Buying my house was the biggest regret of my life!

lhg91

HiToAll wrote: »

could be any type of housing.
I think what you are saying is that we should round up anyone who needs social housing of any type and sail them all out to an island in the middle of the north sea. Then they wouldnt have to sully your neighbourhood.

I don't really understand why people feel the need to comment on a post like this with nothing constructive, just to simply have a go at someone? You have no idea about me or my personal circumstances, so how do you know that is what I think (considering my previous comment said that I used to live in social housing myself?)

I think you possibly just like to use websites like this to vent your frustration via a computer? But yes of course that's what I am saying, why don't we just line them up and shoot them all while we are at it. that would be a much cheaper course of action...

I think you'll find I didn't say anything about them ruining the neighbourhood (although now you mention it there have been multiple complaints about them from other houses on the road).

gettingtheresometime

The point is that you could get lovely HA neighbours or you could get home owners from hell as neighbours.


I'm not sure why you think your solicitor should have told you about the HA renting the house.


Could it be your anxiety is making you put the situation out of perspective? What does your partner think?

Pixie5740

I think the point people are trying to make is that the fact your neighbours rent from a housing association is irrelevant. Nuisance neighbours come in all shapes and sizes. I've had two atrocious neighbours, one was a private tenant and the other was an owner-occupier (he was by far the worst).

You might prefer to be attached to the house on the other side now but that elderly couple won't live forever. What would happen when they die, downsize or move into a residential home? Your next set of neighbours would be potluck.

lhg91 wrote: »

My question is, would being attached to a HA home put you off purchasing a property?

Not necessarily. Regardless of who lived next door I would be looking at the condition of the attached property, is it well maintained, or does it resemble Viz's 22 !!!! Street? When buying a property joined to another property(s) I like to check out the sound proofing. Just because there are reasonably quiet neighbours when you first move in doesn't mean to say there always will be.

lhg91 wrote: »

Is this something our solicitor should have told us about before purchasing?

Did you ask your solicitor who owned and occupied the house next door?

lhg91 wrote: »

And if no complaints have been made by the previous owners of our home against the neighbours, do we have a leg to stand on regarding claiming against the 'nuisance' neighbours?

Claim against whom? You said that the previous owner let the property out to HA tenants themselves so how would the previous owner of your home know how much or how little noise your neighbours make?

I do appreciate the hell of living next to nuisance neighbours. When living in a home which is attached to someone else's home you do need accept that there will be a certain about of their noise in your home and vice versa. If you want to remain living in this house you need to learn to cope/deal with the noise. Perhaps try and de-sensitive yourself to it or look at way of improving the sound proofing between the two properties. You also have the benefit of being able to report any excessive noise and anti-social behavior to the social landlord. If they were owner-occupiers you wouldn't have that option.

HiToAll

lhg91 wrote: »

I don't really understand why people feel the need to comment on a post like this with nothing constructive, just to simply have a go at someone? You have no idea about me or my personal circumstances, so how do you know that is what I think (considering my previous comment said that I used to live in social housing myself?)

I think you possibly just like to use websites like this to vent your frustration via a computer? But yes of course that's what I am saying, why don't we just line them up and shoot them all while we are at it. that would be a much cheaper course of action...

I think you'll find I didn't say anything about them ruining the neighbourhood (although now you mention it there have been multiple complaints about them from other houses on the road).

You could do that yes, but the next set of neighbours might be just as bad. Do you then have to do the same to them too?

fairy_lights

I think the fact that it's a housing association property is completely irrelevant, wherever you live there's a risk you might end up with noisy neighbours.
The worst noisy neighbour I've ever had was a single, middle class middle aged woman - who used to drink a bottle of wine a night and scream down the phone at her ex.
You've been unlucky to end up next to such a loud family but remember that as the children get older the noise will probably decrease. And apart from the noise are they bad neighbours in any other ways?

lhg91

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

Could it be your anxiety is making you put the situation out of perspective? What does your partner think?

I don't think that my anxiety helps the situation, as it does tend to amplify things. My partner isn't bothered by it all, but he is the complete opposite to me, he is so relaxed and very little stresses him out (probably why we are together!)

fairy_lights wrote: »

You've been unlucky to end up next to such a loud family but remember that as the children get older the noise will probably decrease. And apart from the noise are they bad neighbours in any other ways?

Not really to be honest, they are actually very friendly, I just think they live in their own little bubble where they don't see how they are affecting others. Since we moved in and started doing things to the garden and the house, they have actually started doing things to theirs (planting flowers, painting the fences etc.) I know I could have to deal with a lot worse, but it still bugs me...

Pewmouse

I think it's unfortunately a case of buyer beware. You do have my sympathy as we lived attached to a house that had 3 barking dogs that were left in the house alone regularly at our last house. All our visitors commented on the racket! The dogs would bark a lot as they were in the window bottom baking at people walking past. This issue really influenced our recent purchase as we didn't want to be in that situation again, we ended up buying a smaller detached property rather than risk another semi as you never get the full picture when viewing a property.


I would be wary of raising a complaint in case it escalates and you then have to declare it if you ever want to move. That's why we never complained about the dogs at our previous house. Other neighbours further up the street had complained as they could hear them (shows how bad it was in our house!)

edinburgher

I can commiserate, we used to own a flat where nuisance noise from the neighbours was a depressing part of daily life. Partly it was the construction of the building to blame, but lack of awareness on the part of the noisy people was also to blame.

Based on my own anecdotal experience (12 years of renting, 4 of owning), tenure does make a difference. All of the crazies that we had the misfortune of being next to over the years were renting and as soon as we became owners we were initiated into the secret club of 'anybody who didn't buy on the open market is automatically a PITA' :rotfl: Well, so claimed our neighbours who owned...

Just to contradict myself, I'd say that while renting, we were always model neighbours! You can usually hear a pin drop in our house and we were in bed by 10 on most nights

Unfortunately I suspect that we are now the nuisance neighbours as we have a normal, healthy toddler

I suspect like anything else in life, people are either rude or polite at a basic level, I doubt how they pay for their home is really a factor.

pinkteapot

I agree with the others that the tenure is irrelevant. I've had noisy neighbours in privately-owned houses. Leaving that aside...

I absolutely sympathise because I'm particularly sensitive to noise, too. Some people just are. It's never a case of "you're making too big a deal of this" - if it bothers you then it bothers you. Everyone has a different tolerance level for noise. This house has taught you that you're sensitive to it. Use that and learn. As mentioned above - the next time you move, try and get a detached if at all possible on your budget. You'll get a smaller house but it'll be worth it. And make sure you view at different times of day - evenings are often good for making sure the neighbours are home.

As for your immediate options... As others have said, if you escalate this at all then you'll have to declare it when selling and that WILL be a problem. There's no question on the forms you fill in about the ownership of next door, but there are about any complaints you've made.

What's the value of the house like compared to when you bought it? You could move. It's never ideal to own for that short a time because of the cost of moving in terms of fees etc, but if it's driving you mad it might just be the best thing to do, if you can afford it.

gettingtheresometime

lhg91 wrote: »

Not really to be honest, they are actually very friendly, I just think they live in their own little bubble where they don't see how they are affecting others. Since we moved in and started doing things to the garden and the house, they have actually started doing things to theirs (planting flowers, painting the fences etc.) I know I could have to deal with a lot worse, but it still bugs me...

Actually I would take the fact that they are friendly & follow your lead in terms of garden as a positive.


If the people who rented your house were similar then perhaps its case of them never having to consider others and now that they do, it is taking them a while to adjust and learn behaviours that they've never had to consider before....this is not an overnight process.