Neighbour's eyesore garden

hjd

We have our house on the market.

Our next door neighbour, who could possibly be described as a traveller, has made a right mess of his garden. His house is on a corner and has a large front garden.
He excavated a lot of soil from the back garden and dumped it on the front, on top of the lawn. It's been there for months so the level on one side of the front path is about 18 inches above that on the other side. It is covered in weeds. The driveway goes over the verge and he has totally churned that up so it's very muddy. He is supposed to be replacing the hardstanding from the verge to the garage, and in preparation has dumped quite a lot of rubble there.
He runs various "businesses" and so often has a few cars, vans and pickups there.

He has lived in the house for just over a year and has been doing it up inside. He told us he bought the house from the council (this was a GLC estate for its executives, in Surrey - only 2 now left in council hands, others have been sold off years ago) and how much he paid for it; however, another neighbour has spoken to someone on the council who indiscreetly said that it was still council owned.

We don't want to officially complain as this would have to be declared if we ever sell. The neighbour is OK but we don't have much to do with him. Apparently people have raised the state of the plot with the council and he has told them he is in the middle of landscaping.

We have had 12 viewings of the house so far over 3 months and 4 have specifically said like our house, don't like the state of the neighbour's house.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

sooz

Offer to help him landscape it.

pmlindyloo

Couldn't you get one of your neighbours to contact the council again and ask them to investigate. A bit sneaky, I know, but needs must!

pimento

How he keeps his garden is none of your business unfortunately.

phill99

Pimento is right. If it was a health risk, then it is a different matter. But just because someone is untidy, unfortunately there is nothing ahyone can do about it. I don't like the colpour they have painted the door at number 7 and the nets at No. 18 are in a terrible state....

marliepanda

What exactly could the council do?

A house in my village had a very elderly and infirm owner, and the front garden literally was as high as the house, ram packed with hedge, overgrown, you couldnt see the front of the house at all (and I can only assume the back was the same) It was literally a huge square mess kept in check by the neighbours each side.

it was only after he died that anything was done to sort it out, and it sounds much much worse than what you describe.

BigAunty

You can identify ownership of the property very quickly and cheaply on the Land Registry website so perhaps if he's a council tenant, there is an option to see if there are any obligations that could be enforced.

However, tenant or owner, perhaps the best and quickest way is an amicable solution - by offering to help with or fund the gardening, perhaps a friendly chat to explain you want to facilitate the sale of your property (rather than just directly giving the impression that the state of his garden is putting off buyers, even though this is true).

It's not a great thing to have to bribe a neighbour with an investment of time or money when they aren't meeting their neighbourly obligations but any pressure could result in hostility and then you've a neighbour dispute to declare during the sale process or it could make them non-cooperative to do the work.

If it's x amount of hours of helping them with the work or x amount of £ to get someone to complete it, it might get paid many times over by stopping the block on your sale.

EDIT - is he elderly or have a disability? Our local council has a free gardening service though I doubt very much that it would extend to extensive landscaping....

hjd

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Couldn't you get one of your neighbours to contact the council again and ask them to investigate. A bit sneaky, I know, but needs must!

Other neighbours have contacted the council but nobody wants to make a formal complaint.

hjd

BigAunty wrote: »

You can identify ownership of the property very quickly and cheaply on the Land Registry website so perhaps if he's a council tenant, there is an option to see if there are any obligations that could be enforced.

However, tenant or owner, perhaps the best and quickest way is an amicable solution - by offering to help with or fund the gardening, perhaps a friendly chat to explain you want to facilitate the sale of your property (rather than just directly giving the impression that the state of his garden is putting off buyers, even though this is true).

It's not a great thing to have to bribe a neighbour with an investment of time or money when they aren't meeting their neighbourly obligations but any pressure could result in hostility and then you've a neighbour dispute to declare during the sale process or it could make them non-cooperative to do the work.

If it's x amount of hours of helping them with the work or x amount of £ to get someone to complete it, it might get paid many times over by stopping the block on your sale.

EDIT - is he elderly or have a disability? Our local council has a free gardening service though I doubt very much that it would extend to extensive landscaping....

He's not elderly or disabled. He's not very receptive to suggestions, although he is scared stiff of his wife, so maybe could try talking to her.
We had a rat problem originating in his garden but he had many bonfires and boasted he had burnt all the rats' nests.

Have just checked the land registry and without paying it says this:
Sorry, there is no price paid/value stated information available for this property

Does that mean it's not worth paying for information?

puddy

cant you just tell viewers that everyone in the street is very houseproud and as an example say look how our neighbour is landscaping his garden, its going to be great when its finished

cattie

hjd wrote: »

. He told us he bought the house from the council (this was a GLC estate for its executives, in Surrey - only 2 now left in council hands, others have been sold off years ago)

Well, it beggars belief that a council can have 'special' homes away from the hustle and bustle of the city built to house it's very well paid executives :eek:

This is more evidence of underhand dealings, one rule for the masses needing a home with a heavily subsidised rent and another for the more elite who could buy their own or rent on the open market and who otherwise wouldn't have been selected to occupy a council house at a bargain rental..:mad: