HOME TRUTHS: Mystery of bungalow that will never sell

Ross Clark answers reader' queries...

My neighbours have put their bungalow on the market twice a year for the past ten years.

People try to buy it, but when they get to the point of exchanging contracts – after paying considerable fees – the owners pull out saying they haven’t been able to find anything for them to buy.

Unless this couple run a conveyancing company, it is hard to see how they are profiting from this, therefore I assume that they are chronically indecisive and are wasting their own time and money.

Why aren't my neighbours completing on the sale of their bungalow?

I can’t see how agents can be blamed for taking this property on to their books. Potential buyers of any property should always ask vendors: How long has it been on the market; has it been on before and a sale fallen through, and if so why?

NEIGHBOUR’S WATER IS BLOCKING DRAIN

My next door neighbour has piped the waste from his washing machine into our jointly owned rainwater gully which is now permanently filled with foul smelling grey water as the rainwater soakaway is blocked with soap.

Your neighbour is one of 300,000 homeowners guilty of an offence by discharging ‘grey water’ – waste water from baths, sinks and domestic appliances – into the surface drainage system untreated.

You should direct him to the information on the Sewer National Action Programme at www.water.org.uk. If he fails to do anything, contact your local water company.

HE HAS NO RIGHT TO ‘SMASH DOWN’ ROOF

Our house has been adjoined to next door with a fixed flat roof for 30 years, making an enclosed passageway. A new neighbour has threatened to ‘smash it down’. Has he the right to do so?

Had you recently built this passageway without permission from the neighbour to whose home the roof is attached, he would have every right to demand that you remove it and make good any damage you had caused to his wall.

If the roof was built years ago with permission, or the houses were built like that, there is nothing your neighbour can do.

For him to ‘smash down’ your extension would constitute criminal damage, and you should contact the police if he repeats the threats.

Contact Ross with your own query at ross.clark@mailonsunday.co.uk

Source http://www.dailymail.co.uk/