Neighbours from hell

Chanes

I would sue the person if they sold me a house that had neighbours anything like those being described (and had declared no problems on the form) - those folks have my deepest sympathy; you come home to rest and relax and enjoy your time not suffer from the sheer vileness of the inconsiderate neighbours. As for anyone who thinks the law is toothless, I differ with that opinion, it can be slow and seem convolute but it can produce the results eventually.

The best advice I could offer is to move the instant you find you don't want to come home or are losing sleep, maybe that would be far less stressful than getting legal anyway.

Guest101

Chanes wrote: »

I would sue the person if they sold me a house that had neighbours anything like those being described (and had declared no problems on the form) - those folks have my deepest sympathy; you come home to rest and relax and enjoy your time not suffer from the sheer vileness of the inconsiderate neighbours. As for anyone who thinks the law is toothless, I differ with that opinion, it can be slow and seem convolute but it can produce the results eventually.

The best advice I could offer is to move the instant you find you don't want to come home or are losing sleep, maybe that would be far less stressful than getting legal anyway.

You could sue them if they lied. But if you didnt ask, you wouldnt know. And if there was no 'official' conflict you couldnt really prove there was a conflict, or that it would affect you. I.E. it could easily have been totally personal.

The law isnt toothless, and I didnt see any suggestion it was. Equally it the police are in such circumstances.

Chanes

Guest101 wrote: »

You could sue them if they lied. But if you didnt ask, you wouldnt know. And if there was no 'official' conflict you couldnt really prove there was a conflict, or that it would affect you. I.E. it could easily have been totally personal.

The law isnt toothless, and I didnt see any suggestion it was. Equally it the police are in such circumstances.

The form sent by the solicitors when you buy or sell a house has a number of declarations, specific to such circumstances and the property. And as far as I read about it the law changed significantly regarding that and in favour of the buyer. I wouldn't like to chance a defence of 'I didn't know' if there were witnesses or other credible persons. I have read people saying it must be a formal report, I don't think that is true any longer? I'm sure there legislation is available on the net somewhere that would resolve this.

Guest101

Chanes wrote: »

The form sent by the solicitors when you buy or sell a house has a number of declarations, specific to such circumstances and the property. And as far as I read about it the law changed significantly regarding that and in favour of the buyer. I wouldn't like to chance a defence of 'I didn't know' if there were witnesses or other credible persons. I have read people saying it must be a formal report, I don't think that is true any longer? I'm sure there legislation is available on the net somewhere that would resolve this.

Yes such forms do have declarations.

Lets arguably say one of these is: Any excessive noise from neighbouring properties? - Ticks no. If sued, says did not feel noise was excesive.
- Subjective clauses such as these are by their nature not very reliable. Which is why the relied upon evidence is that of official reports, which cannot be disputed.

By all means find the legislation if you wish. I suspect you may be refering to the recent Anti Social Behaviour changes. However I may be wrong.

Regardless, these still rely on there being a conviction or some form of official guily plea (such as a caution), to have any effect. Which again would be official.

Even a credible witness could not monitor the situation 24/7. The seller would just say it was a misunderstanding between neighbours, and was resolved immediately.

Chanes

Food for thought courtesy of The Guardian:

In a landmark case, Tony Pemberton of Foxwood in York recently won undisclosed damages because the previous owners of his £70,000 home did not tell him about noise from a neighbour's house, despite having made several complaints to the council. 'There was incessant loud music, shouting, banging and screaming coming from next door, sometimes until 5.30am,' Pemberton said. 'I couldn't sleep and had to be signed off work sick because of the stress it caused.'

Absolutely he should have been told about the people next door. You'd agree, wouldn't you?

TrickyDicky101

That's not the point Guest101 was making (which should have been bleedin' obvious from what he wrote, frankly) - if no official complaint has been made (and thus recorded) just how would you prove a subjective assessment such as noise?

If the vendor is stone deaf, then he probably will not have an issue with neighbour's noise. But the buyer might.

Guest101

Chanes wrote: »

Food for thought courtesy of The Guardian:

In a landmark case, Tony Pemberton of Foxwood in York recently won undisclosed damages because the previous owners of his £70,000 home did not tell him about noise from a neighbour's house, despite having made several complaints to the council. 'There was incessant loud music, shouting, banging and screaming coming from next door, sometimes until 5.30am,' Pemberton said. 'I couldn't sleep and had to be signed off work sick because of the stress it caused.'

Absolutely he should have been told about the people next door. You'd agree, wouldn't you?

Yes, because of the bit in bold.

Chanes

So would other neighbours testimony not count? Would the testimony of ongoing problems with a neighbour who admitted they had been approached and complained to?

Would none of that count at all?

Guest101

Chanes wrote: »

So would other neighbours testimony not count? Would the testimony of ongoing problems with a neighbour who admitted they had been approached and complained to?

Would none of that count at all?

Not really.

You would struggle to get anyone to agree to be a witness for something like this to start of with.

It's likely that the neighbour who was approached has probably caused you problems and isnt likely to be cooperative.

The court would then have to look on the basis of probabilities, if anything that was witnessed was more than a one-off. i.e. seller asks neighbour to keep noise down, neighbour obliges - which would not be covered by such declarations.

Chanes

Wow, it's a wonder we buy any houses at all! I have always declared everything on the forms, even down to children playing outside sometimes (nice kids, they'd be quiet if you asked) I would feel I had cheated someone if I wasn't honest. I guess we do what we can live with.