Non disclosure of property defects - Sound Proofing and drainage issues

laurajanelolly

We bought a semi detached 1950's bungalow that we moved into in March this year. Since living there we have noticed that noise travels through the walls more than we expected. Whilst our neighbour isn't particularly loud as an individual and is just living a semi social life we can hear conversations and music word for word some times.

 She recently revealed to us that the previous owners complained a lot about the sound issues and even slept in the back smaller bedroom as a result. We had wonder why when we viewed the property they were using the smaller room as their master bedroom but it makes sense now as it's at the back on the detached side so sound would be less. Also she said they had people go round her house with decibel readers and that they had soundproofing added to the walls. She said she had to have builders in her house as a result and it was a bit of a nightmare as it caused tension between them.

 Now non of this was disclosed to us when purchasing the property so are they in breech of non disclosure as they have had remedial work (not very good work as it's still rather loud) and a neighbour dispute? Would we have a case against them for this.  

Additionally our house nearly flooded the other day due to the heavy rain and it turns out the property has some drainage issues under larger volumes of water. This didn't show up on surveys as under normal conditions the drains work fine. When speaking to Southern Water they confirmed that they had been called out to the property before but due to GDPR couldn't confirm the nature of the call out. We don't believe that they had never experienced that before and again all the neighbours in the are have said they suffer flooding in heavy water downpours so could this be another thing they did not disclose?  

UnsilentMinority

Neither of those things they had to disclose, move on and fix them if they are that bad.

user1977

Under which specific enquiry(ies) do you think these matters ought to have been disclosed, and what were the answers given?

MaryNB

laurajanelolly said:

 She recently revealed to us that the previous owners complained a lot about the sound issues and even slept in the back smaller bedroom as a result. We had wonder why when we viewed the property they were using the smaller room as their master bedroom but it makes sense now as it's at the back on the detached side so sound would be less. Also she said they had people go round her house with decibel readers and that they had soundproofing added to the walls. She said she had to have builders in her house as a result and it was a bit of a nightmare as it caused tension between them.

 Now non of this was disclosed to us when purchasing the property so are they in breech of non disclosure as they have had remedial work (not very good work as it's still rather loud) and a neighbour dispute? Would we have a case against them for this.  

They should have disclosed the complaints on the TA6 Property Information Form

Have there been any disputes or complaints regarding this property or a property nearby? If Yes, please give details:

mattyprice4004

It doesn't sound like something serious enough to go down on a TA6 as a dispute - if a neighbour complained I was a little noisy at times I wouldn't put it down either. 
Drains are also a non-issue, as long as they work correctly during 'normal' weather I'd say that's good enough. 

You bought a 60 year old house, if you want a new house with a warranty then buy a new-build. 
Unfortunately older stuff (including houses) usually comes with an issue or two. 

Some people are also more sensitive to noise than others - I had to buy detached and lower my expectations in terms of space as I'm quite intolerant of neighbour noise.

MaryNB

mattyprice4004 said:

It doesn't sound like something serious enough to go down on a TA6 as a dispute - if a neighbour complained I was a little noisy at times I wouldn't put it down either. 
Drains are also a non-issue, as long as they work correctly during 'normal' weather I'd say that's good enough. 

You bought a 60 year old house, if you want a new house with a warranty then buy a new-build. 
Unfortunately older stuff (including houses) usually comes with an issue or two. 

Some people are also more sensitive to noise than others - I had to buy detached and lower my expectations in terms of space as I'm quite intolerant of neighbour noise.

Given the seller appeared to have noise consultants out, the neighbour had to have builders in to mitigate the issue and it caused tension between them I would say that it would very difficult to argue that there was no complaint about a nearby property. Whether they are over sensitive to noise or not doesn't change the fact that it appeared to be a fairly significant issue between the neighbours. The question is very open - have there been any disputes or complaints and the neighbour very much confirmed this. If they were still sleeping in the smaller room at the time of the viewing it would indicate that the issue wasn't resolved. 

UnsilentMinority

MaryNB said:

mattyprice4004 said:

It doesn't sound like something serious enough to go down on a TA6 as a dispute - if a neighbour complained I was a little noisy at times I wouldn't put it down either. 
Drains are also a non-issue, as long as they work correctly during 'normal' weather I'd say that's good enough. 

You bought a 60 year old house, if you want a new house with a warranty then buy a new-build. 
Unfortunately older stuff (including houses) usually comes with an issue or two. 

Some people are also more sensitive to noise than others - I had to buy detached and lower my expectations in terms of space as I'm quite intolerant of neighbour noise.

Given the seller appeared to have noise consultants out, the neighbour had to have builders in to mitigate the issue and it caused tension between them I would say that it would very difficult to argue that there was no complaint about a nearby property. Whether they are over sensitive to noise or not doesn't change the fact that it appeared to be a fairly significant issue between the neighbours. The question is very open - have there been any disputes or complaints and the neighbour very much confirmed this. If they were still sleeping in the smaller room at the time of the viewing it would indicate that the issue wasn't resolved. 

