Neighbours' most annoying habits

Reading is sixth most annoying city in recent survey

“WHAT are the neighbours like?” is often the most dreaded question for home sellers, as the answer can be a deciding factor for potential buyers.

In a recent survey, more than 3,000 Brits were asked to choose their top three annoying neighbour habits – with a specific focus on the garden – in a bid to discover which outdoor practices we find most annoying.

The study revealed the most annoying neighbour habit - 59 per cent - is changing/removing shared features, such as fences, trees, without consent.

Neighbours who frequently intrude on your privacy, such as peering into your garden, is the second most annoying habit. In fact, 54 per cent rank it as irritating.

And more than half - 52 per cent - of respondent’s state neighbours using loud garden tools before 9am is most annoying. In fact, there are 5,400 Google searches for ‘noisy neighbours’ on average every month from residents in search of a solution.

Other bad garden habits include annoying garden features such as hot tubs, trampolines and water features (43 per cent), hosting lots of parties (42 per cent) and messy/untidy garden that affects your property (40 per cent).

However, the survey also found that 38 per cent of respondents admit to doing at least one of these annoying unneighbourly habits.

Reading comes in sixth as the city with the most annoying neighbours, with Newcastle topping the list, closely followed by London, Glasgow, Bristol and Birmingham.

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