Selling our house-do we have to disclose bad neighbours

We are in the process of selling our house. We have had serious problems with anti-social behaviour from our next door neighbours (adjoining hosue).This is the reason we are selling up.

We have had to go to the Gardai about them and they have made my life, my husband's life and my little baby's life absolutely miserable.

It is a horrendous situtation but for our sanity and the sake of our marriage we need to get out of the house and sell up, even though we will be making a huge financial loss. They have been given Garda warnings but it all culminated in me being attacked by them last week and losing the baby I was pregnant with as a result (I was only 2 months pregnant but I am devastated). It is just the worst situation possible and we are quiet people who keep to ourselves and just want to get on with our own lives.

Anyway, sorry..all a bit long winded.

My question is....after all the drama we have been through with these people and the fact that we have had no choice but to get the gardai involved, do we have to disclose this to the auctioneer or in any way?

If we disclose what these people do, we will never be able to sell the house. I feel very guilty and very sorry for anyone who buys it from us, as they are going to have an equally horrendous time living beside these people.

These people own the house next door, they are not renting. So are we covered legally if we just keep our mouths shut? Can the future purchaser come back and sue us or will we be liable in any way?

We have a new solicitor for the sale of the house. We don't want to tell this new solicitor about the problems and why we are selling up as we don't want to compromise her if she knew all the goings-on with the neighbours.

Thank you

My God Mrs O Brien I am so sorry to read that post from you. Thats just awful. I remember your other thread on it.

I dont think you are obliged to disclose anything but if the new people do searches online they may notice that the house is being resold quite quickly and ask why?

I would advise you to take legal advice from a totally different solicitor - a one off consultation where you can openly discuss this, then use someone else for the conveyance.

Thanks Truthseeker. Yes we have had no choice now but to sell. It's horrific. I don't care about losing all the money at this stage. We will put the house on the market next week, we are in talks with the auctioneer at this point.

Just don't want to sell and then have further problems down the line with the new purchasers coming after us.

This will prob now end up in court as the Gardai will bring it on foot of what they did to me last week. It's bizzare, completely 100% unprovoked. I just cannot believe people exist like that out there. I am getting counselling now to try get me over the trauma of it all.

Thanks

Hope they get the justice they deserve in court.

You have no legal responsibility that I know of to tell any potential buyers about neighbours.

Thats a shocking thing to happen, hope things can only improve from here on it for you.

As this case is likely to go to court you should not post any details about what happened.

I am very sorry to hear how this has progressed, how awfully sad for you and your husband.

It is so very wrong you being practically forced out of your home by this scum, a home you described in your previous thread that you and your husband worked so hard for. I do sincerely hope that this gets to court as soon as possible and you won't be forced to sell up. Is there anything the gardai can do in the meantime to help keep these people from hurting you further?

I dont blame you just wanting to get out now - no amount of money is worth your own personal safety and peace of mind and peaceful life.

These people are total scum and I sincerely hope that they are charged and punished to the full degree possible by the law for their attack on you.

Can you investigate selling the house to the local authority/council for them to put tenants into - the tenants will be complaining if the neighbours act against them and the council will have plenty of legal push to go after them in that case.

Thanks all.

Truthseeker, to be honest I haven't contacted the Local council. I just don't want to go down a route like that because a friend of mine sold her house to them and she only got a fraction of what she would have got on the open market. So we will try and sell it on the open market first. But thanks for the suggestion.

Aristotle, I won't be posting anything further on the sequence of events of that fateful night. Thanks for the advice.

Cashier, yes the Gardai have issued them with 'paperwork', I'm not quite sure what that's meant to mean but they are basically bound to keep the peace and not allowed breach a number of items on this list of Garda warnings.

However, they are breaching this warning on a daily basis and it is unbearable trying to live there. Every weekend for the last 6 weeks, we have left the house and stayed with friends, relatives and we had a weekend away in a hotel. It's impossible to live there and we're getting broken sleep from all the disturbances.

