The latest research from Comparethemarket has revealed that UK councils receive an average of 190,181 complaints a year about nuisance neighbours (averaging one complaint every two minutes and 46 seconds). In fact, one in 12 Brits doesn’t get on with their neighbours, and one in seven doesn’t even know their neighbour's name. The research also reveals the areas with the most complaints, alongside Brits’ general perceptions of their neighbours.
According to the research, noise levels (129,122) and a build-up of rubbish (15,915) are the top nuisance complaints made by neighbours, followed by smoke, fumes or gases (14,718) and complaints made against business premises including dust, steam, smell or insects from business premises came in with 6783.
High hedges, trees and boundaries were also a flashpoint amongst neighbours resulting in 2,693 complaints. Artificial light completed the list with complaints totalling 2252.
When it comes to location, residents in Manchester are most likely to have issues with those living next door with over 12,000 complaints made to the council every year totalling 61,400 in the last five years – of these, 29,345 are due to noise.
According to the findings, Newham (9,660), Birmingham (7608), and Barret and Haringey (6589) are also amongst the worst places for disruptive neighbours with Glasgow (4,911), Swansea (4,653), and Doncaster (4,594) completing the top ten.
