You’ve planned out your finances for the next 25 years, lost weekend after weekend to viewings and finally found your dream home.

And then, on your first night after getting the keys, you hear it: the muffled boom of drum and bass through paper-thin walls. At 11.23pm. On a Tuesday.

Turns out, you’ve spent an obscene amount of money buying a house next to a public nuisance.

It’s probably little comfort, but you’re not alone. In a survey of 1,000 homeowners by Good Move, 64% said they’d had “problems” with neighbours and one in 10 said it had got so bad they’d complained to the council.

Buyers beware

Sellers are legally obliged to disclose details of previous or ongoing disputes with neighbours in a Property Information Form (TA6) – failure to do so could lead to legal action.

The questions are limited, though, and how are you going to prove your seller knew about the drum and bass?

Read all the latest Money news here

“In reality, you have very few rights,” one estate agent insider told Money.

“You will never know if an agent has neglected to tell you about nuisance neighbours or if the seller did not tell the agent. A seller is hardly likely to volunteer the info if there have been any disputes.”

So maybe it’s the case that of all the roles you’ve had to master in the buying process – arranging surveys, scouring legal documents, packing everything you own – there’s one role you should have dedicated a bit more time to: detective.

We’ve spoken to top buying agents to get their advice on how to sniff out problem neighbours – and rounded up some of the lesser known tools that could save you a literal and figurative headache…

External clues

Henry Sherwood from The Buying Agents says most disputes arise from either noise or money issues.

“If the neighbouring property or building looks neglected, it probably means the neighbour does not have the funds to maintain it, or does not want to,” he said.

“If [it’s] an apartment, check out the communal parts on the floors above and below. Look for prams and excessive bikes that may indicate screaming babies or student flat shares.”

Flats with a porter/concierge are better protected, Sherwood says, as they are controlled by a management company and have someone onsite. Most flat leases also have sections relating to the type of renting allowed.

List of noise complaints

Some local councils keep a public register of noise complaints by postcode.

Here’s an example of Leeds City Council’s noise complaints register.

Next Door app (and local groups)

This is an app where local residents post about events, lost cats, bin collection dates and, inevitably, noise issues.

A simple search of “noise” in one area of north London found all of these complaints within the last month – and in each case the exact street was named:

• A second loud party on a weeknight on a small, residential street;
• A resident renovating his house in a loud and disruptive fashion. Alongside a photo of a huge pile of discarded bricks, the complainant says: “It has now been over six weeks of disruption through the summer holidays with no clear end date and neighbours being ignored”;
• Another resident living in an end terrace wrote that his walls were paper thin and he could hear his neighbour slamming doors and running up and down stairs;
• A photo of building work, with a resident complaining it was going on until midnight on a Sunday.

Away from the app, search out local groups on social media and see if you can join. Chances are, any serious issues will have been raised on there.

Speak to the neighbours

Not everyone is confident enough to knock on doors – but our survey on social media suggests most people think it’s perfectly acceptable.

91% of around 5,000 respondents said they’d make up an excuse to talk to a neighbour to suss out what they’re like.

“Just say you are thinking of buying the property next door and wondered what the parking was like at 4pm etc,” said Sherwood.

He says Sundays are a good day to bump into neighbours.

The internet is full of woeful tales of people who didn’t do their research.

In a thread on this topic on Mumsnet, Mommabear20 wrote: “Definitely knock on doors! We didn’t and regret it so much! Have a neighbour (over the road, terraced street, that has threatened to blow their house up at least six times in the last three years causing an evacuation of the entire area every time!”

If you do knock, be polite.

Sam Edington, director at Edingtons buying agent, said: “We recommend doing so casually and respectfully, simply introducing yourself, asking friendly, open questions about the area, and observing day-to-day life.”

Airbnb

Henry Sherwood advises to look out for combination locks at the entrance to apartments – this is a giveaway that someone inside has listed on Airbnb.

Having a rolling cast of overnight guests might not bring problems, but you should consider if it’s a risk you want to take.

You could also search on Airbnb for the area you’re looking to buy – you may get lucky and find one of your immediate neighbours, in which case you can have a virtual snoop around their house for clues about their lifestyle.

Crime stats

While it won’t provide information on your specific neighbours, sites such as Police.uk allow you to check and map crime stats in a local area.

Find out if your neighbour is a landlord

Many councils keep a public register of licenced landlords or houses of multiple occupancy.

For example, Enfield Council allows you to type in your postcode – any landlords on your street will appear. Buckinghamshire Council lets you download an excel spreadsheet of HMOs.

