Is there anything that you would look out for when thinking about buying a house in relation to potentially problem neighbours?

We have been looking at potential properties for a while now and would be interested to know if people have taken any steps to check out their new neighbours before making an offer.

I did when buying my first house. Went along the street of an evening and at different times of the weekend to see what goes on - dogs, kids, comings & goings etc, parking.

Also ended up knocking on their neighbours doors (it was a row of terraced houses) and told them I was thinking of buying the house 2 doors down and had they had any issues with the neighbours. Maybe not the done thing, but if you don't ask you will never find out.

Any past problems and disputes should also be declared before contracts are exchanged, so if you end up living next door to a cannabis den with local mafia neighbours and police camped in the street, then you can sue your sellers.

But you'd still be living next door to nutters

I'm moving house. Don't live next door to me.

Forewarned and all that.

Be careful whatever you do. My brother was buying a house in Essex, it seemed a bargain. He wasn't sure because it was priced £20,000 short of it's true value and wasn't selling. So he staked the place out, driving through, parking up near the local shops and going to buy a drink or a paper, walking through the estate and back to his car. He'd spend a couple of hours a night there for about ten days to get a feel for what it was like, whether there was trouble on a weekend or if there were groups of kids hanging round. He ended up getting picked up by the Police as some woman had spotted him doing this and reported him for staking out the estate, as there had been a spate of burglaries in the area. They didn't really buy his story and it was only the lack of any evidence that stopped it going any further.

I wouldn't want to live next door to any of you, that's why I moved up here

And we, Chief, we're eternally grateful.

I've done all sorts of late, gone to places at all times, day and night.

One near the A1 who the estate agent assured me wouldn't be an issue at night, so when on a late shift at work, i drove up and parked next to the place, opened my window, reclined my seat and chilled for a good...
......2 minutes before i was sick of the noise.

Another place with hundreds of kids at certain times but never funnily enough when the estate agent was prepared to show me "It's a really quiet family area"...like sack it was quiet.

I'm now in Woolmer Green....bliss

Do your homework and yes definitely knock on potential neighbours doors, it's the biggest purchase of your life, be bold, be cheeky it's a damn site better than being miserable and regretful.

Aren't Estate Agents supposed to let you know, by law, if there are problems where you buy your house ?

I would've thought so but of course the big problem is that the estate agent is (effectively) employed by the seller.

What we need is a service that works on behalf of the buyer and so is accountable to the buyer.

As I mentioned on the previous page there is a pre-contract enquiry form that the seller MUST complete truthfully, so if they have any disputes with neighbours they have to disclose it at that point, if they don't then you can sue them afterwards.

As the Aardvark Lawman pointed out though, you only find that out after you've bought the house and even though you MIGHT be able to recover some money from the seller (if they have any ready cash to give you) its a legal process that will cost you and then you'll still have bad neighbours, you also have to be in the legal process (ie proceeding to contract) before all of these searches are carried out so if you decide to back out when you get the form back then you'll still have spent some money with your solicitor although it won't be an awful lot, believe it or not the solicitor is the lowest paid element in your house move.

That's the job of the Buyer's solicitor.

Make sure that the neighbours are owner occupiers if possible. The guy who bought the house next door to us decided to rent his house out and he seems to have a never ending supply of nutters and weirdos. Stories to tell there!