Bought a house with a noisey neighbour

ilithian

Hi there,

So my girlfriend and I have just bought our first house together, which was very exciting for us! However after being there a couple of months now we have found that one of our neighbours is an alcoholic who occasionally comes home late and shouts at her lazy teenage(19yo) son for not earning any money to give her or doing anything with his life and that she wants to kick him out. This has happened a few times and varies between 11pm and 3am.. and is pretty horrible to be next door to tbh. The language is vile.

We've been over to talk to her about it and during the day she apologises and says it wont happen again.. but it does. And during the drunken nights she's unreasonable and quite aggressive.

Basically we're not sure what to do. When we were sold the house is this something that the sellers should have disclosed? If we had any idea then obviously we would have thought twice about buying the house. And if we go on to sell it in the future do we also lie and pretend there isn't a problem? It's been going on for years according to some other neighbours - so the previous sellers definitely knew.

We obviously don't want to lose out financially, but also we don't want to get sued in the future. And to be quite honest the house is feeling less and less homely, and each evening we just come home to find out whether we're going to be able to have a good nights sleep or not that evening.. We are unsure if making an official complaint to the council is worthwhile, apparently the house is a council house - so perhaps they have some weight behind any complaints? But will official complaints then show up in the future if we sell it? We don't want to cheat anyone else.. but we've been tricked into this situation ourselves which also isn't fair.

Any help or advice would be really appreciated,

Tom

kleapatra

Why would the sellers have mentioned it to you? As you say, you probably wouldn't have bought it! Presuming they never made any official complaints then they aren't obliged to mention it, maybe they just tolerated it? People have different levels of tolerance - you've said yourself its only occasionally and anyone who lives near other people have to expect some noise and on occasion tolerate louder noise then they would like.
I have the same issue with one of my neighbours but I've purposely never complained as I knew I'd have to disclose it on selling which would obviously deter buyers.

phil1873football

In Scotland; you only have to disclose IF asked and even then, unless it's written down, then legally you have no hope as it would become an argument between if you asked or not.

fairy_lights

How often has this happened? if it's only a few times in a few months then that's not really so bad.
Presumable the neighbours son will leave home eventually if he's already 19, and the arguments will stop.

ilithian

Well this is basically what we wanted to know.. As long as we can sell it on without disclosing it then at least we're just losing sleep and not seeing all our savings vanish because of somebody else's behavior.

We've found online conflicting opinions over whether or not we do have to disclose it.. if we have to disclose it altogether then we'll start making official complaints and see if with some stronger persuasion she thinks twice about it. But if not complaining and living with it really is the best way to not see the value of our home plummet.. then I guess that is what we have to do.

We spoke to the citizens advice bureau who said that we would have to disclose it since it is something we are aware of, but then they also said that there wasn't much that we could do about it regarding the people selling it to us and not mentioning it. Which is just ridiculous.

In the TA 6 form "Property Information Form" it states:

2.2 Is the seller aware of anything which might lead to a dispute about the property or a property nearby?

So as long as there is no official trace of us being aware of it, it doesn't matter? We've spoken to the neighbours on the other side who share the 'problem neighbour' with us and they said that our sellers had complained to them about it and spoke to the woman about it too. Would that stand up for anything? And now that we've spoken to them about it they also know that we are aware of it.. Which would leave us open to problems?

Thanks for the replies so far!

Mojisola

ilithian wrote: »

However after being there a couple of months now we have found that one of our neighbours is an alcoholic who occasionally comes home late and shouts at her lazy teenage(19yo) son for not earning any money to give her or doing anything with his life and that she wants to kick him out.

We've been over to talk to her about it and during the day she apologises and says it wont happen again.. but it does. And during the drunken nights she's unreasonable and quite aggressive.

It's been going on for years according to some other neighbours - so the previous sellers definitely knew.

We obviously don't want to lose out financially, but also we don't want to get sued in the future. And to be quite honest the house is feeling less and less homely, and each evening we just come home to find out whether we're going to be able to have a good nights sleep or not that evening.

We are unsure if making an official complaint to the council is worthwhile, apparently the house is a council house - so perhaps they have some weight behind any complaints?

Several points - she's an alcoholic and it's being going on for years - she's not going to stop now. Her son may move out but that doesn't mean she will be quiet when she comes home drunk.

The council will pursue it after you have collected evidence but, as it's 'occasional' rather than 'regular', it will be more difficult to get her moved on. She will keep promising that it won't happen again.

When something unpleasant may happen, it's easy to focus on it too much. Don't stress yourselves out by half-expecting her to kick off every evening - you'll make yourselves ill. Put her behaviour to the back of your minds and enjoy your new home.

On the nights she's swearing and screaming, you will be disturbed and upset - at the moment you're getting yourselves upset every evening.

I'm not saying that it's easy to change the way you are dealing with the unpleasantness but it's in your own interests to minimize the effect on your life.

macman

You have to declare 'disputes': so if it's escalated to an official complaint then you have to declare it.
You also have to answer truthfully any questions you might be asked.

Errata

It's been going on for years according to some other neighbours - so the previous sellers definitely knew.

So what? It may not have bothered them.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I thought if you made an official complaint to the council about a tenant, then it does have to be declared when you sell, but perhaps this has changed. Friends of mine struggled to sell their house with horrific neighbours after going through the formal complaints procedure. Please check before proceeding.

zarf2007

macman wrote: »

You have to declare 'disputes': so if it's escalated to an official complaint then you have to declare it.
You also have to answer truthfully any questions you might be asked.

while legally you do, I doubt very much many people adhere to this. Its one of those things where if it isn't disclosed the costs involved in bringing a case against that person are so much that it isn't worth the bother. I think its only in cases where there is serious financial loss due to their lying that people would pursue so I wouldnt worry if you want to report the old bag and move later...

Hoploz

Could you contact the council anonymously?