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

csgohan4

So judgemental, so what if it is an ex council. The fact is you didn't do you research thoroughly. Different cities go through regeneration, look at Hulme, Manchester, used to be a dump now it is improved and upcoming.


Did you walk around at 7pm and 1am at night ? Do you feel safe?


We viewed my house 6 times before we bought out house. We also lived near the area a few years previously.

Red-Squirrel_2

Hi OP, here's a thread I started a bit ago about ex-council houses:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5215239

Unfortunately, the place I had my eye on was sold before I was in a position to make an offer. If it hadn't, I've have snapped it up in a heartbeat!

If the area is 'up and coming' then a spacious house with good gardens will probably soon be unaffordable for FTBs as prices rise. Its up to you what you're comfortable with, but don't miss out on what might be a fantastic opportunity because of pre-conceived ideas about people who live in council flats!

(The area I ended up buying in actually has higher rates of burglary, apparently because its considered 'affluent' so thieves are more likely to get good stuff out of the houses, so you can't guarantee a crime free life wherever you live.)

cattermole

Where did he say Tower block?!

I thought it was a block, not quite the same thing and again initial research looking around the area would have revealed this, regardless of whether or not the house was "obviously ex council" and so what if it is?. I wouldn't go for one purely because I don't like the style/look no other reason.

You can buy a house anywhere that is not ex-council and there could be ex-council house a few feet away. In fact we are having a fence boundary with such a house! We are doing this with our purchase but in the full knowledge of what we are doing because we have researched it in advance, plus it's obvious that it is ex-council on the adjoining street. There is also a lot of new development around that isn't.

So why is that a problem? We get to be just in a very good area (conservation area) overlooking a Common. If I went less than a 1/3 mile over the common I would pay £30,000 more for a smaller house. That is the price you pay for what you want/can afford.

dirty_magic

looknohands wrote: »

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!?!

It's not unusual to have low crime, I've just looked at where some other relatives live out of interest and they're all low too. There's been 0 crimes where my OHs mom lives! I think it's because it's not that close to the city, but everywhere I've looked is lower than where the blocks are.

Crime is always higher closer to the city where there are more people, so maybe it's just because of the denser population in tower block flats. The stats do show that around here crime is higher around them though.

Johnnytwostep

Phew, at least you found out before you bought it, now you can pull out.

Owain_Moneysaver

kinger101 wrote: »

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.

You forgot to mention the nylon carpets and the nail holes on the wall from the flying ducks.

Johnnytwostep

I was more thinking of the walk to work past all those burned out cars, feral youths, mums in their PJs on the way to buy their fags and booze ready for a daytime tv marathon. All at the expense of the hardworking taxpayer of course.

Old_Git

so here's a plan .pull out of the sale and find a nice private development .
You move in and find next door is rented privately to a family with 10 feral children ,all with different fathers .You complain to the council and they say oops we dont own that house .You complain to the landlord who says they pay the housing benefit on time .

gocurlygirl

We grew up in a council house-now owned by my parents in a much sought after area.I would live there again,happily.Many people depended on council housing,now there is not enough.
I hope you are happy in your new home.:):)

LittleMax

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.

I think the OP would have worked out if they were in one of these areas. They talk about it being an up and coming area.

Come on let us know where it is and those of us familiar with the area will be able to comment without making much of Brum sound like a no go area!