Moving into a new house or apartment is always a bit of a gamble. There are some things a property inspection wont reveal — including whether you’re about to move next door to the neighbors from hell. A new reviews-based website is attempting to provide a solution to this problem by identifying the noisiest suburbs, streets and townships in Australia. Whether an address has drunk neighbours or barking dogs, Dontwakeme will alert you.
House party picture from Shutterstock
Dontwakeme is an anonymous crowdsourcing website that collects noise complaint data from the general public. The website allows anyone to leave a noise complaint or a positive review for a specific location. Noise complaint submissions are categorised into different types ranging from barking dogs to partying neighbours and intoxicated patrons. You then give the address an overall noise rating out of 5.
Other users can then type in an address in the search bar to see how favorably the area is rated.
“After I shifted apartments for the third time, I thought there must be a way to understand if my next apartment would be subjected to noisy neighbors, early morning council services or the sound of a nearing highway,” explained the website’s creator Matt Hnatojko.
“After understanding that real estate websites don’t offer this information, I decided to build it myself in the hope to sleeping without getting woken up.”
As with anything that’s crowdsourced, the effectiveness of Dontwakeme will come down to how many people bother to leave a review. (Hopefully plenty of fed-up neighbours will use the service as a form of petty vengeance.)
The Dontwakeme website is currently in Beta phase with plans to introduce “further analytical features” in the coming months. To leave a noise complaint (or check a prospective property) pay a visit to the Dontwakeme Beta site.
See also: Ask LH: I Rent, Can I Complain About Noisy Unit-Owning Neighbours?
Comments
4 responses to “New Crowdsourcing Site Names And Shames Australia’s Noisiest Neighbourhoods”
This will probably go for a bit then just disappear one day like rentreviews.com.au
I wouldn’t rely on it given how ephemeral the whole renting thing is. How many people are going to bother updating the site when their noisy neighbours from hell move out and are replaced by quiet, considerate types?
So let me get this right. First, I list on the site that my neighbour is annoying and that she whinges to council about everything and calls the Police out for things that haven’t happened. Then I put my house up for sale to move away from her, but no one will buy my house as I have alerted others to her ways. Sounds like a great idea.
It’s probably more intended for people who are renting
I don’t think your noisy neighbours really care if they get named, or else they wouldn’t be so noisy in the first place. What it could do is affect the sale value of your house, and not in a good way.
Tony and anotherrat miss the point: it’s a service for renters not owner-occupiers (who are often the biggest problem, noise-wise).
It might also work like those speed alert signs in roadworks, you have to see how high a score you can get as opposed to slowing down.
If a neighbour complained online without just knocking on the door and asking me to be quieter then I would probably lift the roof when the next party was on just to see what their anonymous reaction was