He's elderly (84 or 85). My house is joined with his. There's a third house that is partially joined to his and they recently had a new kitchen fitted, so there was a lot of drilling in the morning. Since then, he's been blasting the radio on what sounds like a subwoofer aimed against the wall every morning at 7 AM. I live with my brother and my mum, and it wakes us all up. It's a very deep bassy noise so it's hard to block out or drown out. It goes on until 1 PM.
He is doing this on purpose. He did the same thing in 2023 and I went over to his house assuming he didn't know he was being loud and politely told him to turn his TV down in the morning because it's waking us up. Then he told me he's doing it to wake my brother up because "every night at 1:30 AM he wakes me up making wolf noises in the garden so I'll wake him up too since he's obviously not sleeping during the night since he's making noises all night" (foxes frequently visit our garden at night). He's also accused my brother of "cloning my phone", "stealing my water", "stealing my food deliveries", and other crackpot things.
All Summer this year he was blasting one of those 120 dB sirens at 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30 AM each night. He'd then scream at the wall for a minute or two after sounding the siren, seemingly to do with my brother. Sometimes he'd then wake up at 7 AM and immediately go and blast the radio all day. He would also come outside into his garden with a frying pan calling my brother's name. The sirens stopped in July.
The kitchen work on the third house is done and was completed on the 24th of November, but they've left a fridge next to my neighbour's drive. A few days ago he came outside and my mum heard him yell "move your fridge, [brother's name]!".
In August and September and much of October he was quiet but now he's blasting the radio multiple days in a row for weeks on end. I have health problems and don't need this. I have other things going on in my life and recently this was the straw that broke the camel's back and I had a mental breakdown on the 1st of December which caused me to knock stuff off a shelf which caused a very old and very sentimental item of mine to break (I did not mean to break it, just to knock stuff off the shelf). I feel on edge because I can't really sleep early because he also blasts his TV until 12 PM. It's not just the loud noise, it's also the reason he's doing it.
We have complained numerous times to the council (environmental health), as well as the police. They have sent him letters but he has ignored all of them and continues the harassment. He is obviously refusing to take his medication.
He has also called the police on us and we had two police officers arrive at our door because of his slander. All 3 of us are not well, we don't make any noise, and need our sleep. I don't want to move as this was my grandparent's house that was given to us by them after they died.
We are at wit's end here. We just want the harassment to stop. Is there a way we could get him sectioned under the mental health act? From what we know, he stopped taking his medication in 2020. This is when most of the bizarre texts my mum received from him began (she still has them all saved).
edit: For non UK readers, being "sectioned" means being involuntarily hospitalised and forced to take medication
Shit, I had hoped reaching out to his next of kin might be a good avenue to pursue. Causally chat with your neighbours, even the fully detached ones. Awkward, I know. But the guy is bound to have pissed them off on occasion as well. At the very least you'll know you're not alone in this. At best they could all call and complain on occasion. Naturally.
You are sure he's mentally handicapped, right? I'm sure your council has been austeritied to the brink of non-functinality thanks to the delight that is UK politics of the last 20 years. I wonder if there is a charity organisation in your area that sort of stepped in, out of necessity. A mental health fire service/outreach of sorts. Even if they cannot help you with your case directly, they may know of more resources to deal with a person like that, seemingly self reliant but with episodes and delusions.
There are always cases that fall through the cracks. Not mad enough to be institutionalised, not well enough to live alone. He's also too old to go to prison really and your best case scenario is to get him admitted somewhere.
Definitely have a chat with your mother about feeding the foxes. Try to sell it to her as a test. We're going to test for x months if fewer animal noises lead to fewer weird shit coming from our neighbour.
Get him a ten pound Christmas gift and write him a card that's 90 percent merry this and that and best wishes for the new year. And 10 percent if it's possible please keep the volume of anything on a loudspeaker down, thank you for your cooperation. No threats, kill him with kindness. Leave it at his door. (Log that as well and keep a picture of text on the card.)
I imagine describing the mood between you and him as tense might be a bit of an understatement. Giving him fewer reasons to fear the family of werewolves next door might cause him to be less delusional? This is a last resort strategy but builds on the kill him with kindness idea. Get his bins in, offer to mow his lawn, that sort of thing. Slowly involve your brother.