Here is a question to the blog clinic from Sarah (not her real name) who is a landlord.
The neighbour of my tenanted house is contacting me and my agents weekly to complain about my tenant.
Sometimes it is noise in the early hours; sometimes it is about them having a barbecue and not tidying away properly; sometimes he is accusing them of smoking or fighting in the property. He often attaches photographs that barely back up his point as the mess isn’t really anything at all.
The neighbour is demanding that I evict the tenant as he is ‘intimidating his wife and children’ but can offer no explanation for this.
He also complained constantly about my last tenants who were also Eastern European.
My agents have been to the property and there are no signs of smoking, and the house is in good order. My agents have spoken to the tenant who denies he is doing anything wrong and is accusing the neighbour of harassing him and being racist towards him.
I am at my wit’s end. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Answer
This is a neighbour dispute and neighbour disputes are notoriously difficult to deal with.
First of all – the neighbour has no right to ask you to evict your tenants. Even if they were behaving badly (and obviously they are not) you cannot be held liable for their conduct unless, possibly, you actively encouraged some sort of bad behaviour.
But here the problem is not your tenants but the neighbour who sounds like an unpleasant person.
It’s difficult to know what to do and maybe readers can give some suggestions.
You could try telling the neighbour that he is guilty of harassment and that if he does not stop you will have to take action, although I doubt that would have much effect on him and there is probably in reality not much you can do.
The other suggestion is to maybe block the property off by growing high hedges in the garden so he can’t see, for example, when they have a barbeque.
But generally, there is not a lot you can do about difficult neighbours other than trying to ignore them as much as possible.
Do readers have any suggestions to help Sarah?
Most Local Authorities have a team that deals with Anti-Social Behaviour. The Landlord or the Tenant could contact that team to complain about the neighbour, or, the landlord may wish to tell the neighbour to take their complaint to that team.
It would also be helpful if the Landlord and Tenant kept a diary of complaints from the neighbour or dealings with the neighbour for future reference.
A hedge may work, or it could attract complaints about blocking out light etc.
With regard to the BBQs, There should be fewer of them for the next 6 months so that gets rid of one line of complaint.
I had exactly the same problem.
The neighbour even insulted me by saying he could get his girlfriend to speak to me in Greek as I didn’t seem to understand English. I was even told his girlfriend knew the law as she was a law student and had been studying for 3 months. I’ve been a solicitor for over 30 years!
I blocked him from my emails, phones and Facebook after threatening to report him to the police for harassment towards my tenant and myself.
I suggest try this as a first tactic and see what happens. Worked for me.
As has already been stated, you have no obligation to the neighbour either legally or contractually unless you actively encourage any nuisance.
Surely the neighbour has the right to ask you to evict the Tennant? Just as the land lord has the right to say no
Well, it depends on what you mean by ‘having the right to ask’. I suppose technically anyone has the ‘right’ to ask anything. Its whether the asking has any legal consequences.
What we normally mean by this phrase is ‘having the right to ask and for that request to be complied with’.
Neighbours generally have no right to require a landlord to evict their tenants. Although they may in very rare circumstances be entitled to claim compensation. I suppose in even rarer circumstances they could ask for an injunction but such a case would be very, very unusual.
Landlord should advise the neighbour that in law it is nothing to do with Landlord, and the neighbour should take the issue up with the council or police.
I believe that HMO licencing or selective licencing may impose conditions that mean this becomes an issue that the landlord is required to address in some way.