Neighbour dispute & devaluation in property

cattattat

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages-and-homes/article.html?in_article_id=484010&in_page_id=8

This is the unsuccessful one. These two are the only ones that appear to have been widely reported.

cattattat

pinkshoes wrote: »

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.

Sorry, should have added that earlier. They did make numerous complaints to the authorities (Police, ASB Team, Environmental Health & landlord) and admitted this to us last year. Another one of the tasks set by solicitor is for us to put in requests for details of the complaints under FOI Act. It's proving a little tricky at the mo though because of data protection.

Trollfever

If the issues are going to be resolved in a court case, then I think that you need to employ a property professional:

http://www.rics.org/

tbs624

cattattat wrote: »

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

The SPIF has been around for a fair period of time: it was last updated in 2001 and action for fraudulent misrepresentation has been available under the Misrepresentation Act 1967.

There are now the provisions of of the Fraud Act 2006, which came into effect at start of 2007, covering both "fraud by false representation" and "fraud by failing to disclose information" .

One of the notable "failure to declare neighbour dispute" cases that got to court was that of McMeekin v Long [2003] - link- and there is Doe v Skegg [2006] . In the latter case, the son of the sellers neighbour was the problem & the seller failed to disclose to the vendor that they had written letters threatening legal action for harassment & trespass.

A conveyancing solicitor who posts on here , Richard Webster , may be able to offer you some other suggestions. See also http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=21308397&highlight=spif#post21308397