IELTS semi-formal letter: Asking a neighbour to reduce building noise

Semi-formal letterComplaint · General Training

The task

Your neighbour is having building work done on their house, and the noise is causing you problems. Write a letter to your neighbour.

In your letter
• explain how the noise is affecting you
• say why the timing is especially difficult for you at the moment
• suggest a solution

Write at least 150 words. You do NOT need to write any addresses at the top of your letter.

Begin your letter as follows:
Dear Mrs Patel,

Write your letter

Then get an estimated band, with checks on every bullet point, your tone and the letter format.

0 words · 150 more to reach 150

Write your own letter first, then compare. Reading a model before you write tends to make you copy it.

The plan

Purpose: a friendly but clear request about the noise.
Bullet 1: when the noise happens and its effects.
Bullet 2: why now is a bad time (night shifts, exams).
Bullet 3: a reasonable compromise on hours.
Close: keep the relationship friendly.

Model letter

194 words

Our checker: 7.5Task 8Coherence 8Vocabulary 7Grammar 7

Dear Mrs Patel,

I hope the work on your house is going well. I am writing because the noise from the building work has been causing me some problems, and I wondered if we could find a solution together.

For the past three weeks, the drilling has usually started at about seven in the morning and continued until late afternoon, including on Saturdays. The walls between our houses are quite thin, so the noise is very loud on my side, and I have found it almost impossible to rest.

The timing is particularly difficult for me at the moment because I am a nurse and I am currently working night shifts at the hospital. I normally sleep from eight in the morning until two in the afternoon, which is exactly when the builders are at their noisiest.

Would it be possible to ask the builders to do the noisiest jobs in the afternoon, perhaps after two o’clock? I would also really appreciate a quiet Saturday morning, if that is not too difficult to arrange.

I am sure we can sort this out, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Tunde Bakare

The highlighted paragraph states the purpose; each paragraph after it covers one bullet point. Scored by the MyBandPrep checker on 7 October 2026. An estimate, not an examiner’s mark. How scoring works

Why it works

Task Achievement: All bullets are covered in detail, and the tone stays friendly and reasonable throughout, which is exactly what the situation needs: the purpose is clear without sounding like a formal complaint.
Coherence and Cohesion: A clear progression from the effect, to the reason, to the solution. Reference (which is exactly when…) ties the ideas together.
Lexical Resource: Well-judged semi-formal language: I wondered if, at their noisiest, sort this out, if that is not too difficult to arrange.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Present perfect continuous for an ongoing problem, indirect and polite requests, and accurate complex sentences.

Phrases worth reusing

I wondered if we could find a solution together.
The timing is particularly difficult for me at the moment because
Would it be possible to
I am sure we can sort this out