Selling a house with problem neighbours

Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours! Sadly, however, we can’t all live in the friendly cul-de-sac of Ramsay Street. Next door may only be a heartbeat away, but around one in ten of us have neighbours that are anything but good friends.

Neighbour disputes can arise over all kinds of issues, from boundaries to bad behaviour, from environmental issues to nuisance noise. They can even be bad enough to make you want to move house. Unfortunately, selling a house with problem neighbours can be a big problem in itself

It would be easy if you could just not mention the issue, and leave it for your buyers to discover the awful truth once the deal is done. However, by law, you have to disclose any disputes with your neighbours as part of the conveyancing process, and naturally, this will put many buyers off. After all, who wants to knowingly buy a house that’s going to be spoiled by nasty neighbours?

If the problem can’t be resolved, selling to a cash buyer may be your only option. They will buy any house, in any situation, including homes next door to the neighbours from hell.

What is a neighbour dispute?

In the context of selling a house with problem neighbours, a ‘neighbour dispute’ is more than just an argument over the late return of your lawnmower, or their son dating your teenage daughter. Anything personal between you and next door is just that, and will end when you move and won’t be a problem for the new owners.

The kind of neighbour disputes that concern home buyers are the ones that have escalated beyond a few strong words across the garden fence. If you’ve reported next door to the council or to the police, or you’ve taken legal action over a disputed boundary or shared access, then you have to let potential buyers know about this.

Do you have to declare problem neighbours?

You’re legally obliged to disclose any ongoing disputes with your neighbours, or anything that you know of that may cause a dispute in the future. This is part of the TA6 Property Information form. If you’re ‘economical with the truth’ as it were, you run the risk of being sued by your buyers when the issue eventually comes to light. This can be many months after the sale completes, so you’ll always have that worry hanging over you.

Ideally, you should disclose any disputes with your neighbours long before you reach the conveyancing stage. If you’re not up front about problem neighbours, and your buyers don’t find out until you complete your TA6 Property Information form, you could lose their trust and even lose your sale. You then have to start all over again, with all the hassle and expense of finding a new buyer.

You should talk to your estate agent about the best way to broach the subject with potential buyers. They’ll have lots of experience with similar situations. If you’re not sure whether or not you need to disclose an issue with your neighbours on your TA6, it’s always best to get advice from your lawyer or conveyancer. That way you won’t miss anything you should’ve reported, and you won’t include any problems that you don’t have to.

Do bad neighbours affect property values?

Inevitably, selling a house with problem neighbours will mean you get less interest and so less competition for your home. This often means you have to reduce the price to stimulate a sale, and you’ll end up getting less than full market value as a result.

This is why it’s far better to try to resolve a dispute before you put your home on the market. You may need to compromise to reach an agreement, but if you’re thinking of selling a house with problem neighbours, at least you won’t have to live with that compromise for long. At the end of the day, it’s worth giving a little ground to find resolution, even if you’re not completely comfortable with letting your neighbour ‘win’.

Do bad neighbours affect property values

Selling a house with problem neighbours fast

If you can’t reach a compromise, or your neighbours are unwilling to negotiate, then you’ll struggle when it comes to selling a house with problem neighbours. Fortunately, cash house buyers will take any property, regardless of its history or the ongoing war zone that surrounds it.

Cash buyers are property experts, and they have vast experience in resolving even the most ingrained disputes. As a neutral third party, they don’t have the same emotional involvement that you have, so they can deal with disputes practically and rationally before they sell the house on. You may not get as much from a cash buyer as you would on the open market, but you will get to walk away from the problem in just a few weeks, without any long, drawn out mediation or expensive legal action.

Common neighbour disputes

Selling a house with problem neighbours is more common than you think. Neighbours can fall out over all kinds of issues. These normally fall into two categories: boundary disputes, regarding the properties themselves and where they meet, and behaviour disputes, regarding the way your neighbours conduct themselves.

Boundary disputes can range from the technical, such as arguments over exactly where the boundary line falls, to the irritating, such as trees dropping debris into your garden or blocking all your sunshine. Boundary disputes can also involve shared access or shared facilities, as well as the maintenance, repair and replacement of shared fences and walls.

While boundary disputes can usually be resolved, even if expert help is needed, behaviour disputes are much more difficult to sort out. If your neighbour thinks a sunny day means turning their back garden into an Ibiza rave, while all you want to do is lie in the sun and listen to Test Match Special, you’re not going to see eye to eye. Similarly, if you’re an early riser, you won’t appreciate your night-owl neighbours coming in at all hours, the wrong side of multiple drinks.

Other disputes between neighbours can arise over thoughtless car parking, noisy or disruptive building work, unruly children and pets, and even damage to your property caused by next door.

Whatever the root of the dispute, if you can grin and bear it, even through gritted teeth, this can be much better in the long run. If you start a dispute with your neighbour, you will be legally obliged to disclose this when you come to sell. On the other hand, if you tolerate it, you can always claim that the loud music never happened while you lived there, or that it never bothered you.

Resolving neighbour disputes

The first step in resolving a dispute with your neighbours is to try and talk to them. This kind of friendly, informal approach can go a long way, and it avoids inflaming the situation by involving the authorities or taking legal steps. Most people are reasonable human beings, and you may find that this is enough to at least tone down the situation, even if it doesn’t solve it completely. Better still, you don’t have to report a friendly chat with your neighbour on your TA6.

If you can’t resolve things amicably between you, then you will need to step things up a gear and get outside help. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors offers a three stage Neighbour Dispute Service that offers mediation on practical issues such as boundaries. This is not cheap, with expert evaluation costing £2,400 + VAT, mediation adding £550 + VAT and mediation and expert witness in court adding £1,100 +VAT. However, if it finds a lasting solution and you’re no longer selling a house with problem neighbours, then it’s worth every penny. You can probably split the cost with your neighbour if you both want the matter resolved once and for all.

For problems with noise and nuisance, you can involve the police or the local council. Sometimes this works, with your neighbour heeding their warnings, but it can also make things worse. Sending a solicitors’ letter is much the same. Some people will be afraid of legal action and will change their ways, while others will just dig their heels in and be even more annoying. If you send a solicitors’ letter, you need to be prepared to follow through with the threatened legal action. Failure to do so will just empower your problem neighbours even more.

Summary

Unfortunately, while the TA6 form should help you avoid moving in next to problem neighbours, it won’t stop them moving in next to you after you’ve bought your home. And when it comes to moving out, selling a house with problem neighbours can be a real challenge, especially if you’ve tried to solve the problem through formal routes.

Cash house buyers don’t care if your neighbours are Scott and Charlene or the Osbournes, they will buy any house in any condition, next to any neighbours. So if you’re selling a house with problem neighbours, find out more about how cash house buyers work, see how much a cash buyer will pay for your home, and read who the Guru thinks are the best cash house buyers, by taking a look around our site today. It could be your best way to say g’day to your neighbours and walk away.

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Selling a house with problem neighbours

What is a neighbour dispute?

Do you have to declare problem neighbours?

Do bad neighbours affect property values?

Selling a house with problem neighbours fast

Common neighbour disputes

Resolving neighbour disputes

Summary

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