People don’t think enough about who’s next door when they move house, but you really should find out!
Everyone knows the value of a great neighbour. That person you can trust with a spare key, who will ring you when there’s someone suspicious outside your front door, who will lend you some flour in times of need. And above all, that person who doesn’t keep you awake until 3am every night with house parties, barking dogs or forays into swinging. However, the difficult thing is that you never really know who you’re moving in next door to.
A survey by PriceYourJob.co.uk found that out of 2,341 homeowners, 75 per cent would pay more money for a house if the neighbours had a well-kept garden or driveway with no overflowing rubbish bins.
People felt this suggested the neighbours wouldn’t drive them wild – yet in reality someone could have a delightfully neat row of rhododendrons and also have pet pythons who regularly escape.
‘A very real issue’
Russell Quirke, a property expert at movinghomeadvice.com, says that people don’t think enough about who’s next door when they move.
“It’s a very real issue,” he tells i. “A large proportion of people move because of neighbour problems. It becomes draining, anxiety-inducing and a mental health issue.”
While there is no such thing as a Neighbour Detective – although he thinks there should be – Quirke says there are things it is worth doing before renting or buying a new place to scope out who lives close by.
While there is no such thing as a Neighbour Detective – although he thinks there should be – Quirke says there are things it is worth doing before renting or buying a new place to scope out who lives close by.
A search of the land registry for the postcode you’re planning to move to will also help you find anything untoward, says Quirke.
Tell-tale signs
“Look for tell-tale signs, for example a road where lots of people have moved very recently. If you’re looking at number seven Acacia Avenue and numbers three, nine, two, eight and 14 have all moved recently, that may point to there being an issue at number five…”
It’s a good idea to find an excuse to knock on some doors, chat to locals, and see if you can get a sense of anything negative.
And finally, says Quirke, go back to the road at different times of day. “People make up their mind on a house very quickly and will have one or two viewings, probably at 10 or 11am on a Saturday morning.
And finally, says Quirke, go back to the road at different times of day. “People make up their mind on a house very quickly and will have one or two viewings, probably at 10 or 11am on a Saturday morning.
Of course, there’s always the risk that your lifestyle is too raucous for nice, quiet neighbours. If you own 15 snakes or you want a lively local pub that plays techno sets until 5am, look for neighbours who are similar.
Either way, it’s worth finding out before the curtain twitching begins.
Neighbours from HELL: The top 10 anti-social nightmares who caused misery for their victims
There are some neighbours who help you weed the garden and there are others who wee on your lawn – they are called neighbours from hell.
The diabolical, dotty and downright dangerous nuisances next door cause misery to their victims.
Some of the lengths these nightmarish folk go to make life difficult are extraordinary.
There is one 66 year-old man who terrorised his neighbours by sunbathing NAKED and another man who tried to blow up his STREET.
But one of the worst is a moustached man driven from his home by a a gang of thugs who stood outside his property doing NAZI salutes.
Our rogues gallery is enough to make you hurry into the house and shut the curtains in fear.
You have been warned: these crazy residents are bad to the bone.
- Norman Thompson
Nutty Norman Thompson blasted Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech in the early hours before being evicted by his council.
The 68-year-old, from Leek, Staffordshire, also played Frosty the Snowman in the summer prompting complaints by his furious neighbours.
But Norman refused to accept the blame and accused his neighbours and the council of a “conspiracy” to get him chucked out.
2. Hugh McLaughlin
The 66-year-old, from the north Wales seaside town Rhyl, loved to sunbathe.
Sadly, Hugh McLaughlin ruined the summer for blushing neighbours – who he complained to police about – because he liked to do it naked in his back garden.
McLaughlin was found guilty of harassment and jailed for 120 days at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court.
3. Michael Lawton
Angry Michael Lawton had a cunning ploy to get rid of his neighbours from hell – he set fire to a petrol station in a bid to
blow his street up! The 54-year-old reached the end of his tether after his windows were smashed, car tyres let down and eggs
thrown at his house by yobs. A judge said his plan could have been “catastrophic” before sentencing Lawton to two-and-a-half years in jail.
4. Alan Markovitz
Spurned Alan Markovitz owns a number of strip clubs in Detroit but that doesn’t mean he’s a cheat. In fact, ex-wife Lea Tuohy was the one started an affair with another man while she was still married to Alan. So he splashed out $7,000 on a 12 foot tall bronze statue giving the middle finger to Lea’s new beau.
5. Gemma Walker
Insatiable Gemma Walker likes sex. She loves it, in fact. And she wanted her neighbours to know when she did it.
The 31-year-olds raucous sex sessions of yells and “loud whoops” were likened to the famous fake orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally.
6. Dawn Pugh Jones
Jobless Dawn, from Penparcau, mid-Wales was a neighbour from hell who destroyed her council house by having constant loud parties.
Pugh Jones, 41, had more than a staggering 80 criminal convictions and was evicted using a Possession Order and AntiSocial Behaviour Injunction.
She created so much damage to the house, including holes in walls, greasy kitchen and worn carpets, the property took around six months to fix.
7. Derek Morris
Poor Derek has a moustache that some thugs thought made him look like Hitler.
So they made Mr Morris’s life a misery by turning up in their droves to do Nazi salutes and shout “seig heil” outside his house. After a year of hell, Derek, 55, and wife Carol, sold up – with a £20,000 loss – to escape the persecution.
8. Gavin Townroe
This pop music loving neighbour from hell was given a suspended jail sentence for playing the Spice Girls at all hours.
When enforcement officers called after dozens of complaints, the 1998 chart-topper Viva Forever was blaring out.
Gavin Townroe, 33, said he was too drunk to remember playing the music and he was given a six week suspended sentence for breaching an Asbo.
9. Maria Jiminez
Mum-of-two Louise Thomas, 37, moved next door to Jiminez’s house in Manchester in May 2011.
But she struggled to call her new house a home because of Maria Jiminez’s late night partying, loud music and she even urinated in her neighbour’s garden.
After a reign of terror, Jiminez was finally evicted after Louise’s six-year-old daughter drew a harrowing picture of what life was like living next door.
10. Zbigniew Filo
This 24 year-old was a boy-racer who sped his Ford Escort around the village of Lubczyna in Poland.
But his neighbours had enough of his petrol head antics and decided to teach Zbigniew a lesson.
So they used a CRANE to hoist his car into a tree and the prank worked wonders on the driver, who promised to tone down his wild ways.
(Article source: Various)
