Potential nightmare neighbour

[WhataPickle2024]

Any advice would be appreciated. We've just bought and moved into our first home - lovely area, lovely neighbours, quiet and safe. The purchase took 7 months, but it was worth the wait. We've been here for 4 months. We've spent quite a lot on doing up the house, so we currently have little in the way of savings.

We're in a row of semi-detached houses. Our next door neighbour owns but rents her house out - the tenants were a lovely family, but they were told to leave a month ago, as she was selling the property.

We have just found out that she's not selling after all, but is letting the house out to her sister. Her sister previously rented the house for a few years, but was eventually evicted for non-payment of rent.

Neighbours have told us she was utter chaos - a drug addict who had dealers visiting the house at all hours, she had stolen bikes delivered to her at night to 'clean up' and resell, she had a floodlight installed for her to work on the bikes at night so all neighbours had to have blackout blinds, she trashed the inside of the house and left rubbish heaped up outside, her child was taken away by social services, she was aggressive and violent and played music as loud as she could due to neighbour complaints. The authorities did little and advised there wasn't much they could do if the landlord didn't want to evict (neighbours had decibel meters etc), she had warnings but did nothing to comply. The police did nothing as there was no clear evidence of any criminal activity.

The fact that she was only evicted due to not paying her sister rent shows the owner doesn't really care about her effect on the neighbourhood.

The people who lived in our house (before the sellers we bought from) tried to leave and sell as they couldn't cope, but noone wanted to buy as they had to disclose the disputes - the tenant would shout obscenities over the fence when potential buyers were being shown round. They eventually moved into alternative accommodation until they were able to sell at a much reduced price.

She's moving in imminently, we assume as she's been evicted from her current accommodation. Our bubble has burst and we're really worried for the future. Is there anything we can do, other than plan to document everything and hopefully get enough evidence to have her evicted - can we even do that if the owner doesn't care? Do we have any rights? Should our sellers have disclosed this (as it would have been disclosed to them when they bought) even though the tenant wasn't there while they were here?

We couldn't afford to move due to stamp duty, and who would buy when we haven't even been here 6 months? We'd have to disclose why we want to move.

Help!

You bought the house, at a reduced price knowing it has a history of that tennant and that her sister still owned the house so there was a likelihood she could come back? YABU.

As far as I know they don’t have to disclose as the neighbour had moved, so they haven’t done anything wrong.

I’d just keep an eye on things and document everything properly

Read the thread..it wasn't the OP that got it for a reduced price, it was the previous owners.

I'd be prepared to document everything OP, and complain complain complain every single time, to all agencies. And cross your fingers that she will have changed...

No, we bought the house FROM the people who bought the house at a reduced price. Nothing was disclosed to us from our sellers, although it would have been disclosed to them when they bought.

Not much you can do until she moves in and behaves badly. Then you have the option of reporting her.

Why the current owner is willing to have her move back in after what happened before. Maybe she has cleaned up her act.

We had a similar issue in our first house. Bought a doer upper in a nice area (semi) adjoined with a lovely old man. Few years down the line this man died and the property was owned by his daughter (also lovely) who let it out to her niece. Her niece and children were nice people but the partner was a nightmare. Long and short of it is we discovered private lettings (non agency) leave you powerless. This family were there long term (they’d basically inherited the house as the sister who owned it had a few properties. My advice is this:

Do not engage with the law; you are creating a paper trail you will have to declare when / if you sell. Try your very best to live with it and sort any issues out in a civil way without complaint. We found that as the years passed our nightmare neighbour settled down a lot and actually they weren’t that bad to live next to (it helped that we got on with the woman and the kids were nice); I think she kept her partner in check and whilst I wouldn’t have chosen to live next to him, it could have been a lot worse. Ultimately we moved, but for multiple reasons including upsizing and school catchment. It wasn’t pleasant at times and I felt our bubble had burst too but we tried to make the best of it knowing it wasn’t our forever home and we had a lot of happy years there.

The only thing you can do is hope she behaves herself. If it's definitely the same sister, there's a chance she might have changed her ways, gone 'straight' so to speak.
For now just try and assume she's just a normal neighbour, be friendly but from a distance. Ideally you'll manage any issues amongst yourselves if they arise. Involving authorities should only ever be a last resort.

Not much you can do, but hope that she's changed and that's why the sister is giving her a second chance.

Don't start off on the wrong foot though. Be friendly and welcoming and try and get her on side.

I don't think there was anything for them to disclose, as their nightmare neighbour had been evicted. I don't think they had a crystal ball to know she would be coming back!

‘We have just found out’

why not read the post before rushing to do some victim blaming?

This is one of the reasons you should always look for what the previous owners bought the property for and if it is in line for the time of sale and what the rest of the properties have sold for. You can then ask why the property was so cheap.

Unfortunately as it's a sister that is been rented to, it's unlikely the owner will evict them for being problematic unless they have a fall out. Perhaps the sister has sorted her issues out, or it may be a temporary let until the sister finds steady work and her own place.

