To think you can't live next to a pub and takeaway then moan about noise and smell?

[BrittaPerry]

There is a man in our local paper doing the sad face photo in front of the for sale sign on his house.

He claims he has had to reduce the price because of the noise and smells 'hell' from the local businesses.

Here are his complaints (all of which he has submitted though the proper channel and the local buinesses have had hassle for):

The two pubs in earshot have people smoking outside and have live music at weekends. (They are working mens club type places)

He put a special complaint in one Saturday in summer, when a pub had a family fundraising day. Bouncy castle in the car park, punch and judy, kids playing on the public playing field, bands playing inside the pub. £2000 raised for help for heroes.

The chip shop, indian takeaway and chinese restaurant smell and attract teengers

The care home and school cause parking issues.

The royal mail sorting office has traffic early in the morning.

Because of all this, he has had to reduce his asking price from £500,000 to 'only' £300,000. There are no other houses right in the village centre (only the flats over shops and the care home) and the entire town was built at around the time he bought his house in the seventies. His house is detached with a garden, but average price for a four bed semi in the mile radius is about £120,000, and none of those houses are smack bang in the middle of what isn't really a residential area...

Aibu to think he needs to just realise he is being daft, reduce the price to take into account where his house is and not just how big it is and move to the countryside?

Internal viewing of this outstanding home is a must before it's dismissed too quickly!

don't think rightmove have actually done any favours with this comment either!!!!

It's a beautiful house but there is no way i'd buy it if it were next to a pub!

He has a right to complain but no right to expect anything to change! we all like a good whine from time to time.

"don't think rightmove have actually done any favours with this comment either!!!! "

It's not a comment by Rightmove, it's a comment by the agent, foslady. Rightmove is simply a property portal and all the properties featured are 'fed' by the agents own websites, as with any other property portal, like Primelocation and Zoopla for example.

I used to work for an EA and I remember a particularly bonkers potential purchaser who was moving from a genteel seaside town to our area (inner London borough). To every house we suggested he said, "yes, but is it blighted" (imagine a clipped, Brian Sewell type accent!). By "blighted" I imagine he meant any other building in sight that wasn't an actual house. What the hell was he expecting in inner London?

I think he's being ridiculous to want £500k for that house in that area.

We lived in penshaw which is faaaaar nicer and a similar house that I used to covet was only £250k and it was nowhere near the pub or takeaways.

It's a gorgeous house, lovely garden etc... but then I had a good nosy around on streetview. Busy-looking street, right next door to the Royal Mail sorting office car park, pub up the road, care home opposite - I wouldn't even bother viewing it.

But then again I'd probably have drawn more positive conclusions than if I hadn't see the current owner in paper moaning in detail about the problems of living there! Doh [hgrin]

Anita...do/did you live near me? How weird is that!

My husband grew up round here... He is 37 - maybe you know him!

See, we love the area, and both work within about 2 minutes walk of that house. But there is no way on earth we could afford that house and our income is probably about average for the area, if not higher (very high unemployment).

He quite possibly moved in before the new town was finished, but it had been planned for ages, so he would have known it was coming, and before the new town there was a huge mine head within hearing range of the house. From what I hear, Washington used to be rougher than it is now (although tbh a lot of the pubs aren't exactly genteel...if I go out in Newcastle I don't see as many fights as I do in Concord...but that isnt just the Duke and the Stella)

£500k is ridiculous!

Reminds me of some people who buy a house that backs on to the cricket field where DH plays and then complain not just about match/party noise levels but about cricket balls in his garden! The cricket field has been there since 1875

This sort of thing makes me sick. DH is a musician, and he has had so many pubs give up on live music because someone has moved in close and started complaining. The worst thing is that Councils uphold the complaints, or hassle the publican into making £0000s worth of changes to their building, and still won't let them have bands, duos or even solos.

It's a pub. You want that house next door/across the road/3 doors down? It will be noisy. Don't like it, don't buy it.

I find this infuriating - the dirty looks from people when you park outside their house, near the school, to go and collect your kids always makes me snigger - why the feck did they buy a house near a school - probably so they didn;t have to do the bloody drive each day!

Bear in mind that he is within one mile of a flat that hasn't sold for ages for £19,000...

I think he is basically complaining about the passage of time...

As the mining banners were being paraded down the main street ready for Durham this year, I overheard someone say 'it were canny round here before they moved all the mackems in in the seventies'

So, the question he must answer is...is he geordie or mackem? If the latter, it is his fault :-D

Britta, I grew up in Blackfell and my best mate lived in Albany! Bit younger, but nit much, I'm in Houghton now for my sins!

Britta, I grew up in Blackfell and my best mate lived in Albany! Bit younger, but nit much, I'm in Houghton now for my sins!

Haha, moved the mackems in! No way is that geordie land! Durham maybe, but its miles away from the Tyne!

Yu know the tv show 'Hebburn'?

It's like that round here. In fact, it is about ten minutes drive away...

Brilliant! DH grew up in Usworth, and we live in Albany now.

Small world :-)

The wear does actually flow through part of Washington. They don't like you pointing that out though.

Well, half of them don't.

Reminds me of all the residents that live around the local hospital that have now had additional yellow lines on their roads as they were fed up with people parking there... do they not get that people aren't going to the hospital for enjoyment? And some people can't afford to pay the extortionate parking fees in the hospital?

Surely you know when you buy a house what it going to be like?

The article in question

The MP is usually lovely - she is running a campaign against ticket touts and has teenage children, so surely she can't really be on his side?

It is the old pit managers house. So by definition it is the best house in the area.

What a knob.

Sharon Hodgson MP... What on earth are you doing helping someone complain about social facilities and public services?

I bet the pit manager used to complain about the unruly proles too.

Sorry, I'm annoyed [hblush]

Are local residents allowed to complain about his complaints?

We don't need anything else shutting down round here :-(

1] A house (property) is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. Fact.

2] I bet my arse that he's totally ignored the valuations/market appraisals he's had from local agents and insisted that they put it on the market for £WhateverItWasHeThoughtItWasWorth, despite the fact they probably said less. (Yes, believe me, vendors do that ... and they have the right to do that ... but it can backfire, spectacularly, on them.)

3] He's now complaining to his agents that he hasn't had any offers - so it's all their fault that he's had to reduce the price.

4] He's now totally shot himself in the foot by going public about all this, because it's going to come up on the Searches once/if someone does decide to buy the house.

He's a greedy tool.