I live in a modern housing development with neighbours to both sides and sharing a backfence (the gardens are staggered, so I have 2 back fence neighbours). 3 of my 4 neighbours are brilliant, one of the back fence ones is not. The day after we moved in, he left a note in our mailbox saying 'welcome to the neighbourhood, your shed is an eyesore, please remove it'-this was the shed left behind by the previous owner. Our garden was surrounded by 30 foot high Leylandii when we moved in which we had removed-3 of the neighbours wouldn't stop thanking us for doing it as it meant their gardens all got so much more light, he complained about lack of privacy and demanded I reinstated the trees (there was a fence 7 foot high around the garden as well which we had repaired and painted).
Over the years he's complained about his conservatory flooding and claimed it was because we had removed the Leylandii and that meant all the rain from our garden drained into his and asked that we contribute towards repairs (we asked to see the insurance report and the flood happened due to unlagged water pipes bursting). Everytime we have workmen in he questions them about what they are doing-hedge trimming, stump removal, hard landscaping done. We converted our conservatory to a sunroom by putting a proper roof on and he complained that he was entitled to privacy and that we would be using the room more. He also complained that he could see my washing on the airer in our conservatory and asked that we didn't do that. At this point I'll say that his own conservatory is built 3 foot from the shared back fence, and mine is about 4 metres from the back fence.
Most of the communication is via notes in the mailbox-he talks to workmen in the garden but never directly to us. I ignore the notes-as far as I can see he's a nasty old man, bored rigid and likes complaining. The other neighbours have been nothing but wonderful, and a couple of them have also been the victim of nasty notes.
We've been here 10 years and the time has come to move. We never formally raised neighbourhood disputes as an issue-my ex was very keen to send him a letter from a lawyer telling him to cease and desist and telling him his nasty notes constituted harassment, but I said no-I think if we'd done something like this we would have had to declare it when selling. But do I have to tell prospective buyers that there is a horrible complaining backfence neighbour? The other neighbours ignore him too, but if I sell and he kicks off, would buyers then have grounds to sue me? And how could you sell a house if the particulars include 'horrible back fence neighbour'?