Buying my house was the biggest regret of my life!

tensandunits_2

There is reasonable living noise and unreasonable noise. Is the noise going on at night time?

And for what it's worth, I've lived in both private rental and Housing Association properties and the private rental seemed to attract more unsavoury types than the HA.

warehouse

Would I buy next door to an HA property? No, not ever.

Does this mean my private owning neighbours are lovely and quiet? No it doesn't. Before Christmas I stood at their doorstep being overly threatening, (no I'm not proud), because their barking dog kept my kids awake past midnight. It has had the desired effect, but relations are now "strained".

Crashy_Time

lhg91 wrote: »

So my partner and I have been in our house almost a year now. It wasn't exactly the kind of house I wanted, but it did feel homely when we viewed it (4 times). Good value for money (although I do think now, that we overpaid!), close to work, a decent first time buy.

After moving in we found out that the house next door to us is a Housing Association house. I did research this prior to buying the property on the council website and it said 'owned outright'. I thought this meant that the owners had purchased the house under the right to buy scheme, but turns out that is not the case.

Anyway, without sounding like a complete snob (trust me, I'm not!) The neighbours are driving me crazy! They have four children that are constantly running around, and I feel like tearing my hair out most evenings. They don't seem to know what a normal voice is, and constantly shout at each other, and the kids (max. age 12, swear and shout at the parents). We have spoke to them a few times, and we plan on speaking to them tomorrow about the noise. They do seem more considerate (I think they know they have to be as they are the only HA home on the estate). I suffer from anxiety, and feel like I have no place to relax anymore as i'm always on edge as to when the next bout of noise is going to happen!

Long story short, I feel like I've made the biggest mistake of my life buying this house. I now realise why this house wasn't sold within the first 10 days of it being put on the market (houses within this price range go within days typically, I live in Devon good-priced houses are snapped up!). Sad thing is, when we viewed the house multiple times, at different times of the day and week, you could hear a pin drop, both in and outside the house!

The estate agent essentially lied to us about the previous owner of our house (we found out from speaking to neighbours later), and I'm now worried that no one is going to want to purchase our house when we come to move because of the attached HA house.

My question is, would being attached to a HA home put you off purchasing a property? Is this something our solicitor should have told us about before purchasing? 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?

Councils tend to be much tighter regarding noise etc than they used to be, but as someone said official complaints need to be declared when you try to sell?

Crashy_Time

tensandunits wrote: »

There is reasonable living noise and unreasonable noise. Is the noise going on at night time?

And for what it's worth, I've lived in both private rental and Housing Association properties and the private rental seemed to attract more unsavoury types than the HA.

Students?..........:D

Moonhead

I have anxiety and its just over a year since buying my terrace. I naively thought the walls were thicker and 3 views of the property revealed no noise problems. I knew there was families each side, 1 is very respectful and well the other... drive me nuts. They shout at each other through the house, never lower the level of their voices in the evening, scream at the kid, alarm system is attached to the adjoining wall which ping and pongs every time a door opens. Each side have just had new babies as well (which I do not hold against anyone, just life)

At first it really got me down and anxious. I've learnt to adapt to it with applying ambient noise in my house, radio etc. When the undesirable side kick off I turn my devices up to try and get them to realise how much noise they are making. Kids I understand (I have one) but screaming at them and each other I do not see as respectful with neighbors. I haven't spoke to them yet about it as I'd rather keep the peace (they aren't the type that would react well.

I've seen it as a challenge to my anxiety now and to try and accept the situation. Its a nice area and nice house. I keep telling myself at least its not wasted money into rent and nights are not disrupted by student parties and screaming people on the street (rented flat in Manchester)

I focus on the goal of trading up and hopefully having a detached one day or them moving on and the luck of new respectful neighbors.

amanda_p

You have my absolute sympathy. Many many years ago we lived in a semi with unbelievably loud next door neighbours. You could hear everything they were saying, doing, television, radio and the three teenage boys shouting all the time. It drove me insane ad I can relate to never feeling relaxed as you never knew when the noise would stop. We tried asking them to keep the noise levels down, all to no avail they were a noisy family, television on loud so they then had to shout over it. We had sound insulation installed along the adjoining walls upstairs and down, but it only made a small difference.
There is nothing worse than going to bed tired only to lay awake fretting at the noise levels. Unless you have lived like this you cannot understand how truly awful it is.
We lived there for 2 years and ever since have bought detached properties.......wonderful and quiet.
We never told our neighbours we were moving as by then the parents went out a lot and left the three 17, 18 and 19 year olds alone with constant music thumping through the walls day and night. We were lucky that when people came to view the house it was quiet. Such a shame because it was in a lovely location overlooking fields to the rear.
The day we moved out, the new people were not moving in for a week, so as a swan song I left a radio on high volume and hope it drove them to drink for the next week! My husband still doesn't know to this day my final act of rebellion!

Murphybear

lhg91 wrote: »

I used to live in a council house, on a council estate, in Gateshead. Trust me, i'm not a snob. I just know what a lot of tenants that live in social housing can be like, as I have lived amongst my fair share of them. Sorry that I have saved up for years to purchase a house of my own with the hope of being able to return to my home and relax without having screaming adults and kids next door, wow, what a snob.

Noisy neighbours can be found anywhere and you can't make assumptions on the type of house/ownership. We live in a cul-de-sac on the edge of a market town. It's fairly quiet but there is one family who are a real problem. They have just had their fourth screaming brat. They live next door to us and once in 8 years we asked them to turn their music down the husband became abusive and threatening to my OH.

We are very quiet, don't play music, no barking dogs, no noisy visitors. They own their house, we rent privately. :rotfl:

beedeedee

If you can't or don't want to sell up, why not rent it out (get permission from your mortgage co. first) and then rent somewhere else using your rental income?
You're obviously not happy there, so I'd not stress anymore and just move on, albeit temporarily, until the noisy neighbours move out. Which chances are, they will eventually.................

davidmcn

Given the OP hasn't logged in since the day they posted, I suspect they're not interested in our further advice.

lhg91

davidmcn wrote: »

Given the OP hasn't logged in since the day they posted, I suspect they're not interested in our further advice.

I am interested and appreciate everyone's remarks, I'm just extremely busy at work and don't always have time to check this forum...