A new online business that aims to tackle neighbours from hell with a unique service has partnered with Sarah Beeny's online property portal Tepilo.

Check The Area, which provides a Neighbourhood Report for house buyers, is to be featured on the Tepilo website.

Founder Pete Macalroy has secured a partnership with Tepilo, which will be the first company in the UK to take on the service and offer it to their customers.

The Tepilo team commented: "We’re keen to see users take up the new service as a way of eliminating mistakes in their purchase process, and saving time and money through avoiding these."

Check The Area is the brainchild of former builder turned entrepreneur Macalroy. He employs retired police officers to investigate your potential new neighbourhood, carry out face-to-face interviews with residents, and produce a comprehensive report covering everything from nuisance neighbours and pets, to vandalism and burglaries, speeding cars and parking issues, planning applications and soundproofing of the properties.

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The service has resonated with the Tepilo founders, who see it as a neat fit with their own business goals to change the way the property market functions.

The service will be of great value highlighting those small (and often bigger) problems in areas and neighbourhoods that you wouldn’t necessarily find until you get there – or which are often glossed over by owners desperate to get out and move on,” they added.

“We’re delighted to be one of the first sites to take on the service and offer it to our users – it fits well with Tepilo’s attempts to use technology and innovation to change the way the property market functions and our desire to be the most consumer friendly property site on the net.”

Macalroy spotted a gap in the market after reading statistics showing that neighbours from hell have led to more than 360,000 Brits moving home in the last year, is thrilled that Tepilo has recognised the value in his service.

“Where you live is just as important as the house you live in,” says Macalroy. “You wouldn’t dream of buying a house without checking the structure and getting a survey done, so it makes sense to have a neighbourhood report. After all, buying a great house and finding yourself disappointed in the surrounding area could prove a costly mistake.”

According to Halifax Home Insurance, a bad neighbourhood can knock up to £30,000 off the value of your property, but four out of five sellers with nuisance neighbours don’t inform estate agents of the problem, despite it being a legal requirement.

Macalroy and his business partner Paul Conibere, a property developer, have recruited 90 former police officers to train as investigators.

The duo intend to turnover a million pounds in their first year, and are already in discussions with a franchising company about rolling the concept out across the UK and Europe.

(GK/BMcC)