You’ve put up with his shit for six goddamn years. He propped a rusted Mustang up on cinder blocks for three years. Night after night, just as you were trying to fall asleep, there he’d go, drunkenly yelling at his wife for not having enough mayonnaise on his sandwich (or something other topic; presumably she rapidly ascertained the correct amount of mayonnaise quickly).
His Labrador shits on your lawn every morning. He has a ridiculously oversized American Flag that he special ordered from bigassflags.com, which completely covers your house in shadow after 3PM. He tried to dig a tunnel from his backyard into your basement “to see if he could.” He leaves his Christmas tree up for 9 months a year. He keeps getting drunk and mistakenly trying to enter your house.
But it was when his kid was born that you decided, fuck this neighbor, I’m leaving. The little shit smashes the vegetables in your garden and is impossibly loud for fifteen hours of the day.
So you’re selling the house. Do you tell the buyer about these neighbors? Personally, I wouldn’t say a fucking word, and would hope to turn this into someone else’s problem as fast as possible.
Nope. I am trying to sell the place after all. Plus, one man’s annoying neighbor is another man’s best friend. On the whole, I try not to make a habit of saying “I don’t like John Smith, avoid him”; I occasionally slip but I don’t want to be the kind of person who talks about others behind their backs.
No. But, I’d have built a spite fence once it got that bad (of course you can’t soundproof it, but at least the dog and kid would stop getting into your shit).
What?! The rest of the stuff is pretty normal shitty neighbor stuff, but this? Can you fill us in on the rest of the story? Cause I can’t imagine any circumstances where that’s not some full-on DEFCON 1 shit, right there.
As far as I know, you’re only required to disclose information about the house itself if there are known issues. Besides, how could a law possibly define what must and must not be disclosed about a neighbor?
And as was said already, one man’s neighbor from hell is another’s best buddy.
I think it would be polite to let the buyer know at this point, in case he wants to increase the size of his mortgage slightly and have the guy whacked.
sorry folks, but I have to disagree. I think you follow the Golden Rule on this one, especially if you think the new owners will have the same frustrations you did.
You don’t need to be specific about the neighbor issues, but mentioning it generally at least absolves you of any post-sale guilt. You don’t need to scare buyers, you can just inform them of general issues. And frankly if they really like the place they are not going to not buy it because of what you’ve said about the neighbors, unless of course they witness the shenanigans themselves.
In my mind it is not unethical to say nothing, but it is certainly considerate to say something.
I don’t say a damn word. If the buyers are smart, they’ll go talk to the other neighbors in the area and find out for themselves. If they’re not, well, their loss.
That said, if the buyer is a nice elderly couple looking for a quiet stress-free place to live because of the husband’s delicate heart condition, I might feel morally obligated to say something. Otherwise, no.
I would think this would be the sort of thing the buyer’s agent would check up on and disclose to his clients. When we were looking to buy, our agent knew a lot of stuff about various neighbors and the “climate” of the street of the houses we were looking at.
Well, now that it is permanently in print online, you kind of *have *to, or risk them finding out what you just said today and suing the pants off of you.
What did the previous owners of your house tell you about the neighbors or did they move in after you? It sounds like their property might give off such a vibe that you won’t have to say anything.
