How can you tell if a house is ex-council? 31 October 2006 at 11:58AM in House buying, renting & selling 29 replies 54.4K views

Poppycat

I been looking at ex council properties, being local I no the good areas and bad. Although after seeing one house in a nice area, and looking over the fence from the bedroom window, with garden left to grow, batteried trailer extra it would put me right offf if it wasnt for the fact also house need about £8k on it to modernise it and I just wont have the money for the foreseeable future.

The house I put an offer in isnt far from a rough area, although its a street that is sort out of the way being a middle of a inner circle so to speak of a cresent. It hasnt been a counciul house although all the houses look very similar.

Dummie_2

lynzpower wrote:

Arnt you looking in surrey dummie?

I would certainly not avoid an area just because its ex council. It could be theyve all been bought & sold off a long time ago. Many ex-la estates are extremely middle class now ( ie the bunred out fridge was a joke BTW) but of course some areas would be worse than others, but when you are talking guilfdord etc, Id expect ( have freinds round there) most areas are great, with fab catchments.

I suppose if you knew the name of the estate if its on one, someone is bound to know if its rough or not.

Yes. I'm looking in Surrey. Guildford and Farnham. You mean ex-council that have been brought and sold off are now considered privately owned property? Again, is there anyway of knowing this? Surely if people were given a house by the council in such a good area they wouldn't sell it?

Just pulling some up from rightmove gives me a 3bed on Lyall Place, Riverdale (Wrecclesham) and Farnborough Road just off The Fairway.

lynzpower

you dont get "given" a house by the council you buy it

There are LOADS of reasons why people move, they may die for example, or the place may be too big, or they may be downsizing. They may be moving for work, emigrating, anything.

Personally if I had a house in the very desirable end of surrey, Id sell it and live somewhere a bit grottier, and bank the money, but then thats just me I guess

rio

The only way to tell what it's like is have a drive down the street itself. We have a large council estate about a mile from us. In some roads a lot of people have obviously bought their council houses and the roads are nice and quiet and gardens well cared for. Others roads have a very nicely presented property surrounded by gardens that are absolute tips. Also in villages it is common to find a row of older style council houses in the middle of a non council development. My cousin bought a house like this, absolute bargain, really quiet with lovely views.

strawman_special

Go to the Land Registry website at http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/ and enter the number and post code. If there is a Transfer document available then that would suggest that it is ex-council, the house I am currently buying is ex-council and the transfer detailed the transfer of the freehold from the council to the council tenants at the time of transfer.

l_i_s_a

Hi strawman_special.
Thats an interesting one...the victorian home I am buying shows a transfer in the freehold record but I do not think it has ever belonged to the council. Do you know if this is always the case? Maybe there are other types of transfer? I am curious now to find out!, I may buy the document from land registry or ask my solicitor.
Useful tool to know about.

thanks
Lisa

larakane

who cares!!! If you are so narrow minded that it bothers you to live in a house that was once owned by the local authority then be very careful where you move - you might find it hard to get along with your neighbours.

I live in an ex council house and have the loveliest location, lovely neighbours and - guess what - I didn't know it was ex-council and framkly didn't care. This is 2006 you lot - get a grip and find the right property for you rather than being hung up on whether someone less fortunate and unable to afford to buy a house of their own once lived there

Poppycat

Some can be in a nice area, but then again you could have horrible neigbhours even in areas that wasnt ex. Lets be honest those who generally do buy there houses look after them its a worthy investment.

hellomoto

usually the house next door will have a fence made from old pallets and a car on bricks in the front garden.

This made me laugh so, my parents have this next door to them....they live in a posh house, a posh area, none of it ex-council, just rubbish neighbours.
The said car is so old its held together with rust.

mrsausages

It might seem like stating the obvious but you could ask the council. If a house was once theirs they will know. They may also be able to tell you if there are any covenants in place about what you can do with the property in the future.

Last year I almost bought one of a pair of lovely 1930's semis, all on their own in a quiet part of a quiet village. There was nothing to suggest it was ex-council until we saw the deeds. Then our buyer's buyer pulled out and that was that. It actually made me think that the property was better looked after that many others of the same age.