How to recognize an ex council house?

BobQ

pineapple wrote: »

Wow what a pointless nasty little thread.

Could not agree more, the whole issue brings out the snobbery in so many people.

laurel7172

Smaller windows, bigger rooms, more generous plot, better build.

Also, our council has been improving its local housing, so a street where a third of the houses have a new insulating brick skin, and the others look woefully shabby by comparison, is a dead giveaway.

BobQ

laurel7172 wrote: »

Smaller windows, bigger rooms, more generous plot, better build.

Also, our council has been improving its local housing, so a street where a third of the houses have a new insulating brick skin, and the others look woefully shabby by comparison, is a dead giveaway.

Very true. Council Houses generally get maintained better than private houses so those that were sold recently stand out from those that were sold much longer ago.

Its not always true, that the original quality is any better. Those built in the 1920-1940 were often built to a high standard. Many built in the 1960s were of a cheaper construction.

The point is that you have to judge them on the same basis as any private house, location, construction, state of repair etc. If you get hung up wondering who built them you could miss a bargain.

Brallaqueen

Y'all live in nice areas if those council houses are anything to go by. certainly wouldn't be ashamed to live in any of them.

Around my way you get this

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36697028.html

this

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-21830442.html?premiumA=true

or this

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37339691.html

ladylouise62

I would want to recognise an ex-council house, and not for snobbery reasons. I live in an ex-council and it was real value for money (they tend to cost less than comparable places), but on the negative side, it IS hard to replace some items due to non-standard sizings that councils would use to stop thievery (I have had great difficulty replacing the toilet and doors due to weird sizings and may have to fork out for specially made doors and a bit of re-building around the toilet, which is important to know if you have no extra money once you have bought your place).

But to return to the 'snobbery ' question, if it's an ex-council place then there's a good chance that the surrounding houses could be council tenants. If there ARE bad tenants I suspect that a council is probably more forgiving than a private owner - previous neighbours of mine had, let's just call it, a strong relationship with the police. I would suspect that if it had not been council-owned then they would not have remained there so long.

leveller2911

I was born and bought up on a Council Estate and they were a good place to grow up.They had fantastic community spirit that you just don't get in private sector housing estates.I can also say from experience that post WW2 when building supplies were in short supply the quality of the building went down but they built houses with good sized rooms.Now move on 60-70 yrs and the houses built now by the likes of Wimpy,Redrow etc is nothing short of dire.

The "Jerry built" houses of post WW2 were mocked for decades but they were better built than your modern day rubbish with tiny rooms,poor sound insulation and dab n stick gyproc walls.

You can buy a great looking house on a private estate and still have neighbours from hell but you will never know until you move in....

leveller2911

ladylouise62 wrote: »

it IS hard to replace some items due to non-standard sizings that councils would use to stop thievery (I have had great difficulty replacing the toilet and doors due to weird sizings and may have to fork out for specially made doors and a bit of re-building around the toilet, which is important to know if you have no extra money once you have bought your place).



Just out of interest what size are your doors?.

Standard imperial sizes are 6'6" high x 30" and 33" wide and also 6'8" high x 2'8" wide but you can also get standard metric sizes too.

cattie

Brallaqueen wrote: »

Y'all live in nice areas if those council houses are anything to go by. certainly wouldn't be ashamed to live in any of them.

Around my way you get this

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36697028.html

this

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-21830442.html?premiumA=true

or this

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37339691.html

Not keen on any of the houses, but :heart2:love:heart2: the prices!

abankerbutnotafatcat

joannaspanner wrote: »

the number of the house painted onto the brickwork and wheelie bin?

:-)

We live in a street of Victorian houses and we have the numbers painted on our wheelie bins.:eek: It provides a source of irritation to us as we live on the corner and have the wheelie bin from the house around the corner where the bin men obviously crossed them over at some point so it's completely the wrong number!! Ok, so it's only a mild irritation in the grand scheme of things...I try not to look as I pass it!!!:)

pimento

cattie wrote: »

Usually a great big St Georges cross flag hanging out of a front window is a big giveaway!

The £400k house opposite me has an England flag hanging out of the front window and there isn't a council house for five miles in any direction.