Most landlords should all be familiar with the process of tenant-checking; after all, a problem tenant can cripple a rental business. But how many landlords check into their tenants’ future neighbours with as much scrutiny?

Having a property in an antisocial neighbourhood can increase your tenant turnover dramatically, meaning that you spend more money on finding new tenants and lose more money through rental voids.

Bad neighbours can also affect your resale value. Since the Property Misdescriptions Act was repealed in 2013, property sales have been governed by the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 ^{1, 2}, which prevent sellers from making “misleading omissions” that could affect a buyer’s decision ³. This can include problems with neighbours.

Researching the neighbourhood

 

Of course, researching your neighbours is not as simple as requesting a couple of references. Most of the time, a bit more detective work will be required.

Some of it can be done from behind a keyboard. The Police.UK website is home to an excellent interactive crime map that details the locations of every crime reported in an area and allows you to filter the crimes by nature and month reported. This means that you can not only identify problems, but also see how persistent they are.

Note: Police.UK only serves England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Landlords in Scotland can visit Scotland.Police.UK to read about crimes and crime-fighting initiatives in their area and to find contact details for their community policing team.

It might also be possible to find out which reports of anti-social behaviour were escalated to the court level by contacting your neighbourhood policing team or local authority’s anti-social behaviour team. They may be able to tell you about anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs), noise abatement notices or other similar reprimands that have been issued in your area. Note that you will not be able to obtain personal information on individuals subject to these notices, as this will be in contravention of data protection law ^{4, 5}; however, you may be able to glean more general information.

If you do visit the neighbourhood yourself, do so at different times of day or night to get an idea of what it is like at all hours. Dogs barking at the crack of dawn or parties running into the small hours of the morning won’t be evident issues in the middle of the day.

Finally, remember that the same consumer protection legislation that would haunt you down the line as a seller is one of your greatest assets now as a buyer. The vendor is obliged to disclose everything that might affect your decision to buy the property, which includes disputes with neighbours – but don’t rely on mandated honesty! Ask every pertinent question you can think of and don’t shy away from reminding the seller of their legal obligations. It is better to remove all doubt when you are able.

Written by Ben Gosling for www.commercialtrust.co.uk

References

[1] The Property Misdescriptions Act 1991 (Repeal) Order 2013
[2] Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, Sch 2 para 83
[3] Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, s 6
[4] Publicising Anti-Social Behaviour Orders. Home Office. Retrieved 3 Mar 2015.
[5] https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/statutory_nuisance_and_abatement