Would you buy a house next to mentally handicapped children?

vet8

I ask this question because I was at our local pub on Saturday and a bloke in there, a right plonker was ranting and raving because the house next to him has been sold to a company who run small scale homes for mentally handicapped children. Apparently as long as they house no more than 5 children in each home they do not need planning permission. They are currently installing security, soundproofing, health and safety stuff etc.

This plonker was doing his nut saying that it would knock £1000,000 off the value of his property and the only way he could sell would be to sell to developers. He says he has installed extra outside lights and locks on his garage and informed his insurance company. I was appalled at his attitude - he did concede that these poor unfortunate children needed to live somewhere, but not next to him!

What do others think? A house at the end of our road was also used for the same purpose for years, it was no bother. I would imagine there is even the possibility that they might make good neighbours. Most importantly, these are not criminals, they are children who have ended up this way through no fault of their own.

gettingtheresometime

So glad your post wasn't what I thought it was going to be!

we live next door to a school for children with special needs & I don't think it would have put us off buying a house next door to a residential home for them either

shortcrust

I work with disabled kids and parents sometimes tell me of complaints they get from neighbours. Often really unpleasant ones that are incredibly upsetting and add the what can already be a very stressful life. People complain about noise, but often the upsetting bit is that it seems like the complaint is about the difference of the noise rather than the volume. I see both sides. My next door neighbours' kids are autistic with severe learning difficulties and there is a lot of screaming at all hours of the day. Sometimes it's hard. If I didn't understand how much harder it is for them than me I might struggle with it.

As for the bloke in the pub, he's probably right in that it might put some people off and thereby knock the value. I don't think it helps anyone to create a taboo about talking about stuff like that.

marksoton

Well if it did affect his house price i bet not a single prospective buyer would cite that as the reason.

sammyjammy

I think I wouldn't use the term mentally handicapped for a start!

shortcrust

sammyjammy wrote: »

I think I wouldn't use the term mentally handicapped for a start!

I don't think policing people's language is helpful. 'Acceptable' terminology changes and not everyone can keep up. If they don't mean to offend then it really isn't a big deal. Being a good model is better and kinder than criticising and correcting.

Alice_Walker

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

Probably not, no.

My aunt's neighbour sold their house to someone who converted it into a similarly sized old-age care home.

It wasn't the residents who caused the noise disturbance, it was the visitors, the very frequent service deliveries, the round-the-clock staff coming and going at unsociable hours....

It wasn't terrible but she was always aware of living next door to an active business and it wasn't something she would have chosen to live beside.

That's a fair point about living next to any business. In this case there are likely to be staff arriving at 6 or 7am, leaving at 10pm and so on. As well as the noise element it's also likely to create parking problems.

I wouldn't have a problem living next to disabled children, but the business/ capacity side of it would make me think twice.

elsien

I used to work in a small 4 person home for adults with learning disabilities. Detached house, large gardens with lots of houses backing on to us. Own parkng spaces and only two staff on duty so not lots of coming and going at silly hours. Neighbours went all Nimby and tried to block it. Yes people shouted sometimes, but no more so than the twenty something's next door playing footy and having late night parties. In fact we were generally quieter.
Moving on a few years, the old brigade still complained to environmental health about noise once in a while , but it never came to anything as the noise was generally elsewhere but it was easier to blame us.
And most new people moving in had no idea we were there even after they'd live there a good while.
So impact on house prices? None whatsoever aside from preconceptions which turned out to be wrong.

vet8

sammyjammy wrote: »

I think I wouldn't use the term mentally handicapped for a start!

Sorry it I did not use the latest PC term, but I find the phrase "learning difficulties" far too vague and airy fairy. You could accurately say lots of people have learning difficulties, in other words find it hard to learn, if they are lazy or not very bright or just do not bother. Someone who has an actual disability that they cannot do anything about deserves a more accurate term.

SailorSam

I live almost next door to the local Comp, when that closed down and the kids moved to a new build about a mile away, everyone was made up, i thought someone was going to organise a street party. But i can't imagine anyone would have minded handicapped kids.
It wouldn't put me off buying.

elsien

On the other side of the coin, a person with a learning disability who shouted and slammed doors all night was put by the housing association into a new build end semi. No-one should be expected to have to put up with that for months on end, so I would imagine it could have a huge impact on saleability.

As with anything, it's around specific circumstances and not blanket assumptions.