House Buying - Potential Noisy Neighbours

Laura.51

My boyfriend and I have just had an offer accepted on a property. However, my boyfriend works with someone who knows the people selling the house and has warned him that one of the reasons they are moving is because of noisy neighbours.

Does anyone have any advice on where to find out more information? What is noisy for one person may not be noisy for others.

Are the people selling the house obliged to tell us if the neighbours are noisy - will they be completely honest if I ask?

I don't want to commission a survey if we could pull out over this and waste more money. Any advice would be appreciated.

poppysarah

Ask your solicitor to put the question in writing to them prior to proceding...

Or go and knock on and see what they're like... or walk past in the evening...
Go back for a second viewing.

Wickedkitten

Yes they do have to be completely honest if you ask them specifically about it, and make sure you get their answer in writing so if it turns out there is a noise problem then you have evidence of them providing false information

tweeter

I found trying to reason with noisy neighbours meant they then had a focus - me, and they just turned the volume control up louder. If you buy the place, do not face them,do not think they will be necessarily amenable to reason, get the council involved but don't expect them to act quickly when they turn up. HTH

andys15

If they have officially had disputes with them, ie enviromental health due to noise issues, they legally must inform you. If they are just privately annoyed by it, they dont have to.

Wickedkitten

They certainly do have to if ask them to confirm it in writing.

andys15

Wickedkitten wrote: »

They certainly do have to if ask them to confirm it in writing.

RUBBISH. What constitutes noisy to some people, might not for others. If nothing offical has happened why do they need to say. I have a lad who kicks a ball outside, it does my head in, but my wife doesn't even notice it. Would I have to inform people that. It just means I am a grump, there is no real problem with the lad kicking the ball.

Nosht

andys15 wrote: »

If they have officially had disputes with them, ie enviromental health due to noise issues, they legally must inform you. If they are just privately annoyed by it, they dont have to.

Don't expect the council, police or E.H. to act quickly in these matters.
Bitter experience has shown me that it can take 3 years to have a troublesome family evicted despite having regular complaints logged from both neighbours on either side of the property. :eek:

Regards,

N.

olias

Did your boyfriend not get any more info? Was it loud music? revving engines in the early hours? constant parties? The person your boyfriend spoke to must have said, surely?

I would definately try and find out more. Noisy neighbours can be a nightmare, and if you get environmental health etc involved, then you would have to disclose it when you came to sell, potentially making your property unsaleable. Also what noise you may find acceptable now may not be in a few years if you have a baby, or change jobs to one requiring early starts etc etc.

I personally would be very wary about proceeding.

Olias

Kyrae

How about knocking on the neighbours door and saying hi, saying you're thinking of buying next door, and make up some random questions, eg. you wondered how busy the street is, if its a nice place to live, etc? It'll give you a chance to meet your potential neighbours and get an idea for the sort of people they are. If they're screaming at their kids and their dogs are barking like mad at least you'll know what you're letting yourself in for if you buy the house!

Wickedkitten

andys15 wrote: »

RUBBISH. What constitutes noisy to some people, might not for others. If nothing offical has happened why do they need to say. I have a lad who kicks a ball outside, it does my head in, but my wife doesn't even notice it. Would I have to inform people that. It just means I am a grump, there is no real problem with the lad kicking the ball.

It's obviously noisy to them if the boyfriends coworker is saying he knows them and they are moving in part because of the noise,