Serious problems next door, legal views please.

[TroubleNextDoor]

I am a low-profile regular with a name-change.

We live in a terrace house, and after we moved in it became clear that the house next door is a hostel owned by the local authority.
In May we were sure the house was being used for prostitution, and 3 used condoms were thrown out of their bathroom window into our garden. I called the police, and also callled the council and got them to send environmental health round to clear up the condoms. Things went quiet, although we were sure there was prostitution still ocurring.

Last night there was prolonged and very loud shouting. The windows were open and I could hear that two women were trying to get money from a man, with many references to 'casual sex'. It was 4.30 a.m and I shouted at them to be quiet. One shouted back abusively. This morning I called CrimeStoppers anonymously, and gave them the details, and others, of evidence that there is prostitution.

This afternoon I came home with dc, and right in the middle of our lawn is a used condom. This must have been thrown there deliberately and provocatively, it cannot have landed where it did by them simply putting it out of the window. (They often throw condoms into their own yard).

There has been a spate of other problems recently, one tennant called the police because of theft by another, there was a fight between two women and a man, and the man drove a baby away saying the baby was not safe in the house (DH called the police, but was not asked for his name), and routine anti-social noise.

We are planning to sell our house soon - we have to move for work.

Do I:
Keep quiet and sell our house, saying nothing?
Tackle the situation and try to get community support to get the hostel closed down and then sell?
Put a note through the door telling them I will call the police nest time they throw any objects onto our property and hope the trouble dies down?

If I look for support to get the hostel closed down, is it likely that we would be successful? What would I need to take into account, and how would I go about it? If we were unsuccesful, would we have any hope of selling our house?

I would never normally be the sort of person who would wish to see a hostel closed down, but it is horrible living next door to this, and I now feel shaky, upset, harrassed and intimidated that a condom has been thrown.

And we do have to move by May next year.

Any advice or thoughs gratefully received, thank you.

You poor thing. Tbh, and this is awful, because I pity the person that moves into your house - I would get it on the market asap and say nothing. If you are in any kind of dispute with your neighbours you are obliged to divulge it - and you will never sell. How soon can you put it on the market?

Agree don't put anything in writing as you will have to declare it on one of the forms you have to fill in for your vendors solicitor.

If it were me I would just sell quick and rent if needs be.

Agree with Martha, but worth checking out the law on disclosing neighbour disputes. Sounds like a nightmare.

Agree, keep schtum (sp?) and get out. Maybe report it all when you've sold up?? Anonymously.

I'd keep complaining anonymously, especially if it's council run surely they have to do something if it's causing a nuisance to the neighbourhood.
That way nothing ties it to you & you can disclose without fear of reprisal.

You have to declare them when selling or you could be sued by the poeple who buy the house. But if nothing is in writing...

I think that the forms ask if there is anything which you know about which might affect the property. If you say nothing and it later comes to light that you did know about all this (and, after all, how could you not - your purchasers will never believe that this wasn't going on before they bought) then you could be in trouble. Was anything disclosed by your vendors when you bought? Did these tenants move in after you purchased?

Your only option might be to make such a fuss that the landlord has no option but to evict the tenants - they are undoubtedly in breach of their tenancy agreement as well as the law.

What about the neighbours on the other side of the offending house? Have you approached them? A coordinated complaint might have more effect.

Tinker, how are your neighbour from hell problems?

I think you are now legally obliged to declare things that you have reported to the police/council about neighbouring properties etc in the sellers forms. I would push very hard to get it closed down/the trouble stopped before you have to sell it.

Huge sympathies though - that sounds really stressful and upsetting.

what about seeking advice from citizens advice bureau ?
Sorry for your troubles,we have shit neighbours aswell,hope you are able to move soon.

Hello Mrs Moo . House going on the market next week. No more shouting from them but that is because we race to grab the baby at the first cry!

There is a specific question about disputes with neighbours. Something like have you had cause to complain about your neighbours.

Oh, I'm so glad you're putting it on the market -- hope it sells quickly.

Me too.

Back to OP, maybe go to police/council then papers? Am wondering if your original complaints are already traeceable so may have to sort it now.

Thank you so much for your replies.

Freckle - the problem is that the local authority is the landlord, and because the house is a council hostel, getting one tennant evicted will not solve the possibility of future problem occupants. If I declare that there was a problem with a former tennat, won't I have to be open about the fact that it is a hostel?

I feel terrible about selling the house to a new owner - and would constantly fear a solicitor's letter through my door if we sell like this. But we are not ricj people, and the need to declare all this unfortunately makes it hard for me to do what i can to get rid of the current trouble and make the council take a more supervisory role in the mangement of the hostel.

