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You’ve planned out your finances for the next 25 years, lost weekend after weekend to viewings and finally found your dream home.
And then, on your first night after getting the keys, you hear it: the muffled boom of drum and bass through paper-thin walls. At 11.23pm. On a Tuesday.
Turns out, you’ve spent an obscene amount of money buying a house next to a public nuisance.
It’s probably little comfort, but you’re not alone. In a survey of 1,000 homeowners by Good Move, 64% said they’d had “problems” with neighbours and one in 10 said it had got so bad they’d complained to the council.
Buyers beware
Sellers are legally obliged to disclose details of previous or ongoing disputes with neighbours in a Property Information Form (TA6) – failure to do so could lead to legal action.
The questions are limited, though, and how are you going to prove your seller knew about the drum and bass?
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“In reality, you have very few rights,” one estate agent insider told Money.
“You will never know if an agent has neglected to tell you about nuisance neighbours or if the seller did not tell the agent. A seller is hardly likely to volunteer the info if there have been any disputes.”
So maybe it’s the case that of all the roles you’ve had to master in the buying process – arranging surveys, scouring legal documents, packing everything you own – there’s one role you should have dedicated a bit more time to: detective.
We’ve spoken to top buying agents to get their advice on how to sniff out problem neighbours – and rounded up some of the lesser known tools that could save you a literal and figurative headache…
External clues
Henry Sherwood from The Buying Agents says most disputes arise from either noise or money issues.
“If the neighbouring property or building looks neglected, it probably means the neighbour does not have the funds to maintain it, or does not want to,” he said.
“If [it’s] an apartment, check out the communal parts on…
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