Not sure what to do for the best?

chella

Hello,


I currently rent a nice 2 bed house. I really like my home, its big with a nice garden space and off road parking. I have been here a couple of years. However... the street I live on has become awful. A couple of families have moved in who have caused havoc. Police, drug raids,and teenagers hanging around in the evening smoking cannabis. There are sofas, a burnt out car and a rotting caravan on drives, along with general crap in peoples gardens.


I feel intimidated walking along the street to get to my door. Groups of people drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis.


I have found a house to rent on a nicer part of town but it doesn't have a garden and is very small. It is however on a very nice road/area.


I feel for my sanity I need to move but I also feel pushed out by the people who live on my current street. I feel angry at possibly losing a garden and private parking space because I cant cope living where I am. (I fully understand its my problem, and most others on the road just turn a blind eye etc)


The home I have found is a small row of 4 cottages, where I am now is a cul de sac of 55.My street has gotten itself a bad reputation from the families that have moved in and made a nuisance of themselves.




I know that moving is what I should do but I just feel really confused. Would it bother you if you lived on a street that looked rough as hell?


Or am I overacting/being a snob as I have been called??

Rosemary7391

You're definitely not overreacting. I'd move in those circumstances. I can't stand being around drunk people, but at least that one is legal!

Who called you a snob? The folks doing all that?

chella

Yes, I asked someone to clean up their spilt rubbish. It was blowing over my driveway. Shi**y baby wipes from a ripped bin. The stuff was all over the road for more than a week. These people don't work so could have just spent 5mins clearing their mess up but just never do. I am embarrassed to live here. One woman told me to eff off as I am a stuck up C***. Thinking I am better than them. I have always been polite. But I don't like these people. The drinking/constant cussing and cannabis smoking in the street makes me feel uncomfortable.


There is just a few families in say , 5 houses that are doing this, but none seem to work and live their entire day out on the street and in each others front driveways, doors open, smoking and drinking. . Barefoot walking up and down the road in pyjamas etc. The rubbish strewn about has got really bad, shopping trolleys and general crap dumped on the road.


I have contacted the council and their landlords, which is a housing association, but no one has been able to help.

steampowered

I have sympathy with you Op. That doesn't sound very nice at all. I would also consider moving.

Davesnave

There's nothing snobbish about not wishing to live in a depressing area littered with rubbish, whether or not that also goes with anti-social behaviour and low-level crime. Unpleasant surroundings eat into the soul over time.

In some places, a small influx of problem families might be met with some kind of response from established residents, but if your neighbours aren't minded to engage with the situation and look for possible solutions, then as someone who rents, it needn't be your problem. It's nobody else's business if you decide to up-sticks.

Your choice is wider than just one property, though. Take your time. Life is rarely a case of either/or.

If scruffy neighbourhoods are depressing, it doesn't follow that areas primly maintained and expensive to live in are the most welcoming and friendly. Like many things in life, there's often a sweet spot between extremes.

Cakeguts

One of the benefits of renting is that you can move easily if the road you live in changes. You don't need this stress in your life. Hope you enjoy your new home where ever that is as much as the current one before the awful neighbours moved in.

staffie1

Yes, I would definitely move in your position. Find somewhere you feel you'll be happy, and leave them behind to get on with it.

rosyw

You're definitely not being snobbish. In your position I'd be moving, but take your time finding the right place, don't jump at the first one that comes along. My daughter & son in law put up with neighbours from hell for as long as they could stand it as they knew that they'd have to pay a much higher rent to find the right place, it was so bad in the end my daughter was feeling physically sick at the thought of going home from work They took their time and now have a lovely place, only a couple of streets away from the old one, but it's like a different world :T There's nothing worse than being miserable in your own home, hope you can get something sorted soon.

moneyistooshorttomention

Another aspect I've heard of before now is that, if an area gets a bad name, then news of that tends to get around. I believe there are some employers that will "screen out" job applicants from bad areas.

That isn't fair - as obviously there will be people that are normal of themselves and would be a good candidate for the job - but it's just an element of "mud sticking".

That was starting to worry me back years ago - when I wasn't "settled" job-wise and I could see the area I was living in heading down rapidly and had got to the stage where I was wondering whether I would need to give a different address in a better area in order not to have "mud stick to me" that wouldn't have been appropriate for me (as one of the normal residents of the area).

chella

Thank you for the replies. I feel the same about coming home, he walk along the street is awful. Gp has given me antidepressants. First time in my life, how mad that it has come to this!! I do live in a very expensive city, and I am not in a position to up my rent by a couple of hundred(which would get me somewhere far far nicer)


I comehome from work and my neighbours are screaming at their 5kids almost non stop, screaming , crying, from adult and children. Social services are involved. Its just madness here.


I will keep looking but I just feel so desperate, this house I have found is in my price range, right in the centre of town, so ideal for work, but no parking space or garden, but I suppose my sanity is more important.


You only really see the families that cause trouble here, everyone else comes and goes to work and like me, they keep themselves very private.

chella

I forgot to add, although it is only a few families causing this agro, they all live within a few doors or opposite my house, if I lived at the other end of the street I think I wouldn't notice it half as much.