Selling house: neighbour's planning permission making it impossible

Dodgers

I have been trying to sell my house for 5 months, valued at £80,000 but I accept I won't get that. My problem is that the house next door but 1 is being turned into a supported living place for 16 to 25 year olds coming out of care, 7 rooms, short & long term stays. Had a buyer who pulled out at the last minute having decided that they couldn't cope with possible gangs of youths. I have to sell to move in with my partner who is not in good health. He has a house but we need money from the sale of the house to update and adapt his house.

The house wasn't worth much to start off with, I'm just wondering if anybody is likely to buy it now. I'm more than happy to reduce the price but can anyone advise me:

1) How much should I reduce by?

2) When should I tell prospective buyer about the supported living thing? I don't want to wait until they've put in an offer so should they know before viewing or at the viewing?

Sorry for rambling on, it's just stressful, no mention of planning permission until I'd already put the house on the market!

chickaroonee

Have you considered selling at auction? You will get a lower price of course.

ruggedtoast

I lived opposite a large one of these once and you'd honestly hardly have known they were there. The 'kids' were closely monitored by the care givers who were extremely strict about any nuisance to local residents.

There were very clear rules about noise and behaviour, and it was forbidden to hang around outside or have friends hanging around outside. They werent even allowed to smoke outside on their own (though they did sometimes try to).

If friends did want to wait for people in the residence they had to wait down the road.

I never saw or heard of any trouble there and my impression was that the centre had an overwhelmingly positive effect on the young people who lived there.

I hope it did because its desperately sad that they ended up in it, and that people pre-judge them just because they have, almost invariably through no fault of their own.

Probably once the place opens it will be fine and you'll be able to sell.

dimbo61

why not rent out the place if you cannot sell ?

Windsorcastle

We live in a lovely road that happens to have a 'halfway' house directly opposite for ex-offendors and people with drink and drug problems being reintegrated. I can honestly say it doesn't bother us or our neighbours one jot and we have never had the slightest problem with it or any of the residents. On maybe 2 or 3 occasions in 7 years there has been an ambulance or police car outside but that is really not significant.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who won't be put off by the proposed development, but some will. Did your buyer find out about it from searches or how? Certainly I wouldn't mention it to potential buyers as I wouldn't see it as necessarily a detrimental thing. Don't drop your price yet I say - stay positive and keep it on the market a bit longer, having spruced up as much as possible to make the most of your assets.

Best of luck with this.

Talc1234

I work with kids in care

1. They are not bad. They have had a rough deal in life
2. Your cook, mechanic, builder or doctor might have been in care. Being in care does not make you a worthless individual
3. Supported living will help young people who don't have family support that most young people can expect
4. They will be supervised and wont be allowed to behave in an antisocial way.
5. If you don;t want a halfway house near you, then where should it be built?
6. I wouldn't have a problem living next to a halfway house. You will find a buyer

abankerbutnotafatcat

We have the same thing only smaller (3 places for youngsters) and sadly, it's a total nightmare. The police visit almost daily and the noise late at night is awful.

OP the auction route could be one possibility or wait until it's in situ, if there's no issue with this place you can say that if/when prospective buyers ask about the neighbours.

Better_Days

I think it may be the uncertainty that is putting off prospective buyers. Can you wait until all the work is finished next door but one and it is up and running? (and hopefully well run). Talc1234 I think you are being a little unfair to the OP - OP did not say they opposed the development, simply that the development is having a direct impact on the sale of his/her property. Not only that OP will using the money from the sale of his/her house to improve the life of someone else who needs care!

It may be worth taking the property off the market, doing any little outstanding jobs and presenting it as well as possible. If you post a link here you will get some excellent tips (although some maybe a bit blunt)

Also it may also be worth considering getting your EA to do the viewings or at the very least ask him/her how to field questions about the neighbours. I would expect any prospective buyer to ask about neighbours. Another thing you could do is find out a bit more about the development - that is how it is to be managed and the number of supervisors, the track record of who will be running the place etc. Then hopefully you will be able to put any concerns from buyers to rest.

Where are you in the country? The market is very variable - here it has perked up a lot but I know it is not the case everywhere.

I do hope you get this sorted out and can carry out the adaptions (which are not cheap) to your partner's property to improve his quality of life.

sgun

Have you considered selling to a developer? At the minute where I live they are offering up to 20% more than the valuation in part exchange on new builds. They don't really care what they buy as they can still make a profit on their development. Then you can sell the new build on, hopefully with no problems. Any knock on loss in money should be absorbed into the extra you will get for the P/E. You can also be sold and in within about 4 weeks so its also a quick solution. Only of course if there is a suitable development in your area.

I work with troubled youths but I wouldn't want to buy a house next door to them, not because I think they would cause any trouble - you wouldn't know they were there, but because of not being able to sell the house on.

Catherine_Johnson_2

Talc1234 wrote: »

I work with kids in care

1. They are not bad. They have had a rough deal in life
2. Your cook, mechanic, builder or doctor might have been in care. Being in care does not make you a worthless individual
3. Supported living will help young people who don't have family support that most young people can expect
4. They will be supervised and wont be allowed to behave in an antisocial way.
5. If you don;t want a halfway house near you, then where should it be built?
6. I wouldn't have a problem living next to a halfway house. You will find a buyer

How can you assure someone that the youngsters (ex offenders) will be properly supervised when you have no idea whether they will be or not?

I can tell from your statement - 'I wouldn't have a problem living next to a halfway house' - that you've never lived close to one of these places. Maybe you can put up with music and noise till 3 or 4 in the morning, shouting, swearing in the street, fights but a lot of us can't and don't understand why we should put up with it.

My advice to the OP is, if you want to sell quickly and be rid of the house, then go to auction.

J_i_m

I think there is little bit of prejudice in here. Some quarters are seeing the term "supported living" and thinking "Ohnoes! Chavs! Asbos!" Etc.

The fact is, that you can find undesirables or danger wherever you be.

I think you're just as likely to get noise and anti-social behaviour from regular neighbours.

Although i can understand wanting to live in a quiet area away from any gang culture, this topic is a rather discriminatory position to take really isn't it?

What happens if you find a nice house, down a nice quiet suburban close and later find that Mr & Mrs Smith next door but one cares for their adult autistic son at home, what then? And how is that significantly different from a modest supported living house?

I feel sorry for the OP, because they obviously had a rather ignorant and prejudiced buyer.