In their filing with the Malmö environmental administration (Miljöförvaltningen), the neighbours not only brought up the man's disturbing masturbatory noises, but also took issue with his habit of watching television at exceeding high volumes. But demands that something be done to rectify the matter fell on deaf ears. Nor were officials with the Skåne County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen) willing to help the angry group of neighbours deal with the annoying onanist, who, according to the complaint masturbates day and night.
While man's noises may be disruptive, the board argued, they don't rise to the level of posing a danger to the health of nearby residents. "This sort of thing needs to be solved among the residents," Nicolas Strömbäck of the Skåne County Administrative's legal division said. "It has to be very disruptive for us as a public authority to get involved and decide how someone should behave in their own home." The fact that three years of complaints by the neighbours to their landlord has failed to yield any measures to mute the man's high-decibel masturbation adulation didn't make a difference to county officials.
According to Strömbäck, mere verbal accounts of the noisy neighbour's self-pleasuring aren't sufficient to arouse the agency into action. "We need evidence," he said. According to Susanna Skogsberg, an attorney with the Swedish Tenants' Association (Hyresgästföreningen) explained that complaints about noises made by neighbours having sex are quite common in Sweden. "I usually tell people that they should talk to their neighbours themselves. But that may not have worked in this particular case," she said.
