Preparing to buy first home- Worried about neghbors

Jamiesmum

Why you worried now then?

Mojisola

chamelious wrote: »

I'm a musician, and we like to watch films relatively loud.

chamelious wrote: »

I should re-iterate this again. I'm 30 years old, I've lived as i do now for 30 years in 4 or 5 houses and not had a problem so far.

You were precocious - playing instruments since the time you were born!

Maybe you're lucky that you didn't have complaints from neighbours - they may all have celebrated when you moved on and they got some peace and quiet back.

chamelious

I'm worried now because every other house I've lived in has been temporary, i could've moved out at any time, a mortgage is a long term commitment.

Its doubtful/impossible that my neighbours would've ignored the noise if it was an issue. My last block of flats was filled with old women with nothing better to do than complain, they found plenty else to complain about.

Jamiesmum

chamelious wrote: »

I'm worried now because every other house I've lived in has been temporary, i could've moved out at any time, a mortgage is a long term commitment.

Its doubtful/impossible that my neighbours would've ignored the noise if it was an issue. My last block of flats was filled with old women with nothing better to do than complain, they found plenty else to complain about.

To be fair it's as another poster said, treat your neighbours as you want to be treated.
If you don't mind them watching a loud film, they probably won't mind you doing it.

I think your best bet is to try find a detached house. Is this within your budget? Or joint on with utility rooms or something. Saying that, though, me and my neighbour are joint by living room wall and I've never heard a sound from them.

Knowing your neighbours help too, introduce yourself as soon as possible, start on good terms, remain on good terms. I know that the neighbours husband works a night shift, so therefore I don't let my son be too loud in the garden before 12. We don't speak often but we take in each others parcels, say hello when spotted in mornings and such.

We're in our 20s and they're in there 50s so probably had a heart attack when we moved in with a kid as opposed to the 70 year old that lived here before us.

Mutual respect is probably key to good neighbours. Don't need to be friends just approachable.

chamelious

I guess ultimately the aim is to buy a house without paper thin walls! Detatched is most probably out of the budget unfortunately, its a first house so i can't see us affording more than about 130k.

david1951

Someone buying the flat next to my (old) place had a sound test done as part of their due diligence. You need to get permission but I was happy to let them do it. They set up speakers and microphones in each room and pressed a button; takes less than 10 minutes.


My current neighbors have a grand piano. Hasn't been a problem so far but they said they would usually only play it before 6pm. I've never needed (or desired) to ask them to be quiet. In fact I quite like it as they are brilliant pianists.


Films....depends on the frequency, loudness, time of day. My other neighbor watches films quite loud, but usually only on Sunday evenings, and before 10pm (or turns it down after).


I would be prepared to make some sacrifices if you currently watch films and play music until the early hours. If not, see how it goes.

moneyistooshorttomention

Mojisola wrote: »

You were precocious - playing instruments since the time you were born!

Maybe you're lucky that you didn't have complaints from neighbours - they may all have celebrated when you moved on and they got some peace and quiet back.

I must admit that I'm reading OP's post as translating into "I want to be able to make whatever noise I want BUT not be on the receiving end of anyone else's noise". Errrrr....?

Either someone is quiet themselves (and therefore entitled to complain if the neighbours arent) OR they are noisy themselves (and not entitled to complain if the neighbours are).

It works both ways....

stator

It's just one of those risks you have to take to be honest.
I moved in 6 months ago and one of my neighbours has moved and I now have a crying baby as a neighbour

TBagpuss

The best you can do is speak to neighbours and also, once you find a property you like, try to visit at a different time of day - so if your original viewing was during 'ofice hours' arrange a second viewing in an evening or weekend when nieghbours are likely to be at home.

Look at the lay out of the property. When I last moved, I was particularly conscious of noise having spent the past 10 years in a terraced house with thin walls. I now have a semi, and when I was viewing, i deliberately looks for a property where the main bedroom was on the 'outside' of the house and had no shared wall with the neighbour, for example, becuase I am a light sleeper and wanted to ensure that I could minimise the risk of being disturbed.

If you enjoy making music, think about which rooms you will use to do so, to reduce the risk of causing a nuisance for your neighbours.

I have a combined living/dining room which runs the whole width of the house but I have chosen to arrange it so the 'living' end is away from the neighbours - my TV is next to an 'outside' wall, not the ajoining wall.

In a semi the houses are often miror images of each other so you can have a fair idea of which rooms in the next house are likely to be on the centre wall, and can take that into account.

You can also plan for noise reduction. I have lovely neighbours and other than very ocasional noise when their young daughter has a party or a tantrum, I don't hear anything. But the next step in my plans for the hosue involved having built-in bookcases all along the wall that joins their house to mine - I'm pretty sure that all that paper will further deaden the sound!

hazyjo

Layout is def the most important thing as people can move house and you never know who you'll end up with next door.


My next door neighbour one side is as deaf as a post and has her telly so loud that the neighbours the other side hear it louder than their own TV. We don't hear a thing as we're halls adjoining to her.


Jx