Our buyers saying we didn't disclose neighbours.

[ihateconfrontation]

So we sold our house and exchanged and completed a few weeks ago.
Moving as we had to move area for work.
On solicitors forms it asked if we had any neighbourhood disputes, we answered no, which was true.
We were one of the middle houses in a terrace. One side had 4 teenage boys and parents and the other side is a multi occupancy let.
Both properties had noise coming from them which was to be expected, multi occupancy house had people smoking outside and chatting in normal volume voices until maybe 10pm, other side the teenage boys bickered occasionally and slammed doors when in a strop.
Both houses played music, but never past 10pm and not loud, just at music listening volume!
I've got noisy pre schoolers, so guessed that we made noise of our own.
Anyway, our buyers ended up with my email address and we've been getting constant emails saying we should have disclosed the neighbours and how loud they were on solicitors forms.
They are threatening to sue us and say that the noise is at an unacceptable level and I should have told them.
I feel awful as they've spend half a million pounds on a property that they clearly aren't happy in, but we lived there happily for 6 years and classed it just as neighbour noise.
What can I do? Can they sue?

I can understand your anguish, but it sounds like you have done nothing wrong. You have answered the form honestlyAnd truthfully.

When we brought our house, we visited the street at different times of the day, weekends, evenings to get a picture if what the street was like. They could have easily done this.

@ihateconfrontation

I do wonder if it's been louder due to lockdown? No school or work, everyone home under each other's feet, and hot weather so they've all been out in the gardens. Especially with socially distant gatherings happening in gardens more at the moment.

I think you've got a point. Our flat used to be dead silent, never heard a peep for 3 years. Now I seem to hear yappy dogs, souped up cars, downstairs neighbour on phone, doors slamming in the corridor, loud music until midnight, delivery vans, strimmers, building works, lawnmowers and god knows what else. Everyone's at home all the time and now I'm at home I notice everything so much more. Also, it's hot, windows are open and everyone's out on their balconies.

We all have different levels of tolerance. What one person might find unacceptable might not even bother another, so good luck trying to sue you just because you’ve accepted the noise levels as normal everyday background noise and they can’t.

@ihateconfrontation

And I'm not entirely sure if the house next door is classed as a HMO. It was a house to let, and it's always been let by young professionals as a group of friends. Then one will leave, and someone else moves in etc. It's only a 4 bed, so not like an 8 bed student house type thing.

An HMO is 3 or more unrelated tenants.

I’ve actually sold a property where I did disclose problems with the neighbours, although there was never any formal dispute.
I was end of terrace and my neighbours would drink loads most nights, smoke out the front and back, argue, have music playing, lock each other out constantly, which resulted in one of them yelling through the letter box at all hours. They also had dogs that constantly barked.
We were there 3 years and never once made a complaint to anyone because they were the sort who would have confronted the whole street trying to find out who it was.
Under that question in the paperwork we disclosed all of the above because we knew within days of moving in the people who brought it from us would also experience it. There was no denying it.
It did take us a little longer to sell and we sold for a little under market value, but we ended up selling to someone who was going to turn it into a house of multiple occupation so wasn’t concerned about the noise himself.

Your buyer is a twat OP and they are trying to intimidate you by threatening you with words like “there will be a problem.”

They haven’t a leg to stand on though so you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Even if you had been irritated by the neighbours’ noise, there was no reason to volunteer that information unless there was a formal dispute, which there clearly wasn’t! People move because of their neighbours all the time - no one would seriously say to a potential buyer “yes, the neighbours are a nightmare” - you’d never sell!

@FlamingoAndJohn

I can’t get past that someone bought a terrace for 1/2 a million....

I believe that disputes means anything that has required a letter from the council/visit from the police/letter from a solicitor, but I might be wrong. You didn’t have any disputes.

I can’t either. In London it would be £1.5m.

Noisy neighbours does not equal dispute. End of story.

Please don’t contact them in reply as some pp have suggested. Do not get involved in any kind of back and forth.

I would frankly ignore them. I agree with a pp who said they would engage a solicitor to write to you if they had a leg to stand on. This is just tosh on the facts as you’ve set them out here. (I’m a conveyancing solicitor if that helps.)

