I've got a dispute with my neighbour!
Disputes over hedges, driveways and unrelenting noise are nothing new but if you are thinking of moving in the current stagnant housing market, it might just pay to keep your annoyance to yourself.
Everybody needs good neighbours. We should be there for one another. Right?
Not if figures from one insurance company are to be believed. According to CPP, a million homeowners have been forced to move because of disputes with their neighbours.
Top of the list of complaints were:
- home and garden maintenance issues,
- excessive noise,
- boundary disputes,
- stolen parking spaces and
- trespassing children.
The trouble is, when it comes to selling up, your battles with those people on the other side of the fence/wall aren’t things you can always keep to yourself.
Telling a purchaser
When it comes to the information you need to tell anyone interested in buying your property, problem neighbours come top of the list.
So if you are in a dispute with your neighbour that has become serious, it’s likely that it’s going to be harder to sell your home. Sometimes, before escalating a neighbourly gripe, it might just pay to be nice to them.
However hard that might be.
HIPs and SPIFs
The Coalition swiftly dumped the much derided HIP in 2010 but it didn’t mean an end to the seller’s obligation to disclose a wealth of information to prospective purchasers.
At the beginning of the conveyancing process sellers have always been required to complete a Sellers Property Information Form, or SPIF, which helps the purchaser get a fuller picture of the type of property they’re buying.
As far as neighbour relations go, the seller must answer three crunch questions:
- Do you know of any disputes or anything which might lead to a dispute about this or any neighbouring property?
- Have you received any complaints about anything you have done as owner?
- Have you made any such complaint to any neighbour about what the neighbour has done?
Of course you’re not obliged to respond to any question you don’t want to - but if you leave the form blank it’s going to set alarm bells ringing with the purchaser’s solicitor that will inevitably lead to more searching enquiries.
Contract
The crucial thing about responses to SPIF questions is that they form part of the conveyancing contract so the buyer is entitled to rely on them. This means that if a dispute is not mentioned, the seller can be sued by the buyer when that dispute comes to light.
Worryingly for buyers, a survey last year by Halifax Home Insurance showed that 80% of sellers with problem neighbours didn’t tell the buyer.
What to disclose
The contractual nature of buying and selling property means it’s always best to err on the side of caution when deciding what information to disclose.
When it comes to disputes with neighbours however, there are undoubtedly some grey areas over what constitutes a problem.
For example, you might find the noise of children crying next door a major drawback. But a buyer with small children of their own might not see it the same way. Similarly the barking of dogs on a regular basis might drive you mad but if your purchaser is an animal lover with a few dogs of his own, chances are he won’t mind the noise at all.
Keep it informal
In general, the more formal the complaint or dispute, the more likely it is that disclosure will be necessary if you wish to avoid the possibility of future legal action by the buyer.
So, if you have written to your neighbour about a problem, or have contacted the local authority about their behaviour, the dispute should certainly be disclosed.
On the other hand if there have been one or two loud parties next door in the past but the issue was resolved amicably, it is unlikely that you would be required to provide details on the SPIF.
It pays to love thy neighbour
The issue of problem neighbours isn’t just about the legal niceties of a conveyancing contract. It can be costly.
The Halifax survey found that purchasers will pay up to £5,000 if they can have some kind of guarantee that noisy or problem neighbours won’t be inflicted on them. The same survey estimated that sale prices can be reduced by a whopping £30,000 if a property comes complete with anti social neighbours.
In the current climate that’s not good news. In this case it really does seem that the age old advice of loving thy neighbour is worth taking.
What do you think? Do you have issues with your neighbours? Have you just moved into a property with problem neighbours? Let us know in the comments box below.
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Comments
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I wil soon be trying to sell a property, which has a " right of way " running across part of the garden, to provide access for my neighbour. She never uses this route as she has alternative access.The only people using it are the postman & garden maintenance people, in Summer. I would like to know if I need to disclose this information to potential buyers, or is it up to their solicitor to pick up on this from relevant documents. Advice would be much appreciated.
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Land Registry force owners of registered titled property into dispute situations and expensive litigation , to hide their own mistakes. I myself asked for information under the Data Protection Act and Freedom of Information Act, prior to being forced into a Hearing before The Adjudicator to HM Land Registry. Not only was l refused this legally/lawfully correct method of getting information, but l was then forced into further litigation and an appeal at the High Courts in London on 22 nd february 2011, again without this information. The Information Commissioners Office were instructing me in this second attempt at obtaining this information and still Land Registry ignored my request under the DPA & FOI act. On advice of Equality and Human Rights Commission ( l am registered disabled with limited mobility) l attended Land Registry Offices three weeks prior to the High Court Hearing on 1 st february 2011, on a pre-booked appointment. Land Registry called police on a 999 call and had me and my two helpers physically removed. Now they finally write to me after costing me £80,000.00, and say they sincerely apologise for not providing the information asked for under my DPA & FOI Act requests back in January 2011. What good is an apology when Land Registry have caused all this and it now turns out it was to conceal their previous mistakes from before l even bought the property. The crunch here is that my Registered Title was for two properties ( no not next door to each other, nothing that simple). The other property is in another village and my conveyance solicitor ( now president of my local law society) kindly put the post code for this other property on my property( the one l live in). This wrong post code was lodged at Land Registry( so it did not affect my post). I did get all sorts of problems with legal charges from the other property on my property( the one l live in). Land Registry have in the meanwhile given the land my neighbours were seeking ( my registered land and the rear access to my property) to my neighbours based on opinions. The Courts refuse to look at the paperwork now provided to prove the land is my registered title, as they say it is now registered to my neighbours. My neighbours are now putting a possession order on my property ( the one l live in) for their costs in fighting to obtain my registered land illegally. Their solicitors have had a drive past valuation done for a quarter of its worth , and plan to auction it and l will loose everything when this is all illegal and Land Registry should have not only protected my registered land , but also have provided the information to protect my registered title. These neighbours have lied on oath and there is much paperwork to prove these lies . l am not the only person that Land Registry have behaved in such a manner with and yet compulsory registration will be brought in next year , and the public believe that the registration process is protection against fraud. It is not only no protection against fraud, it is giving your details to Land Registry , for them to let others have knowledge of and use against you. For anyone reading this and thinking all this is too far fetched to possibly be true. l have an original certificated land registry document called a "Search of the Index Map"(SIM) on a form for "Registered Land", showing the land as part of the registered land with my property. Land Registrys Corporate Lawyer (Mike Westcott-Rudd) personally gave me his e-mail address to enable my sending him a copy of this SIM. Now he says he was only on hand to enable my having sight of my file and cannot answer any of my questions. He (Mike Westcott-Rudd) is holding "my" Conveyance Document, which l am not allowed to have( the police say it is my property and l am entitled to have it). Is it any wonder England is in the state it is in? Forget owning your own property.Land Registry and the Legal System is corrupt beyond belief
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A friend of mine has been locked into disputes with a malicious neighbour, an old former farmer who inherited a property which controls a right of way over which other properties built on land originally belonging to the old farm have access. So far the old guy has lost over £100k in his various pointless lawsuits, but it is a salutary warning for anyone contemplating buying somewhere which does not have straightforward access. It's fine and dandy having the law on your side, but legal battles are incredibly stressful and buying a house in a war zone could never make sense.
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26 October 2011