Only if the complaint goes down the legal/written route which hasn't been confirmed.

[Deleted User]

What do you want them to do about it? Pay for remedial work? Might help if you had an idea what that might cost.

user1977

UnsilentMinority said:

MaryNB said:

mattyprice4004 said:

It doesn't sound like something serious enough to go down on a TA6 as a dispute - if a neighbour complained I was a little noisy at times I wouldn't put it down either. 
Drains are also a non-issue, as long as they work correctly during 'normal' weather I'd say that's good enough. 

You bought a 60 year old house, if you want a new house with a warranty then buy a new-build. 
Unfortunately older stuff (including houses) usually comes with an issue or two. 

Some people are also more sensitive to noise than others - I had to buy detached and lower my expectations in terms of space as I'm quite intolerant of neighbour noise.

Given the seller appeared to have noise consultants out, the neighbour had to have builders in to mitigate the issue and it caused tension between them I would say that it would very difficult to argue that there was no complaint about a nearby property. Whether they are over sensitive to noise or not doesn't change the fact that it appeared to be a fairly significant issue between the neighbours. The question is very open - have there been any disputes or complaints and the neighbour very much confirmed this. If they were still sleeping in the smaller room at the time of the viewing it would indicate that the issue wasn't resolved. 

Only if the complaint goes down the legal/written route

No, that's not what the question asks. In fact it's not even restricted to written complaints, or complaints which have actually been made - it includes things which you know are likely to lead to a complaint.

MaryNB

UnsilentMinority said:

MaryNB said:

mattyprice4004 said:

It doesn't sound like something serious enough to go down on a TA6 as a dispute - if a neighbour complained I was a little noisy at times I wouldn't put it down either. 
Drains are also a non-issue, as long as they work correctly during 'normal' weather I'd say that's good enough. 

You bought a 60 year old house, if you want a new house with a warranty then buy a new-build. 
Unfortunately older stuff (including houses) usually comes with an issue or two. 

Some people are also more sensitive to noise than others - I had to buy detached and lower my expectations in terms of space as I'm quite intolerant of neighbour noise.

Given the seller appeared to have noise consultants out, the neighbour had to have builders in to mitigate the issue and it caused tension between them I would say that it would very difficult to argue that there was no complaint about a nearby property. Whether they are over sensitive to noise or not doesn't change the fact that it appeared to be a fairly significant issue between the neighbours. The question is very open - have there been any disputes or complaints and the neighbour very much confirmed this. If they were still sleeping in the smaller room at the time of the viewing it would indicate that the issue wasn't resolved. 

Only if the complaint goes down the legal/written route which hasn't been confirmed.

Neither the TA6 form nor the official guidance states this. Where did you read this? Obviously if there has been an official compliant to the council, police etc you have to put it down - there's no ambiguity there.

In other instances though it can be open to interpretation. A knock on the door asking someone to turn the music down and the neighbour apologies and complies isn't really an issue. If there is an ongoing noise complaint that involves noise consultants, remedial building work and ongoing tension between neighbours, it is going to be a lot harder to avoid categorising it as a complaint.

laurajanelolly

mattyprice4004 said:

It doesn't sound like something serious enough to go down on a TA6 as a dispute - if a neighbour complained I was a little noisy at times I wouldn't put it down either. 
Drains are also a non-issue, as long as they work correctly during 'normal' weather I'd say that's good enough. 

You bought a 60 year old house, if you want a new house with a warranty then buy a new-build. 
Unfortunately older stuff (including houses) usually comes with an issue or two. 

Some people are also more sensitive to noise than others - I had to buy detached and lower my expectations in terms of space as I'm quite intolerant of neighbour noise.

It's not that we expect no noise at all in a semi detached older property. We previously lived in a 1970's terrace house where we could hear our neighbours although it does seem much more prominent in this house. I also appreciate people will have different sensitivity to noise. Generally we are ok with it but there are times when it's much louder and disrupting.  

It's more that there clearly has been an issue and work has been carried out but nothing provided to us regarding that work or the issue, especially as it doesn't appear fully rectified. Our neighbour also seemed shocked that we knew nothing about it as she implied it was a pretty big deal. She also has said that we are not supposed to hang anything on the party wall as this will damage the soundproofing. Surely this is something that should have been mentioned on the TA6 form, especially if they have contacted the council regarding sound problems, had people out to measure the sound and building work done on the property as a result? 

As mentioned above it says: "Have there been any disputes or complaints regarding this property or a property nearby? If Yes, please give details." Whilst rather open surely this does count as a complaint as it resulted in the properties having to have work. 

The drain issues is slightly separate as we have also discovered our solicitors didn't pick up on an indemnity insurance policy that had been taken out at some point ( not sure if it was Southern Water or a previous owner) regarding flooding from overloaded public sewers.