Declaring (or not) ASB neighbours ... how is it legally decided?

[StormCattitude]

Calling on experience of people who've sold / bought houses where the answers to this query may have come up during the process.

Posted in AIBU about an issue I'm having with neighbours / local kids. Several replies suggested contacting police / council over the antisocial behaviour but I'm unclear what situations would need declaring when I come to sell. I need to balance the potential effect now against the longer term effect it could have on selling up if my house price was affected if I reported what's going on to someone official.

Is there black & white rules what must be declared, and therefore what doesn't have to be? Boundary disputes I think a definite yes. Antisocial behaviour... what factors would require this to be declared? At what point does ASB become a formal issue in the house sale process?

Would taking indemnity insurance in a house sale cover you if you didn't declare something the new owners believed you should have, if the rules are open to interpretation?

Many thanks for clarity.

My understanding is once you start complaining to the police and council it has to be declared. If you don’t complain you are deemed not to have an issue with the neighbors soon need to declare it

Once it becomes official. There is no insurance you can take as you are expected to be honest on the form.

This is a real problem as it means people don't resolve issues, they escape.

If you report them to the council or police, you would need to declare that when selling.

There is no form of insurance that protects you from failing to disclose something that you should have disclosed, in terms of paying them damages.

You can take out insurance to cover legal expenses if you’re worried about being sued, although if you have any actual reason to believe you’ll be sued then you would have to declare that to the insurers when you take out the policy.

But what constitutes reporting? Crimestoppers? That's anonymous. Online reporting? People will just use false addresses.
A call to the council's noise department that doesn't result in a visit?

What defines a neighbour? Next door, 3 away? Round the corner?

What about non reported, but regular street arguments?

Onjecting to planning and party wall 'disputes? They don't count.

Rollercoaster this is where I'm at. Trying to understand where exactly the line is.

There must be a formally defined point or criteria set for what needs declaring & what doesn't otherwise why would anyone declare anything & how could any one successfully sue someone who didn't declare something. What a seller might say is an insignificant personal difference of opinion with a neighbour, a buyer might say was an issue which affects their life so negatively they wouldn't have bought. It can't just come down to individuals opinion on how relevant an issue is, there must be laws to make it a level playing field.

That's what I can't find though & need to know where the situation sits in a black & white sense.

All law comes down to an interpretation. If not we would have no need for lawyers.

The line is clearly crossed when you make a formal complaint, certainly. If you phone the police or council to complain about a neighbour's behaviour you should report that.

What defines 'neighbour' is more variable - a terraced house has more dwellings within 50m but if you can't hear the noise, how can it be an issue?

Regarding ringing Crimestoppers, that is not a neighbour dispute reporting mechanism. It depends what you phone Crimestoppers for. A neighbour punching one person once is different to a neighbour repeatedly causing breach of the peace in terms of neighbour impact.

Also - if no one can prove you should have disclosed, that is a different question.

Also, if you report an issue which is then resolved as a result, that will not be a negative on the form.

Well, case dependent.

If you look at the standard property information form, section 2, (filled in by you if you are selling the house) this gives you an idea of what you must disclose- basically any disputes or potential disputes about your property or a property nearby. The PP us right that there is some wriggle room on how you would interpret a dispute but not much. In all honesty you’d be better to try to sort it out by reporting rather than pass it on to a new buyer, as it sounds as though you’d have reached the threshold of a potential dispute already.
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Be careful about discussing them with other neighbours too. All it takes is one neighbour to go "oh yes StormCattitude had a problem with them too it's probably why they moved etc." and your in the deep end.

A general rule of thumb is once it's official you need to declare it. So a report from either you or the neighbours to the council or police. For someone to take legal action against you for not declaring, there would need to be proof.

Of course, these also the ethical side to it but that area is trickier.

@optimisticpessimist01

Be careful about discussing them with other neighbours too. All it takes is one neighbour to go "oh yes StormCattitude had a problem with them too it's probably why they moved etc." and your in the deep end.

Agree with this!

At what point would it be an official report of it? Eg if I had a chat to a pcso at a local drop in surgery, would that count? Or would it only count if it was traceable eg I'd had to give my name & address for someone to log?

Have you looked at the form? I don’t think whether the dispute is “official” or not makes a jot of difference in terms of whether you have to declare it. It’s just “a dispute” or anything which might lead to a dispute. Obviously it’s up to you whether to risk not declaring it, but if you’re considering speaking to a PCSO then you’re probably aware of something which might lead to a dispute already, so if you want to be completely within the law you’ll need to declare it anyway.