Neighbours sabotaging house let by talking to tenants and telling lies

AJ8

I am a landlord of a semi detatched property. My neighbour has spoken to two potential tenants at their viewing of the house and told them of a 'terrible gutter problem which has not been fixed and creates such a noise at the back of the house'. We have followed this up with the current tenants and there is no problem at all with the guttering and no noise. One potential tenant had put in an offer which we had accepted and was going to pay the deposit that morning but on going to see the property he saw the neighbour talking to the estate agent and another viewer and asked what was going on. We lost this tenant due to the neighbours remarks which are infuriatingly not true. Surely a lived in house is better than an empty one which could bring all sorts of problems such as squatters etc.

I am going to the property tomorrow and will knock on her door to ask her if there have been any problems and if there are in the future to contact the Lettings company or us ams we will correct them and to politely ask her not to interfere again. Is there anything I can do or say legally? Can i say that what she is saying is sabotage/slander/defamation? Can we ask them to pay the rent we will loose because she lost us this tenant? Can we say our solicitor (we don't actually have one!) will write to them if they do it again? What options do I have? TIA

phill99

What actual evidence do you have of the neighbour telling prospective tenants about problems.

Unless you can prove it, you will go no where wuickly with this. The evidence yo have at the moment is purely circumstantial.

I_have_spoken

Yep, ypu should attend the next viewing in person rather than rely on hearsay.

If the neighbour is doing this, you could casually mention that you'r thinking of allowing the Council to place 'seekers' in the property to ensure rental income.

Hintza

phill99 wrote: »

The evidence yo have at the moment is purely circumstantial.

The OP has more evidence than that, he has been told by the prospective tenants and/or the estate agent.

I would send a friend round to view and record what is being said.

evoke

Personally i'd prefer an empty house next to me!

ValHaller

Hintza wrote: »

The OP has more evidence than that, he has been told by the prospective tenants and/or the estate agent.

I would send a friend round to view and record what is being said.

Exactly my thought too.

Although where you could go with it I am not sure. If you go through solicitors and get an undertaking not to talk to prospective tenants, it does not look good if those tenants find out. You could try warning viewers and point out thta no correspondence has been received outlining any of the issues, but then who would want to live next to a neighbour like this?

keystone

Still all hearsay though and not really hard evidence. I'd go to the viewings myself and if she kicks off when you are there you have a) some hard evidence yourself and b) the opportunity for rebuttal on the spot.

Cheers

Leif

I'd try scare tactics, and write to her saying what you have heard, and if you get further reports, you will take legal advice with a view to getting redress.