Neighbour put us off

fluffymuffy

There's a recent thread about a neighbour putting people off buying. I thought about that today. We viewed a house, shown round by the estate agent, and made an offer before we left. Then as we were driving away we saw the man from the house opposite in his garage. He was looking at us and making a weird gesture - his arm was outstretched with his thumb up and he was moving it up and down slowly. He wasn't smiling. I don't know what this means but it spooked us enough to look at the police.uk crime map. There were 5 reports of "violence and sexual offences" on that road in the last 18 months, and there's only 3 houses. So it's that neighbour or another one, which is worse. We withdrew our offer. The estate agent said they would ask the vendor if they knew anything, but what can they say? I'm disappointed because I liked that house. There were also 2 burglaries and a bicycle theft so maybe just as well. We backed out when the agent rang to say the seller was looking for the full asking price (we had offered a little less). Was I wrong or is this gut instinct protecting me?

user1977

fluffymuffy said:

There were 5 reports of "violence and sexual offences" on that road in the last 18 months, and there's only 3 houses. So it's that neighbour or another one, which is worse. 

What makes you think the offences were committed by residents?

fluffymuffy

user1977 said:

fluffymuffy said:

There were 5 reports of "violence and sexual offences" on that road in the last 18 months, and there's only 3 houses. So it's that neighbour or another one, which is worse. 

What makes you think the offences were committed by residents?

Good point. It's a quiet semi-rural location of a few houses (with 3 opposite the one we liked having their own street name), so perhaps people drive there specially to commit violence and sexual offences.

Bonniepurple

Where we used to live was very close to a huge crime hotspot according to the statistics.  It turned out that the high number was due to the police headquarters and custody suite for the county, and it was where people were further arrested and charged.  The crime levels were actually quite low once you took that out.

mark_cycling00

Who on earth thought it would be helpful to group all sexual and violent crimes together in one crime group?

So you have no idea if 5 females were assaulted in 18months by this man or whether he was burgled, fought them off successfully but they all tried to bring charges against him.

Ksw3

Perhaps ask for a second viewing and see if it changes how you feel about the place? 

jimbog

could he be gesturing 'good luck' to you and it didn't come across quite right?

JReacher1

Whether it’s the neighbour or not five sexual/violence offences in 18 months on what sounds like a very small street would put me off. 

The irony of course would be if the reason why the house was for sale was because the owner was in prison for committing 5 sexual/violent offences 😃

staffie1

I have a neighbour opposite me who makes silly gestures at me sometimes and stands staring through my window at me occasionally. He’s no bother - I’ve just reached the conclusion he’s not right in the head. 

Vectis

Go with your instinct in situations like this, which is what you have done.

RelievedSheff

I agree with going with your instincts on this one. You have to live there.