Why not just change your email address?

Tell them to discuss with their solicitor and that any further communication should be made via your solicitor.

With a bit of luck their solicitor will tell them they don't have a case.

Why not just change your email address?

WTF! ‘Just’!

[quote GreyishDays]Not all terraces are two up two down back to backs, have some imagination

This is one near me www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-81732169.html[/quote]
Beautifull!

If i could afford it I'd buy it for the tortoise alone.

They sound mental OP. Maybe lockdown is affecting them. Maybe they are just weirdos.

I’d just block them.

When we brought our house, we visited the street at different times of the day, weekends, evenings to get a picture if what the street was like. They could have easily done this

Exactly! A smart buyer would always do this. This will tell you so much about the area and if it’s generally peaceful or problematic

They may well not have a leg to stand on and if they were that worried about being disturbed should have come round to the street in the evening and listened for noise. However, this would be my idea of hell and I would be very upset so feel sorry for them and am surprised at all the uncharitable responses.

Just ignore. If they want to take it further they can get a solicitor to send you a letter which you can then discuss with your solicitor.
I don't think they'll get far though because a) it's not a dispute b) you did not consider the noise to be disturbing therefore you did not feel it necessary to write this on a form and c) they can't prove that the noise is at the same level now as it was when you lived there.
The noise could easily have got worse with lockdown and then the summer - people working from home more and being around more or people on furlough and hanging around playing music etc.

I've lived in my current flat for 10 years and if I'd sold it at the beginning of March I'd have said there had never been a noise problem in the 10 years and now.....?? Since March it's been really loud outside constantly - people in their gardens all day and loudly chatting over the fence during lockdown and since that was eased at the beginning of May (I'm in another country) constant visits by grandkids who have been playing outside from 7 am until 10pm; people sitting in the gardens drinking and smoking until late and two neighbours have new-born grandkids who were born in lockdown so once they were allowed to visit we have had both babies here at different times for several days at a time and both babies are screamers!
(BTW the noise is actually mildly annoying at the moment but I understand these are special circumstances and I think things will return to normal in autumn).
So yeah, they can't prove that the noise is the same as it was when you lived there and the Corona summer has definitely changed things.

mcmooberry - do you really feel PPs have given uncharitable responses to 'we've been getting constant emails saying we should have disclosed the neighbours and how loud they were on solicitors forms. They are threatening to sue us... '

At best, they are threatening the OP after the horse has bolted. At worse, this is a fishing exercise for the OP to make a legally ill-considered representation that might then given the buyers some ammunition for an action that they don't currently have. To me, that seems from uncharitable or unconscionable.

Well no more emails so far this evening.
Let's see what tomorrow brings, although I'm not sure what else she can say!
She's accusing us of not disclosing excessive neighbour noise, I'm telling her that we did not deem it to be excessive, and the council won't have any previous complaints as there aren't any!
I think she's trying it on.

If there was anything lodged with the council it would have shown up in their searches surely?

Block their email and move on with your life. I was once harassed by my former landlady when I moved out - she kept texting me about random stuff in the house that had nothing to do with me. In the end I had to tell her agent to back off or I would report her for harassment, and blocked her phone, email etc.

Some people are weird.

I’m interested to know whether you ever hear from them again after they’ve checked with the council. I bet they go quiet when they realise you’re telling the truth. I’m sure she’s 100% convinced you’re lying because she’d be complaining... but she’ll have to remember that if they want to move out and want to keep your clean record

I can’t get past that someone bought a terrace for 1/2 a million....
Terraces here are at least that {starting price for a tiny one}...and in London terraces can sell for many millions...
It is all down to 'location', I think.

It’s ‘buyer beware’ - not youR house any more. Not being you can do about it or them. They can’t sue you as there’s nothing you have done wrong. Block them

@GreyishDays
Oh wow! That terrace is MAGNIFICENT... love it 💕

Forget it OP. They have no case. You didn't have an issue with it and accepted it as normal noises you would get in a terrace. If you made no formal complaint there is nothing for her to base her case on. It's subjective only.

WTF did she expect buying a terraced property?