seems like your relationship with your neighbor is forever tainted, no matter what you do, sadly.

He HAS mufflers. The only option is to outprick the pricks. Dealt with this living in the city. I fought it until I won. You have to fight this, otherwise that communist will dictate whatever she wants against you.

Why not meet the db requirement like NHRA has or if you can find a factory spec from MRP like 50db at 30feet at 3k rpm.

Law is vague, intentionally probably. The way the law is written, it covers any engine, not just street cars. Lawn mowers, weed whackers, all of it. Police and government thugs are lined up against you.

Do the mufflers meet state inspection, noise laws? Have you done a db test at you property line with the engine running?

You could try putting effective mufflers on the car when ever it has to be run. Do they really need to be run at home? Very seldom I had to run my race car in the shop.

Or lawyer up. Or move. Sometimes you can't fight it without going broke or to jail.

Have a nice day

Your best offense is knowing the law of the land and I mean every aspect of it. If he’s or she’s a real dic you may have to go on offense against something they do against the law. Loud emergency generator, on street parking, noisy holiday parties, etc. I know my Pypes mufflers are pretty quiet and hold up well.

Because that won’t fix the issue. Who says NHRA noise levels are applicable to any local principality.

I have been there, done that back in 2014. I looked up the law, all the laws applicable to noise, mufflers etc, AND looked up all the case law and then went to court. I then SMOKED them in court.

I suspect as long as the car is equipped with AUTOMOTIVE mufflers he can fight in court and win. But the OP needs to do the research on all the laws.

Quiet hemi mufflers and cut outs for the street car.
The race car is a tough one. Race mufflers will not be nearly quiet enough.
Don't unload and drive it into the garage when you get home from the track at 1 or 2 AM.
Dry hops in the driveway or in front of the house are fun, don't do it! It leaves evidence behind.

Almost forgot. How loud are their lawn mower, weed wacker, leaf blower, snowblower? No need to be quieter than that.

Burn 'em out !!

This was my point to have something on the car and it would be looked at favorably.

I suspect as long as the car is equipped with AUTOMOTIVE mufflers he can fight in court and win. But the OP needs to do the research on all the laws. [/quote]

A 3 1/2 or 4" straight thru muffler probably isn't going to cut it just because it looks kinda like a real muffler.

Add a turbocharger before the muffler. It will quite it down. Mine's pretty quite.

We have a cop caller in my neighborhood..Young drunk that use to have a loud GMC diesel truck. He beotchs about my race car and my Harley that has stock mufflers. He left a nasty voice mail a while back. Yet he blasts around town half pissed up in a fancy gof cart with 4 kids hanging on....Karma is a mother f...

Buy a rooster.

The Hemi, even with mufflers is not subtle with 605 cubes, but it is tagged and registered....The race car is considerably louder, I could go the pro-street rout with it, but again she has called the cops on the street car many times...The only way it meets the Code is when its not running, but frankly, she is picking me over the three Harley on the other side of me. Those make more noise than my car, and she has never called on them.

I had a good call with the town supervisor.....so that helped, and I am working on finding a lawyer.

Sell your house to some other hoa commie and move to the sticks.

To defend you or sue the s***out of them for harrassment, along with the authorities?

I live in a similar neighborhood my next door neighbor has 10 acres. My neighbor is a 75 year old lady who is the biggest anti Trump, anti gun, anti hunting liberal who watches CNN all day. She has called the county and police on other neighbors complaining about their yards, noise, etc.
She has never complained about me. I have started my race car late at night. She once saw a friend and I dragging a dead deer my friend just killed with a bow.
Why? I always try to be neighborly and offer to help with her property, Anything from plowing her driveway during snow storms to cutting up downed trees.
Sometimes it pays to be neighborly

My neighbor had company the other day and I shot a groundhog in my back yard. They said ohhhh my what was that. Ohhh johns shooting groundhogs again. Lol. Don’t worry your safe.

This is what communities call a nuisance complaint. Local government is trying to appease the squeaky wheel. If you don't push back, the township will keep coming back. The township will wish to resolve the issue quietly. You must have an attorney and some who is good and the township knows of his reputation of breaking balls of municipalities. A letter from such attorney will usually lead to muting the issue and removing the citation. With respect to your neighbor making accusations that the exhaust caused her husbands injury, a letter from your attorney indicating that false accusations will be met with a suit of defamation. Furthermore, all records of this incident should be removed from your file. Accusations like this can follow you if you apply for a permit to carry or further allegations by your neighbor or their friends or loved one over spurious matters. In todays world, you can't just blow this stuff off. It will come back and bit you in the ass!

Go over there late one nite and shoot her then blame the Harley guys, stash the gun there too.

