How to Deal With Neighbour Disputes

When you're having trouble with your neighbours, it can often seem very personal. After all, the issue is right at home, and, aside from moving home completely, it can seem very difficult to resolve or diffuse the problems.

There are many reasons why neighbours may fall out. However, it’s important to know that there are some things you can do.

Below, the experts at MyJobQuote.co.uk will go through the various actions you can take to overcome disputes with neighbours, as well as some tips on how to make your life better when you’re dealing with difficult neighbours.

How Do You Resolve Neighbour Disputes?

Approach Your Neighbour

It’s always best to start with an informal chat. Sometimes that can be enough to resolve the problems. Try speaking to your neighbour face to face, as it’s often much easier to express yourself in person rather than via a text or a written note. You don’t want to hurt your chances of coming to a peaceful resolution.

When speaking to your neighbour, you want to remain firm but polite. Avoid using any accusatory language that may cause your neighbour to become defensive rather than realising how their behaviour is affecting you and your family. If you're worried about approaching your neighbour in person, consider having a conversation over the phone if you can.

Try a Mediation Service

If you can’t resolve the issues by chatting with your neighbour, the next step would be to consider a mediation service. There are several mediation services that you can use if you can’t reach a compromise with your neighbour.

When you use a mediation service, a trained third party will play the part of a referee in your dispute. The goal here is to come to a resolution, taking both parties into account. You will usually need to pay a fee to hire a mediation service. However, the fee is usually much less than hiring a solicitor.

Get Support From a Residents’ or Tenants’ Association

If there is a residents’ or tenants’ association in your area, you may be able to get their support. The more people that complain about the neighbours, the better your chances will be at getting a successful resolution.

Getting support in this way will also make your complaint less personal. To find out more about your local residents’ or tenants’ association and to learn whether this is a route you can take, get in touch with your local council.

Contact Your Local Council

If the above methods fail, you can also try contacting your local council directly about the problems. They may be able to help you if the problems are due to a statutory nuisance.

Statutory nuisances could be things such as strong smells, artificial light, excessive rubbish, or excessive noise. Anything that could impact your health is classed as a statutory nuisance.

Hire a Solicitor

As a very last resort, you could consider taking your neighbours to court. This is a very expensive route to take and can often cost upwards of £20,000, so it's important to keep this in mind before going through with this.

If you do decide that you want to take your neighbours to court, the first thing you’ll need to do is speak to a neighbour dispute solicitor. A solicitor will talk you through the steps and explain the fees involved as well as the possible outcomes.

How to Improve Your Lifestyle When You Have Difficult Neighbours

Add Some Garden Privacy

You can make your garden more secluded from your neighbours and reduce any chances of arguments over the fence.

Below is a list of some of the best ways to improve the privacy of your garden:

• Install security gates
• Plant high hedges or get a wall or fence built in to raise the boundary between neighbouring properties
• Use low seating in the garden to maximise the height from the fence
• Use a gazebo, pergola, or parasol to shield your garden space from neighbouring upper-floor windows
• Install privacy screens to block off parts of your garden. You could also install acoustic fencing that can help to block out noises too

Maximising the height of the boundary is the best thing you can do to give you more privacy from difficult neighbours. Without planning permission, you can build a fence up to two metres high.

Consider hiring a gardener to create a plan for your garden that will result in better privacy.

Add Sound Proofing to Your Home

Noisy neighbours can be extremely annoying and can have a very negative effect on your mental health. Most people want their homes to be a peaceful and enjoyable environment. You want to feel like you can relax in your home and shut yourself off from the outside world. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible with noisy neighbours.

If you have to repeatedly ask your neighbours to keep the noise down but still find yourself being woken up by noise or having your activities disrupted due to loud sounds, you may want to consider soundproofing your home.

Soundproofing your home will prevent the sounds from your neighbours from travelling into your home. In addition, soundproofing will also shield noises from travelling through the walls to your neighbours, so you won't have to worry as much about being noisy yourself. Soundproofing can help to improve your home's privacy by preventing voice leaks and will also help to enhance your quality of life.

Keep Records

It's a good idea to keep records when you're having disputes with your neighbours. Keep note of every incidence, including noises, mess, and antisocial behaviour. Try to take pictures, videos, and recordings whenever you can so that you can provide proof of the disruption. Also, keep hold of anything you receive from your neighbours, such as notes. These will all act as evidence if you decide to take further action.

When collecting evidence against your neighbours, it’s important to be as specific as possible. This will come in handy at a later date. Try to include dates, times, and descriptions with every piece of evidence.

Final Thoughts

Neighbour disputes are not uncommon. However, it should never get to the point where it’s affecting your quality of life. Always try to take a proactive approach when dealing with neighbour disputes.

Try to address issues early and choose a non-confrontational approach. If you have no success when speaking to your neighbours, mediation services and your local council should be the next course of action. Legal action is a last resort step you can take in very severe situations.

It's never a nice feeling to live next to an enemy. You should always try to achieve a win-win solution with your neighbours so that everyone can go on with living their lives instead of living on the edge.