One positive thing that did come out is that the Gardai had to go to other neighbours that night about everything and EVERY single other neighbour told the Gardai how they couldn't stand these people and how they are so difficult and how everyone felt so sorry for us when we moved in. A small comfort, but it's great knowing we have the neighbourhood behind us. All the same, we cannot continue to live in that house, fearful for our safety, our health and our marriage.

Thanks for all your replies.

Buy or borrow two great big dogs and keep them with you when you are leaving the house.

Sylvia200 said:

Buy or borrow two great big dogs and keep them with you when you are leaving the house.

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Could be a bit dangerous as there is a child\baby in the house already.

truthseeker said:

Can you investigate selling the house to the local authority/council for them to put tenants into - the tenants will be complaining if the neighbours act against them and the council will have plenty of legal push to go after them in that case.

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The council will have no more legal powers than any householder. They may have (like any large organisation) easier access to legal resources, but they won't have any special powers. AFAIK, councils are not in the market for buying individual houses at the moment.

I have the greatest sympathy for the OP, but I also have the greatest sympathy for other potential purchasers. Put yourself in the shoes of the potential buyers, and ask how you'd expect to be treated.

Complainer said:

The council will have no more legal powers than any householder. They may have (like any large organisation) easier access to legal resources, but they won't have any special powers. AFAIK, councils are not in the market for buying individual houses at the moment.

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They will have easier access to legal resources - which is what I meant. Also if the council were owners of the property and put tenants in the council would be responsible for sorting the neighbours out, an organisation as opposed to a private individual who can be attacked or have their life made miserable.

Some areas are still desirable for councils buying properties - a friend has sold to one recently, but as Mrs O Brien says - it sold for less that it might have gotten on the open market.

I do feel for potential new buyers but perhaps they would not mind the noise, the previous occupants didnt seem to mind, you never know who would buy, it could be someone very hard core who would not be intimidated by the neighbours, it could be someone deaf who didnt notice the noise, it could be a guard who the neighbours would be afraid to intimidate.

I couldn’t agree more with you Complainer. I am already fraught with guilt – myself and my husband are so frazzled at the moment over what we will do if a young couple put a bid on the house.
It’s not so much the noise element that the main issue is….some people can tolerate noise (albeit, the noise that we experience is truly deafening). The other backlashes that we got from asking them to keep it down were much more serious and frightening.
The Gardai have even told us these people are v.dangerous. The man of the house’s brother is in prison for grevious bodily harm. Just shows the calibre of these people. Not to mention what they did to me. The Gardai have warned me not to be in the house on my own.
However, we are caught between a rock and a hard place. We can’t live there so the only option is to rent or to sell. We can’t rent as we are 100% sure that we would be unable to keep tenants in the house. The reasons being that these people hate us with a vengeance and would do anything and everything to drive tenants away, we know that for certain.
They have come to our door and threatened us saying ‘had better sell up..or else’. Honestly, you wouldn’t see a script like this in Eastenders.
So, our only option is to be driven from our home and to sell up. I am seriously afraid that they will do worse to us, that they will come in some night drunk or drugged to the nines and do some very permanent serious damage (even though what they did to me was v.permanent in that I lost the baby). I know they have a shotgun or rifle in the house too – the woman said that before to me that if ever anyone broke into their house they have the gun under their bed.
These people drink a lot and are so out of it half the time I’d bet anything there are hardcore drugs being taken too. The woman of the house is so possessed-looking when she is in one of her ‘rages’ that it is beyond the realms of normality.
So, if we don’t sell we have to continue to live there, which we cannot do. If we don’t sell we won’t have enough money to rent somewhere else. I really can’t see what choice we have.

truthseeker said:

Also if the council were owners of the property and put tenants in the council would be responsible for sorting the neighbours out, an organisation as opposed to a private individual who can be attacked or have their life made miserable.

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Where did you get this from, that councils are responsible for the behaviour of neighbours of council properties?

truthseeker said:

I do feel for potential new buyers but perhaps they would not mind the noise, the previous occupants didnt seem to mind, you never know who would buy, it could be someone very hard core who would not be intimidated by the neighbours, it could be someone deaf who didnt notice the noise, it could be a guard who the neighbours would be afraid to intimidate.

