How can I check whether a neighbouring property is council let?

[redwhiteroseallgood]

Does anyone know how you can find out if a certain property is a council or housing association property?

We live in a pretty affulent area - all houses in the road are 3 or 4 bed detached houses. We have a beautiful four bed spacious house next to us which was sold a couple of years ago as the previous owners relocated abroad. We met the couple who bought and they told us they would be renting it out. No problem to us as we live in a nice are and house was up for £2k a month rent. The house was left empty for about 6 months the landlady was there sometimes doing little jobs to the house and she said they were struggling to find any tenants would give it another 3 months and then would sell it on - about 2 months later we had people move in - a man and wife and their child of about 10 and 2 older sons.

To cut a long story short none of the adults go to work ( they could possibly work from home but think this is unlikely!!) They smoke weed constantly and their 2 dogs bark constantly. The landlords had done the garden up beatufully and this is wrecked now, They are rude and insolent and refuse to stop smoking weed in their garden. The older boys have groups of lads coming and going all day and night constant bad language - now the weather is getting better I don;t like letting my kids in the garden because of the smell of weed and the anguage that they can hear.

I don;t like to judge but there is no way that the said family can afford £2k rent a month and I doubt they have bought it as house was sold when our neighbours moved for £850,000. We think the couple who bought it now rent it to he council and they then rent to this family. Does this happen??

Honestly we live in a such a lovely area and this family are ruining it for everyone.

What can we do?

They’ll likely be claiming benefits that will pay a high % of the rent through housing benefit. My friend divorced her husband and was earning £14k but lived in a £1700 a month rental as she has 4 dc so needed assistance. Thank goodness or she would have been stuck with her abusive ex.

Not the point but the rent sounds remarkably low if the house is really worth 850k.

A 2 bed flat where I live is 1500 a month.

HM land registry search is around £3.
Do a search on your local council site and search social housing interactive map, not all councils offer this though.

Same. SE London suburb

If youre concerned about any health or safety issues then contact environmental health, the landlady or the agent. What they earn, claim or work or not is irrelevant

Private tenants can be thoughtless selfish idiots too

I imagine the first port of call for noise and antisocial behaviour would be your council regardless of if they are the landlord. They will have environmental health / noise complaint officers. Whoever the landlord is. I guess re the weed, you could report via 101. Doubtful the police would act though if it’s suspected personal use, but if you think the people coming are going are visiting their dealer, the police may act. I smell weed everywhere, around my own house, in the city I work. It’s absolutely rife and seemingly far more socially accepted these days. I’d rather have that than drunk folk tbh.

If you’ve met the landlords you know it’s not council let?

Family 2 doors down from me , hardly speak a word of English, dont work, smoke copius amounts of weed, have allsorts of people coming and going all times day and night , a different beat up car every few weeks that would never pass an mot. Somehow manage to afford a 5 bed house with garden and large garage in a decent area. Their bins overflow and they dump rubbish in all the neighbours bins. Nice to see where my hard earned tax money is going.

Yeah, it’s largely irrelevant whether they are council tenants. But Mumsnet does rather pit the private against the plebs 😂

Complain to the council and they’ll soon tell you if it’s not theirs.

Non council people can be dicks too. You can’t find out as it’s technically a private let still… I think. There will be something in their contract about no drugs on the premises but honestly, it sounds like the landlady won’t care as she needs some of the money back. £850k house isn’t typically one that people buy to let unless it’s corporate or Airbnb so all seems strange. Especially that low rent. A 300k house is £15-1800 where I live.

Yes this is a thing, it’s happened with a flat near me. Private landlords rent to the council on a long lease (3 or 5 years I think) The council then put tenants in (the one near me is classed as emergency housing, where they put violent men released from prison for 3 months at a time)

The landlords benefit as it’s guaranteed rent and none of the usual responsibilities, the council take responsibility for gas checks etc, and have to put the property back as it was at the end of the lease

I don’t think that op is having a go at council tenants, they are trying to find out who to address for complaints.

Yes it does. There us also a company called Serco who rent thousands of private properties for asylum seekers, rental and repairs guaranteed!

I think op asked if the owner could have rented it to the council , and that the tenants couldn't possibly afford the £2k a month rent

Report them to the council for antisocial behaviour, and to the police for drug dealing. Whether they are council tenants or not is irrelevant.