FenTiger

Do villages and towns keep records open to the public about disputes between neighbours? Just wondered as I had an eye on a property for some time but a family member advised against purchasing it due to neighbours disputes. I've walked past the property many times and both the supposed neighbours property looked well maintained, clean and tidy! When I've walked past at different hours I haven't seen either neighbours around their property so am puzzled what's going on.

Peter_in_Hungary

Disputes between neighbours are not public information. If you do hear of some it is always difficult to ascertain who is at fault, after all it could be the difficult neighbour who is moving. It's is not like the UK where disputes have to be declared to prospective purchasers. Also many disputes are IMO caused by mis-handling at the outset and an opportunity to start afresh can often fix things. An example that comes to mind is boundary disputes where a simple land measure would solve the issue but people are reluctant to spend the money.
Ask the family to be specific about what disputes and when.

FenTiger

I am aware at one time neighbours on one side were stealing from the fruit trees so owner put up two metre high fence covered with green mesh. They also installed a CCTV camera pointing towards the garden.
We have friends who live just around the corner and they are not aware of anything happening on that road. They are well known in the village.

wolfi

We also had some experiences with one of our neighbours near Hévíz - later we just ignored them.

There the rule was that you are responsible for the fence on one side, across from the backside where you just have a min distance of half a meter - but only small windows.
When we bought the house the old fences were falling down but we needed something because of our dog - didn't want her to move to other places.
That neighbour said: I don't need/want a fence - so we had it built and paid for it.
And when he had the old house divided up into apartments he always came with some wishes - which we totally ignored ...
Like we had to garages but just one car and one day he came and said to the other neighbour who cared for the house when we were in Germany:
Give me the key to the garage, I need space for my building materials!
Of course he didn't get it.
One day he told us to call our electrician because he needed some work done. The electrician asked my wife: What's your problem? And when my wife told him that there was some problem with the neighbour's system he said:
Tell this *** that I'll come only if he pays in advance and also gives me the money that he didn't pay last time ...
So this guy had the image of the village a**hole - nobody wanted any contact with him ...

So you should ask around the village what people think of your neighbours.

FenTiger

Reading this post reminds me of my neighbours in UK!
​​​​​​

wolfi

Just for the record:
We had no problem with all the other neighbours and the same goes for our new place near Esztergom. But further up the street is someone we've been warned of ...
The others are probably happy that nice old people like us have moved in, we go for a walk with them and they tell us who lives where and what are their peculiarities, if any.
So if we need a handyman or a place to exchange tires or other repair done they will accompany us so nobody treats us as gullible stupid foreigners.
And we exchange food - from Pogacsa and Langos to Fennel soup (a specialty of my wife) ...

FenTiger

My local deaf friend is always warning me about Hungarians taking advantage of us, especially as we are both deaf and it's made finding a property a bit difficult because they know everyone in the village pretty well! If there's something we need doing they know someone! We get on fine with neighbours on both sides and also opposite but we have never been inside their house although they have been in the mother-in-law's house quite a lot. For one neighbour couple they were practically round every day past few years when I was here for the summer holidays but then there was a falling out and since they only come round if invited. The same neighbour couple occasionally give me a bottle of palinka. I've yet to give them anything so might pop round with a bottle of Monkey Shoulder whisky! Before we moved here the neighbours had a key to the gate so they could check on the mother-in-law. One of the neighbours is a retired nurse.

Our local deaf friends live about five minutes walk away and we are always in and out of each others house! The husband is always giving me a bottle of palinka he's made and my wife gives them chutney which is her specialty. The neighbours are often given chutney my wife has made but one neighbour doesn't like chutney so it's often given to the other one which we find out afterwards!

Langos - I haven't ate this since moving here July 2020 mainly because everywhere is more or less shut down! I'll have to ask my wife to make some!