Neighbour's Heat Pump Too Loud? Your Rights Under UK Noise Law

Most domestic air source heat pumps are installed under “permitted development” — meaning no planning application is needed — but only if the installation meets a specific noise condition set out in the MCS Planning Standard (MCS 020). For years this has been a widely-cited limit of 42 dB(A), measured 1 metre from the centre of a window or door to a habitable room at the nearest neighbouring property, calculated beforeinstallation using the manufacturer’s sound data.

If a heat pump was installed withoutmeeting this condition, that’s a planning matter, not a noise-nuisance one — it goes to the council’s planning enforcement team as an unauthorised development, not environmental health.

This is the part most people miss: meeting the installation noise condition on paper does not make a heat pump immune from a statutory nuisance complaint. The condition is a planning threshold checked once, before the unit goes in. A statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 is judged differently — on the real, ongoing effect on you, including frequency, duration, character and time of day. A heat pump that technically passed its pre-installation calculation can still be found to unreasonably interfere with your use and enjoyment of your home, especially if it runs through the night or has a tonal hum that carries further than a broadband noise of the same level.

In practice, that means the same route as any other noise problem applies: report it to the council in the normal way, and if they won’t act, Section 82lets you take it to the magistrates’ court yourself.

A heat pump’s hum is a different evidence problem to a loud party — it’s continuous rather than a one-off event, so the case rests on showing a genuine, ongoing pattern rather than a single bad night.

• Log when it runs, not just that it’s loud — most units cycle with the thermostat, so note start/stop times over several days to show the real pattern.
• Flag night-time running specifically — statutory nuisance assessments weigh evening and night noise more heavily than daytime.
• Record from inside the affected room with a window shut, not standing next to the unit — the point is what you actually experience.
• Note whether it’s a tone or hum rather than broadband noise — describe it plainly (“a constant low drone”, “a whine that changes pitch”) since character matters to an assessment.

See our full guide to keeping a noise diary for the format that actually persuades a council or a court.

A heat pump has a genuine, legally grounded noise standard behind it — that’s a useful fact to raise with a neighbour or an installer. But if it’s still affecting your sleep or your use of your home, don’t assume “it’s probably fine, it’s a new eco-friendly thing” and stop there. The ordinary nuisance route, evidenced properly, still applies. The Noise Case Pro Evidence Pack gives you the diary, recording guide and letter templates to build that case properly from the start.