Flat-Living.co.uk
Disputes
Love thy neighbour? Roger Southam, owner of property management company Chainbow, reveals his personal experience with neighbour disputes and provides practical advice for leaseholders that face this dilemma. on how well drafted they are and what residential regulations have been provided. For example, if a lease prohibits pets or barbecues how much is it worth spending on legal fees or surveyors to pursue the breaches and how can a leaseholder be forced to comply at reasonable cost? Therefore, in some instances the lease terms can be a source for dispute and in these situations the managing agent needs to be firm and fair to ensure even handedness to all or real problems will result.
POTENTIAL DISPUTES
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iving in a block of flats comes with responsibility and a need for all to be considerate to each other. Some of the situations we as property managers have seen demonstrate just how differently people live, as well as how much some wish to dictate their neighbours’ lifestyle. This can be from general annoyances right through to fragrant abuse. It is always extremely difficult for the block manager to intervene or get embroiled in neighbour disputes. However, from our perspective this does not mean an agent buries their head in the sand. You only have to watch the occasional TV programme of ‘Neighbours from Hell’ to very quickly see that nothing is ever as it first seems. I remember one show where both neighbours complained about each other; one said that the other caused a lot of noise and the other that his neighbour was OCD on complaining about everything when nothing was wrong. Guess what? There wasn’t a lot of noise at all and the OCD guy was an obsessive complainer! Some say that the proliferation of Buy-to-Let’s have added to the issue on neighbour disputes, as it is felt people on assured shorthold don’t care as much as lease owners. From our experience, this is certainly not the case. It is an even balance between the two. Some owners are irresponsible and some tenants are irresponsible; it is certainly not all one way. Which brings it down to human nature and people either know how to live and let live and co-exist amicably or they don’t.
PEOPLE MEDDLING It would also be fair to say that disputes can arise from people meddling or wanting everything perfect as much as playing music loud. Over the years we have seen extremes where one tenant wanted someone stopped from smoking in a communal garden and talking on his mobile in an annoying voice! We had one resident management company director who wanted the resident of the flat opposite him stopped from hanging shirts in his window (as the lease only allowed curtains) and then went on to complain about the mess in the flat he could see! One would always assume that the lease would be the arbiter of all matters and the foundation to avoid disputes. Well, it really depends 22
So whilst the lease dictates living and environment standards for leaseholders it does not really avoid potential disputes. We have had serious situations where there has been threatening and abusive behaviour or music played loudly all night. The police and the local authorities are there for handling such matters but it is important that the managing agent brokers the situation to try and mitigate the situation and avoid it exacerbating. In doing this it is vital that a clear statement is given from the start to manage expectation and that the person or people affected need to engage with the authorities. The Local Authority noise control departments are normally fairly responsible and handle matters well. It does rely on working with them and not “calling wolf” on the situation.
