House dilemma (with diagram)

Honestly you arent buying and arent exactly going to be locked in / committed

Take the place and get frosted film for the windows... it costs about £10-20

Also put your tits away 🤣

I would go for it, the problem is that you could be waiting ages for something worse.

Where about are the gates though?
Just an idea as my parents have something like this. The gates were at the far end of the garden so they just placed a fence up with a gate to create a bit of a alleyway at the end of the garden to give them privacy

The OP isn't going to be extending a council house??

I’d take the house but make my new neighbours aware I have a pet tarantula that likes taking daily air in the garden 😉

I have exactly this, in the house I own. I was so worried about it! It's fine :-)
My neighbours put their bins out via my garden once a week (and take and return mine too 💕) and if they use their bikes they go out that way, maybe twice a week.
I work and the kids are at school, it's no big deal for us.

We have this, our neighbour uses it daily as she comes out of her back door. It's not a problem at all, there's a path which is her access route and she doesn't longer or go anywhere but the path. Sometimes when we are at work she or her daughter will bring in our bin too as they're on the way.

Lol at the boobies. Great diagram.

In that case is there any way to find out how often they use your garden for access? If it's once a week I would be OK, if it were multiple times per day I would absolutely hate it.

The only other option would be to do as PP suggested and make part of your garden private.

Sorry I didn't realise it was HA, if you like the rest of it, take it and look for a swap longer term, I know it can be difficult to be offered something decent

I saw this on love it or list it recently, it meant they couldn't extend at the back of the house so that's worth considering too.
Not sure I'd want people just walking through the garden either, but I've got young DC

Have you asked about the right of way? We had this in a rented terrace, but the access was only for putting bins out and access for large items. In reality it meant it was only ever used once a week, we had no issues of people wandering through. Are the neighbours also social housing tenants? As if it is limited access then you've hopefully got some scope for it being enforced, eg if they're the same landlord.

Take it. Once you have a HA house you can swap it if you're not happy. I live on a new build estate and several people have swapped already.

I have lived like that before and there was no trouble - everyone was respectful. Bin mornings and occasional garden stuff

And if they aren't - well they are likely to be crap Neighbours in other ways to and you can't help that

As far as I’m aware, most reasonable people would use that access eg to bring out waste or if they needs house renovation (at least that’s temporary!) but not really use it day to day for popping in and out of their house

If I was the neighbour, there would have been two teenagers dragging their bikes back and forth a couple of times each day on weekends/half terms. And a younger child's bike being taken in and out by an adult. Plus bins, dh taking the lawnmower from back to front, us going round the back to enter with the dog after a walk rather than towelling her down out the front...

My side access to the back garden is used several times most days. I think it would be naiive to think most people wouldn't use an extremely useful access point.

It wouldn't put me off, we've had this on many houses in the past. Never been an issue, and I'd be very careful about turning a house down, there's only so many chances you get and the next house might be even less suitable.

I don’t think it’s a deal breaker for me. How likely are you to be offered another house if you reject this one?

You could have really shit neighbours who make your life hell without this arrangement. If they do turn out to neighbours from hell, them walking through the garden is probably a very minor issue eg them playing loud music in their garden all the time/late at night, screaming arguments day and night, smoking weed in the garden all day long etc.

Depends how desperate you are to move but you’ll never get the perfect house.

This is really common, I thought most terraces accessed their gardens from the road via a few passage ways and then rights of way over other properties. I’ve lived in multiple houses with this set up and it never bothered me. Most people just need it get their bins out.

As previous posters suggested you can divide the right of way from rest of your garden. Perhaps some planters with trellis backs to put some clematis or something on to make a wee “hedge”?

I wouldn’t buy a property like this, but I think the benefits of having a HA home far outweigh this one small issue. They are so hard to come by, you could be waiting a very long time for another and the next one might be much worse. I would put some sort of privacy film on your windows or a blind that you can adjust so you can see out but not in.

It’s not ideal as it means that you can never secure your back garden, but it might not be too much of a problem if the neighbours only use the access once a week to move their wheelie bins.
Unfortunately there’s no way of knowing. What is availability of housing like where you are? If you will have a long wait for another property it might be worth the compromise.
Another thought is that I bought an ex LA property and the access had been moved so that there was a sort of passageway round the bottom end of the garden. Could that be a possibility? It would almost certainly have to be at your expense and with neighbour’s agreement though.
BTW I love your diagram. My kitchen is at the front but if washing up in the nude is a thing now my postman will get a fright 🤣