What rights do I have to stop my neighbour’s teenage son kicking a ball against their fence?
RECENTLY, our peace and quiet has been destroyed as our new neighbours have a young teenage son who spends hours kicking a football against the fence that belongs to them.
The thumping sound is very loud and so we no longer enjoy sitting in our own garden. What can we do about it?
J.P., via email
THE first step to take is to speak to your neighbours nicely and explain the distress this is causing you.
If it’s annoying you, the chances are the noise is also annoying them, so they may have sympathy with you. If your neighbours fail to resolve the problem for you, your next step is to keep a diary for a few weeks, recording the precise date and times when the disturbance occurs.
Armed with this you can approach your local council and make a complaint, stating that your neighbour is causing a statutory nuisance.
A statutory nuisance is any activity that is unreasonable or excessive and causes substantial interference with the enjoyment of your home, on a regular basis. By law, councils must investigate any complaints of statutory nuisances.
If your council decides in your favour, they can issue your neighbour with a noise abatement order. This is a notice that tells your neighbour what they need to do to comply with the order and outlines what will happen if they don’t – which is typically a fine of £5,000.
I’ve been paying a £400-a-month car lease for my daughter and her partner as they could not get credit.
They paid me back each month for a year but have now stopped. Can I get out of the lease?
B.N.D., via email
WHEN you enter into a finance agreement on behalf of someone else this is commonly referred to as ‘accommodation finance’.
While the concept is not illegal, these arrangements are frowned upon by most finance companies and many simply will not entertain them. Hopefully, in your case, this was fully disclosed to the finance company prior to commencement of the lease and it was made clear that you would not be the main driver.
Most finance agreements I have seen also ask for a declaration that you will be the registered owner and keeper of the vehicle, so you could be in tricky territory if this declaration was not given truthfully as this can amount to fraud.
Now, putting this issue aside to answer your question. You tell me that the lease is for four years. My view is that you therefore now have two options. The first is to get your daughter to transfer the ownership of the vehicle to you, so that you are recorded as both the registered owner and keeper of the vehicle (if you are not already) and, of course, to take physical possession of the vehicle.
You should then ask the finance company for a settlement figure, which is the amount of money needed to effectively pay off the finance.
Armed with this information you can ascertain if it is financially viable to sell the vehicle – i.e. will the sale price cover the settlement figure.
If this option is not viable, your only alternative is to keep the vehicle and carry on paying the finance until you reach the point where you have paid at least half the finance cost.
This is typically just over halfway through the term, which means in your case, you would have another year or so to go.
When you reach this point, you have the right to simply hand the car back to the finance company and demand that the lease is terminated.
Finally, remember that the vehicle needs to be insured, so you may have to take out a new policy.