Would you move to this house?

[WitchyWay]

The house is full of charm and character and a good fit for us in many ways. Great space and ticks a lot of our boxes, albeit not all.

But the next door neighbour (detached) and probably 30m away is a huge hoarder and known in the town for it. Not just his house and car but you can literally see every inch of garden is full on Google satellite and his gates are bulging open with rubbish behind. Satellite shows a clear narrow path from the house to the gates. It appears to only be in his garden at the moment, not going onto others property.

No idea if there are rats or any other associated issues. The hoarder is a nice man and probably spend around 60, so could have decades left in that property.

The house we're interested in hasn't been on the market since the 80s so I assume there aren't big social issues with him as he's lived there a long time too.

Would you move there? I'm worried about fire risks, rats and just generally the potential aggro.

No way. I’d find another house.

No I'd avoid it like the plague.

I'd go and have a look and find out the reason for sale/any issues. Then make a decision. You say the house is a good fit for you bar potential issues with this home owner but also say the house you're considering has been occupied for decades. Don't rule it out but go in open minded and prepared to walk away.

No, never. Rodent issues and resale challenges.

Nope.

Not a chance.

May I see the street view of the garden? I find hoarders fascinating.

What if the OP wants this as a forever home? You can't live someone always mindful of the next owners and never enjoying your home.

Absolutely not. One of my neighbours has a tatty caravan on their drive and that bothers me enough.

Nope! I rejected a house because the neighbour's garden was very overgrown and uncared for (knee high grass and rusting swing etc). That wasn't the only reason I didn't buy it, but it was certainly a factor.

I used to work with hoarders, and while most of them were lovely people, I would not want to live next door to someone with this disorder. There will be rats, and its a fire risk. Sorry, but I would not consider it.

This would be our forever home, although I do worry about resale as you never know when you'll need to sell up. It offers great square footage though, and has loads of potential.

The house has been on the market for a while, but that means it's now within our price range. It's also a fairly stagnant market where we live now too (which hopefully will work in our favour in terms of offers. Our house will be easier to sell due to good condition and more affordable price bracket).

The problem is I doubt anyone will tell us anything negative. There's another neighbour who I'm hoping to speak to if we like the property just to gauge their view on the situation.

I guess I'll have to visit and see how much we like the property. But also very conscious that we may need to leave this one (as everyone else seems to!).

@TheLightSideOfTheMoon this is his property on Google satellite. You can see the rubbish in his front and back garden...

No, I'd be worried about rats.

Looking at the photo, it's very clear there is a big problem. I would be worried about rats and other animals, smells etc. I would avoid this property.

Absolutely not

That's awful. I'd dodge this one tbh. The mess will end up getting to you and it'll be miserable. Plus the fire risk and the rats. Humans don't do well having to look at eyesores every day. It's depressing and miserable.

Absolutely not our ex neighbour wasn't even a bad hoarder and the rats were ridiculous we saw two having a scrap on top of an old bin! It meant we couldn't let our dog out in the garden unless we were watching every minute. We were so glad when he had to go into a care home (was best place for him)

We could see it from our garden, windows.....not a chance.

It's a sad situation but I'd worry about rats and smell ☹️

@WitchyWay can you put an image/diagram up showing where the house you are interested in is in relation to the hoarders one? Because I'm guessing you don't mean immediate side neighbour as you mentioned 30m away on your OP?

I was 50/50 until I saw the photo. I just couldn't live next to that! I would also be worried about the potential smell, especially in summer. Grim.

@startingagain202 there's one house between us.

It's a tough call as there isn't a lot of housing stock like this locally within our budget.

Absolutely not/ we currently live next to a hoarder with mental health issues. His is so bad that he doesn’t have running water or run his cooker.

What are Environmental Health doing about it ?

years ago I recall my local E H clearing out the same bungalow on a regular basis ! and yes it was a privately owned property.

Go and have a look. You can always walk away.

I'd go view the house and as part of that I'd walk past his house and if it didn't smell I wouldn't let it put me off.

There are rats everywhere and really it depends what he hoards as much as anything.

You're not his immediate neighbour and all the houses are detached so if he did have a fire it's unlikely your house would go up too.

How someone else's garden looked wouldn't interest me at all.

I'd not rule it out at all. Visit the street a few times at different times of day, including weekend and get a feeling for the street. Have a look through the local FB groups to see what if anything locals moan about.

I possibly would, I'm looking for a detached house with space and they are rare to find - but I'd want a bargain knowing it would be harder to sell on and assuming I wouldn't really have use of the bottom of the garden which I would keep clear and tidy to discourage rats etc crossing too much into my property.

It would depend massively on what was being stored in the garden (though I realise this may change) as if it was half-eaten food or human waste etc no way as the smell in summer plus attracting (more) rats and seagulls/crows etc would be extremely unpleasant. Shagging foxes are very noisy too!

If I had a cat I'm not sure I would because my old cat was an expert hunter, but never luckily brought any rats into the house, I'm so scared of rats (I'm fine seeing them from a distance).