Bad neighbour sabotages house sale

Dawneeee

Need advice

We live in a small close of 5 houses in the country.

Our neighbour is a real complainer, she seems to want to take everyone to court type of person.

Anyhow, originally purchased the house from her 1 year ago. But she is constantly reporting us to authorities ( all unsubstantiated allegations) she has been fobbed off at each stage.

We had, had enough and decided to call if quits and sell up.
Our sale was meant to exchange yesterday! This neighbour wrote an objection into planning ( regarding planning permission for a shed we replaced, the one she originally put up! ) but didn’t actually stick to the objection, but over a 4 page letter slagged us off at every opportunity, saying we have done things that we haven’t. This letter was published to the public domain.

Our potential purchases have seen this letter and have halted the sale - we are gutted!

Is there anything we can do legally? I am so angry right now, she has cost us thousands!

Please any advice on the way forward would be appreciated.

Dawneee

Dean000000

Are you comfortable linking to the planning portal thing? Mainly for noseyness, but also there may be someone savvied up in planning laws.

Has she done any unapproved building work (I.e like the shed she did) in her other house? Erected fences too high?

Is her car taxed?

She seems like the type that would think she was above the law, and needs grounding

da_rule

You may have a cause for action in defamation (libel) if she has caused information that is untrue to enter the public domain and you have suffered a loss.

However, this is a very specialist (and very expensive) area of law. For example, claims for defamation can only be brought in the High Court. However, a solicitors letter telling her that you intend to take action and pursue her for damages unless she retracts the untrue statements etc and apologises may make her think again.

getmore4less

I suspect the contents related to you are largely incidental.

Your purchasers have done some due diligence and realized there is a problem neighbour, dodging the bullet.

If this is the first they have realised they may not be best pleased with you either.

You probably need to step back and have a rethink getting together with the other 3 in a 4 against 1 approach.

Ozzuk

Assuming you aren't using just a conveyencor, whats does your solicitor advise? This is a specialist area but they should at least have an understanding of your options.

My personal opinion, letter before action first, if not retracted then I'd probably (assuming I could prove it was all baseless) try small claims court for the costs to date.

I bought a house years ago that had a piece of land in dispute and the 'false' owners tried to hold up our purchase. Our vendor's solicitor wrote to them threatening to sue if the sale fell through, for costs, and for any difference in value between loss of sale and actual sale. It worked, they backed down - but I don't know how toothless it really was.

Good luck, horrible situation. You'll have to be open and declare her actions anyway which in itself can scupper a sale.

Davesnave

Long shot, but could you not put it to the planning department that by publishing untrue detail, irrelevant to the matter of the shed, they are in on tricky legal ground too?

Explain the circumstances. Could they not just publish the objection and redact everything else?

Won't help you this time, but in my experience planners are usually fair minded people, who listen to arguments from all sides every day. It may have just been an office minion who decided to publish in full.

Davesnave

getmore4less wrote: »

Your purchasers have done some due diligence and realized there is a problem neighbour, dodging the bullet.

If this is the first they have realised they may not be best pleased with you either.

Problem neighbours come in all flavours. Just because they shoot their mouths off doesn't necessarily mean they carry out other actions which cause trouble....and there are alternative neighbours in the OP's close.

The situation is pretty much identical to one affecting a group of rural properties near us, where one older couple have tried to influence matters by complaining to various authorities and their own mangement committee. They had a couple of goes at us when we moved here, but soon found that we wouldn't stand for it, so they've left us alone ever since.

I wouldn't describe these people as a huge problem or blame our vendor for not mentioning them. They're just part and parcel of random lunacy in the countryside, probably brought on by retiring here and having beggar-all to do!

Comms69

Dawneeee wrote: »

Need advice

We live in a small close of 5 houses in the country.

Our neighbour is a real complainer, she seems to want to take everyone to court type of person.

Anyhow, originally purchased the house from her 1 year ago. But she is constantly reporting us to authorities ( all unsubstantiated allegations) she has been fobbed off at each stage.

We had, had enough and decided to call if quits and sell up.
Our sale was meant to exchange yesterday! This neighbour wrote an objection into planning ( regarding planning permission for a shed we replaced, the one she originally put up! ) but didn’t actually stick to the objection, but over a 4 page letter slagged us off at every opportunity, saying we have done things that we haven’t. This letter was published to the public domain.

Our potential purchases have seen this letter and have halted the sale - we are gutted!

Is there anything we can do legally? I am so angry right now, she has cost us thousands!

Please any advice on the way forward would be appreciated.

Dawneee

If she has libelled you, then by all means sue her....

pimento

Well now it looks like you're staying, I'd make sure that she knew that you're going to make her life a misery.

davidmcn

Suing for libel is strictly a rich man's game - I would try to get the objection off the planning site.

PasturesNew

What sort of things does she make up?

You're pretty much stuck with her (at least for now) .... but what is she making up, is she right, are you actually in the wrong? You might not know you're in the wrong .... the shed thing sounds mad though.... did you replace it with the same sized shed?