How can I improve my chances of finding considerate neighbours?

[Tommalot]

So sick of my current neighbours. Every time the sun shines they're outside 24/7 loudly yapping away. Not doing anything illegal or outright unreasonable but the man bellows, swears, it's just not what I wanted when I moved here. The man on the other side has bonfires every other evening burning all kinds of shit. And the family to the back of my house had a screaming argument last night and smokes weed a lot.
So when I'm viewing new houses, what are your tips for maximising the chances I'll get nice, considerate, polite neighbours?

Sheer luck if you can't live up a mountain.

Watching with interest to see if anyone can tell.

Check the kerb appeal ! Are front gardens tidy ? Do the Xmas lights look mumsnet narce ! (Obviously got to wait a bit for that)

Wander the front /back streets potential properties after 6pm.
Houses will be full up of dps /dc and any ddogs in the gardens.. A better feel of the neighborhood than viewings during the day. Beware any with ones that look run down next door.
Ime thoughtless twats will buy it and spend months (18) fixing the fucker up.

Well, somewhere with big gardens where the houses are spaced fairly far apart will limit the noise of voices of smell of weed and bonfires, but honestly, it is luck. We live next door to a pair of retired surgeons (yacht, vintage cars etc) who do DIY at antisocial hours, and close to a (very nice) man who does am dram and is often rehearsing Shakespeare in the garden in the world’s loudest bass. You can even hear him indoors with the windows and doors closed. I know Polonius’s speeches and those of Porter in Macbeth by heart…

When we lived in a fairly grimy bit of London, we never had these issues!

Chose somewhere a bit more well heeled, but avoid flashy new estates. Avoid shared drives, semis, places with tight parking, anywhere that gives your neighbour a legal right to cross your plot.

A lot comes down to luck though.

I've owned a flat and three houses over the last 40 years and only the first house (a semi) was an issue. The couple in the adjoining house were aggressive and threatening. My house had been owned by an old lady who had no family, no social life and lived like a quiet little mouse. Then I moved in and , shock horror, used an alarm clock. Man next door went ballistic, threatening he would "get me, one dark night". Horrible. The houses since have been detached.

Honestly I'd take Shakespeare over boorish sweary twat any day, at least it'd be educational 😅
Thanks for the tips, 6pm sunny stalking it is.

Buy a house where the current owners have been there some time AND the neighbours on either side have also been there a good while, have grown-up children, but are not elderly-downsizing age. I appreciate this is no small ask!

I'm not sure you can always tell. I live in a mixture of social and privately owned homes and have lovely neighbours. When we moved in next door had a washing machine out on their drive for ages, and I wondered what we'd come into, but they have been the loveliest neighbours, on both sides and there is a friendly and funny street chat group. There were some lads on the corner who were a PITA to all when they were younger but seem to have grown out of it.

I guess the common denominator, if any, is that most people have been here a long time, and people tend to have an interest in the place they have a long attachment to.

Even if you find considerate neighbours there is no guarantee they will stay such.

When we first knew our next door neighbours they had young children and we had nothing worse than a bit of "children playing" noise during the day. Since said children reached late teens the family now have a habit of sitting in their garden to all hours having loud conversations and with music blaring. I mean, the odd night is fair enough, but it's basically every time the weather is hot enough which can be every day in the summer months.

Look for a home with the most restrictive, restricted covenant you can find. The people willing to live with rules like having no visible rubbish bins and having to use approved paint colors tend to be very polite neighbors.

Perhaps not the friendliest place to live and you do give up some freedom, but since peaceful enjoyment is my priority, I am happy in bland utopia.

@Ponderingwindow do housing estates like this really exist 😱 used to live in a flat that banned residents from putting washing out on the balconies, iirc anything beyond a simple chair and table arrangement was forbidden. I'd get chucked out of that kind of estate sharpish as i'm a slattern with my bins.

You never know what will happen though, nice neighbours could move out. I'm dreading when mine do as house needs loads of work so imagining living in a building site for months.

I wish I had knocked on a few adjoining doors before I moved into my current home.

It would have been startlingly obvious that one neighbour smokes industrial quantities of weed! I reckon the sellers asked her to lay off the skunk when they had viewings.

Anyone a bit unfriendly or standoffish might reveal themselves to an extent. You could always ask general questions like how long have they lived in the road and if there are any negatives?