What reasons would you pull out of a house sale a week before it’s due to complete?

[Ginbutholdthetonic]

Yes, this is drip feeding, but I want to know if my reason come up a lot without putting words into your mouth.

for some context, we sold our house last September, moved out of it and have been renting from a acquaintance since February, due to get the keys next week.

What reason this close to the end would have you pulling out?

Lock your door, lock your gate, tolerate a kid on a bike on your driveway every now and then.

vs

four people sleeping in one room.

Sorry, no we haven’t yet exchanged we’ve been holding onto the exchange paperwork because did all the delays we were getting fed up anyway and didn’t want to be legally bound if there were going to be more delays so we don’t lose too much by pulling out.

We have been up the estate to nosey at the progress and there are a lot, like a lot! Of children put on bikes all of the time and a few weren’t very mindful of us in the car.. I did say to my partner at the time I hope they’re not going to cause any trouble. - but I’ve only heard this from a family member who knows two people on the estate who have had the kids do this to them, and apparently others have also complained about it - but I haven’t spoken ti anyone directly on the estate as I don’t know anyone there. I thought about trying to find out.. but then I wouldn’t want to message one of the parents of the children who are being accused by accident and make bad blood before we even live there 🙈

Relationship breakdown
Bereavement
Redundancy/ job loss

@stuntbubbles Even putting it bluntly like that I don’t know what I prefer. DP has a car that is considerably high value that he’s built so having kids ride around it on the drive isn’t something we want to just ‘put up with’ 😣

@Ginbutholdthetonic

Is there the option to fence in your boundary including your drive so the car and garden isn't accessible?

I lived somewhere similar once.
We built a solid fence that was low but solid and with gate entry that was bolted from the inside.

We never had any problems with kids on our drive and garden area and if any kids tried opening my front door they would have had a scary looking women telling them off 😂

Get a cheaper car so you can buy a nicer place elsewhere?

Loads of reasons. Definitely if there was a job loss or change of plan on location or a relationship break up.

But equally, I'd pull out if a dream house came on the market that was massively preferable to the one I'd been about to buy.

If you buy a new build house on an estate there will be children who play out, ride bikes and annoy you with ball games. There will be parking issues. It almost won’t matter where in the country you are or if it’s a nicer neighbourhood or whatever. New build estates are sold to families and so there will be kids playing out.

I wouldn’t pull out over this. Because identical issues will be on display on any other estate. Unless it truly seems like the Wild West out there (but I cannot imagine it does!)

Hmm, can’t help with the car thing but would have thought a Yale lock in your external doors will sort attempts on the handle. I wouldn’t like it though OP as I would find that an intrusion in my space and it would make me a bit hostile in a way you don’t want to be in your own home.

As for your original question we had to pull out of a purchase a week before exchange because we could not (despite loads of specialists) get anyone to sign off on the house for movement/subsidence. Whole thing was a nonsense from a terrible surveyor but once someone says they aren’t sure and insurers formally turn you down you have to declare it everywhere etc so we ended up not being able to buy. Seller sold to a new buyer for more money though so ultimately she was ok. Took us a while to recover!

The other thing that’s annoying with loads of children is noise. It carries so much. I currently can hear the ‘children’ playing on the communal green. It’s annoying.

Is there a Facebook group for the estate/area you can join and ask?

OP you are just getting bad vibes. At this stage you should be all excited and hopeful. Listen to your gut. Now with every new build estate there are always rumours that such and such family (always some known criminals) have bought houses and these rumours are usually untrue so be careful listening to silly gossip however if something about the place just seems off then don't ignore those feelings either. I've learned from bad experience that location really does matter.

