How to find out how many council owned properties in a road

DemonicKat

I am about to purchase a property in a local authority developed area.

I have looked at house prices on the net and have found quite a lot have been sold down that road. However I would like to know how many are still Council owned. I have tried contacting the council but they are not allowed to tell me. Is there any other way of finding out?

Thanks,

olly300

You need to ask the vendor, talk to their neighbours or go to the local pub!!

Both myself and two of my siblings purchased ex-LA properties, we found out how many were still council owned by asking around.

By the way depending on the area of the country you live in and the type of property, you will find lots of council tenants are fine simply because they have been living in their property for years. You are more likely to have problems with properties that are rented out privately on short lets as they can be rented to anyone. So ask about those too.

DemonicKat

Thanks for your reply.
I do feel such a snob for asking this!

cattie

Sometimes you can tell just by looking at front doors & windows. Owner occupiers will generally change these once they have bought a property & here in London, a council front door can often be instantly recognisable.

olly300

DemonicKat wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.
I do feel such a snob for asking this!

I did but I was warned that some mortgage companies won't lend if there are not enough properties that are privately owned. And that was on my HB report.

Plus if you are buying a place to live in and find out the properties next to you are owned privately but owned by private landlords you might not want to buy the place!

So it is worth trying to speak to a neighbour as private tenants who have only lived in the property for a short time (less than a year) whatever their social background can cause loads of problems.

I know 3 people who have had problems with short let private tenancies with professional tenants next to them, and someone else who had problems with the social tenants next to them. Two of the professional tenants where simply inconsiderate, the other had serious relationship problems and the social tenant actually had both serious relationship and health problems. (By serious I mean violent.)

By the way one of my siblings has happily lived next to their neighbours' who is a council tenant for about 7 years, and they have 2 children and a dog.

Mrs_Optimist

Look on the Land Registry list of house sales for that road, the more sales there are the less council houses.

MJMum

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olly300

cattie wrote: »

Sometimes you can tell just by looking at front doors & windows. Owner occupiers will generally change these once they have bought a property & here in London, a council front door can often be instantly recognisable.

All the windows in council housing will be double glazed particularly if the property is a house, or a low rise flat which isn't in an sterotypical council estate.

Off course the exception is if the property is in a conservation area or is a listed building. There are quite a few council and ex-council properties in London in these areas so they will all have similar/the same doors and windows.

By the way I lived in a privately owned flat where all the flats where and had been privately owned since it was built. All the flat front doors had to be kept as their original doors.

epz_2

olly300 wrote: »

I did but I was warned that some mortgage companies won't lend if there are not enough properties that are privately owned. And that was on my HB report.

Plus if you are buying a place to live in and find out the properties next to you are owned privately but owned by private landlords you might not want to buy the place!

So it is worth trying to speak to a neighbour as private tenants who have only lived in the property for a short time (less than a year) whatever their social background can cause loads of problems.

I know 3 people who have had problems with short let private tenancies with professional tenants next to them, and someone else who had problems with the social tenants next to them. Two of the professional tenants where simply inconsiderate, the other had serious relationship problems and the social tenant actually had both serious relationship and health problems. (By serious I mean violent.)

By the way one of my siblings has happily lived next to their neighbours' who is a council tenant for about 7 years, and they have 2 children and a dog.

the banks have good reason for this at least up in sctotland. ive seen plenty of estates where the council basicly empted all but the most troublesome elements out the houses then boarded them up waited a couple of years and offered rediculusly low sums to the owners to leave, like £27k for a 2 bed flat.

obviously most had little choice but to take it since they were living in an estate full of junkies that looked like a warzone. any blocks of flats where they owned fully, the property was demolished leaving little isolated pockets of hold out tenants till they finaly caved in and the council handed the land over to developers to build £250k+ semi's on.

now obviously the semi's are nicer to look at and have improved the area but i do get the feeling the major reason the council were doing this type of stunt is developer back handers, no evidance just severe distrust of west of scotland politians where labour has been in power for generations and seats get passed down to folks kids.


anyway enough ranting about corrupt local politics, i would check all the properties to see if they sold and thier prices, after that i would do a land registery search of enough properties to ensure that sort of move couldnt be pulled on me, it may cost you £3 a house but save you a fortune.

PoorDave

MJMum wrote: »

I don't know about your area, but around Crawley where I used to live, you could tell the ones which were still council owned because they were the ones which had the new windows and doors, cavity wall insulation, etc. (whereas new owner-occupiers couldn't necessarily afford the upkeep).

Yeah, but the privately owned ones won't have the same doors and windows as next door, and next door to them, and so on down the street. That's how you tell.

In many cases, the houses are not still council owned - they are owned by a housing association, but rented out in similar fashion to council houses.

kr15snw

Hehe, currently around here all the council ones have scaffolding up / have had scaffolding up recetly as they are all getting new guttering.

I was the same when my boyfriend first showed me where he lived (its got a nasty reputation), but all the trouble is about 10 minutes walk away. His street is lovely and next door is a council owned property and the couple are lovely