Neighbours from heaven, honest

Neighbours from heaven, honest

You've made an offer on a house or apartment, it gets accepted and finally, after months of packing and legal work, moving day arrives. You're exhausted but excited at finally being under your own roof, so much so that you don't even mind sleeping on the floor for the first few nights because the bed you ordered is yet to arrive.

You bunk down for the night. And then at 2am the bass line of some old school hip-hop track starts throbbing through the walls. It might be the house of your dreams, but did you think to ask the sellers about the neighbours from hell?

It's an easy mistake to make, but even if you do ask what the neighbours are like you might not get truthful answer. Research from Halifax Home Insurance shows that sellers are likely to keep problematic neighbours a secret from prospective buyers.

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While it doesn't sound particularly honest or fair (or, in fact, legal), a seller may not want to jeopardise their chances of making a sale by admitting that the couple next door keeps them up every other night with their screaming matches, or that the neighbours to the left have a teenage son who, despite keeping his drum kit in the garage, can still be heard through the walls. Halifax reckons that if vendors admitted to a nuisance neighbour they risk losing £31,000 off their asking price.

Strictly speaking, they should be open with you if they have had any problems. A solicitor from law firm Mace & Jones explains: "Legally a seller must give honest and full replies to any inquiries made about neighbours from the buyer's solicitors and complete a Property Information Form, which specifically asks about whether the seller has made or received complaints from a neighbour.

"If the seller doesn't give honest replies the buyer could bring a claim of misrepresentation against them, which means the buyer could cancel the contract and walk away without any obligation before completion."

The ProblemNeighbours website advises sellers to inform buyers if they have ever had disputes with neighbours over land or shared maintenance responsibilities. But it also says, "Things like music being played loudly at night or if your neighbours have noisy kids don't need to be mentioned as these kinds of issues are often subjective anyway."

What do you think? Is there a moral obligation on sellers to be honest about problems with the neighbours? Is the onus on the buyer to find out, and how much would you disclose to a buyer if you had a noisy or nuisance neighbour and were trying to sell your house?

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2009