Sounds like she's scared of bikers.

Time to buy a Harley.

Kevin

File a harassment suit against them.

My experience is that justice is expensive, how much can you afford? Consult a lawyer, make their lives miserable, so they find something new to worry about.

Back 50 years ago when a local cop was harassing me about my 70 340 4 speed dart being too loud, my father took the car to a local repair shop, called the cop, and dragged him out of the cop car, then showed him my exhaust system on the rack, and asked him what the trouble was officer? My dad had a way about him, and the cop left me alone, doubt you could get by with that today.

Another funny thing is I am a member of a local car club, full of old guys who used to be the kids tearing up the streets, now we have shows and events to raise money for local charities, and the people all love us and our loud cars. Funny how things can change.

WHERE IS THE LIKE BUTTON!!!!!!

That rule has no noise, decibels limits, numbers associated with it so how can they enforce it?
Do you or are you willing to attend the town meetings to voice your opinion as a tax payer and voter in that town?
My Duster had a set of 14x7x 3.0 side inlet with center outlet Magnaflow muffs mounted at the rear bumpers that had very little affect on its ET and MPH in the 1/8 mile, 7.01 with the system on at 95.3 MPH and 6.99 at 95.5 MPH with the complete system removed
I never tested it at a 1/4 mile track but I think it might have had a similar impact, maybe more, maybe less
I bought a hand held decibel meter like NHRA uses when they implemented their 95 DB rules a long time ago, I still have it. If I was you I would beg,borrow or buy one and use it at your property line with the noisy car running having someone rev it up some and then measure the normal noise level with traffic going by and see if your cars are as noisy or more than the regular traffic. I'm sure the lawyer you pick could use that information to help represent you and maybe get the police on your side
I had a neighbor who moved out to the desert after he retired that hated my wife chicken feathers blowing into his yard, he hated the wife horse and hated the pigs we raise to eat, he also hated motor cycles, which we had several off road bike for our kids and my self. Our property was rated rural residential agriculteral (SP?) so we where not in trouble with the codes. He would call the law a lot and the cops, sheriffs, CA Highway Patrol would come out and talk to me, I finally told one of the sheriffs the next time they came out to our house on one of his call I would remove my fence between our property and his yard, I ask them to tell him that and I never had another visit from them or any other law enforcement agencies
Vengeance is sweet when serve hot or cold

Man you’re in a rough predicament.... I’ve been very fortunate in the last two neighborhoods we’ve lived in. Covenants have clearly stated “no working on vehicles” etc etc... but here I am! (Thankfully just about everyone has cars, bikes, desert toys that make some degree of noise, and I rarely run the car on site). I think a lot of us fear “that one person” that gets a vendetta.

So..... they have a horse. any angle on that situation? Smell? Zoning? # of animals allowed? Sometimes 2 perceived wrongs can be mediated to a right

Per my call with the town supervisor, I do not have to respond to the Noise Violation, and there are no enforceable penalties. Apparently, the penalties listed are only if the police find wrong doing, nothing the town can enforce upon me. But, she has the right to keep calling them and the town to complain.....His exact words were "You're neighbor, is NOT very neighborly"......Which I interpreted as she got nasty with them over the phone or in person. They were not happy with her, and he mentioned this has been going on a while, and I said yes. It started back in 2015 or 2016.....I know it was full blown in 2016....

So next Monday, I will file a complaint about her barking pack of dogs that is a 2-page spread sheet, and then contact a lawyer and write up some kind of cease and desist letter and go from there......Its been rough dealing with her filming me all the time and then staring down any service people we have over. Its just not normal behavior, and its not getting better.

What a bummer. I hit the lottery when it comes to neighbors. One is a gear head, the other lives by the motto, "If it doesn't effect me or my family" I don't care what you do.

I do make sure I don't start the race car before 9:00am, or after 9:00pm.

Some people aren't happy, unless they are miserable.

So you got a "ruling" from one official that you are legally in the clear, and you want to ratchet up the mess to prove a point against a jerk neighbor?

You might want to count your blessings and rethink this, the eye for eye stuff just leaves everyone blind.

I thought members RTSE4ME reply was enlightening:

"I live in a similar neighborhood my next door neighbor has 10 acres. My neighbor is a 75 year old lady who is the biggest anti Trump, anti gun, anti hunting liberal who watches CNN all day. She has called the county and police on other neighbors complaining about their yards, noise, etc.
She has never complained about me. I have started my race car late at night. She once saw a friend and I dragging a dead deer my friend just killed with a bow.
Why? I always try to be neighborly and offer to help with her property, Anything from plowing her driveway during snow storms to cutting up downed trees.
Sometimes it pays to be neighborly"

SAE J1169 Light Vehicle Noise Measurement and superseded by J1492. California uses these when there are noise complaints on a specific vehicle.

