Things you wish you'd checked before buying your property

MACKEM99

Phil4432 said:

DairyQueen said:

4) Neighbours. Peace and quiet are such a high priority for us that our perfect neighbours would either be lying in the church graveyard or have four legs.

4 legs?  As in a barking dog?!

Or someone from the fens?

DairyQueen

moneysavinghero said:

4) Neighbours. Peace and quiet are such a high priority for us that our perfect neighbours would either be lying in the church graveyard or have four legs.

Our neighbours dog has 4 legs - no guarantee of peace and quiet

True. So has my cat and he can be a most inconvenient neighbour. A local guy keeps special-breed sheep and cattle in the field behind us. They are delightful neighbours

Mahsroh

As a FTB I wish I’d done more research on the price / value. The vendor was moving in with a new partner so had lots of furniture to get rid off. As I was a first time buyer I offered full asking price on the basis that she left certain items behind. 

In reality, with the exception of a cooker that lasted nearly 10 years I’d got rid of everything she left behind within a year and replaced with my own, so generally speaking it was worthless.

But I also believe by offering asking price I overpaid by about 10%. Even the lenders valuation gave a “range” that my offer was right at the top end of, but even that didn’t ring any alarm bells because I was too desperate for the purchase not to fall through. 

If I was looking to buy the same house now, I suspect I wouldn’t get as far as exchange! 

DairyQueen

MaMoneyMaMoney said:

DairyQueen said:

1) Always check the Council's development/neighbourhood plans. It's an easy way to find-out if a preferred development site is anywhere close. No planning application (yet) doesn't mean there won't be one along soon.

princeofpounds said:

Local planning applications.

This is an interesting one.

In your opinion, how could one best guard against this? What is there to guard against? What could negatively (or positively?) affect a property nearby?

Very much depends on what floats your boat (or doesn't). I also check parish websites and do a general Google search of the specific area/village to check reports in the local media.

- We offered on a property before discovering that huge broiler sheds were in the early stages of discussion, and were within sniffing distance. I would have withdrawn for moral reasons anyway. Seems that these factories are defined as 'agriculture' and district councils are legally constrained in preventing them being built in rural areas.
- Another house we viewed backed onto open fields. A quick review of the village neighbourhood plan revealed that the fields adjacent were first/second priority sites for housing estates. The first planning application was submitted a few months after the property was sold.
- A news report in one local town reported that Waitrose had purchased a site for a new supermarket. I rubbed my hands gleefully as the 'Waitrose effect' on house prices is well-reported.
- You can discover if a favoured service is due for closure (e.g. community hospital).
- Is a highly-rated school/GP surgery changing catchment areas, or received a recent inspection downgrade?
- A local town was under threat of siting a new power station close by. It would have been visible for miles around, destroying views and tourist business.
- Our district council categories every community into one of several 'types' depending on size and number of services. The categorisation is a main criteria for where new housing will be sited within the next decade. The best chance of protecting a view and peace/quiet in our area is to buy anywhere in the 'countryside' category as only in-fill, one-off houses are permitted.

And so on.

kasqueak

We only found out when we moved in to our house that we couldn’t get a Pizza Hut or Dominos delivered here so I wished I’d checked that! First world problems and all that. Haha 🙃

Davesnave

DairyQueen said:

moneysavinghero said:

4) Neighbours. Peace and quiet are such a high priority for us that our perfect neighbours would either be lying in the church graveyard or have four legs.

Our neighbours dog has 4 legs - no guarantee of peace and quiet

A local guy keeps special-breed sheep and cattle in the field behind us. They are delightful neighbours

They are until they break through the fence and into your garden!

(Part-time sheep keeper here, but the ones I care for are only special when roasted! )

goldfinches

Davesnave said:

56runner said:

I find having an experienced builder check the house over is better than a survey.  Moved into a bungalow and woke up in the night to the smell of sewage and discovered a cracked sewage pipe ran under my bedroom.  

To be fair to surveyors and bungalows, a cracked sewage pipe is hard to spot under a floor and it can happen any time. It happened to me in a hall of residence (not a bungalow) half way through the academic year. However, no one took my complaint about the smell seriously; maintenance even suggesting it was my dirty socks. In the end I borrowed some tools and took part of the floor up. They believed me then!

Ha Ha, a similar thing happened during a party at a friend's house when I was at university. Her 'orrible landlord had routed the soil pipe down through one of the cupboards in the kitchen and while we were dancing in the sitting room the pipe cracked and started dripping slowly. The cupboard filled up and then started dripping onto the worktop so that when my friend went to fetch the food she'd prepared and laid out on the side in the kitchen there was a dreadful smell and a brown puddle in the middle of one of the platters. She opened the cupboard door whereupon the accumulated filth covered the whole worktop!
Cue much running up and down stairs and excited discussion by drunken teenagers with no tools or expertise at 1am on a cold wintry weekend in the early 80s. We cleaned up and put a huge 5 litre stew pan under the pipe which wouldn't stop dripping and carried on with the party.
My poor friend ended by throwing out the pan as she couldn't face ever cooking in it again and bleaching the rest of the kitchen so thoroughly it made your eyes water for days.

tink_1983

Wish when we brought a new build off plot we had taken time to under stand the 'service charge' and what was included in this service..  as its seems to be not alot! 

bhaisab

kasqueak said:

We only found out when we moved in to our house that we couldn’t get a Pizza Hut or Dominos delivered here so I wished I’d checked that! First world problems and all that. Haha 🙃

Also this.... very important.

I had issues with first house as it was a Bradford postcode, but belong to Leeds City Council.
but when having our first child found we had to use Wakefield and Dewbury hospitals.
(for people not from Yorkshire, these are 4 different towns/cities)

Wren14

How close the neighbours have placed their kids trampoline to your fence. Not much fun to have little faces gawping at you every other second for the whole summer!