Advice on selling a problem house - Pls help!

tigerforce1973

Hello

This is my first post here although I am a frequent lurker

I'm really hoping somebody can help me as I have a dilemma. My mother lived in a terraced house in a quiet cul de sac and about 12 months ago a couple bought the house next door. Shortly after that a mid 30's guy moved in who has severe learning difficulties, severe autism and can only communicate by screaming and banging. He has 24 hr care from Agency carers. My mother was quite disturbed by the noise initially but it seemed to settle down. Turns out it didn't settle down she just got progressively more hard of hearing!!

Unfortunately she died a couple of months ago and the house has become ours to sell. We've had to spend quite a bit of time in the house and the noise is horrendous. There is constant banging and screaming, if the windows are open its terrible. I just don't know how I'm ever going to be able to sell the property as no one in their right mind would buy it if they heard the screaming.

I've done some digging and it seems the house is owned by a couple and rented out as a supported living facility. Planning permission is not needed as its under 3 residents and the house itself doesn't have to be registered by the care commission, just the agency that provides the carers. I've tried to make contact with the house owners to discuss what we can do but I'm not getting anywhere, the carers are telling me the tenant is the owner and I know thats not the case, i have the titles from the land registry.

Can anyone offer me any advice on what I can do here? Ideally I want to find a solution before I put the house up for sale.

Apologies for a long winded first post and any help or advice would be very much appreciated.

Skint_Catt

We've (I work for a care company) had Environmental Health letters before now due to noise from some of our tenants insimilar circumstances.

Try; http://www.environmental-protection.org.uk/noise/environmental-noise/noise-pollution/

C xx

tired_mum

I think you have a couple of options
first you can contact the noise people at your local council as there are rules against exssesive noise
You could see a soliciter after getting an estate agent in to value the property and finding out if you can sue for the depreciation in the property due to the noise
Whilst i realise that this man has to live somewhere I cannot see why you should be expected to have to tolerate a noise nuisance nor a depreciation in your property
Have you spoken to the other neighbours?

tigerforce1973

Thank you both for your replies.

Skint_Catt - thank you for the link, thats really useful and I'll be calling on Monday.

Tired Mum (know the feeling!) - yes, have spoken with a few of them and they are all up in arms about the noise, even a guy that lives a street away can hear him. But no one seems to know what can be done. One of the neighbours did call the police when he first moved in as they thought someone was being murdered but got the feedback that "this is his home which he's entitled to live in, He was starved of oxygen at birth and can only communicate by screaming, it should settle down" I understand the whole care in the community concept but surely it has to be the right environment. I know he's definitely a resident / tenant as the woman from social services confirmed it today.