As mention by PP check facebook to see if theres a local group, before we moved on I checked facebook groups, the darabase that shows numbers of crimes and when driving round I looked at what cars people had and if how many houses had CCTV installed! .
Id drive round a few more times, if the kids are that bad then you'll soon pick that up ..... however id also listen to your gut and if you're not sure then its an expensive mistake to make

you would have to be on a really high end type of estate for this not to happen.

for a start, most modern estates have houses closely packed - there are a lot of people in a small area, so a lot of kids. Also, a lot of the modern houses have cream carpets, small rooms and are much more flimsy than older houses so people won’t have loads of kids inside - they’ll be outside.

if you don’t like the behaviour on the estate then don’t buy it. Unfortunately though, I think this type of thing goes on a lot. I was going to ask on here because kids ride bikes and scooters up my drive and round onto my neighbour’s garden - which is a lower level involving a 3 foot drop. I was wondering if either me or neighbour would be held responsible if a child got hurt whilst trespassing on our property (we aren’t allowed gates but it is very obvious with the bushes that kids are on our private property).

You should be excited and yet your having doubts. Trust your gut instinct, if it’s not feeling right walk away. Don’t worry about making any excuse up, they’re a developer and will re advertise the property, it’s just a business transaction to them. If it was a family living there that you we’re going to let down, that’s a different case.

We’re off to view it tomorrow, I think we’ll hang around a bit and see what the general atmosphere seems to be.

I agree we’ll always have children out of bikes and being noisy where ever we go. It’s just the rude aspect of walking into.. or even attempting to enter someone’s house without knocking.

To the poster who suggested we buy a cheaper car, the car wasn’t expensive to buy but it is 10+ years worth of building it and the general value of the car has gone up over the years, combined with whatever he’s done to it means it’s value is now significant. He won’t ever sell it though, it’s his pride and joy and a hobby.

We have a friend who lives on the other development, in the more expensive area and it’s definitely quieter, not as many children because it’s in an area that’s more tailored to people who travel for work, there are families with children from what we’ve seen when we’ve been there - but hardly any in comparison to where our house is. It’s very tempting to pull out, sacrifice the space for a nicer neighbourhood.

I have tried to look up the area on Facebook, the town has a Facebook page but nothing yet for the estate.. even searching the name it doesn’t seem there are many posts savour it at all.. could be a good thing as I’d assume people would love to moan to Facebook about what’s going on outside their window 😂

Thats sounds like a good plan, especially visiting on a Friday afternoon, hopefully in the sunshine..so in theory you'd expect the kids to be out.
From my experience id go for the nicer area every time

I’d always prioritise a nicer area and less space over a not so nice area. You could have the nicest house ever but if your life is hell you won’t be happy.

But there have been lots of complaints about children on the estate just walking into peoples houses, opening front doors

Lock the doors? Simple solution here.

I wouldn’t buy it.

I would rather wait 10 weeks or so until I had completed on a new house than be miserable for 10 years.

Theres more to life than new builds!

So we’ve been to view, the house is lovely and we’re really pleased. We hung around a little and there were a lot of kids out on bikes but they just seemed to be riding around together and just generally playing. They definitely didn’t seem like a gang of yobs 😂 just kids being kids tbh. Still a bit wary of the rumours as hanging around one afternoon probably does highlight the reality but from what I saw I think we’ll go ahead. We also met our neighbours and they seem nice enough!

I wouldn't want to mess people about so it would have to be something major - sudden change in financial circumstances meaning I could no longer afford the home, possibly a death in close family. Just a life changing event I suppose . @Ginbutholdthetonic what has happened to you to make you feel this way ?

We were aiming to exchange on the Monday, but found out on the previous Friday there was a pipe running running the entire length of the house, owned by the railway company who have been and still are restoring the line, and they had a right to use/repair/take up pipe. I guess we could have taken indemnity insurance, but we'd had a problem getting a mortgage on the property itself and half had doubts. As soon as we told our solicitor we were pulling out, she'd said she'd have done exactly the same thing.

I’m a member of our estate’s Facebook group. The complaints on there make it sound like a high crime ghetto. It’s really a very nice place!
I think you get a distorted view from social media.

People can have different perceptions about the same things.
You're not necessarily right, and they're not necessarily wrong 🤷🏻‍♀️