To buy a dream house with a crazy neighbour next door?

I definitely wouldn't be being this house, it's not going to be a dream house if you can't live peacefully

Yes, I’m almost certain this is the area I was thinking you were talking about, and from what I’ve seen posted on facebook (including responses from said neighbour) if anything you might have been given quite a sanitised version of what’s been going on. The problem seems to impact the entire road and anyone who parks there - whether or not they live there, and regardless of their ages. I’m pretty sure it’s not remained limited to verbal assault, and the police are not much threat, as they’re just part of the conspiracy theory this person thinks is at play. I’m pretty sure that anyone selling in that area is at their wits end

I think the fact that they are selling says it all really. I have had legal involvement in neighbour disputes and they are awful. I had one neighbour threatening the other waving a pitchfork and the other neighbour hosing the pitchforker down. It's pretty hard to get neighbourly relations back on a reasonable footing after something like that. My personal opinion is that people should not willingly sign up for this sort of thing.

No we did not - hence having to sell at a loss to someone prepared to take the risk

Sounds like the neighbour has schizophrenia. Bad neighbours can ruin your life, but I would be inclined to do as Twinstudy says and engage with this person.

It's such a shame as the house sounds wonderful.

If you’re as crazy as he is, sure, go for it.

Otherwise, not a chance.

I could cope with that. I couldn’t cope with druggie/noisy neighbours

Presumably he isn’t out shouting at current owners?

In the US, you don’t have to report crazy or awful or druggy neighbors.
We got trapped into this.
We bought a lovely home on 1/2 acre at the very edge of town. We loved it. Large home, beautiful pool and acreage behind us.
And then the neighbors’ kids began their egging, dye in our pool, poison in our back yard for our animals, knives in our tires - it was an absolute nightmare.
And they’d sneak over the fence and swim in the pool - and when we confronted the parents, they’d deny it, as the kids were standing there with wet heads.
Their parents defended them from everything, regardless of evidence or police presence or report.
This was all pre-internet, so ring-doorbells and phone evidence were unavailable.
I felt guilty not telling the buyers when we sold the house, but we never would’ve gotten out of there if we had.
People are awful. I must’ve said that 50 times this week.

It so would 😂 Get the newsagent to deliver Pravda to your house, fly hammer & sickle flags, call your dog Trotsky, put up cameras with comparably large warning signs (in English and Russian) saying "24-HOUR COUNTER SURVEILLANCE IN OPERATION". Place a telescope in a window facing their property. Invite them over for vodka and blinis.

I would avoid I think.is the property under asking price? I'd so probably been reduced due to this issue. Look elsewhere .9

I have the same issue, man is very sly cunning and plays victim after causing trouble they’re truly disgusting people and it’s a shame the police are so uninterested until someone gets hurt

No I wouldn’t I have a current issue with a neighbour and it’s horrible, especially when people cannot let things go, always have to stare or snigger when you pass and from what you describe you probably will have the same issue with this guy

I wouldn’t live there if it was free, there’s not a chance in hell I’d entertain paying actual hard earned money for this nightmare.
Anyone who has ever lived near nightmare neighbours will tell you it’s not worth the heartache.

No way

Wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. Neighbour issues, and this one sounds pretty dramatic, can seriously affect your mental health.

There are a lot of hideously ableist posts on this thread, as you would expect from Mumsnet these days.

But my answer after many, many years of experience would be not to move next door to someone with untreated psychosis. You should feel extremely sorry for them, but don't deliberately become their neighbour. There is every possibility it won't end well.

About 8 years ago, I bought a brilliant house next to a crazy neighbor. Unbeknownst to me, the neighbor had the occasional beef with previous owners and tenants (it was also a rental for awhile). Throughout my tenure, they called the cops on me, once. Apparently I was trying to "kill her lawn". Cops rock up one Saturday night, to my shock and bemusement... Nothing of it, they leave. My parents now rent my house. They have the occasional issue, where crazy lady will be outside, throwing abuse at my dad, but nothing too major... Am pretty sure neighbor has mental health issues, as we also hear her regularly screaming abuse at her DH. For the most part, its ok.

I was however super perplexed once, as I was sitting out front on my porch and I could hear neighbors, also outside, talking about me (and more specifically my Siamese cat) and somehow they knew my name. Despite me never actually having met them in person.. that was weird.

When I was younger, I might have been tempted to out crazy them. But I had more energy and was more foolish.

OP you haven't answered where you are getting your information from.
The no trespassing and surveillance signs kind of give an impression that the dream house owners are not perfect neighbours. Also, who wants to lower the price of the dream house, and/or who benefits if that happens?

We had a no trespassing/private property sign put up (not surveillance, though we did eventually put in cameras) because the police advised us that people can claim not to know they are trespassing even if they have had to climb a 6 foot fence, but if there is a sign they can't claim ignorance.
We had to do this because I called the police ONCE at 2am, because there was a naked man with a blazing tiki torch in the back garden. He also had a pair of garden shears and was lopping the rose bush. I was home alone with 2 DDs and terrified. It turned out when the police questioned him (this was in the days when they would actually attend) that he was our new next door neighbour, and told them that our garden was part of his rental lease. (Of course it wasn't)
That began a campaign of harassment that involved nasty anonymous notes, lying to neighbours, throwing rubbish over the fence, complaining to council about anything he could think of. He was apparently quite charming (to other people) and neighbours who had previously been pleasant to us began to ignore us when we said hello etc. We never told our side of the story because we didn't know what he was saying, and don't gossip. We were bewildered. The DARVO was really distressing.
Further down the harassment path it emerged that he was the son of the new owner of the 3 flats next door and the father wanted to buy our house to develop the whole area.
Making us desperate to sell, and turning off future buyers with gossip was supposed to lower the price. We didn't sell, the father went broke, and the son is actually in gaol for a serious assault the last we heard.
We have nice neighbours next door now.

I would do it if the neighbour was 90 plus but otherwise no

That does sound heavenly…

We sold our dream house because our neighbours were arseholes. Current house nearest neighbours are about a mile away, bloody heaven!

no because it wont be a dream anymore the stress would ruin it

Don’t do it. Please. The dream house will turn into a nightmare and you won’t love it any more when he starts on you. There will be other houses.

No I wouldn’t. We had an awful time (physical threats, vehicle damaged etc) and it got to the point that we decided to sell up and we are now private renting until something we like comes along. I cannot tell you how miserable it became. Despite knowing we’re throwing money away on rent (and a big chunk at that), we’re so much happier and calmer having moved away. It can cause so much distress and anxiety, it’s just not worth it. A dream house for me now would include neighbours you can just rub along nicely with.