Do Council Houses lower the tone?

vickijh32

Here's my story, I’ve been a council tenant and bought an ex council property!
We got the grants to vacate and then bought an ex council property. We loved it here, it was friendly, nice and peaceful, lovely local primary school, most people had bought accept for one lovely elderly couple (can you see where this is going now?) they moved last year and we got a single parent with four kids by four different father’s (I have nothing against single parents btw) who appear to have names such as c**t, ba****d, b**ch, f***er (get my drift?):rotfl: there's piles of rubbish left outside and strewn down the road, shopping trolleys appear from time to time and cars or should I say rust buckets that never move on the front and to top it off a broken window which has a carrier bag stuffed in it, that's cutting a long story short btw. I’m slowly but surely beginning to learn the ‘chav’ language not by choice mind you:rotfl:
To say the tone of the neighbourhood has been lowered is an understatement, all the people who have bought are now selling up (including me) and all the other people I really do feel sorry for as they are stuck here unless they can get a transfer or something or be able to buy their own places.
We’ve sold to housing association as we couldn’t stand it here anymore along with the many others who are selling up round here too as no one in their right mind would even want to move here.
When we were looking for our new house we insisted that we were not going to view any properties that were on or near any council estates no matter how nice they may have sounded, in fact we ruled out all estates.
It really is a shame that a fairly nice council estate only needs one bad penny to turn it into a dive.
I’m counting the days until we move, only eleven more days to go and I can’t wait, it will be sad to leave my decent neighbours behind, but I certainly won’t look back once we’ve left.

djdido2

i can understand and sympathise living next door to nightmare neighbours. however, judging a woman because she has four kids by four different fathers is just being judgmental. how do u know that her partner has not died? or that the irresponsible fathers have done a runner leaving her in a position where she has to cope with four kids alone?.

its not the council estate that lowers the tone. its the people!!!

silvercar

looking back over the last 10 years, council houses have increased in value more than private houses. the stigma attached to them is decreasing and the differnece in price between an ex-LA property and a private one is narrowing.

callansdad

I stayed in council homes around the area till i was 15 yrs old. Most of them i found had a bad reputation but really the people were very nice indeed and we never had any bother. However 2 streets away it was bad. My aunt lives there and she stayed next door to the neighbours from hell. Ever seen that old film Death Becomes Her, the bit when Goldie Hawn has a breakdown and puts on a funny amount of weight, thats what the mother looked like. Her 2 sons were truanting from high school and primary school. You would stand out my aunts back door and the youngest one would start shouting "what the f**k are you looking at you F'n this nad f'n that etc" The mother would just shout stop it and do nothing. My aunt would come home on a Sat afternoon to find eggs, chips and other food items splattered over her house and windows. She couldn't hang out her washing or leave anything in the garden. She kept a diary and handed it into the council many a time. They did nothing. Eventually the mother wanted a new house so she was immediately given an upgrade, she got a 3 bedroom flat, right round the corner from my street.

It is the tenants that are the let down. We bought a bungalow right in the middle of a council estate, these are the only 4 homes that have never been council property for streets away. Luckily i have never heard anything from the nasty neighbours above and i haven't heard of any complaints since they moved. I was wary of buying the home here but i was heavily pregnant and it was the only house within our budget at the time, it was either that or be homeless as the council didn't seem to be forthcoming in giving us a home even though we already had a toddler and we both worked hard for a living.

On my particular street there are a couple of rows of pensioner homes, and 3 blocks of flats. Most of the flats are filled with youngsters who tinker with their cars in the car park all day. We have never had bother from them and they are the first people to help if you need it.

I might have been very lucky, its just the luck of the draw if you ask me.

MissBehaving

My parents live in a street that contain 90% ex-council houses. That street is the best looking street in the neighbourhood. Even the 'new' estate down the road doesn't look as good.

Each person in the road takes pride in their garden. They are out painting the gates each spring, and a couple of the owners have planted their own plants in the corner 'plot' that used to be a dumping ground.

Each of these families have been there for over 20 years. So, all I can say is, no matter where you buy/rent, most of it is down to the neighbours.

vickijh32

djdido2 wrote:

i can understand and sympathise living next door to nightmare neighbours. however, judging a woman because she has four kids by four different fathers is just being judgmental. how do u know that her partner has not died? or that the irresponsible fathers have done a runner leaving her in a position where she has to cope with four kids alone?.

its not the council estate that lowers the tone. its the people!!!

