House next door is Housing Association/Social Housing. Would you still buy it?

neverdespairgirl

katieowl wrote: »

The girlfriend told the lower flat neighbour his mental health issues - so not hearsay.

That is almost a perfect definition of hearsay!

fc123

pinkshoes wrote: »

You can never guarentee who's going to end up living in the property next door, and I wouldn't take that risk!

From "extensive" experience...I second this.;) 90% tenants; no probs....10% nightmare who then create 90% of the problems for ALL.

We will (should life go to plan....err...no probably not, my life plans are shredding around my ears at the mo...thank you NR, Govt and banker/city types) be buying in a diff location in a yr or 2.

When buying ouir 2nd house 16 yrs ago...yep, I was the saddo who would insist on driving to the St. that we were buying in at midnight (after a night out) and get out of car and listen.....my future neighbours would look out between curtains at me, standing on the St. dead still; listening for disturbance etc.

Even sadder, went and knocked on doors of all 6 near neighbours to introduce myself..... "I'm buying no 4...Hallo! " kind of thing.....just to see.........


FWIW; said house and neighbours was fantastic (my current tenants love it too)

One can NEVER do too much research....biggest purchase of your life! Any neighbour can be a problem.

We haven't had contents insurance for 8 yrs....our peeping curtain nieghbour prevents the need.

space_rider

I have only had problems when living next door to mortgaged houses. If they are bad neighbours no chance they going to get evicted. I rented a lovely house privately about 18 months ago in a really nice area and the neightbour owned their home and were the worse I have ever come across. I would have loved to have bought that house but neighbour daughter was only 15 and worked out it was too many years to have to put up with her behaviour until she moved out. House still up for sale. I wonder why?

neverdespairgirl

missprint wrote: »

. It wasn't only the appalling kids and thoughtless parents, it was the constant disruption of people moving in and out and having to adjust to their various life patterns. The owners of the house and the council simply didn't care about our concerns, we felt totally disregarded.
.

Why would their life patterns mean your having to adjust? I don't get it.

Debt_Free_Chick

taliwillow wrote: »

Debt free chick - I think you need to re read my original post. At no point did I say that people in Social housing are bad people.

therefore you could also end up woth awful neighbours.

Sorry - I meant "awful people"

At no point either did I say that people who own their own homes are good people. What I did say was that IF you have nice neighbours when you move in, then if it is privately owned then it seems slightly more likely that those neighbours will be there longer term than perhaps someone who is renting. As I said, the lady who is living there at the moment ia very nice (so I'm told by the vendor) and I have no problems with the fact she is renting at all. My only concern is what if she leaves after we move in and we end up with not so nice neighbours. It wouldn't be as easy for us to up and leave if we have bought the house as it is for her as she is renting.

But you won't know what your neighbours are really like until you've lived next to them for a while. Many people can be very nice on the surface - but take on a very different personality as soon as there's "an issue" to deal with. My old neighbours were like this ... very friendly, always invited us in for a drink ..... until we talked to them about building an extension. Boy did they change then!

And you won't know if they're planning to move soon ......

I just don't think you can take any of this for granted. So you find a house, with what seems to be nice neighbours, who don't seem to be about to sell ... or, worse, let the house to the Council for social housing !!!! But then they do

I don't want to sound like I am having a go but I am quite offended that someone would think that I think I am better than others because of my housing situation.

It wasn't so much your post - more some of the replies.

Sorry if I offended you.

Not at all :beer: :A

Lovella

I live on a new-build, 99% privately-owned estate in a shared ownership housing association property. When the estate was built 7 years ago there were 10 properties (all 2-bed houses) built for shared ownership tenants (you get a mortgage for 50% of the value of the property and pay rent on the rest). Some of my neighbours bought the other half of their property and have since sold on the open market and new neighbours have moved in. There has never been any trouble with any of the neighbours at all. As some of the other posters have already said, it really doesn't matter whether your neighbours are housing association tenants or not, you will always take a gamble with who ends up next door to you. My parents live in a huge private house and their nearest neighbour has just put in for planning permission to build a detached 5 bedroom house in their garden overlooking my parents property! If you love the house, and your current potential neighbour is no problem, then I don't see how anyone can say that it's a bad idea.

moneysaver12

i would never buy or ever live in social housing or ha ever again, i would stay well clear. I lived in a ha and at first it was nice then i had nearly four years of hell with the neighbours from hell and the ha did nothing about it, just got worse. In the end i moved in to private rented and its the best thing i did, in the two private rented houses ive lived in my neighbours have been nice, they are quite, no problems what so ever. I have a friend who lives in social housing and she and her family are really nice, but the other neighbours spoil it. I think there are some nice people living in the ha and social housing but not very many

diamonds

your all missing the point : its alot easier to get a tenant evicted than a owner an ASBO

I live in a block of HA flats in a nice area....you never know who'll be my next doors.......5 years and i've had no trouble end of & i've had the chav's up to the snobs in this block over that time apart from the typical BRITISH attitude towards recycling so the bin area is not overflowing as it does I cant complain

Now base that on my previous owned property 8 flats all owned/privately rented try to get repairs done ( and I mean major repairs ) even with local council backing was an absolute nightmare for years........its great to have a least 1 HA/local authority property attatched to you rather than all private.....things move alot faster when a HA/LA have an intrest in an asset

kingkano

fc123 wrote: »

We haven't had contents insurance for 8 yrs....our peeping curtain nieghbour prevents the need.

I wish my neighbours had the power to prevent flood, fire and lightning strike Perhaps you should review your decision not to insure the contents of your home.

fc123

kingkano wrote: »

I wish my neighbours had the power to prevent flood, fire and lightning strike Perhaps you should review your decision not to insure the contents of your home.

We underwrote it ourself with a savings plan at the time.