Need a handhold - neighbour issues and selling house

[wawawawaterloo]

I'm planning on moving towards the end of the year. We have neighbours with incredibly messy and rubbish filled gardens and a previous (resolved) issue of their teens/early 20's kids being loud during the summer a few years ago.

I know I need to declare a dispute, but I don't believe anyone would buy it - I wouldn't? Landlords aren't buying locally at present, so I don't think that's an option, and I cant afford to part ex for a new build.

Do you think if we market for less than market value we'd sell? I'm thinking taking the hit and marketing at around 20-30K less just to get rid.

I will obviously talk to an EA, but at present I just need reassurance that doing something like that, at worst case, will work - as I just want to start again elsewhere.

I'm not asking if you'd buy it, as I know most (so please don't put that as it will make my anxiety worse) but it will appeal to someone relatively quickly wont it if it's under market value - or am I doomed to live here upset forever?

Wouldn't it be cool if streets had noisy areas and quiet areas like carriages on trains.

OP there is a bum for every seat, someone will love your house. Try to see the positives. Maybe they have friends or relatives that would want your house or it could be affordable for someone just starting out who is overcrowded currently. You never know.

@Sureaseggs44 I'm wondering what level of 'dispute' though? Like it seems OP might have just moaned at my neighbours 2 summers ago for having a couple of outdoor activities after 8pm? Where I live we often have to have a little moan if someone is being inconsiderate, but I would never class it as a 'dispute'.

@RobinsInTheTree

How much below market value did you put the reserve?
And did you use traditional auction or modern auction?
And how much did you pay upfront?

My Mum and Dad had dreadful new neighbours and had to move having lived happily in their home for over 40 years. There was council and police involvement which was documented on the sale details. They soon had a buyer at market price who didn't care about noisy neighbours as they were moving from a really busy road/area. There's always a buyer for a house, try not to worry too much and market your house as your EA advises. Good luck moving forward, my Mum and Dad had over 10 happy years in their new home until my Mum passed away.

I wouldn’t sell for less because of the issue you are facing. If there’s nothing structurally wrong with the home, no way. As other pps have said… potential buyers will try to beat you up on price, so ask for what you ideally wish to get for it .

Are you based in an attractive area?
I sold my flat last August (we are in London) and had really, really bad issues with the tenants in the ground floor flat (period conversion, we were in a maisonette above them with shared front door…so very close quarters). They were dealing drugs and all sorts; you could see from the front of the house that it was disgusting in there, mouldy net curtains and yellow windows from smoke.
We also had to disclose our contact with the council regarding noise issues - but we said it had been resolved.
We got an EA in and put it on the market at the lower end of their valuation. We had 50+ viewings and one offer but it fell through because they cold feet because of the downstairs flat. The number of viewings with no offer told us loud and clear it wasn’t going to fly.
We took it off the market for 16 weeks (so that it could go back on as a brand new listing) at 15k less. The mortgage mess was a bit more stable at that point and we got 3 offers, and eventually got more than we had originally put it on for.

Bit of a ramble but I guess I’m trying to say that everything sells at the right price - everything. Someone will want your place, despite the neighbours - but it helps if the location is good too. I’d go for market value (maybe a tad under if you’re in a rush) and you’ll soon see if no one bites and then you can always reduce or pause and go back out again.

Dont worry, someone will love it.

And I wouldn’t go for auction! Lots of people can see past a messy garden next door and don’t forget….when you disclose a noise issue, especially if you can say it’s been resolved….their offer has already been accepted and you’re in the land of solicitor paperwork. They’re already sold mentally and they really want it to go through so that’s not usually a huge obstacle

My first ever post on here was a thread I started to get advice on precisely this - and I got a deluge of ‘you’ll have to declare it’ (noted in my op) and ‘well, I wouldn’t buy it’ (so helpful). I’m glad to see you’re getting more constructive advice.

We didn’t end up putting the house on the market, but when we do decide to go I’ll get advice from a solicitor. It worries me less than it used to as I’ve seen people buy and stay in properties with issues similar to the one we’d be declaring that would be obvious on viewing.

I believe there's a time limit on when you have to declare disputes, I would check with the Council you complained to, My hairdresser had terrible problems with her neighbours (police and council involvement) but as far as I am aware she and her DP waited until they didn't have to declare it on sale.

Have the teens themselves moved out now? You could frame it that it was a dispute with the the teens of number 16 due to noise distribution who have now moved out.

Have you made formal complaints about the rubbish? You could say to them that you are planning to move and getting a skip/ doing lots of runs to the tip and do they have anything that they want to go too.

In one of their later posts, Op mentioned that they’d complained to the local authority, so sounds like it was a formal (ergo declarable) complaint.

@AllTheChaos OK, thanks, I missed that part. I honestly did not know that though. We've complained to the council about one person but they seem to have left (this was about 2 yrs ago) I would never think to mention it. I guess where I live I kind of think you get what you get (most are social housing). Mine are alright really so I guess maybe I'm lucky.

Take your guidance from the EA re pricing. If it hits the market massively under priced then people will already know there is an issue with it in my opinion. The EA may well have investors on their books who sadly probably won’t worry too much about the neighbours. I’m sorry you’re in this position.

