Should our Solicitors have identified social housing as part of moving checks

I wish the housing association had warned us about the dickhead home owner that deals from his flat.

I've just mentioned this to a colleague - apparently some buildings/contents insurance policies ask about this too, so there must be a way of finding out.

Unfortunately social housing isn't confined to dedicated estates these days, it is a deliberate policy to mix social housing amongst normal housing. The theory was that by diluting the social housing and forcing those tenants to mix with normal people, it would reduce the antisocial behaviour, drug abuse and general petty crime that people associate with social housing. Sadly - and predictably - the opposite has happened, social housing drags an area down. There's nothing you can do as a homeowner, solicitors don't check for this sort of thing. Short of knocking on every door demanding to know whether the occupier owns, rents privately or rents social housing, it's pot luck when moving.

A solicitor has no way of knowing what kind a people a buyer will find undesirable. So, YABU.

Unless a noise complaint (or other nuisance complaint) was lodged with the Council about these neighbours by the previous owner of your property, there would be no record that your Solicitor could have referenced.
Of course, that’s exactly why people often don’t report antisocial behaviour -especially if they are considering moving away anyway - as it could blight their property.
However, you have no way of knowing whether the previous owners were bothered by them, or not, nor whether the neighbour that told you had any malicious intent towards them, so it’s better to draw your own conclusions once you have met them, and try not to be drawn into any dispute by way of your other new neighbour’s judgement!
I have a sibling who, wherever they move to (and they have moved a number of times after falling out with their neighbours) immediately seem to start disputes which turn nasty. In 11 house moves (but really observed by the 3rd) I concluded that the problem wasn’t with their neighbours, but with them!
In contrast, we try to be welcoming and kind, to all new neighbours, and as a result, have no neighbourly disputes with anyone! So keep an open mind, and be kind!

So were they watching one house/flat in the SH section, or all SH residents?

No, it’s me Joy, I was quoting the OP not yourself, apologies.

You should have asked specifically.

lol, God forbid you’ll be living near poor people!

Sorry, I was being sarcastic

Deliberately Goady … however .. you can have shitty neighbours in any sort of property.

My stepson often moans because he rents a nice 4 bed detached Newbuild, near social housing

So you expect your solicitor to do this for you?

How would they know!!!

It’s down to your own lack of knowledge, not the solicitors, they are their conveyances the property not the area.

As part of a government scheme which came into affect around 2023 , 10% of new builds must be given to social housing, I'm
not sure how this has bypassed you and your dh as it’s been highly publicised.

My first house was an Edwardian Terraced property in Bristol.

Funnily enough it had been a Council House in the past and there were a few 'pepper potted' around the area but you would never have known

He sounds reasonable to deal with..

Why on earth would a solicitor flag that it is near social housing? It's your own bias that makes that a problem. The fact that there is a neighbour causing people issues is not related to the fact there is social housing - you get assholes anywhere.

We don't live next door to social housing, but we have one side that plays stupid music stupidly loud when her husband is out at work (we work from home, hear it all day) and the other side smoke a hell of a lot of very smelly weed. Neither of them of social housing tenants, both have a mortgage like us.

Sidebar but how is that possible? You can look at a block of flats and see all this?

lol
just
lol

To add it's not house specific but it tells you the percentage for that street of each type which you view on a map in colour coding

How would the solicitors check? There is no central register that shows the tenure of individual properties, and it can change all the time as HAs buy and sell properties, or create arrangements for long term leases with private landlords.

Unless there was a formal dispute between these neighbours and the previous owners of the property that should have been declared during the buying process, this is not a legal matter. It's on you to check out the property and surrounds at different times to see if you are happy with the vibe and atmosphere.

We’re in the process of buying/selling and the property information form asks if any notices or correspondence have been received or sent (e.g from or to a neighbour, council or government department) or any negotiations or discussions taken place which affect the property or a property nearby.

If the sellers were aware of a neighbour dispute which falls within the above, they should have declared it. However, you’ll have trouble proving they knew about it, and I’m not even sure you’ll have much recourse if you could. Social housing nearby is not typically seen as a blight on a property.

You can find out which houses in your areas are social housing/private rented/owned with and without a mortgage using the filters on the census data on the ONS website by the way.

We live in a mixed estate - I wouldn’t know who lives in social housing and who doesn’t, it’s also none of my business! I’ve lived here 20 years and occasionally yes there has been a police car or a possible issue but again whose house etc wouldn’t have a clue!

My Dad has had issues but it wasn’t from social housing!

Why is he furious? It's not on the list of anything anyone needs to know. If you wanted to know you should've asked yourself.

In my current home on a new development, I live opposite social housing.

In my previous home, I lived opposite social housing.

Guess what? We are all normal people and wave hi to each other on the way in and out.

you mention a family causing a nuisance. Guess what? Some families cause a nuisance. The type of housing they are in has nothing to do with it.