Thinking of buying but next door is very run down

Bey0ndcontrol

Hi All,

I was hoping for some advice! I have found a great terraced house, however next door is VERY run down. It looks empty but I can't be sure, there are big cracks in the walls which look like they maybe connected to the broken guttering. You can see near all the guttering stains on the brick where the water has leaked and spread. The rest of the street is lovely and I can't see anymore properties with cracks in. I'm just concerned and don't know the best thing to do & where I stand if there neglect causes damage to my house!
I will get a full structural survey but before I spend on that I wanted to see if anyone had any advice

Thank you

dunroving

Have you asked the seller about it? He/she may have some inside information.

On the positive side it may mean less competition and therefore room to negotiate the price downwards.

Have you made an offer? It sounds like you plan to get a survey done ... surely not before you make an offer?

Bey0ndcontrol

Hi, I've asked the estate agents to ask the owner but the estate agent doubts the owner will know anything as they are not local (the property was a student rental)

I think I'm going to put an offer in, if I'm successful I will get a survey done but I was looking for a bit of advice as I'm hopeless with these things

dunroving

Maybe have a chat with any neighbours you bump into, to get some idea of the street's history (also, look on Rightmove House Sold Prices for the street).

It may simply be a street that is on the way up, and next door is one of the last old/tired houses on the street.

That doesn't answer your question about whether the next door house is likely to be falling down, or affecting the house you are interested in. But I'd be a lot more concerned if the house I was interested in buying was the only nice house on a street of ruins than the opposite.

DaftyDuck

On a detached house, I might not mind, and would price my offer accordingly, and hope a future sale might bring more attentive neighbours.

For a terrace? No, I would pass, as there could be an enormous amount of difficulty if the property is allowed to decay further.

Wouldn't stop me making many, many enquiries, as I might find information that would make me guess things would change for the better.

AdrianC

dunroving wrote: »

But I'd be a lot more concerned if the house I was interested in buying was the only nice house on a street of ruins than the opposite.

This.

If this one's a student rental, so's next door, almost certainly.

A lousy landlord, who doesn't know or much care about the condition of the building? That's a landlord that's going to bail at the first sign of an issue. They have a legal obligation to cover any damage caused to your property from failings in theirs. If and when they do bail, it'll almost certainly be bought by somebody to refurb.

If ex-student rental HMOs are becoming owner-occupied, that suggests the area's on the improve, so the landlord next door may well be thinking of selling to cash in.

Bey0ndcontrol

Thank you. I think I will have a walk round the street this evening to see if I notice anything else, I am stil waiting to hear back from the estate agents.

It does concern me the state of the next door house, I checked the land registry too and it has no details about the address! Is that normal?

hazyjo

My elderly next door neighbour in my last house started neglecting her property badly. Said it wasn't worth bothering with (apart from when some dodgy builders convinced her to have her roof/some ceilings replaced at a cost of five figures - police/bank/council all involved, the lot).


There were loads of things wrong with it, and they were only getting worse.


If someone doesn't care about it now, who's going to care if the roof leaks, a pipe bursts, or a tree grows through the wall, or if Japanese Knotweed appears in their neglected garden.


I've bought a few similar houses, but after the last one would be VERY wary about doing so again.

AdrianC

Bey0ndcontrol wrote: »

I checked the land registry too and it has no details about the address! Is that normal?

For unregistered properties, yes. Compulsory registration on sale hasn't been in place that long, so there's still quite a few places that won't be registered until they're next sold or until the gov't decide to make registration compulsory for EVERY property.

victoriavictorious

Is anyone living there at the moment, or is it empty? If occupied, its condition would ring alarm bells for me.
Apart from the structural aspects, one of my concerns would be in case the house turned out to contain the neighbour(s) from hell, or a noisy neighbour (or both!)
If I couldn't find anything to convince me all was well, I'm afraid I'd walk.

Margot123

I looked at an immaculate semi that ticked all the boxes but was totally put off by the adjoining property.

The roof had tiles missing, the chimney had pointing coming away, the window frames were rotten. It was owned by a chap in his mid-20s who'd inherited it from his gran but couldn't afford to maintain it.

Sadly the immaculate house is still up for sale, and the agent admits it must be due to the condition of the next door property. I do feel sorry for the vendor as even reducing the price isn't working.