FAO: People who live in semi-detached houses - noise issues?

moneyistooshorttomention

..and one thing that doesn't seem to have come up yet, but the property of attached neighbours can cause damage to your property.

This is another reason to have a detached house if at all possible. When I lived in an attached house there were two instances where I could see an attached neighbour needed to do maintenance work to their house or mine would be at risk and, in both cases, they refused to do so. There was then a third incident where the attached neighbour was indeed damaging my house with their neglect of their house and refused to deal with their maintenance issue. Things always seemed to go one way and one way only there.

The only time a (different) neighbour complained to me that they thought my house was damaging theirs they were invited to come and examine my house for themselves and, if my house had a problem, then I would like to know about it..so that I could remedy it. This does not appear to be a common attitude from what I've ever read..

It's a weight of my mind now to know that any problems my house has are down to my house and my house only and I don't have to concern myself with that aspect any more.

I've just read so many cases where neighbours harm someone's property with either neglect or stupidity and they rarely seem to get on with issues they are causing someone else and its not a good position to be in.

WeAreGhosts

thanks for the replies, everyone

i am definitely put off by the arrangement of lounge, dining, and two bedrooms being together, but feel i need to view a semi so i can discount it without wondering "what if?" each time a nice semi comes up!

westv

Better a semi in a good area rather than a detached in a poor one.

frisbeej

I'm very happy with my modern semi (4 years old). The only thing I can hear is the kid next door jumping around occasionally, never any TV, music, talking or toilets.


I weighed the additional costs in terms of travelling and location of a detached house that I could afford and for me it wasn't a viable option.

NobodysChild

It would be unlikely that I would drop from a detached down to a semi. (If I was IN a detached!) I guess (as a few have said) it would depend on the circumstances.

Unless it was a rough area and/or the neighbours were having parties til 3am, three or four times a week, or you had blatantly vile and abusive neighbours, I don't see a reason to move from a detached. Especially as most detached houses seem more likely to be in 'better' areas. Although there are a couple of coastal towns with big universities with 100s of detached houses, that have been let go, and have been bought up by private landlords, and the landlords have lots of houses let out to bunches of students. So there are some 'rougher' areas with a number of detached houses.

Also, I do know of a couple with 2 kids who had a 'detached' in a reasonable area. They lived there from 1998 to 2008 quite happily, and then suddenly the next door neighbour went bankrupt and the house was sold at auction, and a private landlord bought it, and started renting it out to students.

So she then had 6 students at a time living next to her... her kids were 7 & 5, and literally 5 nights a week, they had parties til 1, 2 & 3am. Also her house was one of those awful generic 1990s homes that were 3 feet apart, so the students kept chucking tennis balls up against the wall, and also chucking beer cans and rubbish over the fence. In addition, they would run over her front lawn, and tap at the front window. And they used to peer over the back fence straight into their kitchen window, which freaked the whole family out.

I don't mean to be student bashing by the way, and I know they're not all bad; it's just that there is more likely to be more noise and parties and crowds of people etc...

In addition, there are a dozen or so detached houses in my street, and they are overlooked front and back, and the school field backs onto 5 or 6 of them, and also, they are only about 12 feet apart. (It's only a small primary school but still, sometimes the kids run to the bottom and sling rubbish over the gardens, and peer through the fences!) My semi however, is right on the end, overlooked by no-one, and with a massive side garden, and room to extend the house 3 times the size if we wanted to. So I wouldn't switch my house for one of them for all the tea in China.

If I could pop one of the detached houses up the road onto my plot, I would of course, but I would not move into one of them where they are positioned. We have also been fortunate to have great neighbours for over 10 years... Our old semi was great for the first 6-7 years, and then a couple moved in who were 48, and they played really loud music, and came home roaring drunk from the pub 2-3 nights a week, waking the whole family. So after a year of hell, we moved.

The semi we moved to is twice the size, and 30 years older, so the soundproofing is better, and also it's much bigger. In the smaller semi we had, we couldn't go anywhere in the house without hearing the neighbour. Even in the bedroom not attached to the neighbour, we could still hear their tv!

So as it is, we are fine in a semi.

duchy

Indeed - but the OP sounds completely noise intolerant so elderly neighbours who turn their TV up loud because they are getting a bit hard of hearing are likely to cause problems for them or neighbours who cut the lawn early on Sunday mornings...... or who hoover every morning or have dinner parties or children who play in the garden etc etc.