Funnily enough I had a client in today with the same problem, absolutely horrific neighbours a single mum with 6 feral children causing havoc, riding mopeds up and down their garden. My client was very elderly and couldn't stick it.
She said they sold their house after two years on the market for £10k less than the asking price and declared the neighbour dispute.
She's now happily living in her new bungalow.
Someone will buy if the price is right but don't start with 20-30k less, start with 10k.

I put it 5 K below market value so made a profit of 25K. This was around 15 years ago so not sure what you mean by traditional or modern. I got quite a lot of offers before auction day so decided if they were that keen for it, that they would have to bid for it on the day.
I do know that homes under the hammer were filming that day and I was invited to go and watch, but I couldn't as was too heartbroken at having to sell my lovely home that I'd had for 25 + years.

How much did I pay upfront? by this do you mean did I have a mortgage? No I didn't, I owned it, so was lucky in managing to sell quick as it was fully decorated/carpeted and well looked after - not like a lot of them you see on HUTH.

It meant I was able to buy another place, more than 100 miles from my neighbour, just so that I could feel safe. Bad neighbours are awful, and I really do wish you good luck in getting away from yours.

Dont go the auction route - sell it at the price estate agent recommends, and you’ll have room to negotiate. If someone can get a mortgage on it, definitely avoid auctions.

@wawawawaterloo
Agree with what Bellatrixxx said "We also had to disclose our contact with the council regarding noise issues - but we said it had been resolved"

If the dispute's been resolved - which it has - then it's not an ongoing/current problem, so won't be an issue

If you declare you can get your solicitor to help with wording that the “noise related issue was resolved with no further concerns since (date here)”, so I don’t think that is a big issue.

Messy gardens will put some off but living next to schools, industrial buildings, motorways etc will put some off but not others. Get the estate agent quotes and ask for realistic prices you can expect and what to put it on the market for. They will want to sell and have an idea of the market. All homes are sellable at the right price.

It sounds to me like it’s more of a historical dispute…? It was resolved and noisy kids grow up.

Hopefully a potential buyer will make that connection.

Honestly, don’t give away your money! Put it on at asking price and see what happens. People have their own reasons for wanting things.

We had a very similar situation when selling our house in London (next door looked like a squat but in reality there were complex problems in the family resulting from a tragedy some years back) and fielded some questions from estate agents about it. I didn’t compromise our neighbours’ privacy but just gave fairly bland answers - there had been no dispute. But we got several offers at really good prices.

Funnily enough, by the time we moved the neighbours had actually put their own house up for auction and ended up moving before we did ourselves. So you never know what might happen.

But don’t give away your equity for the sake of a bit of rubbish and a previous dispute.

More than forty years ago we had a dispute with the church over the road. They had a Church Hall which they rented out and the noise from parties and events was awful. The parish priest and the church community were unhelpful. We and lots of neighbours complained to the local authority. Nothing happened. It taught me that there is no point in complaining to the local authorities.
In the end I wrote to the Bishop and he accidentally rang me. He was intending to ring the Parish Priest but somehow phoned me. I had young children and was at my wits end with the noise and rudeness of church members. Following my phone call, the noise stopped immediately. Everything to do with the Hall was then properly controlled and restricted to day time classes. The priest changed. We have never had another problem.
However, my new next door neighbour told me that the dispute was still declared when he bought the house recently.
LAs and Housing Associations can be reluctant to act when it comes to mess and rubbish. I had a snooty and unhelpful response from an official at a local housing association when I complained about a fridge dumped in a front garden of one of their properties. They initially said that they didn't want to bother the tenant. I pointed out it wasn't the tenant's responsibility to get rid of environmentally unfriendly rubbish but the Housing Association. Within the next couple the garden was professionally cleared.
My advice to anyone is to ring HAs and not email so that there is no paper record.Also it is often the responsibility of the HA to deal with rubbish etc not the tenant who dumped it there.
Once they have had to pay for a garden to be cleared they seem to be tougher on the tenants and things improved significantly.

I agree with this.
Id also suggests using a decent solicitor rather than the cheapest and get their advice on exactly how to phrase it on the forms.
Good luck!

Sorry, my post was anecdotal but my point was that Housing Associations and Landlords including Local Authority landlords are ultimately responsible rubbish dumped in front gardens. A helpful telephone message about the rubbish to the landlord so that they can deal with the rubbish, can be enough to get a front garden cleared.
Know the law about parking. Report and infringements straight away. Our local authority redirect traffic wardens to deal with illegal parking straight away. Even if it is someone parking 6 inches into someone's drive. As soon as someone gets a ticket, they are much more careful about where they park.

If you stated eg 'noise complaint older teenage parties summer of 2016, resolved, no issues since' that's truthful and sounds perfectly reasonable to me that said older teenagers will now be likely moved out/sensibly sipping their beers down the pub, and it wouldn't put me off buying.

So I just sold my place, my attached neighbors garden is completely over-run and he has multiple broken cars out front etc

Just had to wait for a buyer who didn't care about asthectics and take a cheeky offer