AIBU to pull out of house sale due to neighbour?

[Lalarara10]

AIBU to pull out of house purchase due to odd neighbour?

Ran into him once when viewing the property - he seemed a bit odd and made some funny comments but I felt he was harmless. House looks pretty run down (adjoining walls). A few other times when I drove by I saw him just hanging around outside the houses with his 3 dogs.

A second time I went back there was a funny smell coming from the house next door and some odd rubbish outside.

Today my parents went to take some pictures of the house for me and he came out of his house and accosted them. They couldn't get away for 20 minutes. He was saying racist things, he apparently stank, had stains and dribble all down his tshirt and seemed not with it. He was talking about us applying for joint planning permission together (??!!), talked about calling the police on another neighbour and seemed obsessed with the whole sale/time on the market of the house.

It might not sound like much but it has been enough for me to decide to pull out...I don't want to live looking out the window to check he's not out there before getting my kids into the car or rushing to get my keys out to get in the house quickly. He doesn't seem to have boundaries and I can imagine him poking his head over our fence all summer long. The fact we would share walls concerns me and we don't want to complicate our planning and were planning on fast tracking it as soon as possible. However, there is a part of me that is worried we're making a mistake pulling out?! Not sure what to do?!

Run for the hills

100% pull out. I wish we’d taken more notice of the neighbour before buying our last house. He had stuff hanging in his garden, a hammock and gazebo type thing which he’d drilled into the side of our house, about 500 ornaments in the garden, 2 greenhouses both with windows missing, another wooden structure he’d built himself at the bottom of the garden from scraps of old fence. Plus the recycling boxes filled to the brim with beer cans. He was the worst neighbour I’d ever had. No pride in his house or garden and a raging alcoholic and wife beater.

I would pull out without a second thought. You would be living with constant stress. You do not want to expose your kids to a person like that. The fact that it is in probate means that you are unlikely to be impacting on a chain.

This is an investment for your future which will be worth nothing if you either cannot sell it on or cannot truely relax there. I am guessing you will lose out if you have already paid for surveys etc but I would rather lose money than end up stuck next to this character.

I'm sure the owners knew, even if they weren't living there. Prior family member actually living there would have had the same issues no doubt.

Pulling out is definitely the way to go; bad neighbours can absolutely ruin your life and your peaceful existence.

Thank goodness you knew before you bought it!

I really wish I'd pull out of one of my houses. I just had an odd vibe, I was miserable there because of the neighbours.

Maya Angelou and the whole of bloody Mumsnet.

Pull out now. So much easier to stop the process now than to buy it, move in and realise you can't put up with him. Never risk a problem neighbour.

Pull out! He’ll only get worse.

I had a really lovely neighbour, super helpful, kind etc BUT every single time I went in the garden they’d come out to chat. And chat and chat and chat. Any visitors would get the same treatment and it was awful - I ended up trying to sneak around so they didn’t know I was outside. This was a decent neighbour in all other respects. The person you describe will become a complete nightmare. It’s just not worth it - there will be other lovely houses.

OMG - just seen he’s also got 3 dogs. If you’ve not already - PULL OUT.

Urgh no way. Unless he's in his 80s/90s and you are planning to stay a while.

I live next door to hell neighbours, moved in 18 months ago. They've ruined my home. Run away.

My very thought

I can't imagine anyone's going to say you're BU, but do tell the estate agent/vendor why you're pulling out. They'll probably know alresdy, but being left up in the air by aa buyer is awful

I sold my late Father’s house. I was told by my solicitor to answer questions such as is there any issues with the neighbours with ‘not as far as I am aware’.

There wasn’t btw!

Run and don’t look back.

Run away as fast as you can.

Pull out!! I have a nightmare neighbour and I really wish I hadn't moved here 😞

Pull out. Tell the sellers why, though - there's a chance that if they haven't been living there they don't know the full extent of what he's like. Maybe he's developing dementia or similar and wasn't always like this.

I’d be wary of buying any house which adjoins another house in a state of disrepair. It could cause problems for your property. Add in the difficult neighbour and I think you’re wise to pull out.

He could be faking it to stop a sale going through. He must be used to living with no neighbours. But still, npt a chance I would take.

I've had neighbours on two occasions who I probably wouldn't have bought next-door to if I'd known more about them and this guy sounds much worse.

Run! Aside from anything the 3 dogs would wave a red flag. I used to live next to people with 2 dogs that barked on and off all day and often at 2am.

Pull out but also inform the sellers why.

Not unreasonable at all. I went to view a really lovely terraced house once but as soon as I pulled up I noticed the house next door had boarded up windows and no guttering, and was just a right mess. I mentioned this to the house owner (assuming next door was abandoned) and she said "Oh he's ok, he's pretty quiet, he doesn't cause any problems". And I was like, "someone LIVES there?".

I really felt for her because she had made her house so nice inside and in the garden, and I could tell she really needed to sell it, but I just didn't want to live adjoined to a house that was in such a poor state of repair and the occupant was seemingly ok with it!

defo pull out. Imagine all the barking from 3 dogs and feeling anxious about what the guy will do or say next. Tell the sellers why you’re pulling out though, but don’t let them try to persuade you to continue with the purchase.

Run for the hills! And I’m quite sure the family know very well about the problem neighbour, they just have plausible deniability.