Sam Edington deals in a higher end of the market and recalls only one nightmare neighbour scenario in his 23 years in the industry – it involved a tenant.

“We acted for a charming client buying a beautiful flat just off Hampstead Heath, and shortly after they moved in, a belligerent tenant with substance abuse issues arrived in the building, causing several months of distress.

“Fortunately, with our guidance, complaints to the managing agents and the council helped resolve the situation and restore calm.”

Ask questions of the seller

Henry Sherwood says it is essential to ask if a seller knows their neighbours and whether they’re owner-occupiers or renters.

If you meet the owner, ask them questions – chances are they’re not going to reveal negative details, but the more questions you ask, the harder a lie is to maintain.

Read more:
The supercommuters taking 24-hour journeys to the office
‘My £1.2k TV broke… but they won’t give me money back’

Ask them questions like: are you friends with your neighbours, have you ever had any issues with noise, are there any resident WhatsApp groups.

“If you don’t meet the owner, don’t be afraid to prepare a list of questions for the seller about the neighbours and be specific,” said Sherwood.

Get your solicitor to ask questions

An experienced property solicitor is vital to ask the right questions as the purchase progresses.

Sherwood said: “During the enquiries phase of the conveyancing you can ask your solicitor to ask if there have been any disputes or altercations. The seller is less likely to lie if it goes through legal channels and there is a record of it.”

How many times has the house sold recently?

“Stability is a good sign,” says Sam Edington, so it’s worth asking, or trying to find out, how long neighbours have been around.

Sites such as Zoopla and Rightmove have some historical sale and listing data that could help establish if the property you’re buying has struggled to sell or been sold multiple times in recent years.

The latter could be a red flag that’s worth further investigation.

Planning permission

The planning section of local council websites will inform you of any proposals or active plans in the area where you’re buying.

This will cover things like extensions that could alter your view or result in a period of building work.

Google Earth/Street View

You can use this tool to find out how the area has changed over the years…

This is unlikely to provide you with that crucial bit of information, but you’re trying to build a picture.

Golden rules

Henry Sherwood has a golden rule he shares with clients: “Never buy without viewing a minimum of twice, once during the week and once at the weekend.

“If possible, also take a look from the outside late night after agents have shut at 9pm or 10pm. Check out the times that are important to you.

You may just get unlucky

Ultimately, there’s no way to guarantee a peaceful and quiet co-existence.

Sherwood said: “There are no guarantees who your neighbours will be long term as the current owners could sell, rent it, turn into an HMO or Airbnb.”

Back on the Mumsnet thread we mentioned earlier, a poster called Thirtytimesround illustrated the point: “We popped back a few times at different times of day to just sit in car near house and listen to see if anyone noisy. It helped. But honestly so much luck is involved.

“Like, we bought in a quiet road in a smart area and my neighbours are a lovely, kind, generous couple in their forties. And their bedroom is the other side of the wall from ours and they have very noisy sex 😐 Plus shortly after we moved in they bought a dog that barks all the frickin’ time and then their son took up the drums. Nothing we could have done to discover that before we moved in – it’s just luck.

“We are probably gonna move because of them!!”

Police have been granted new powers to impose conditions on repeat protests to “close a gap in the law”, the home secretary has said.

Shabana Mahmood told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that the changes, announced earlier in the day, would allow communities to “go about their daily business without feeling intimidated”.

Politics Live: Conservative party conference gets under way

It follows the arrests of nearly 500 people during demonstrations in support of the proscribed group Palestine Action in central London on Saturday.

Protesters defied calls to rethink the event in the wake of the Manchester synagogue terror attack on Thursday, in which two Jewish worshippers were killed.

The new powers will allow police forces to consider the “cumulative impact” of protests, assessing previous activity, when deciding to impose limits on protesters.

The limits that could be imposed include moving demonstrators to a different place or “restricting the time that those protests can occur”, Ms Mahmood said.

She added: “It’s been clear to me in conversations in the last couple of days that there is a gap in the law and there is an inconsistency of practice.

“So I’ll be taking measures immediately to put that right and I will be reviewing our wider protest legislation as well, to make sure the arrangements we have can meet the scale of the challenge that we face.”

The changes will be made through amendments to the Public Order Act, and anyone who breaches the new conditions will risk arrest and prosecution.

‘More flexibility to prevent disruptive protests’

The home secretary has written to chief constables in England and Wales to explain the new powers.

She wrote: “The government will bring forward legislation to increase the powers available to you to tackle the repeated disruptive protests we have seen and continue to provide the reassurance to communities that they need.

