We found the house we r buying is ex-council just a week before exchange. What to do?

thorsoak

Council houses, built in the 60s and 70s were built to a specific standard - the "Parker Morris" standard - which private builders could not afford to attain. This often meant larger plots, set further back from the road as larger rooms, better original insulation etc.

If you did not recognise it as a typical council house, then I would think that it would maintain its value.

BTW - would you recognise this as a council house?

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/property/66-halls-road/tilehurst/reading/rg30-4px/19461749

carlislelass

"theft and anti social behaviour" happens on private estates too. Not all council areas are dumps

GoldenShadow

My house is an ex council house. Councils tend to build really good houses from the people I know who have owned/lived in them.

Streetcheck.co.uk will tell you the amount of council/social housing in your postcode area.

I found out the council have no owned properties left on my road by ringing up and asking about next door (shared chimney stack). Not the kind of conversation I wanted shortly after introducing myself.

ETA: Funny what above poster says re when they were built. Ours is 1930's. Got parking at the front for 4-5 cars, only a 50ft garden as the back 50ft was sold off. Got nice sized rooms and even a pantry though

dirty_magic

27col wrote: »

Some people are weird. |How could you possibly look at an ex council house and not know until you are almost completing. From my experience council estates, current or ex ,stand out like a sore thumb. Most have been upgraded over the years, either by the Council, or by their tenant purchasers.
Strikes me that you are just looking for something to worry about. All areas are subject to occasional trouble from low life's at times.

I live not far from Birmingham too and it is difficult to tell sometimes. Most councils houses have been bought now and the purchasers do so much to them that you can't always tell. We looked at one that had been extended and I was surprised to.find out it was ex council.

OP it doesn't sound like a big problem in terms of resale. You say it was reasonably priced to start with, probably because it's ex council, and most of the others are probably privately owned now too.

I don't understand why people think the OP is being judgemental tbh. Crime is higher in deprived areas, especially near tower blocks where a lot of drug addicts are housed. That's just fact, and I'd bet most people wouldn't want to live near one.

looknohands

It is judgemental, ex council estates are not always deprived areas. Tower blocks are not all full of druggies. I've lived near a tower block and it didn't bother me that it was there. Also you can't use 'tower block' so loosely, there's plenty of ex-council tower blocks in East London that I would like to own a flat in!

alchemist.1

Whereabouts in Birmingham is this up and coming area? Surely you knew about the estate a few streets away before you viewed the property/made an offer?

Majority of council properties are easily recoqnised. As Mr Ginge says if it really bothers you, pull out and do your research and get an idea of where you actually want to live.

dirty_magic

looknohands wrote: »

It is judgemental, ex council estates are not always deprived areas. Tower blocks are not all full of druggies. I've lived near a tower block and it didn't bother me that it was there. Also you can't use 'tower block' so loosely, there's plenty of ex-council tower blocks in East London that I would like to own a flat in!

You haven't been to some of the ones in Birmingham then! Trust me, you wouldn't want to live there. London is a different world so it's not a fair comparison. A tower block flat in London recently sold for 1m, around here it's more like 25-30k.

I've just compared crime statistics for a few of the tower block estates and it proves my theory. There are an average of 51 crimes per month from the few I looked at. The highest figure was 88 and the lowest 24. That's in comparison to 4 where I live and 7 where my parents live, neither of which are far from council estates.

I didn't say all ex council estates were deprived areas, and I actually don't think the OP has much to worry about, but I do think almost all tower blocks locally are deprived, and I do think the high crime rate is linked to drugs.

MABLE

patfunk9 wrote: »

We are FTBs and really nervous about buying a new house as we are putting a lot of our savings in this and also it is a big commitment. We liked this property in an up and coming area of Birmingham. The property is a good sized 3 bed semi-dethatched with good front and rear gardens. We put in an offer that was accepted and was slightly lower to the asking price. The price we got I think is good for the area.

Since then we have had the Homebuyer's report done and there were a few minor things, which we spoke to the seller about and he knocked off another £1000 off the price, as he did not want to go through the hassle of rectifying the issue. We gladly accepted it.

Now that we are close to exchange of contracts, I have just found out through a conversation with the agent that it is an ex-council house bought from the council in early 80's. Also, that triggered something in my mind to check the area a couple of streets away where there is definitely a row of council owned flats. Statistically I checked the specific area and couple of streets around the property and found that around 35% of the properties in that area are still 'rented from the council'. However, the street our property is in, have very few properties on it and don't seem to have any council properties immediately around. But just a street across there are a few block of council flats. So I think the reasonable price initially was because of the proximity of this estate and also it being ex-council.

But now I am contemplating on this, I am afraid that we may have been hasty, with the market moving quickly, and probably could have negotiated a better price. Now in the light of this new information, do you think it is worth negotiating the price down further? We still like this place, but am worried about the resale ability potential and the future price ceiling due to the surroundings and hence the renegotiation. And if so, what would be the best way to approach this?

Thanks in advance for all your advice.

Why on earth do you think you should renegotiate the price. I take it nothing awful has happened in the house like a murder. Do you not think you are being quite snobbish about this.

kinger101

Oh no! Not ex-council. A working class person might have lived there for Christ's sake. Imagine all the grime that they might have brought back into the house when they came home from the factory to eat their faggots and peas. I bet they used coarse language too, and drank tea out of chipped mugs. I wouldn't even let my butler sleep there unless the place had been given a jolly good delousing.

looknohands

dirty_magic wrote: »

You haven't been to some of the ones in Birmingham then! Trust me, you wouldn't want to live there. London is a different world so it's not a fair comparison. A tower block flat in London recently sold for 1m, around here it's more like 25-30k.

I've just compared crime statistics for a few of the tower block estates and it proves my theory. There are an average of 51 crimes per month from the few I looked at. The highest figure was 88 and the lowest 24. That's in comparison to 4 where I live and 7 where my parents live, neither of which are far from council estates.

I didn't say all ex council estates were deprived areas, and I actually don't think the OP has much to worry about, but I do think almost all tower blocks locally are deprived, and I do think the high crime rate is linked to drugs.

Ok I can understand your opinion of those crime stats if you live in an area with 7!
For comparison for Norwich where I live... the area I live in at the moment has 74 crime incidents in the past month, I would describe it as a nice area close to the city mostly private terraces, the very nice suburb my girlfriends parents live in has 61, it's still walking distance to town, so it's a bit higher because of that. The council estate with three tower blocks I used to live on had 31 incidents, which i think is low... The nicest area I could even find in my city has 18 incidents of crime in the past month.

So this is why I don't think council estates, or tower blocks mean crime!

And where do you live!?!