A new law to tackle long-term nuisance neighbours has been approved by the senate, the AD reported on Wednesday

The law, which was initiated by the VVD, gives greater powers to local mayors to deal with anti-social neighbours. Mayors will be allowed to intervene if a neighbour’s dog barks day and night or if music is repeatedly played too loudly late at night. For example, a mayor will be able to order a dog be muzzled or the music turned off.

Mayors will also be able to issue fines if people cause problems by letting their homes out via Airbnb and to force aggressive neighbours to undergo behavioural therapy.

‘This law was badly needed,’ the AD quotes VVD MP Ockje Tellegen as saying. According to the MP, one in three people experience some type of nuisance caused by neighbours. ‘It not only happens in big cities. It’s the smaller cities where the more bizarre ways that people terrorise each other take place.’

At present anti-social neighbours are warned and, in the most extreme case, forced to leave their home but that is a measure that judges often find too drastic, says Tellegen.

The aim of the new law is to  force the person creating the nuisance to change their behaviour without taking them to court to have them evicted. It will come into force at the beginning of the summer.