Neighbour dispute & devaluation in property

cattattat

Anyone know how I can find this out? We are taking legal action against the sellers of our property for non-disclosure of ongoing disputes/harassment. Our solicitor asked me to get some valuations from estate agents of how much our property is worth because of the problems we've been having against how much it SHOULD be worth at market value.

I've called a few estate agents today and they have all told me that disputes do not affect the value of your property (hah!). They said they would put it on the market at market price and then it's basically up to buyers to offer less if they want. One estate agent did say "off the record, knock at least 10% off market value", but that's as far as I've got and I need something a little more concrete.

Does anyone know of any surveyors that specialise in things like this or who else I could contact?

Thanks so much in advance

warehouse

Interesting this, because we've lived here for 2 years now and if the original buyers had disclosed the problems with the neighbours we would NEVER have purchased the property. I've considered taking action against our sellers, so am keen to see what advice you are given. To me you are entitled to the full price of the house in question at the time you purchased it, then you can go and find another, (but we know that won't happen).

Sorry I can't offer you advice, but we're kind of in a similar boat, so I can feel your frustration.

carefullycautious

I know that you cant go into detail but how has the dispute/harrassment carried over to you? Is the problems with you as people or to do with your home ie boundary dispute, right to light as examples. Are the people/person ill as in mental illness. Im not sure of the legalities of suing the previous owners as there does not seem to be any cases for comparison. I do sympathise and hopefully someone will be able to answer your question, what does your solicitor say?

cattattat

It's a really long story but yes, we've had horrendous problems with the neighbours.

We've had abuse screamed at us in the street and over the fence, we are overtly watched whenever we leave the house or go into our garden and when we are in the conservatory. The female neighbour told other neighbours that my boyfriend had threatened their children (completely untrue - never even spoken to any of them). Their children throw items at our windows and at our dog and cat. Our car windscreen gets spat on regularly and they smeared s**t over our conservatory windows and trashed our garden while we were away. They have also made false complaints to Environmental Health, telling them that our dog barks all day (when the dog doesn't even stay at our house while we are at work) and that our garden is full of dog s**t.

To cut a long story short, we got in touch with the sellers about a year after we moved in because we had absolutely no idea why the neighbours had all of a sudden started targeting us. They admitted they had had similar problems and eventually decided to sell up because of it.

A while later (after the conservatory incident), we decided to take legal action so that we could sell our house at a loss and get the hell out of here! The case has been going on since last October and we still haven't got to court yet. The sellers were written to by our solicitor and didn't respond in writing within the timescales, although they did ring him up and deny that they had any problems until they tried to sell the house.We have a copy of a letter they wrote to the neighbours' landlord that admits all of the problems though, so seems like we have a pretty good case.

Phew, that was long! All I can say is that if you are considering taking legal action, do it! Obviously we are a long way away from the end now, but they have screwed you over so don't feel guilty about doing it. I worried for a long time, but finally realised you need to stick up for you and yours, because no one else will!

If you have any questions about the process, I will answer them as best as I can.

pulliptears

Try the neighbours from hell forum, they will be best to advise you

http://www.nfh.org.uk/

siliconbits

cattattat, i am moving house soon and hopefully won't have those neighbours from hell. As Grissom from CSI would say. Only the evidence tell the truth. Any chance you have had CCTV or any kind of evidence. They appear to be the only one causing trouble and chances are that they also make life of other neighbours miserable. Maybe you should write to your council, your MP or the local newspaper.

cattattat

pulliptears wrote: »

Try the neighbours from hell forum, they will be best to advise you

http://www.nfh.org.uk/

I've asked there as well - just trying to cover all the bases

cattattat

siliconbits wrote: »

cattattat, i am moving house soon and hopefully won't have those neighbours from hell. As Grissom from CSI would say. Only the evidence tell the truth. Any chance you have had CCTV or any kind of evidence. They appear to be the only one causing trouble and chances are that they also make life of other neighbours miserable. Maybe you should write to your council, your MP or the local newspaper.

I've been in touch with all the relevant agencies, including the neighbours' landlord and letting agent but got nowhere. The neighbours tend to make counter allegations and then its just our word against theirs. We could do with CCTV, but we would need high quality night vision cameras and TBH its just too expensive.

Thanks to all for their advice so far

carefullycautious

Does anyone know whether a case like this has been successful in law?

cattattat

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2818995.stm

This is the only new report I have been able to find on successful ones and there has been a recent case that has been unsuccessful. There is another successful one that I've seen reference to somewhere, but can't remember where that was.

I think it's a fairly new thing as obviously the SPIFs haven't been around for very long.

pinkshoes

cattattat wrote: »

To cut a long story short, we got in touch with the sellers about a year after we moved in because we had absolutely no idea why the neighbours had all of a sudden started targeting us. They admitted they had had similar problems and eventually decided to sell up because of it.

They admit that they had problems, but whilst they were living at the property, did they "officially" lodge a complaint against the neighbour, which they then didn't disclose when selling the house?

I was always under the impression that a problem with a neighbour only exists when it's formally documented.