Selling a House With Problem Neighbours

Problem neighbours can blight an entire community. Even more serious, they can have implications on the value of your own house if you’re looking at selling a house. This begs the question of whether you should tell prospective buyers about any problems you’ve incurred with your neighbours, and run the risk of this disclosure driving down the market value of your property.

Legal Standpoint

Theoretically, it should be up to a prospective buyer to do all the fact finding when it comes to looking at a particular neighbourhood or community they’re considering moving to. After all, Problem Neighbours to some might be considered a fun, carefree person to others so it’s often subjective. However, problems will arise if a solicitor asks the seller to provide information about neighbour disputes or problems a seller has had with neighbours and the seller fails to disclose any information. If problems then occur later and the buyer has been given no reason to believe there were any problems, it can result in legal action being taken.

General Guidelines

If you’re asked by a prospective buyer about any problems you may have encountered with your neighbours when you're selling a house, it’s advisable to stick to issues that might have a marked effect on the relationship between the buyer and your neighbours if they were to go through with the purchase. Obvious examples might include disputes over land or shared house maintenance, a Dispute Over Boundary Lines or there may be some Disagreement Over The Height Of A Hedge.

However, things like music being played loudly at night or if your neighbours have noisy kids don’t need to be mentioned as these kinds of issues are often subjective anyway. Be careful though because if you’re asked to confirm any of these things in writing, you need to be very sure that the information you provide is factual, otherwise you may be sued for disclosing false information later, especially if it relates to shared land or house maintenance.

Ethical And Moral Guidelines

In general, as long as any dispute does not affect anything material about the house or property on which it stands, and you’re not being asked to disclose information in writing, you shouldn’t feel obliged to give a ‘warts and all’ account of all the problems you’ve had with a neighbour. Ethically, it might be a different matter.

For example, if your neighbour often comes home from the pub and is rowdy, or they’ve verbally abused or even assaulted you in the past, you might feel it’s morally responsible to tell any prospective buyers. After all, wouldn’t you like to be told this by the person whose house you’re buying? There's a good chance that the prospective buyer has done a thorough checking out of the local community anyway.

If you have suffered a problem with your neighbours, are looking to sell your house and you’re not sure how you should respond to any questions from prospective buyers – written or verbal – about neighbour disputes you may have encountered, your solicitor and local Citizens’ Advice Bureau will be able to offer you practical advice.