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Well then the OP should advertise the house as suitable for hard core, deaf or Gardaí, and not seek to unload their problem onto some other poor sucker.

what a great idea offer it for rent to a local gardai, at a discount rent.. tell him why.. let him live there and they may calm down. put it on the market whilst he is in there

then if the neighbours are better I think you could sell without worrying too much especially if you sell it at a discount at auction,.

OP- from a legal point of view, your solicitor will ask you:

'In relation to boundaries- is there a dispute with adjoining neighbours.' and

'Is there any litigation pending or threatened or has any Court Order been made in relation to the property or any part of it or the use thereof...'

As you can see, the legalities of selling a property are concerned only with anything that might threaten the title to the property. As solicitors we are not involved in personal disputes between neighbours or the disclosure thereof.

I'm not making a moral judgement here, just pointing out the legal position.

bluemac said:

what a great idea offer it for rent to a local gardai, at a discount rent.. tell him why.. let him live there and they may calm down. put it on the market whilst he is in there

then if the neighbours are better I think you could sell without worrying too much especially if you sell it at a discount at auction,.

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I think even Gardai like to have lives outside of their day job.

Complainer said:

Well then the OP should ......not seek to unload their problem onto some other poor sucker.

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Complainer while I see your point, we are in a very difficult situation. We have our baby to think of and her safety is 100% my utmost concern and I will do ANYTHING to protect my family.

If we stay in that house any one of us will potentially end up being further assaulted or have a mental breakdown or a marriage breakdown with the stress. Without going into specifics, my baby was targeted by the nut-job woman. Don't want to go into too much detail but a specific real threat was created for my baby.

we don't have a choice. Of course we want to stay there, but not with the torment we are going through at the moment. We are flat broke. Our accounts are in debit. We can't afford to move out now and rent somewhere else until it's sold. And yet we can't stay there.

we find ourselves in a very, very difficult situation and while I wouldn't wish this situation on my worst enemy, i really don't want to be judged for trying to sell my house to make life better for me and my family.

It's very hard to know what you would do until you are faced with a no-win situation like this. BTW I phoned the council. They're not buying anything now. If we want to rent to them, they want us to find the tenants and they then subsidise or something like that. Not interested in that, we wouldn't get tenants to stay.

Complainer said:

Where did you get this from, that councils are responsible for the behaviour of neighbours of council properties?


Well then the OP should advertise the house as suitable for hard core, deaf or Gardaí, and not seek to unload their problem onto some other poor sucker.

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Complainer that is a bit of a pious attitude. The OP has suffered quite horrendously in this house so I think she is quite entitled to put her own family first. If it were me I would do exactly the same. Do you have any meaningful suggestion for the OP here?

mrso'brien said:

Complainer while I see your point, we are in a very difficult situation. We have our baby to think of and her safety is 100% my utmost concern and I will do ANYTHING to protect my family.

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I understand this, and my heart goes out to you, and I've no idea what I would do in your shoes.

Having said all that, selling up without disclosing the problem really does seem like dumping the problem on someone else.

Complainer said:

Having said all that, selling up without disclosing the problem really does seem like dumping the problem on someone else.

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Maybe this is so, I don't know. But we are stuck between a rock and a hardplace here. I know after losing the baby that I can never get pregnant again while living in that house. I also know that our marriage could be in trouble with all the stress if it were to continue. And I also know that our safety is at risk.

Weighing up all those factors really doesn't leave us with much of a choice.

One could also say that the problem was passed on to us too from the previous owners. (I know from other neighbours that they had problems keeping the house rented until the last set of tenants moved in).

Maybe we are dumping the problem on someone else, but at the end of the day I will end up having a mental breakdown if we stay there. I don't see a choice in this and no outcome out of this situation is going to be the 'right' or 'fair' outcome for anyone.

The only 'right' or 'fair' outcome would be for the culprits next door to move away, preferably to a desert island where they couldn't hurt anyone.