When I was young (1980's), I ran Hush Thrush bullets connected to the collector. Man - was that loud. I got pulled over plenty of times. In the 90's, I switched to a H-pipe with FlowMaster original 40's. Those were better but still pretty loud. Then I had kids (2000's) and the car was just too loud so I switched to an X-pipe and Walker UltraFlows. Now, my hearing is in decline so the UltraFlows are too quiet. I'm going back to the Original 40's ... they were free ... I still had them stashed in the garage parts room (attic). I have a friend who runs around with FlowMaster Super 10's ... he's REALLY loud.

I want to do the J1169 test with the UltraFlows and then test again with the Original 40's just to see where the dBA numbers are at and if I'm close to the threshold for getting in trouble. It would be nice to have already run the tests and know where you stand BEFORE the cop pulls you over to talk to you about your exhaust noise problem.

Karma's a [censored]

Recording and observing...

I've heard of people installing really bright security lights and cameras - for prowlers and such - that just happened to be pointed at the troublesome neighbor's house. Just because it was the best angle.

Just heard about that somewhere.

My last neighbor turned into a sh!it when I was building my shop. I had a legal survey done and all my permits in place and at that time I had 35yrs of construction under my belt but nooooo that was not good enough for them.

They started bitching to the township and even demanded that they come and look at what I was doing and each of the three times the township came the neighbor was told everything is as per the permit, codes and by-laws.

They continued to bi tch so I ended up going to the township and spoke with the head building inspector/manager and he had to shake his head while we were discussing the idiot neighbor. I told the inspector that I am not a person to

bi tch and complain about other people but it is time to teach the neighbor a lesson so I need him to go have a word with the neighbor about his 10x16 wooden shed that he put a foot from the fence between us and with the

roof hanging over on my side of the property. The inspector got a big smile on his face and said he would be glad to. He also had a quick look on the computer and it also showed that the idiot neighbor did not apply for the required

permit to put up this size of shed and so the inspector said he will be there shortly to deal with the matter. On the weekend the idiot neighbor had his F350 4x4 in his nice manicured back yard tearing it all to sh!t dragging the shed to the

back of his yard and making sure he had the proper set backs. He also got a fine for putting the shed on his property without a permit and then all the costs to fix the back yard. The best part was when he later told me that he should have

just kept his mouth shut and minded his own business. I told him I was the wrong person to deal with when it came to construction matters. I had sat on my back patio the whole time he was moving his shed and giggling my ass off.

You know the old saying "Live and learn"

Sorry to hear about your issues. Hopefully you can get them resolved without bloodshed.

I'm lucky, I have an 88 year old lady and her son living across the street from me. She can't get out much, but when she hears my car start she stands in the door and claps and smiles. My other neighbor is a lady in her 50's who thinks the car is awesome.

If I’m not mistaken, in the US, members of Congress all are ombudsman. Give your’s something to do. Good luck with the problem!

Randy
My confidence with you and your behavior is all positive my lack of confidence is with the ruling body's that allow situation like this to arise and usually take the easy route.
Im not saying your in the wrong and I do feel your pain ( I had a similar situation here - but they moved) but in my opinion they have written the ordinance to be vague so they may enforce or not at their discretion and making it hard to fight. Without a measurable it becomes a discretion of the official issue. It might not be Iron clad but too costly to fight. I would think that the noise coming from your car should diminish enough not to bother someone across the street in a rural area but as stated you've been targeted (whether its just or not) and as others stated it isn't going to end with a court decision unfortunately.
Also thanks for the help last weekend it was going south fast... was a frustrating day.

Read further and it seems like you have support from the town

Knowing who we're dealing with.......

"but as stated you've been targeted"

Why don't you exercise your 2nd amendment rights and put a gun range in the yard. Neighbor may forget about the music coming from the car.

Superfreak- Thanks for the feel good story of the day

Where I live, there is no zoning. Not heavily populated, farms all around. Easy to get a shop put up if it's not huge. State codes have to be followed, but they aren't too bad. Not after being in Maryland.

When I was starting to put my shop up, in our nice, quiet, out of the way development, one of the neighbors complained that because of the size, it would be a big busy commercial business. That was never my intention. Just the opposite.

I made it clear to everyone, that if I couldn't put my building up I would sell or rent the property to a bunch of (insert description here), and make sure there was about 20 people in the family with goats, chickens and maybe some hogs. Now try me.

So now I have my building, the neighborhood is quiet and I don't disturb people like I promised I wouldn't.

And a nice shop it is. I would love to own it.