A cat and mouse game being played between Armourguard noise control officers and party goers is bringing about tougher penalties for people who play their music loud.

The Tauranga City Council's strategy and policy committee this week agreed to add fines to the existing supreme penalty of stereo confiscation.

It's because seizing stereos doesn't really work, says John Payne, the city's environmental and compliances manager.

'The concern I have with that is 90 percent don't claim what we have seized,” says John.

He thinks it is because it costs $270 to reclaim a seized stereo.

'They can go and buy a stereo for that amount so they are not bothering to come in,” says John.

Occupants of a Kaimanawa Street house that featured on the television programme ‘Neighbours from Hell' had seven or eight stereos seized and they only ever reclaimed one, says John. There was no other penalty.

A wily stereo owner can also play the system, says John.

The Tauranga City Council operates a two-call system before sending out a noise control officer.

There have to be at least two separate complaints, or two complaints from the same person an hour apart for a noise control response to occur.

'The noise has to be going on for at least an hour, or there's an additional complaint, otherwise by the time the noise control officer gets there the noise might have stopped,” says John.

It costs the ratepayers each time a security guard is despatched.

They know when the noise contractor gets called he actually has to physically get to the address and then do a subjective assessment, says John.
They know if they are annoyed about their neighbours having called and complained last time, they turn it up full bore for five minutes to really annoy them, then turn it down again and wait for Armourguard to arrive and leave again.

'They know an assessment has to be done on each occasion,” says John.

'They will often have a lookout, and turn the noise down as soon as they spot the officer's vehicle.”

When a Noise Abatement Notice is issued, it expires after three days, then the whole process starts over again – if the stereo owner gave the correct name and details to the security guard in the first place.

'From the noise control and neighbour's perspective it can be a frustrating experience when offenders know how to manipulate the process.”

Stereos cannot be seized until the Noise Abatement Notice is issued, and only with police present. That can take some time because on a party night police usually have other calls on their resources.

Any property can be put on a first call basis to act on a complaint if there is a continual offender, says John, but they are often tenants who give false names making it difficult to track them when they reoffend. Alerts are usually address activated for that reason.

'These people know the rules, they know how to play the game and they play it very well.”

Tauranga's system costs ratepayers $63,000 a year with 6500 calls in a year and 75 stereos seized. Hamilton has 10,000 calls a year and seized 79 stereos in the same year.

Hamilton's first-call system cost its ratepayers $280,000, and John says they are expressing interest in Tauranga's two-call system.

The costs of the one-call system put councillors off, but they happily agreed to endorse adding a $500 fine to the seizure fee.

John says they could agree to drop the fine if the seizure fee is paid.

The issue surfaced because Tauranga City Councillor Bill Faulkner saw the system in action one night.

'What got me into this was a fracas down the road where these people were just playing the game and it was just nonsense,” says Bill.

'There were something like 24 immediate neighbours being dramatically affected, and these people knew the rules, knew how to play the game, and played it very well.

'It was just bad luck for them I happened to go down there one night and listen to the carry on because they were denying when the man turned up that it was going on.

'I perceived that the complainants were becoming victims and all the rights lay with the perpetrators, and I think this has highlighted that.”