Bad neighbour sabotages house sale

Comms69

davidmcn wrote: »

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

True Malicious Falsehood is easier

Dawneeee

da_rule wrote: »

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.

Thank you for this advice. We have sent a letter to our neighbour. Hoping it will do the trick! We will know by this evening if our sale goes through.

patchwork_cat

and what are you saying on the TA6?

davidmcn

patchwork_cat wrote: »

and what are you saying on the TA6?

Given the neighbour has been "constantly reporting us to authorities" I hope the dispute(s) has already been declared.

AdrianC

Clearly this neighbour actually likes you, and is trying to make sure you stay living next door to her.

EachPenny

Davesnave wrote: »

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?
...
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.

I agree. Planning departments usually have a team of admin staff who do nothing but register applications, send out consultation letters, and add objections/comments to the file.

It is entirely possible that nobody from the council has actually read the letter, it might simply have been scanned by an admin assistant and automatically uploaded.

Personally I'd write to the Borough/County/District Solicitor's office rather than the Planning Department. Planning will be too busy following the rules and making decisions to really think about the legal consequences of publishing untrue statements. The Legal Department will have a better handle on the law and the risks involved.

OP, make sure you have a copy of the letter 'archived' before contacting the council to complain. It is potential evidence of harassment and once the council remove it from the internet (if they do) then you may not be able to access it again.

Also, if the neighbour is making repeated unfounded allegations against you then you might be able to get the council to treat her as a 'vexatious complainant' (most councils will have a policy on this). Often what that means is the letter/email/call will be dealt with by a more senior manager who will weigh up the validity of the complaint before authorising further action.

TheTalkingDead

I would do this:


Apply to the civil court for Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and get an order against her to protect you from similar in the future.


Have all the evidence gathered in a file, you can do this without a solicitor and its to do on your own to mitigate you costs. I would write to the legal department at the council, and highlight the libel they have published make copies of the complaint first before the council redact it. Then supply the council with your copy of the protection from harassment order and have her listed as vexatious/nuisance/habitual complainant everything she reports will go to a supervisor/manager before anything is publish or site investigated before any action, if there is nothing there to "punish" under current rules then the complaint is dropped and complaint archived in the round filing cabinet as frivolous.
Then speak with your solicitor about possible threat letter of a pursuing for damages/costs as a result of frivolous and libelous actions.


Pretty sure now though the damage is done, you'll have declare issues with your neighbour to any perspective buyer, please check with your solicitor on that though,

Kevie192

How did you fill out the property information form? Did you answer honestly and declare the neighbour as a source of both previous formal dispute and potential future dispute?

If you did, I can't see why the purchaser would care if they'd already been told about them.

Thomas_Holding

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

I think she is hoping that you will get so fed upset you sell at a ridiculous offer to an agent of hers and then she can sell it again for the market rate.
Check to see if she has done it before. If she has and has had problems with previous owners, she should have declared that when she sold it to you, that previous owners have had problems with a neighbour, even if it is her!

financegeek

trevormax wrote: »

My thoughts exactly. Of course, all legal. Nothing which may be considered harassment in the eyes of the law.

Start with parking your car in front of her house or making sure friends park there when they visit as it bugs people like this no end and is perfectly legal. Be sure not to block her in to her drive, but do make it awkward for her to get in or out. I believe blocking someone OUT of their drive is not illegal too but doing it more than once may be considered harassment so is not advised.

A nice, bright, sensitive security light. Be sure it is aimed at your garden of course as it is there to illuminate your garden. Sadly, it also shines a bit at her house every time a cat walks past through the night. Totally coincidental.

Big, regular, loud family gatherings (or BBQ's if she happens to have some washing on the line). Invite all of your neighbours (except her). If you know any unsavoury looking fellows, be sure to invite them. If you have kids, dress them in a hoodie. Make sure they do absolutely nothing to the neighbour and you stick to noise nuisance laws to the letter. The sight of them just hanging around, legally standing in the street, being a bit noisy near to her house is agony to the typical curtain twitcher.

A spot of gardening on your garden boundary right next to her garden. Best thing for gardening is some nice, smelly fertiliser. Probably not the best smell in the summer when someone is out in their garden enjoying the sun but think of all those nice flowers, maybe even some home-grown veg. She will understand I'm sure. Maybe even help her gardening out a bit by sprinkling some catnip seeds in her garden. When they grow, she gets some beautiful, oxygen producing plants and plenty of cat friends visiting her house.

Brighten up your garden with garden gnomes. Special gnomes which have a compulsive requirement to face a certain direction (North, South, East, your neighbours house, West). Maybe some of these gnomes have little holes drilled in to them for some reason. Little camera shaped holes. No cameras of course but no one else knows this.

All of the above is perfectly legal and if a neighbour was to complain to the police or council about it, they would seem to be petty and/or losing their mind and promptly ignored.

blooming heck - i hope you're not my neighbour as i wouldn't want to !!!! you off :rotfl:

All good ideas though. She's the one who's (potentially) forcing you to stay. Now she has to live with the consequences!