Desperate neighbours can ruin sale of your house, writes Edel Morgan.

THESE days a property really has to tick all the boxes before buyers will commit to a sale.

You can primp, buff, and tweak your house to try to appeal to the market but it could all be a waste of time if the front of your neighbour's house looks like something out of a Stephen King novel says Kilkenny-based estate agent Michael Boyd.

"There's so much choice out there at the moment, chances are that a buyer will decide, why live beside a scruffy neighbour if they don't have to.

"In a country scenario they might ask themselves if they'd be in a house near a smelly farmyard? Invariably, the answer is no."

The trouble is that even politely asking a neighbour to rekindle their relationship with their lawnmower or re-acquaint themselves with a paintbrush can cause strain. "It's tricky," says Boyd, "a bit like telling someone they've BO."

The worst offenders tend to be rented houses, says Boyd, where landlords are either absent or a bit lax on the maintenance front and tenants are less than houseproud. On the upside, landlords can be easier to approach than homeowners because they are less emotionally attached to the property and not as likely to take offence.

Not all landlords are so easy going however. A Co Meath estate agent describes herself as a strong, clued-in woman who knows how to deal with people. But even eight years as an auctioneer didn't prepare her for the landlord of the house next door who refused to to cut his grass when she put her house on the market.

She says her 30-year-old house in an estate needed a lot of work to trump newer houses in the area but says all her efforts were in vain because next door had "10ft high" grass, wheelie bins spewing rubbish and tenants parking their cars on the grass "with the wheels sinking into the ground".

She approached the owner and says "he didn't give a damn and told me I was mad and stupid.

"When I approached my neighbours to see if they'd help me, I thought I'd get a better response but the attitude was "You're moving and we still have to live there."

Taking legal proceedings would involve proving that she couldn't sell as a direct result of the neighbour's garden "and would mean getting people viewing the property to say that was the reason they wouldn't buy.

"I started cutting the grass myself before viewings and was nearly done for trespassing. I ended up renting the property because it was all so stressful and eventually sold to first-time buyers who got it for a very good price."

It's not just unsightly gardens that put people off: kids' toys, bikes and the ultimate deal breakers - children - on the front lawn can immediately alienate older and childless people.

A rickety DIY porch sends out signals that the Clampetts live within and even a speed ramp in front of a house can upset the delicate constitutions of those buyers who don't want the constant noise of traffic bumping over it .

Even the fact that a property is rented can be a turnoff, no matter how well maintained. Michael Boyd says people are asking more questions than they did in the boom years "when they often didn't enquire that deeply - but now they are making a more informed choice and want to know every facet."

Estate agent Healy Hynes from Athlone believes the vast majority of homeowners are houseproud but, alas, he doesn't have any heartwarming soundbites for those whose with unkempt neighbours who won't play ball. "At the end of day it is private property and they can maintain it as they see fit."