Maybe I should do what I can anonymously to get rid of the current tennants? We have had long periods where the fact that it is a hostel has made no impact at all. Inn fact some tennants hav been freindly and neighbourly, and, for e.g gave dc a windowbox because they could see they enjoyed gardening.

How can I find out if my previous complaints can be traced? One was to the police, and the other was in writing to the council because they took so long to clear up the condoms. But I never received a reply or response, so wonder if they received it, let alone filed it efficiently? Could I ask a solicitor to cinduct searcehs as if they were a future buyer?

My natural instinct would be to sort out the current problem (by complaint and community action to the council) and then live and let live with the hostel. But the law about declaration of problem neighbours makes that financially impossible for me.

I'm afraid you will have to disclose problems, otherwise you can be in big trouble if the new owner finds out you lied on your declaration.

The only thing I can suggest is to keep the things quiet for as long as you can. then if they ask you about the neighbours tell them about lovely lady who gave the window box to your children and the rest, if they directly ask about problems, say that it is part and parcel of living so near to each other in our crowded cities, etc.

Don't worry about not declaring things coming back to haunt you, when our house was found to have serious structural problems after we moved in, despite clear evidence that the previous two owners had known about and disguised it, we were advised by sols that it is not worthwhile pursuing previous owners!

Unless you could try & move quickly to get it shut down - get support from others in the terrace/immediate area ?? What are the neighbours like on the other side of the problem house ?
Surely the local authority have a responsibility to ensure that their tennants are not causing public nuisance ?? they cant approve of used condoms being thrown into a neighboring garden used by children!!??

Ring your local council. This behaviour constitutes Anti Social Behaviour and the Council has a duty to prevent harrasment, alarm and distress in the community.They will probably ask you to keep a diary to record events as they happen. The current tenant will be on a license if the property is a hostel and as such the local authority can seek immediate possession.

I sympathise. We had the police outside ours all night because somebody put the window in on the house three houses down. The occupier is renting privately and we like you are selling.

Good luck

logging things in diaries etc sounds like it will take time to get to the stage of anything happening - do you defo have to sell by next may.
they are bound to deny everything so get as much evidence as you can i.e. photogrpahic.

id say get out of there as quickly as poss but them im not sure of the law about these things.

so sorry to hear it must get you down in your own home where you and your family shod feel safe.

Thank you all so much for your replies. Sympathies to those of you also having problems.

I think this is my plan: I will continue to take anonymous action such as calling CrimeStoppers whenever there is a problem. The current tennants will move out shortly (all the tennants seem to be fairly short-term). We will sell asap, and if there is any legal cme back, claim that we have made no complaints nor had disputes with whoever happen to be the tennants at the time, which will be true. How does that sound?

The hostel has several single rooms with shared kitchen and bathroom, and each room is let individually. Mostly, life has been quiet, or at least no worse than you would expect in this neighbourhood. Some tennants have been friendly. I think the problem tennants may have been moved out already as there has been silence all weekend, and from the stuff in front of the house, it looks as if a few rooms have been cleared.

Thank you all, this has been a terrible worry.

I personally would declare any trouble that I had had with neighbours. I know that this is easy to say and that it could take you longer to sell because of this but by not telling these poor people you are conning them out of huge amounts of money. How would you feel if someone did this to you?

Someone has done it to me, Flutterbee, we're in the house. As far as I can see we either have to be sure we can get the hostel closed down completely or resign ourselves to never ever being able to sell this house. I don't feel good about it, but hope that from now on the council will manage the hostel better, and that new owners will get the quiet well behaved tennants. We'll sell cheap.

I know it isn't ideal. I don't know what to do. We can't afford another mortgage even if we were to rent this house out on a buy-to-let basis, we have no capital, and no pension. All our assets are in this house, and if we don't move we will have no income either.

From a personal point of view, we moved into a house in November 2005 where the neighbours had been at each others throats for over three years regarding building works. None of this was declared. There were even punch-ups and items thrown from one property to another and police involved etc. We learnt this from seeing copies of legal letters from our new neighbours now.

You do have a Sellers Form to fill in and your buyer will get a copy. I suppose it is up to you what you put there. As I said, nothing was in ours. It might become a bit tricky if asked verbally by the buyer, but by that time, things might be a lot quieter by time you actually get to put it on the market.

If you tell no-one, estate agent or solicitor, you are not compromising them and they can say quite happily that there is nothing that they are aware of regarding disputes etc. Our sellers used a different firm of solicitors to sell their house so that no one would know about the dispute.

I feel for you, you have to sell but you don't want any new buyer putting up with what you have had to. Good luck in your campaign to get things changed.

TND, is it possible to check whether your council had complaints from the previous owners of your house? If so then you might be able to claim against them for not declaring it when they sold to you (assuming you solicitor specfically asked them if they had ever had problems with neighbours).