One in four have no idea who lives next door
An astonishing 13 million people don’t know their neighbour’s name, according to new research from property website FindaProperty.com.
The survey results reveal a nation isolated from those who live closest to us and comes less than a month after the Queen called on everyone in Britain to be a good neighbour to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee.
The research also found that less than a quarter of Britons know what their neighbour does for a living and around 3.5 million – seven per cent – have absolutely no idea who they live next door to. A further 1.5 million say they feel threatened by their neighbour.
Despite these figures, almost a fifth of all respondents say they would like to have a better relationship with the people who live next door.
According to the figures, 11 million people in the UK have fallen out with their next door neighbour in the past five years.
Although the majority of these disagreements were verbal, 744,000 Brits admit to having had a physical fight or scuffle with their neighbour over the same period and one million say the disagreement resulted in damage to property.
Unable to resolve these disputes, 1.1 million people were forced to call the police and more than half a million resorted to legal action.
Noise was the most common cause of disputes between neighbours as cited by 37 per cent of those who said they’d had a disagreement. Parkin, pets and children also appear high on the list.
The research also highlights some clear regional differences with Wales stealing the award for the most neighbourly region. Residents here are more friendly, familiar and less likely to argue with neighbours than anywhere else in the UK.
Samantha Baden, property analyst at FindaProperty.com, said: “As a nation, we are becoming increasingly isolated from our neighbours, despite the fact that most of us would like to be much closer to them. People move homes more frequently than they used to so we’ve less time to get to know the people who live nearby, and the growth of social media has left us more likely to ‘sofalise’ and less inclined to actually go out and socialise.
“Knowing your neighbours can improve security and quality of life; people want to feel safe and comfortable in their home and the relationship you have with the people who live nearby really affects this. It is also worth keeping in mind that sellers have an obligation to disclose details of any complaints made against their neighbours to buyers – and this really can impact on your ability to sell a property.
“Millions of people in the UK would like to have a better relationship with their neighbours and occasions like this year’s Jubilee celebrations and the Olympics are the perfect opportunity to break the ice. Knowing that an area has a strong sense of community is a real pull factor for potential home buyers and it’s factors like these that help to drive up the price of a property.”
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Weather for Leighton Buzzard
Thursday 23 May 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 4 C to 10 C
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Wind direction: North west
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