Neighbour disputes - what's worse out of these situations?

[MGMidget]

We are facing a bit of a dilemma on whether to take legal action against a neighbour. Not something I would have wanted but I am worried we might have to to sort out the problems. We have legal expenses insurance at this stage (which is good news) but the solicitors have dragged on a dispute for years without doing very much at all. They have sent letters to our neighbour asking them to rectify a trespass and prevent a nuisance by altering their building construction and also set out our claim for damage to our property caused by the building work which they deny. If we don't issue proceedings we won't be able to stop the nuisance and trespass.

Eventually we will want to sell. Therefore, I am wondering which is worse in the eyes of a prospective buyer: seeing letters sent asking for a trespass and nuisance to be stopped and making a claim for damage as a result of their works all of which were then not pursued or seeing records of a legal claim against the neighbour that got settled (by court decision or by an agreed settlement)? If you were a potential buyer would both of these make you run a mile or would one of them be an acceptable situation to you? We could probably explain a decision not to pursue a claim in a way that wouldn't cause too much concern but would leave the question over whether a new dispute would rear up in the future. However, with a legal dispute there would likely be lots of unpleasant allegations and arguments. Would seeing this and forming a view of the neighbour put you off buying the property or if it is resolved would that satisfy you?

Oh, and I should probably add there is probably a third scenario which is starting legal action and then having to abandon it or settle on unsatisfactory terms - if the legal expenses insurer withdraws cover suddenly as they seem to be able to!

Yes, either of those outcomes would put me off buying.

You have to declare any disputes with neighbours though many don't.

If I was planning to move anyway I would do nothing and leave as soon as I could so as not to deter any potential buyers.

If I were buying and it were resolved, then it wouldn’t put me off, but a withdrawn etc would put me off because I would worry it was storing up a problem or the neighbours were threatening types

Once solicitors have written letters I think it's better to see the dispute to the end so that you can say it's resolved. I would be far less put off by something that was settled than by an issue that could resurface or cause further issues with the neighbour.

I think if the dispute can be settled that’s the best course of action as then you’re saying “we had this dispute and now it’s fixed” which wouldn’t put me off.

I suppose if you decide not to pursue it, you could declare it and say that initially it had been an issue but over time you decided it didn’t bother you so you left it and therefore it’s resolved in that you are no longer disputing the issue. Then the buyer can decide if it’s something that they would want to dispute or not and whether they would be happy to take that on?

Not pursuing and having a legal outcome would make me walk away
I wouldn't want to inherit that

Is it a boundary issue? Unresolved boundary issue and I wouldn’t touch it. Resolved and I’d want to look at the details before making a decision

It could develop into a boundary issue but there isn't a dispute about the boundary at present. I could speculate that this may rear up as a defence - hence mentioning that legal action might means lots of allegations etc. I gather this is what happens in legal claims: lots of allegations to try and defend/derail a case and potential character assassination of us to destroy our credibility perhaps? I may be thinking worse case scenario but I am considering the possibilities. In theory a settlement of some sort may be better because then things are certain. However, I suppose if we get a boundary dispute its really difficult because the original conveyancing documents get disposed of by mortgage companies apparently! I thought they were keeping ours but I gather they don't which is worrying! The trespass concerns breach of a party wall award and I think its not easy for them to argue it isn't a trespass but the question is how to resolve it! I think any boundary dispute (if they argued this) would be speculative and designed to cause trouble but would add to our hassle and expense in resolving things.

The trespasses and nuisances that are ongoing are not major so an incoming purchaser might not be bothered by them. I just don't know, not knowing whether minor trespasses or nuisances are ignored by many people or if you should be resistant to protect your property/interests! We don't get on with our neighbours by the way. If they were good friends then I doubt things would have got to this! Therefore, nothing to lose in terms of neighbourly relations but obviously an incoming purchaser may form an opinion as to whether they would want to be next door to them.

Unresolved issues would put me off because unpleasant neighbours could claim previous owners agreed to this and that and then I would end up having to mount a new legal defence against them.

@thisgardenlife our dispute was raised years ago but legal expenses insurers and their solicitors are soooo slow. So now we are coming closer to wanting to move and its a pain. We obviously would have liked to resolve it a long time ago. We weren't planning to move in the foreseeable future when this first occurred but at the rate the solicitors move it could take many more years to resolve something that we raised straight away when we saw what our neighbours had done. I am getting sick of the whole process.

@RitaFires

Once solicitors have written letters I think it's better to see the dispute to the end so that you can say it's resolved. I would be far less put off by something that was settled than by an issue that could resurface or cause further issues with the neighbour.

This