Trouble with next door - what to do?

[TroubleNextDoor]

I apologise for a namechange - too much RL detail.
We bought our house just over 3 years ago. We asked about beighbours, and received a non-committal reply to the effect of 'not a problem'. After we moved it became clear that the adjoining house in the terrace is a council-run hostel witha wide variety of short-stay tennants.

Mostly, this is not particularly a problem. A few outbreaks of niose, which I have sorted out directly with the tennants, and other minor, temporary problems. But I do not think the hostel is well supervised (no workers on site).

Over the last few days I have been sure that it is being used for prostitution (large numbers of different men and women leaving and entering from late evening until the early hours. This afternoon a used condom was thrown out of an upstairs window, and landed on our kitchen windowsill while my child was playing in the yard. I shouted up to the open windows for someone to apologise and cpme and clear up thier mess - but obviously no reply. The we saw that 2 other condoms have been thrown in our yard, and on ouir bay roof.

I called the police and told them of the condom-throwing and suspected prostitution, they say they will get onto the council about it (there is quit a lot of community and police activity against prostitution atm).

Can I still make a claim against the preb=vious owners for not telling us it is a hostel ? (I know they know because of things other neighbours have told us).
Shall I just keep my head low, and in due course say nothing when we move, or make a big effort to get the council to get the place run properly? If I could wave a magic wand, I would hope that the council would sell the house and re-locate the hostel to a purpose-built property, but I am ashamed of such 'nimbyish' attitudes.

What could you claim? They are really only obliged to tell you if they have had a dispute with the neighbours. If they haven't had a dispute, the fact that it's a hostel is not necessarily something they would have needed to declare.

So if I don't turn this into a dispute, I needn't declare it when we sell?

I sort of have turned it into a dispute with the council by telling the police what is going on, haven't I?

What about the general question on the form about anything which might be detrimental ? (I forget the wording)

Our old flat had roaches and I must admit that I didn't get the pest control people in as I did not want to admit it when we sold. I didn't declare it, they didn't ask about vermin and the catch all clause is so wide I felt able to avoid it.

One clever trick is to get hold of the standard oyez questions, fill them in and get your solicitor to provide them when you get a buyer. Most solicitors are dead lazy, ex solicitor here, and won't bother to check that they are sufficient. By a bit of word processing you can get rid of unpleasant questions.

I suppose, like most of us you would probably get away with it.

I'm not certain what the exact wording in the questionnaire is, so don't know whether it is only disputes. If is says "is there anything detrimental", it just comes down to what you might consider to be detrimental, doesn't it? At the end of the day, your vendors might claim that having a hostel next door isn't detrimental in their view.