Our neighbours are, quite literally, all around us. Like our families, we don’t always get to choose who they are, so how do we all get on? Do they keep us up all night with loud parties or do they look after the cat while we are away? And are yours any better or worse than anyone else’s? Property buyers, Goodmove, have carried out some research in the area and their findings are pretty revealing.

We are not, it seems, all that inclined to socialise with our neighbours, with less than one in five doing so (17%). Instead, most of us (72%) have a more cordial relationship, only engaging in conversations if we happen to bump into them. Almost one in ten (9%) have no contact with them whatsoever and another 2% don’t even know who they are.

Unfortunately, what our neighbours do most is annoy us. Noise is cited as the biggest issue, with 64% of us saying extreme loudness of any kind is the biggest problem. Loud children (41%) are next and loud pets are only marginally better at 36%. Nor are we all that keen on hearing our neighbours’ relationships, with 25% considering loud sex to be one of the biggest irritants. Interestingly, we also worry about the quiet ones, with 8% of us feeling it is a red flag issue.

It’s not just noise that gets us all worked up, we don’t like nosey neighbours (53%), either. Nor are we impressed by their poor parking (52%). The same goes for a neighbour’s questionable lifestyle (49%) and 41% find constant parties particularly irksome. 34% are more bothered by neighbours’ poor maintenance (both houses and gardens) and 26% get annoyed when they make unauthorised changes to any boundaries or shared spaces. And, despite having such a long list of complaints, a third of us are annoyed by our neighbours complaining about us!

So, who has the worst neighbours?

That depends on where you live. And if your home is in Manchester, you may want to look away now. According to the data, 78% of Manchester’s residents have had to either complain or take some kind of action as a result of their neighbour’s bad behaviour. London is not far behind, at 75%. Although, surprisingly, it is also where you are most likely to have a relationship with your neighbours, with 26% of the capital’s residents saying they regularly socialise with them. To put that into perspective, even super-friendly Newcastle only managed 16%. After that, there is quite a cluster of towns where similar levels of bad behaviour are reported: Cardiff (75%), Leeds (71%), Nottingham (67%), Sheffield (67%), Liverpool (63%), Southampton (63%) and Edinburgh (61%).

And who has the best neighbours?

Residents of Bristol will probably be feeling the smuggest, with just 46% reporting problems. Next came Glasgow (50%), then Birmingham (59%), followed by Newcastle and Norwich, which were both on 60%.

You should remember, though, if you do have a dispute with your neighbour, be careful how you deal with it because you may need to declare it in the Seller’s Property Information Form (SPIF) when you sell your home. What actually constitutes a dispute is not all that clear, but if you have put anything in writing about your dispute or have complained to the authorities, you will need to declare it. If a dispute is unavoidable, try not to take the legal route, as the costs can mount up terrifyingly quickly.