“Through upcoming legislation, we will amend sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 to allow senior officers to consider the cumulative impact of protests on local communities when they are imposing conditions on public processions and assemblies.

“This will allow you more flexibility to prevent disruptive protests from attending the same location and instruct organisers to move to a different site.”

The Greens and the Lib Dems said it was an attack on the right to protest.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski told Sky News: “Giving police sweeping powers to shut down protests because of their ‘cumulative impact’ is a cynical assault on the right to dissent. The whole point of protest is persistence; that’s how change happens. Do you think the suffragettes protested once and then gave up?”

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson said this will “do nothing” to tackle antisemitism “while undermining the fundamental right to peaceful protest”.

Earlier, Ms Mahmood said the right to protest was a “fundamental freedom” but this must be balanced “with the freedom of their neighbours to live their lives without fear”.

In a statement she said: “Large, repeated protests can leave sections of our country, particularly religious communities, feeling unsafe, intimidated and scared to leave their homes. 

“This has been particularly evident in relation to the considerable fear within the Jewish community, which has been expressed to me on many occasions in these recent difficult days.

“These changes mark an important step in ensuring we protect the right to protest while ensuring all feel safe in this country.”

Tories ‘will support’ measures

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said her party will “of course support” the new measures but asked why it took “so long” for them to be introduced.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she claimed that what happened in Manchester was foreseeable and not enough has been done to address fears over safety in the Jewish community.

Ms Mahmood addressed the Jewish communities’ concerns after being shown a clip of deputy prime minister David Lammy being heckled at a vigil on Friday.

She told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips the government “of course” hears their strength of feeling and is “committed to dealing with antisemitism in all of its forms”, pointing to the “strengthening” of police powers announced today.

Asked if the reaction to Mr Lammy reflected anger at the government’s decision to recognise a Palestine state, she said it was important not to “elide” Thursday’s attack with the situation in the Middle East.

“People are entitled to their views and of course we were there to hear those views. What I would say is that the attack that took place, the person that’s responsible for that attack is the attacker himself,” she said.

“And, of course, four other people are in custody and the police investigation does need to take its course. It’s important that we don’t elide that into the wider questions of what’s going on in the Middle East.”

A man who helped barricade the Manchester synagogue has described how the terror attack unfolded.

Alan Levy said he was in the car park in the grounds of Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall when the incident started and he saw the attacker, who he called a “jihadist monster”.

“I was there when he crashed his car into the synagogue gates and ran down the security guard that was there and attacked a volunteer security guard and tried to gain access into the synagogue,” Mr Levy said in an interview with Sky News’ people and politics correspondent Nick Martin.

It was then that Mr Levy ran into the synagogue and sought to lock it down.

He and other congregants helped barricade the doors to stop the attacker from getting inside, as “he was shoulder-charging the doors trying to get in”.

“He was throwing plant pots at the glass. He was using a knife to try and get in. These brave men basically saved the community from further harm,” Mr Levy said.

“All I was thinking was ‘we’ve got to keep these doors closed’.

“He was trying each door in turn. When we realised which door he was going to, we moved doors so there was more pressure on the doors to keep them closed.”

Two people were killed in the attack on Thursday, including one who died from a police bullet fired as officers shot dead the perpetrator, Jihad al Shamie.

The victims were named as Adrian Daulby, 53, a member of the congregation, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, a worshipper at the synagogue.

What we know about the synagogue attack in Manchester

Mr Levy’s son, Marc, described the moment he first received news of the attack and said “it’s impossible to articulate the worry and concern” as he didn’t know whether his family was safe or not.

“I first knew that there was an incident when my phone started lighting up repeatedly and I realised that there was an attack on my synagogue,” he said.

“It’s a place where all my childhood memories of worshipping… pretty much going there throughout my whole life.

“I knew at that time that my father would have been on security at that time, as he is every morning, given that him and his friends are some of the first people who arrive.”

He said it was only when he saw his father on Sky News’ live feed that he realised he wasn’t one of the victims.

Six people were arrested over the attack but two have been released without charge.

Police revealed the attacker had been on bail over a suspected rape, but wasn’t on the radar of counter-terror police.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating the shooting – this is standard practice when a member of the public is killed – and will examine “whether police may have caused or contributed to the death” of Mr Daulby.

Al Shamie, 35, was named as the attacker on Thursday and is believed to be of Syrian descent.

He is understood to have been granted British citizenship when he was around 16, having entered the UK as a young child.

Police shot him dead seven minutes after the first emergency call as they feared he was wearing an explosive device – later identified as a fake.