Do we have to tell buyers about nightmare neighbour?

namecheck

I'm so sorry (but not surprised) that the situation is unresolved.

IMO there is absolutely no point in trying to speak to this person (and I would not attack him physically, tempting as that would be for some people).

I know someone who was targeted physically, for no obvious reason, by a mentally disturbed adult living with his mother. When it came to a court appearance, the jury were swayed by the defence's plea for clemency (despite the fact that my aquaintance was the one who suffered the physical injury).

It does sound as if the neighbour has major mental health issues and probably cannot understand, or care, that his actions are making your life a misery.

I don't know enough about the legal situation to say whether you must disclose this problem in the course of selling your own flat. I think you should make your own enquiries about this aspect before you try to sell.

Good luck

DRP

OP, If your life is being affected so badly, I would advise you sell and move on without disclosing the problem.

As others have mentioned, the new owners may not be bothered by the neighbour or may be more inclined to sort the problem/him out.

If I were you I wouldn't even consider the 'morals' of not disclosing and it certainly wouldn't affect my own conscience. You gotta do what you gotta do!

Mojisola

DRP wrote: »

OP, If your life is being affected so badly, I would advise you sell and move on without disclosing the problem.

I think our sellers had to sign paperwork that asked, among other things, a catch-all question about whether there were problems with any of the neighbours - not official reported ones, just informal issues.

DRP

Mojisola wrote: »

I think our sellers had to sign paperwork that asked, among other things, a catch-all question about whether there were problems with any of the neighbours - not official reported ones, just informal issues.

Given the OP hasn;t made any official complaint (?) even if such a clause was present, it is a massive grey area. After all, the behaviour of the downstairs nutter may not even bother many people.

Just because the new owners may consider the behaviour of the nutter to be a problem, there is nothing to say that the OP found the situation a problem at all!

"I never noticed him banging because I take my hearing aid out at night/always wear earplugs in bed" etc

moneyistooshorttomention

Hope OP manages to find a way through this dilemma and get the neighbour sorted out (with or without moving) and not feel forced into doing unethical (like not telling potential buyers).

It's a quandary and a half to be in for sure.

There are a lot of grey areas round the ethical side of "To tell or not to tell" and that may be a bit dependant on whether you always planned to move on anyway at that point in time and would miss your chance and have your life altered because of Bad Neighbour or whether you are deliberately moving because of Bad Neighbour (and would have quite happily stayed put if it hadnt been for them).

Definitely where the phrase "There are no easy answers" comes in. I would tend to edge towards the "Move if you were going to anyway - and nothing to do with Bad Neighbour" and "Stay put and try even harder to sort it out" if Bad Neighbour is the reason for wanting to move.

What I am wondering - and this may have been answered on OP's other threads - is whether the neighbours obviously bad mental health would bring him under the heading of someone can be made to compulsorily receive help for their mental health problems if they are a danger to themselves or other people and wondering if this neighbour might be deemed to be a danger to others because of their aggressive behaviour?? I dont know if OP feels at risk of physical violence from them or its just the constant "noise battering" being a problem. I think possibly going down the harassment route might be the way to get this neighbour to behave himself.

19lottie82

OP, have you tried someones suggestion of calling the police when he starts banging and telling then you think he's fallen or is ill, because he keeps bangign on the ceiling and wont anser his door?

vet8

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I honestly think environmental health and, unfortunately probably also the police, are your best port of call.

There is legislation in place to prevent the kind of harassment you are experiencing, though it probably won't be quick.

Personally I would confront the neighbour about it and at least try and start a dialogue about what their problem is but you have stated in your other threads that you are unable / unwilling to do this.

Alternatively you could try renting the place out and see how he gets on with new people.

We have tried to speak to him, but he will not answer the door and never speaks to any of the neighbours. I sent him a letter, but that just seems to have inflamed the situation. We could try renting it out, but where would we live then? Any money we took in rent, less tax, management charges etc would not be enough for us to rent anywhere else. I also think he would be as bad with any tenants so they would not want to stay for long either.

vet8

19lottie82 wrote: »

OP, have you tried someones suggestion of calling the police when he starts banging and telling then you think he's fallen or is ill, because he keeps bangign on the ceiling and wont anser his door?

I did think of that, but I thought that would really be wasting the police's time (which I think is a criminal offence as well). I know he is not injured, just a pratt, but it is a tempting idea!

vet8

Thanks again for your comments. Basically everyone has confirmed what I think I knew already, we cannot in all conscience sell this place to some poor unsuspecting person to get saddled with this maniac. Which leaves us in a right mess.

For personal reasons, we had planned to put the flat on the market later on this year, now it looks as though we cannot sell so all our retirement plans are totally ruined.

I have looked at the official complaint route and it does not look very hopeful. The police are not interested, they say it is the council's job, the council take months or years to deal with it. We have kept a diary of the noise and are recording the thumping ourselves, but the council insist you have to use their recording equipment which they loan out, it might take months to get one on loan.

Every incident I have read about this seems to be bad news, it is almost impossible to make a case against the neighbour and the council will do nothing. Really the b*****ds win once again and the good guys get stuffed.

That's life it seems to me.

onejontwo

Can you not get a large friend to stay the night and explain the circumstances, then when the banging begins hopefully he will go down, bang on his door, tell him that he now lives in your flat and to stop banging on the ceiling immediately or else!