Semi-detached with social housing

Nope.

I live in a Victorian semi and it’s a nightmare for noise.

I’d be reluctant to buy a house attached to three flats, regardless of ownership.

It’s a lot of people, with more noise than being attached to just a house. They’ll have kitchens on every floor, for example.

You sound like my neighbours and I, our flats are lovely and the communal areas immaculate. Everyone in my block knows each other and my downstairs neighbours have become close friends. So quiet here, I love it.

Now we have had a lovely lady move in to the next block, who's general demeanour and appearance can best be described as 'crackhead'. Letting their dogs shit in the communal garden and not cleaning it up, screaming and shouting in the street, bothering my elderly neighbours for food and money, hard drug activity, the works. The HA and community cops have done their best and it has improved.

I think a lot of people in social housing can understand the anxiety when someone moves out or dies. Only the most 'complex' tenants have any hope of getting a one-bed SH flat these days.

I live in a street of mixed housing. They were all council houses, but most are now privately owned. Some by who originally bought their house from the council and others have sold and had multiple new owners. There is honestly no difference really between those of us in private homes vs those still owned by the council, at least in terms of neighborliness. All except one household are unobtrusive, neighbourly and keep the appearance of their property in good condition. You don't really know they are there. The one household who is weird, annoying, behaves in strange ways, has too many people/vehicles coming and going etc etc is privately owned.

I would be reluctant to have a house joined on to three flats regardless of social or private. People in flats tend to come and go (short tenancies) and have less investment in the community, and therefore less likely to treat the area with respect and be neighbourly (a trend, not everyone will be the same). My partner lives in a street with a lot of houses converted to flats/HMOs and it's awful. Litter in the street, smashed glass, inconsiderate behaviour, people standing in the street shouting, criminals running through the garden. It used to be a really nice area, and no social housing at all!

Have you investigated creative options for the detached house, like garden rooms or internal reconfiguration or fit out?

I wouldn't move from a detached. Consider an extension, loft conversion, garden room, purging your possessions, whatever it takes to create the space you need! I love my attached neighbours but I could do without listening to their bath running and them clonking about and they're actually very quiet overall. Being detached, you may have forgotten just how much of a pain attached can be???
So you are tripling these potential problems, as PP have said. Flats will be potentially more changes of tenant also perhaps.

I'm not bothered by noisy neighbours, my DH is. I think he would struggle neighbouring with 3 flats as there's likely to be quite a bit of noise so we probably wouldn't move there as a couple. I would be a bit worried about antisocial behaviour unless they are flats for older people. It would come down to affordability and weighing up the benefits. I'd guess finding a property like that one that isn't next to council flats would be a lot more pricey.

No way I would consider this TBH. Even in a semi detached area on a private estate there can be noise and disagreements.Detached homes are preferred for a good reason! Most people on council estates are fine .However there is always an element of trouble somehow and 3 flats is being optimistic to stay the least !

Mumofteenandtween

I came on to say this.

I’m a council tenant. My house is clean, well maintained and we are quiet and (imo) great neighbours. I help an elderly neighbour with her shopping and my partner pops in to sort odd jobs. Another neighbour owns their home, they are vile - house is a mess and constantly noise etc. Just because council doesn’t mean we are scum

A Victorian converted semi not a purposeful built flat block I’ll have loads of noise and transfer x3! So no quiet in the bedrooms burn f the day if you’ve got a kitchen in every floor?

I’ve lived in a terraced Victorian townhouse with flats the other side of the wall and not had noise issues: it’ll all depend on the construction. Some are really solid and nothing but direct bashing on the wall gets through.

The best you can do is visit the property at a time more people are likely to be at home - a Saturday morning, for example, since I realise it gets dark too early for you to want to do an evening viewing. And see what the noise is like then.

Now, as a social housing tenant myself, I can say we aren’t all noisy. I can also say that the landlord does have powers to kick us out for reason of antisocial behaviour and I suspect is more likely to do so than an absentee private landlord, based on past experience of crappy neighbours.

So no, it wouldn’t put me off, but I would absolutely be keeping my ears pricked when I visited the property, and would sound the owners out if they were there about the neighbourhood, does it have a WhatsApp group, etc, and see what vibe I got in response.

No, I wouldn't. And you're going to be hard pressed to find a semi-detached Victorian property that doesn't have noise issues. Many were poorly converted in the 80s and the options for sound proofing are limited. I can hear the people above and below just going about their everyday business (at normal volume, not shouting or stomping or anything like that), and I can hear the guy in the other property next door chopping veg for his dinner.

Its the 3 flats that might cause problems rather than the social housing aspect. I wouldnt contemplate it myself. I hear constant noise from my quiet neighbours who i know and get along with so im not annoyed by them. I know that if these were faceless noisemakers it would drive me crazy . Times that by 3 and its a potential recipe for disaster.

I don’t think anyone can judge council houses or estates unless they know the lay of the land there. So some are cesspits, others perfect. I’ve lived in both. No different to any other place. I will say from apartment living youve more turnover (if that’s the word!)so it can be dodgier

No I wouldn't want that- social housing or not! Also the fact it looks shabby outside would be a big no as well

I used to live in a flat next to social housing tenant who had a lot of mental health issues and it was a nightmare. So much noise, bad smells and the council were useless and there wasn't any more support they could offer them and no chance of the person moving away. This is probably a particularly niche case though

Purpose built council accomodation would not worry me so much, I live in the middle of a few flats which are hewn from granite with no noise or antisocial issues.

Converted houses tend to be poorly constructed and noisy. Even if the neighbours are great (they probably are) it just takes one wanker to move into the middle flat and it all goes to shit.

Social housing or not, I wouldn't want to live next door to 3 flats.

Just to echo what everyone else has said - the social housing bit is a red herring. The issue is that it’s three flats.

Even if the party wall has great sound insulation (unlikely) you would still have multiple sets of people coming and going, etc.

I personally wouldn’t as we have had nothing but problems from the social housing tenants next door, but thankfully not attached, to us.

I wouldn't want to live in a house that is attached to 3 flats, whether they are council or not.

I think it depends on your own character more than anything. If you're inclined to get outraged over small things you will always have an issue wherever you live. The only way to find out is to spend time there. If you can smell weed and it looked unkempt it would be a no.

I lived on a council estate growing up and there was usually a few well known trouble makers on the estate, and some people had problems, but were not particularly unpleasant with it. Generally people got on well and it was a good community.

It really depends on how snobbish and intolerant to people's differences you are to start with, but you have to do a bit of research by the sounds of it to be sure.