You are just going to have to see how things pan out unfortunately. It is the gamble you take when you buy next to a rental.

We have a rental next door to us, over the years we've had 2 lovely families and 1 nightmare family. Luckily the landlord engaged with all the neighbours and did evict them. Since then we have had a lovely family next door.

YANBU

I understand from your post that you bought the house with no prior knowledge of the demonic neighbour as, at that time, a family were in the property who have since had to move out because the LL sister is the drug user with history.

Put cameras up, collect, ring door bells etcevidence and make logs of every single incident which occurs.

The logs including dates and times as well as images can be submitted to your LA ( council) Via their website.

You also have the option of involving a councillor, but only do this if situations get very bad.

Limit communication with this neighbour, no outbursts or yelling due to how unpredictable they can be, in case they threaten you.

Tennant's do have rights, they just need to gather evidence and report incidents.

I don’t think there was anything for your vendors to disclose, because the problem neighbour wasn’t living there when they sold the house to you. They didn’t know she was going to move back.

I completely understand your concerns but when you buy any house, you don’t know who will move in to neighbouring properties in the future, so unfortunately it’s always a risk and I do sympathise.

Definitely be prepared to document issues, but also bear in mind that if she was previously evicted by her own sister for not paying rent and trashing the property, there is a good chance that the sister will do the same again if there are problems. I also think it’s possible that the sister is only letting her rent it for a second time because she’s cleaned up her act, so try not to worry too much in advance.

It sounds like your other neighbours would support you re. any complaints, which is good.

I understand from your post that you bought the house with no prior knowledge of the demonic neighbour as, at that time, a family were in the property who have since had to move out because the LL sister is the drug user with history.

@Irridescantshimmmer No. That is not correct. The OP bought the house from the people, who had bought the house from the people who had to move out. It was the OP's sellers who got the house cheap. The OP's neighbours ( the tenants when they moved in) were nice people.

@WhataPickle2024 I don't think your vendors had any obligation to tell you that they had the neighbour from hell, because either before they moved into their house, or after they had moved in, the sister neighbour was evicted and was no longer there and the new tenants, as you say, were lovely people. They had no reason or obligation, I don't think, to tell you what had happened in the past, since the sister had been evicted and who would have thought for one minute that she would be back?

As others have said, hopefully the sister has straightened out her life and she may be fine. I would just be friendly when you see her and reserve judgement until you see what the score is. I'm so sorry you are so upset ( understandably so) but I don't think there is an awful lot you can do about it

Decent fencing.. Cctv. Security cameras and lights... Keep yourself to yourself.. Don't engage. Remember she doesn't know your capabilities either.... Practice that resting bitch face.

I think you're SOL, legally Your sellers didn't have a neighbour dispute to disclose; that was sorted when they moved in as they were new as were the new tenants. It was the previous sellers who had issues with a previous tenant.

Hopefully the relative has cleaned up her life.

We'd have to disclose why we want to move.

No you wouldn't? You'd only have to disclose if you'd made a recorded complaint or had an issue - to the council or the police etc. And you've not yet made one, and have absolutely no idea if you will actually make one.

Personally I'd expect that if the sister is to be allowed to move back in, she's probably made some changes in her life.

As an aside, there's a lot of unverifiable hearsay in what you're getting worried about.

Apologies I misread.

You'd want to know why someone was selling less than 6 months after buying a house, surely? We couldn't lie if asked, and the truth would clearly scare people off.

Yes, it's 'hearsay', and may well be exaggerated, but all is based on truth. I believe our concerns are justifiable.

Thanks everyone, I think I was hoping for some magic legal standpoint we could prepare ourselves with, but looks like we'll just have to wait and hope that she's turned into a decent citizen. If she hasn't changed, why would her sister choose to rent to her again..?
And if she's still a terror, time to get some Ring cameras and a journal 😐

Legally you could just say 'we didn't get on with the house/ the area/ we're moving closer to family/ work situation changed' and it would still be fine.

As far as I understand it,

The landlord ISNT liable for a tenants ASB but read this

https://www.insight-law.co.uk/blog/are-landlords-responsible-for-tenant-behaviour/

However, you may be liable if you’ve allowed the tenants to cause the nuisance or if, when renting out your property, you were aware that nuisance was inevitable or almost certainly going to occur.

So it seems to me that if the sister misbehaves again then the landlord could be liable

Don't borrow trouble. You don't know what she'll be like yet, and there's no point dwelling on it.

Should she become a problem, yes, consider selling up of you can afford to - as long as there's not official documentation of a dispute there's nothing to disclose. But there's an awful lot of space between ideal neighbour and must-move-to-escape neighbour. See where on that line this wom,an sits before you get too worried.

Thank you, that's helpful to know. She definitely knew the havoc her sister was causing, but perhaps it was too much hassle for her to try and address it. Good to know she may be liable if her sister repeats the behaviour, knowing she was likely to do the same again.