To rent a house while mine is up for sale to escape nightmare neighbours

[Magenta999]

I've had long running problems with one set of neighbours who were dumping business waste in a garden opposite and play loud rave music until the early hours. I reported them to the council and they did not take kindly to this. Now another neighbour has started giving me abuse for this as well. I'm a single parent with a small child and feel very unsafe being shouted at by several men. The garden is out of bounds as we get shouted at if we step outside and even going out the front door to walk the dog is scary.
The house is already up for sale but will obviously take a long time because of the virus. It would be a big financial strain but I'm considering moving into a rental until it sells. I'm not antagonising anybody or responding to the abuse, I have a strong gut feeling I'm going to be attacked. I have reported it to the police. Any advice would be great as I'm very scared.

Rent somewhere civilised and let out your own house. It won't sell at the moment.

You can't really run away from this, though that's all I would want to do.

If their behaviour isn't sorted out they could really put anybody off buying your house. They could shout abuse at estate agents and viewers. You would have to declare it legally whatever happens.

That leaves you indefinitely trying to sell a house that nobody will buy.

To me that means the only solution would be to get the police fully involved as much as you can. You could do this whilst renting elsewhere but they need their behaviour to be sorted or I suspect they will make it their mission to stop you selling.

I'm so sorry OP. I feel very bad for your

Letting out could be possible but, again, will they try to put off tenants? What exactly sparked all this abuse of? Do they want you to leave?

I think some of this advise is plain silly.

What constitutes a dispute that doesn’t involve courts is open to interpretation.

But the key is — the seller would have to take you to court and prove that you withholding the information causes loss of £ and they’re suing you for that loss. Be it house value, solicitor fees, court fees.

The kind of disputes that this refers to usually is boundary / party wall disputes- things that take years and ££ in solicitor and court costs.

I wouldn’t declare that you called police because you were not reporting drugs or other illegal activities that could result in devaluing a house.

Your neighbour and you don’t get along. That doesn’t mean they won’t get along with next buyer and most importantly, it doesn’t mean the next buyer would lose ££ on the purchase because you failed to disclose it.

Because I reported them to the council for repeatedly dumping business waste

My dsis had arse neighbours. She moved out, rented hers out and rented elsewhere for 2 years. The people she rented to never had a moment's issue and she sold without any issue.

Renting yours out and you renting could be a solution @Magenta999. It would probably be best if you let an agent know of the issues or it could just come and bite you on the bum later. If you move into somewhere empty now, yours will be empty so a tenant could move in and still obey the current rules.

Only slight issue is any rental income is treated as taxable income so if you work and already use your personal allowance you will need to pay tax on it. Someone else might have more specific info on that but it's another thing to account for.

I think renting it out is definitely looking like the better option now. Thanks guys. It's actually a lovely house which makes the situation even more depressing and frustrating. The tax issue is fine.

In your situation, do it if you can. Preferably rent yours out to a rugby player. These people are often coward arseholes who intimidate women for shit and giggles

What do you guys think about the option of me letting out my house? As selling it seems pretty impossible.

As soon as the shit hits the fan with your tenants having problems with them, they'll be straight on to you to sort it as the landlord.

We bailed on a house purchase part way through, as I went to the area at differing times and heard a right racket from the house next door. I spoke to an Env Health chap at work (I worked for the council at that point) in the canteen and mentioned the address and all he said was "I wouldn't if I was you", the current owners had put in complaints.

We pulled out and told the estate agent why, the house never did sell.

Do they rent or own?

after we tried to go out in the garden and were shouted at "you need to leave your f*cking house"

This sounds like a very intimidating and potentially dangerous situation. You must be feeling very frightened. I think that if you can, you should leave. Your neighbours sound like thugs. The best of luck to you.

I cannot add to any of the advice given here but I just wanted to offer you my support, OP. I had neighbours similar to yours in the past and no-one can truly understand how hellish it is until you experience it: It is total violation. I will never forgive my ex neighbours for what they put me through - never. I wish you a happier, peaceful future.

If you can do it then go. I don't actually know how people are allowed to get away with this shit though?... and as for selling morally and legally you have to declare it which sadly is going to be a nightmare for you to sell...imagine putting another family through the shit you're going through now? It's not fair.

They seem to hate me as a person so I dont think the next buyer or tenant would have any problems to be honest. The fly tipping was resolved but the problem of the loud music could rear its ugly head for the next person I suppose. That would depend if they find it offensive i guess. I've been depicted as the big bad witch who grassed them in to the council. Judging by their reactions is it any wonder, (that as a single parent with a small child), I chose to go through the official channels rather than confronting them face to face. The pile of rubble/waste they created was literally one storey high. I don't understand how I'm the villain for objecting to living on someone else's building site. That issue can't arise again though as the council are all over it. The noise nuisance will be more subjective

We did it OP. We had the neighbours from hell on both sides (noise related) and we moved out and rented while the house was being sold.

We didn’t declare to our buyers why we were moving, we were informed that as our complaint was regarding their noise, and noise is subjective we didn’t have to declare.

I would rent it out and get a second mortgage for your new place. You would have to switch your current mortgage to a buy to let mortgage which would be slightly more expensive. They may have done you a favour in a weird way as you could be setting up a pension by renting out. Good luck op

and you are unlikely to find anything for less than 6 months as that's the minimum tenancy recognised by law

That's not true.

A tenancy can be for any length of time (1 day if you want), it's just that the LL can't take legal action to remove tenants for the first 6 months.

I wonder if you could communicate to them that you intend to move and would appreciate their help in getting rid of you sooner by behaving

Unlikely I know, and you have my sympathy.

living with pigs as neighbours is awful and you have my total sympathy. Unfortunately even in normal times the behaviour bar is very low.

rent to rent another rarely works out financially once you have paid for all the costs; insurances (lots), maintenance, gas safe, agents fee and so on. It depends how desperate you are.

if you are really desperate then councils offer a 'guaranteed rent' scheme. Basically they will pay you for the use of your house and sublet it to people they need to house and can't house elsewhere. You can imagine the kind of tenants this will produce, which is why it is normally not something to even think about. But with neighbours like yours, and if you don't mind a high chance of a trashed property, it may be worth considering.

of course you should not have to put up with this intimidation and filth, and I wish there was a better solution.

I did exactly this OP. It was expensive - and I used a big chunk of money up - but it was worth it. I also got a tenant - but I remained the legal occupier and stayed there occasionally so that I could have a lodger. She was delighted she mostly had a whole house to herself for the price of a room and it protected me a bit from having to do all the legalities of letting the flat out on an AST.

A year later the house sold, the neighbour dispute had calmed down as I hadn't seen them for so long. The lodger worked long hours so hadn't encountered them so there really was nothing to declare.

@InTheSummerhouse that sounds encouraging. I genuinely think the next person would have no bother as it's a personal vendetta against me

I think with corona virus followed by Brexit its going to be difficult if not impossible to sell houses for a good long time. Just my opinion