How do you find out about the neighbours? If at all?

[ElspethFlashman]

We've found a house I love.

Rural village area so one neighbour next door only. Quite close though, despite being in the country.

DH has "a bad feeling" about the neighbours though. We've never seen them, no information, but they committed the grave sin of having 5/6 cars outside but no sign of life. DH is convinced there's something dodgy going on. I said he's probably just a mechanic or has a big family with grown up kids or something.

Do you ask the agent what the bloke does for a living? Ask him to ask the vendors?

Do you ever really know anything about the neighbours before you move? Is that reasonable or unreasonable?

They've lived there 14 years I believe.

I did say it was probably grown up kids but DH pointed out there's a huge trampoline in the back garden. I said they could have guests for the weekend.

It's quite a big posh house so they're not short of cash but you can't tell what sort of neighbours they'd be from that.

They've also obviously been burning rubbish down at the very end of the garden which DH wasn't impressed by. It didn't really bother me as the garden is 3/4 of an acre so it's loads away from the house, but maybe I'm too relaxed.

We're moving to the country to get away from difficult neighbours! But unless you live in the middle of nowhere you're always going to have someone nearby!

I think we'll have to make enquiries somehow. I quite like the idea of actually knocking on their door directly too.

We've got one set of lovely neighbours, one crappy (a right whinger) but doesn't disturb us. We have had dreadful neighbour's before and was a big part of our reason to move, it is miserable. I agree with all the others, knock on the door and see what you think and yes, do ask the vendors too.

My neighbour has loads of cars, I'm unsure why your husband would perceive it as a problem? And burning stuff is quite normal in a big garden if far away from the house.

I'm sorry op, I think he doesn't want to live there and is looking for excuses.

In our last house when our DSs were at home, they had a car each, DH had his main car and a Classic ( mainly in the garage) and I had a car. All parked on the drive.
We were very quite pleasant neighbours.

Well it's illegal here. There's a fine of 3 grand. So people don't really do it anymore and he's being pretty cheeky doing it in plain view of the neighbours and at their boundary. (Agent was visibly irritated when we peered over the wall and uncovered the ashes)

I think he just doesn't want neighbours full stop as we've had a shit time here with antisocial behaviour for several years. But even in the countryside it's quite rare to have fields all around unless you're very isolated (which I have no intention of being!)

Just ask your vendor. They legally have to tell you about problems (if you're in the U.K.)

They have to tell you about 'disputes'. Anything that you have reported to the police or council. Nothing else.
At least, it would be very difficult to make a claim against failing to disclose general un-neighbourliness.

Ah ok. I assumed you had to declare if you'd been on the receiving end of any pain-in-the-arseness

It's hard, isn't it?

Of course I also have a quandary with what to tell viewers of my own property "Well, some tenants are fine..... and some have loud parties all night long....but don't worry! The police station sends someone around ever so quick!"

Next door garden was full of broken kids toys and rubbish

I looked at a lovely little terrace with a lush garden, but next door's garden was full of junk like of fridges, bits of wood etc and that house had been extended all over the shoip in odd wasy so it looked like a shitty HMO of the worst kind (beds in sheds). There was no way I could live next door to that.

The garden of the house next door is full of junk, with lots of cars. We didn't notice when we looked at the house as we approached from the opposite direction and it can only be seen a bit from a couple of upstairs rooms and wasn't so bad then - it's actually worse for the neighbours opposite. I was really worried when we moved in and I saw it properly, however, few days later those neighbours introduced themselves, apologised for the mess and said that it was because they were doing a complete renovation. More than a year later, it's still pretty much the same but it doesn't really bother us, it helps that we're detached/have big gardens, but the neighbours are no trouble at all. I'm actually glad that we didn't notice, as it may have put me off our house, which we love. I guess it could be an issue if we wanted to sell but we want to be here for a long time.

Sounds as if your husband is not keen, but couldn't help noticing this the first time I read the post

We've found a house I love

Well he freely admits the only type of house he loves are thatched cottages on the edge of a lake, lol. And even he recognises that might not be so great for the kids! We need a 4 bed for a start!

So compromise is the name of the game. Near a village school but on a large plot with few if any neighbours.

Rarer than hens teeth!