Hey hold on a minute, I'm not judging anyone!
I'm far from judgemental, are you not judging me by assuming the worst in me? How can you say 'the irresponsible fathers have done a runner' when you, as well as I don't know the situation, is this not a judgemetal comment from yourself? they could be great father's for all we know
I write what I know, I don't make judgements. I know she has four different kids by four different fathers as she's proud to annouce it and they are all in the land of the living too;) as they appear from time to time. The woman reeks of alcohol and is on drugs I know that for a fact and the kids are left to run riot this is not being judgemental I'm stating a fact. I could go on but I'm sure my point has been made, she is an absolute nightmare. I really do feel for those children and my neighbours.

I agree and that's my point 'its not the council estate that lowers the tone. its the people!!!'

greencat_2

LizEstelle wrote:

What seems to 'lower the tone' in this country is the presence of large-scale renting.

Whether it's council-owned or not doesn't appear to be relevant - sadly, it seems to be more a question of the type of person who prefers renting to buying - the 'it's up to the landlord' attitude is rife and the population seems to be shiftless, with very few wanting to make a real home out of their situation.

Fair enough you sound like a good landlord. But...

A lot of people who rent don't do so out of choice and I would guess most are on AST which means they never know when they are going to be kicked out.

With renting you are paying for a service which sadly many landlords don't actually provide (ie a properly maintained house as per contract).

There is also the common (but possibly false) perception that if you spend money on improving your rented house, your landlord will assume you can afford to pay more rent.

The house that my missus and I rent is easily one of the scruffiest in the street despite the fact that I've repainted much of the exterior and the OH has tamed the jungle/garden. Sorry but I don't intend to pay for double glazing to replace the rotting window frames, replace the missing garden gate or to get the concrete in the front redone as the landlord could ask us to leave next month (and he won't pay for it either).

Finally I guess some people appear shiftless because they can't see a way out of their situation. I think the tendency of recent BTL/flipper speculators to buy up the cheaper property (and drive up prices) has probably contributed at least a little to this state of affairs.

Some people have little hope of ever owning their own place or ending up in reasonably secure rented accomodation because of massive house price inflation, changes to renting laws and the big sell off of council houses in the 80s.

Although I'm earning an above average salary - I'm living on less than a friend who is on the dole in order to save a deposit large enough to buy at a reasonable salary multiple. After a more than a year and a half of this and with no real end in sight - I'm beginning to see why people give up and go on the dole or emmigrate.

System

I think it depends on whether/what sort of 'estate' a council house is on. Our house is an ex council house, it was purchased in the 70s and i 80% of the houses i neighbour with are private and very well maintained. The other side of the road the houses are all private and detatched and apart from a bit of traffic its fairly quiet. I dont live in an estate and there are no children as the council owned houses have residents whose children have grown up or are in their senior years. When we had the house valued about 4 years ago we were advised not to spend any more money on the house though because i was told as an ex council property there is a ceiling on the purchase price of ex council property and it stood a chance if the house was sold we wouldnt get the money back. I was also told that our house wouldnt take long to sell as because of the ceiling cap on the purchase price and because it was in a desirable area.

Compared to many houses we have been to see, our house is larger, more spacious and has a bigger garden than many have today. Its a pity that ex council houses like our own arent appreciated more.

clutton_2

all the council houses that i have viewed, have all been really sturdy well-built warm, secure houses - all built to the highest building standards of their day. As other posters say, it is the odd few anti social people who spoil it for an otherwise peaceful community.

LA's do have powers to charge ASBO type behaviour in court and evict people, but, they need a body of evidence to take it to court, and quite often witnesses are too scared of reprisals to volunteer to become witnesses in court. Its a dreadful catch-22 situation. i am grateful each day that i live in a good community.

All of my tenants live in good communities, but, one of my tenants ruined it for her particular street, and after letters and calls to me from the LA, i set about trying to get her to change her behaviour, sadly, she could not sustain the changes and she has finally left, but, sadly, has moved into a house 6 doors up the street - so whilst i no longer have a problem, the street does.

A_Nice_Englishman

clutton wrote:

All of my tenants live in good communities, but, one of my tenants ruined it for her particular street, and after letters and calls to me from the LA, i set about trying to get her to change her behaviour, sadly, she could not sustain the changes and she has finally left, but, sadly, has moved into a house 6 doors up the street - so whilst i no longer have a problem, the street does.

Presumably her new landlord didn't ask you for a reference (or doesn't care about having bad tenants in his property).