Vendors need good neighbours

CityLiving: Your neighbours can affect the value of your home, writes Edel Morgan

Everybody needs good neighbours - particularly when you are selling your property. You may have pulled out all the stops to maximise its value but a less than desirable neighbour can cause the market price to plummet. The brochure can fanfare how "rare" and "special" your property is but, if potential buyers get a whiff that your neighbour's lifestyle is less than compatible with theirs, it could jeopardise a sale.

According to Simon Ensor, a director of Sherry FitzGerald, househunters often enquire if the house adjoining is owner-occupied or rented. Rented properties can be a turn-off for those who fear transient occupants are likely to indulge in a party lifestyle. The reality, however, is that it's often easier to resolve problems with tenants than with owner-occupiers, should relations sour. A stern word from the landlord may be enough to sort the situation and, failing that, there is a mechanism to complain through the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PTRB), although this may take some time.

Alarm bells can sometimes ring during a viewing if the adjoining property looks dishevelled. "The most common scenario is that next door is not maintained to a reasonable standard, the grass is unkempt, bins are overturned and the back garden is full of rubbish. Or windows are broken and curtains are off the rails. Often in these cases the property is rented and the onus is on the landlord to keep adequate standards and, in those cases, the neighbours should put pressure on them to do so."

Ensor has come across situations where homeowners have offered to paint the exterior of a dilapidated house next door to boost the visual appeal of their own property. On one street, the neighbours clubbed together to paint the outside of three houses.

A far more delicate matter to tackle than sheer neglect is a neighbour's bad taste - which can be subjective. If your neighbours are intent on painting their house bright pink or slapping stone cladding or giant columns on the front, there is little you can do to stop them, unless there is a management company in the estate cracking the aesthetic whip. Simon Ensor believes that cosmetic blunders are often not the end of the world. "It can probably diminish the appeal of your house but for some people it doesn't matter. They will take the view that hopefully the neighbour will eventually see the light and change it."

Rebecca Penwill from HOK believes that a buyer may be prepared to put up with more in a sought-after area. "If it's a really nice neighbourhood and next door is rented and looks tatty, then it probably won't have too much of an effect but, if the whole street is a bit tatty, it could put people off. A bit rundown doesn't help but it's not necessarily going to put someone off if they want to buy in an area.

"If there's a business next door with a truck parked outside or a scrapyard in the garden or a garage, people are going to query it, and might be worried about the noise aspect." In these situations the property's popularity can take a nosedive. "The vendor might the region of what they're looking for but there won't be five people after it, there might only be one person."

Noisy and inconsiderate neighbours can prevent the speedy sale of residential property, a study by UK website propertyfinder.com has shown. The study found that househunters weigh up potential future neighbours before buying. Pensioners, childless couples and singles were most popular with house hunters, whereas squatters, students and families with teenage children were least favoured.

Around 80 per cent of the 25-35 age group liked the idea of sharing the school run and having children's tea parties and wanted to live next door to other families with children. Around 75 per cent of people aged 56 and above voted pensioners the ideal neighbour. Pensioner neighbours were viewed as invaluable as they spend more time at home, acting as an informal neighbourhood watch.

In the UK there is a legal responsibility on vendors to inform a buyer about any serious ongoing dispute with their neighbour. More commonly, the rows are over unresolved access problems, privacy issues and noise. In this country there is only a requirement to disclose such a dispute to the purchaser and their solicitor if litigation is involved. "If it's just a case of bad neighbours or bad neighbour relations then there's no onus," says Ensor.

He is often asked about the age profile of adjoining residents by prospective buyers "because they might hope that their children will have playmates". If the property next door was the home of an infamous gangster and has been seized by CAB, it will not affect the market value of yours, he says. The family home of murdered crime boss Martin Cahill in Rathmines sold at auction in June for €904,000, significantly below the asking price for neighbouring houses, which are fetching about €1.2 million, despite the notoriety of their former neighbour.

If next door was a murder scene "yes, it would affect the value of the house next door", says Rebecca Penwill, "but only around the time it happens. One or two months later, people forget about it and will go back and have a look." So, murder and underworld activities next door - no problem. Rubbish in the garden - criminal.