Buying a house near a planned gypsy site

Cheeky_Monkey

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

I'm getting the feeling you're going to buy this house anyway. You're hoping for a discount but otherwise you're going to rationalize the issue away.

What's so special about this house?
Why do you want to take this enormous risk?
Even the current owners are bailing.

It could be the best run site ever, full of polite and considerate people, but at least half your future buyers are going to be deterred by it. They don't want the stigma, they don't want the increased security risk and insurance premium increases, they don't want their children directly influenced by those from an unconventional background.
There's no upside: at best it will be neutral, at worst it will negatively impact their lives.

The other potential buyers will want a discount. Of course they'll find out; in the first 30 seconds of looking they'll see it in the satellite images. And that's just if it keeps a low profile.

You forgot this one gardner1 :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

YoungBlueEyes

2 little stories -

1) There's a roundabout on the outskirts of my town. On the roadsides near it we have a LOT of daffodils, council + local people plant them. Every year since we've lived here (32 years) a Roma woman and her (wolfhound type) dog have turned up and parked up on the roundabout and stayed for a wee while. She's looks to be about 1000 years old and her dog's about the same
Her caravan is one of the oldfashioned rounded roof, beautifully painted, horse drawn jobber. She stays til the daffs start fading then she moves north. Never a bother, always a smile and a wave.

2) Up until a few years ago I worked in the rugby club. Also on the outskirts of town. One day a traveller in a big Range Rover + caravan combo decided our First Team pitch was just the ticket and drove straight through the locked gate and parked up. Within maybe 45 minutes there dozens of them, all setting up shop with remarkable speed. Long story short, by the time a select handful of rugby lads and big meaty farmers..... errmm.... reminded them they were on private land and encouraged them to get back on the road..... they had caused an astounding amount of damage. I'm not just talking about the (literal) sh1te as well as all the general rubbish that they left behind. A child or two had squeezed through the tiny downstairs windows and opened the doors for the rest of them. They removed all the usual suspects - piping/wiring etc as well as a lot of beautiful old tiling from the walls and floors. Not to mention the general thieving - lockers, sports equipment etc etc. I know this phrase is used a lot, but it did look like a bomb site! :eek:
Time from first arrival to last one leaving? Barely an afternoon.

These might both be one-in-a-million stories, or they could be another first-hand, factual account of what some of these people can be like and what they deem acceptable.

I can't imagine what your possible new house is like OP, but you couldn't give me Windsor Castle to live near any of those people.

moneyistooshorttomention

Quite!

From what I gather there is quite a difference between traditional Roma (maybe okay), travellers (no thank you very much) and New Age travellers (probably okay).

tori.k

I haven't read the thread but we lived near a village with a council site for years without issue, but the stigma of a site does moronically still effect the house prices and they are cheaper in the village compared to the next village a mile away according to rightmove the average price last year in Bugle was 157,141 compared to Roche of 175,782 only real difference between the two villages is Roche has a small Co-op and Bugle has the post office.

jimbo747

I've had previous 7 year old account closed for my views on gypsies but even if the house was free I wouldn't move there. Just make sure the house is occupied 100% of the time, keep curtains closed, get a dog, perhaps a shotgun licence too.

westernpromise

Beenie wrote: »

What ethnic group? They are mostly white British (often of Irish origin). I think true Romanies could be different, but they aren't the ones who cause the problems, and don't usually need council sites.

Gypsies aren't a race, they're not even a demographic. They are just career vagrants. Objecting to gypsies would be racism only if you did so because you assume them to be Irish and if you object to anyone being Irish wherever you encounter them. In fact, people who object to gypsies don't care that they're Irish (whether they are or not), they care about the criminality.

YoungBlueEyes

This might be straying into dangerous territory but.....

The woman in my first story was (I'd say) a proper Roma - dark hair/skin/eyes, not overly concerned about her appearance. Who remembers Lovejoy? Imagine he'd smoked 100 fags a day since he was 10, that's what she looked like. Except she was probably about 6 stone wet through ha haa!

The people in story 2 were all white and English (no Irish accents I mean). The language and violence was shocking, even from the children. My point is that what we consider 'normal' behaviour does not apply to them. Their attitudes and culture are very different to ours and they have no wish to integrate and live with us, or live as we do. They'll do as they please until met with (the right kind of) resistance, at which point they'll move on to the next hunting ground.

Another little story (this is from what I remember on a local news item a few years ago).
Story 2 type people pitched up midweek on a school playing field. Long story short they had to close the school and send the kids home. There was such violence and threatening behaviour that the teachers locked everyone in 'til a large number of police came and only let the parents collect their children under a police escort. They moved on a couple of days later, leaving all the usual behind.

This might all be very different to the sort of people who live on committed sites, but I'd never run the risk.

westernpromise

They don't want to be integrated because then they'd have to pay tax.

gardner1

westernpromise wrote: »

They don't want to be integrated because then they'd have to pay tax.

You only have to look at the Henry Vincent fiasco and the the rest of his lovely extended family to see what a nice hardworking honest bunch they are;)

westernpromise

It's hard work being a distraction burglar or one of those crooks who charges elderly people £300,000 for replacing one roof tile.