Owning a home can be quite a learning experience. All kinds of things you never had to know about during your carefree days of paying rent suddenly become crucial knowledge, like what a roof system is, or how to identify lead pipes. Another fun term you might have to learn, especially if you have nightmarish neighbors? Something called “external obsolescence.”
External obsolescence is when the value of your property is negatively impacted by someone else’s property—like a dramatically overgrown or junky yard, or obvious damage to the roof or exterior of the home. As irritating as a slowly collapsing house is visually, it can also lower your home’s value by 5 to 10%, which can be a huge amount of money.
Worse, if your neighbor is ignoring any aspect of their home’s upkeep, it could even damage your property—a tree that should have been trimmed or removed falling on your roof, for example. You could easily lose sleep over the potential impact of a neighbor’s neglected home, but there’s one obvious problem: It’s not your property, so what can you do about it?
Gather info
Your first step in any dispute with your neighbors is to talk to your neighbors. It’s easy to imagine that someone who’s letting their house fall apart around them is doing it out of some weird malice towards you specifically—or perhaps the human race more generally—but you don’t actually know why your neighbor has decided to allow an advanced civilization of mosquitoes to breed in their green, sludgy, neglected pool, or why they’re not worried that their obviously dilapidated chimney is about to crash down on your roof. So your first step is to check in and politely ask. It’s possible that your neighbor is suffering health or financial difficulties that prevent them from doing the required maintenance, or perhaps weren’t aware of its impact on you.
If your neighbor isn’t forthcoming, or you conclude that they are unwilling to improve the situation for some reason, your next step is to research your local laws. If your neighborhood has a Homeowners Association (HOA) or other governing organization, check the bylaws to see if your neighbor is in violation. If there’s no HOA, check local laws to see if your neighbor is breaking any—for example, some areas may require a perimeter fence, so a neighbor who has allowed their fence to collapse into a rotting mess would be in violation of the law.
Finally, document any deferred maintenance that threatens your property—take photos and make notes. Hopefully, you won’t need this material, but if you wind up having to sue or make a formal complaint it will be invaluable.
Offer to help
If your neighbor is unable to make repairs or maintain their property due to physical, financial, or other limitations, you could offer to assist. You could try to rally everyone else in the neighborhood to tackle some repairs or landscaping, for example, or you could work out an arrangement with your neighbor wherein they let you perform or pay for some repairs—which might be worth it to you if it keeps your property values higher, or prevents damage to your home.
You should make any offers of assistance in writing, keep all correspondence between you and your neighbor, and make notes of any in-person discussions, however—if you wind up having to make a formal complaint or file a lawsuit, these records will be vital.
Contact authorities
If you can’t resolve the situation by being helpful or via social pressure, use the information you gathered. Start by informing your neighbor (in writing) that if they don’t resolve the problems promptly, you’ll be making a complaint to the HOA or the city—give them a clear deadline, and then follow through. An HOA will fine them, and may even have the maintenance done and then assess the costs from your neighbor. Local governments can also force your neighbor to make repairs under certain circumstances and your neighbor could be fined if they don’t comply.
Again: Know your neighbor’s deal before you potentially ruin their lives by raining down official complaints.
Legal action
If all else fails, you may have to sue your neighbor. If you’ve suffered actual damage to your property as a result of your neighbor’s lack of maintenance you can sue them in small claims court to recover the cost of the repairs.
Keep in mind that to be successful in your suit you will probably need to demonstrate that you attempted to resolve the situation amicably. That’s where all your record-keeping of your attempts to discuss the problem with your neighbor will come into play.
If you haven’t suffered actual damage to your property, you can still sue your neighbor under nuisance laws. There are two kinds of legal nuisance: Private nuisance prevents you from enjoying your property—a neighbor who throws loud parties every night and prevents you from sleeping, for example—and public nuisance, in which a group of people are affected (e.g., you and your other neighbors). You probably won’t get damages for winning a nuisance case—rather, a court might issue an injunction ordering your neighbor to resolve the problem. But to win a nuisance case you need more than just an eyesore of a house or difficult-to-prove claims of lower property values. You will usually have to demonstrate a threat to your safety or health—a dead tree that could potentially smash into your house if it falls during a storm, for example, or the aforementioned mosquito farm.