Dealing with Nuisance neighbours

As a managing agent, we frequently get asked to intervene in disputes between neighbours. It’s important to note that managing agents do not include management of poor human behaviour in their management agreements as it is not in their gift to be able to control the behaviour of individuals. That said, there are some practical, low-cost steps that managing agents can utilise to assist and we will cover Common Ground’s approach to this later in this article.
The scope of this article is to provide leaseholders with ways to manage conflict with neighbours themselves in a non-confrontational and positive manner.
First off, we recommend keeping a diary of the nuisances and details of all attempts and interactions with neighbours in relation to the nuisance. Our suggested approach is a “tiered” approach to resolving nuisance but, should we have to progress to further stages, it’s important that ALL evidence is documented and retained.

1. Talk to your neighbour
   Often neighbours may be unaware of their behaviour and the distress it causes others. Speaking to your neighbour in a polite and non-confrontational manner is often the solution to this problem.
   If you feel uncomfortable doing this, then you can ask the managing agent and/or Freeholder to contact the nuisance neighbour, however, there may be costs associated with this. As I alluded to above, managing agents are paid to manage buildings not human behaviour.
2. Contact your local authority
   Most neighbour disputes in leasehold environments are based around noise and the local authority can assist in this respect. Noise can be regarded as a statutory nuisance and the local authority has the power to intervene by both issuing an abatement notice and following up with a fine if the nuisance continues.
   To get to the steps listed above, the council will usually require you to maintain a noise diary for up to two weeks. The local authority may write to the neighbour stating that continuance of the noise may result in proceedings against them.
3. Contact the police
   If the nuisance also harassment, threating behaviour, violence, abuse or any other criminal behaviour then contact the police.
4. Legal Action
   Prior to this step, you could attempt mediation (cheaper than legal action) but it does require the other party to engage with the process.
   Unfortunately, if you have reached this stage, the costs begin accruing. At this point, you will need to refer to your lease. It may require the freeholder to pursue action on your behalf (and they will require you to indemnify them against costs accrued).
   Alternatively, the lease may contain covenants that are mutually enforceable which means that a leaseholder can take legal action directly against another leaseholder for breach of the covenant.

Common Ground’s approach to nuisance management

Many leaseholders feel uncomfortable broaching nuisance issues with neighbours as it can lead to future awkwardness and we completely get this.
In practice, when we receive a nuisance report, we will do the following (1st three steps at no charge).
1. Log the complaint on our portal system such that the leaseholder raising the complaint can see details of actions taken but NO other party at the estate. We provide the leaseholder with a reference number.
2. We will send an email to the accused leaseholder politely asking them to moderate their behaviour and explaining what may happen if they don’t. This approach usually has quite a high success rate.
3. Monitor our portal system for similar complaints about the accused leaseholder.
4. If we receive multiple complaints, We will seek to intervene and recover our costs from the service charge account (if unable from the accused leaseholder).