My feeling is she'd be better staying put than moving to semi without an attitude adjustment first.

There is always going to be some noise in a semi

Poppy9 wrote: »

Don't wish to sound snobby but the behaviour of neighbours can often (but not always) be a reflection on area you live in.

Where I live few families, most people living here have raised their families so it's generally a quiet area. Most annoying thing about area is elderly drivers doing 10 mph!

.

NobodysChild

duchy wrote: »

Indeed - but the OP sounds completely noise intolerant so elderly neighbours who turn their TV up loud because they are getting a bit hard of hearing are likely to cause problems for them or neighbours who cut the lawn early on Sunday mornings...... or who hoover every morning or have dinner parties or children who play in the garden etc etc.

My feeling is she'd be better staying put than moving to semi without an attitude adjustment first.

There is always going to be some noise in a semi

Hmmm yes good point. And as I said, it is unlikely we would move from a detached to a semi, unless there was a very good reason. It's just that we are happy in our semi, and could not imagine moving. So unless there is a pretty good reason, I don't see the need for the OP to move.

Did the OP say why she wanted to move? Other than to be in a 'better' area? Because if that is the only reason, I would stay put. She could move into a 'better' area, and have vile neighbours. I know many cases of people living in 'less desirable areas' and they were OK there, and fairly happy. But they moved, because their area had a bit of a reputation, and they thought it would make them a better person, or more respected if they lived in a 'posh' area. And they were just miserable in the posher area, and regretted moving!

My neighbour who moved near to me 2 years ago, said she had more people speak to her in the first 6 months she was here, and more invitations to parties etc, than she did in 8 years in her last area: and that was classed a 'posh' as it was a cul de sac full of 24 detached homes. All snooty 'trying-to-be-something-they're-not' upper working class with overly expensive brand new cars, and more debt than sense. She literally knows of 4 people in her old road alone, who were repossessed in the last 2 years since she left, because they took on too much debt, trying to be something they're not.

browneyedbazzi

WeAreGhosts wrote: »

thanks for the replies, everyone

i am definitely put off by the arrangement of lounge, dining, and two bedrooms being together, but feel i need to view a semi so i can discount it without wondering "what if?" each time a nice semi comes up!

The layout sounds very like my house - built in the 1930's. Our party wall is on the side of our lounge downstairs (which has been knocked through so it's a lounge-diner running the length of the house), the neighbours have their lounge at the front and a kitchen diner at the back on that side (they knocked through in the other direction to us). Upstairs we both have two double bedrooms on the adjoined wall. We have wood floors downstairs and carpeting upstairs - the neighbours have carpeting in the lounge and wood floors everywhere else.

We don't have any children and are fairly quiet people - not shouters or party people really. The neighbours have two children (now 13 and 16) and have friends/family around fairly often.

We don't hear a peep from next door unless we are out in the garden and they are in theirs or in their kitchen with the patio doors open and shouting (which, with 2 teenagers happens now and again). We're quite friendly with the neighbours and several times they've apologised about noise following shouting matches with their kids or family parties etc - but we've never heard any of it.

Equally I've been ill a couple of times where I've been up all night with a terrible cough and once I had an Italian friend stay who (on arriving back after a few drinks out) decided it was a good idea to start bellowing opera in my living room at midnight, (I was mortified!) I apologised to the neighbours on each occasion but they said they hadn't heard anything.

I know some people would think it is better to be joined on the hall/stairs side, but I think that is worse - I know someone with layout and all I ever hear in that house is the neighbour's kids thundering up and down the stairs or people shouting up and down the stairs/hall.

frisbeej

Noise isn't always a bad thing though, my neighbour came around to apologize for the smoke alarm going off, I couldn't hear it at all!

Davesnave

I lived in attached properties for over 40 years and never had a neighbour issue of any seriousness. The only neighbour difficulties I've had have been in the last few years since owning somewhere with a 5 acre buffer zone! :rotfl:

The bottom line is that more people will always live in attached properties, because there's a much greater number of those.

If the only way to afford a detached place is to move into a rough, unpopular or remote area, then that's probably not the best solution for most people.