To think people might not want to buy a house next door to a funeral director?

[MorgueDweller]

Found out today that two doors away is turning into a mortuary/funeral director's business. So dead bodies will be stored there. It's currently a gift shop in a village, very residential area.

Neighbour who will live next door told me. My first reaction was that I wasn't bothered.....they'll be quiet! Neighbour is worried about house price being affected.

Ive now googled and it does seem that being in the same area as a funeral director wipes 6.5% off the value of your property. And I guess this might be more if you're only 2 doors away?

If we were to sell our house do you think a lot of people would be put off by this? Is it the thought of dead bodies which would put people off because this doesn't bother me? I'm slightly bothered about a possible increase in parking issues If there's lots of families coming and going. I'm not sure how busy it will be. I guess hearses May sometimes bring a body back in the middle of the night if they're rung to come and fetch a body.

I don't think anyone in the street or in the grounds/gardens at the funeral director's would hear any kids playing in our garden.

Our house is set back from the road a bit, we've then got our neighbours house in between (they're the other half of our semi), the soon to be funeral director has a side garden in between our neighbour and the actual property. The drive and door to the soon to be funeral director's is the far side of the property. So their door and drive isn't visible from my house.

IME many funeral directors don't keep the deceased on their premises these days; they'll be brought back for viewing of course, but the preparation and storage tends to be done at large central facilities. They don't have FDs hanging round the office 24/7 either - the ones on call will take a phone home, or again they'll use someone from the main facility for collections

You'd certainly see grieving folk arriving and leaving for viewings, but it's not likely to be a constant stream of cars and bodies being carted around, which is why it wouldn't worry me at all

So kind of like this, excuse the crap diagram.

It wouldn't bother me but some of my family might not like it.

A friend is an undertaker & he's always going on about how busy overnights are when he's on call.
I'd be worried about noise at night - garage doors going up, vans moving around - which is more likely to be heard when it's quiet.

The green blob is the garden!

If I was looking to buy in the centre of a village on a high street anyway, I don't think it would bother me.

But bear in mind that just because there will be a funeral directors shop, it doesn't automatically follow that their 'chapel of rest' will be in the same building. Sometimes they just have shopfronts for advertising mostly, and the morgue section is in another, bigger branch.

There's no garage door, there is a massive brick car port in the car park which is open on one side and fits around 5 -6 cars so I imagine the hearses will go in there.

There is a massive brick wall between their boundary and next door neighbours garden at the back. Must be over 10ft high and that seems to block out any noise at the back.

If I didn't hear mail vans coming and going in the early hours I really don't think I will hear a hearse. But I appreciate if we are trying to sell then would be buyers might not believe this.

Neighbour says he's definitely been told that there will be bodies there, he even knew which room they're going to use. They had a quantity surveyor round the other day looking st stuff.

Wouldn’t bother me I’d like the peace.

I live ne t to a graveyard and dead bodies there too.

I’d imagine the funeral director will be very discreet and mourners are usually in a nice office room not sobbing in the street.

We have one in our village and I’ve NEVER seen any dead bodies or sobbing going on.

I used to live opposite a nursing home and saw private ambulances & men in suits wheeling out body bags at least 3 times a week.

That was bad enough.

I couldn't imagine living next to where dead bodies are stored - but I am squeamish about death so...

@LEELULUMPKIN My late mother said the same thing.
'The dead are resting, it's the living bastards you should worry about'

Hi OP

A lot of funeral directors premises are just offices and they do the other activities such as storage and embalming etc elsewhere, is that definitely not the case? Can you see the planning application as that might mention parking etc

I live a few hundred metres from a funeral parlour and have never seen any distressed people coming or going

Wouldn’t bother me at all. I would be more put off by a school, a noisy pub, a smelly takeaway or an abattoir.

There is going to be a member of staff living there "above the shop" so someone is on the premises at all times.

I live opposite one. Gives me something to watch while I do my ironing.

There's no planning application put in, have just checked? Would they need one as it's already a business premesis?

I think that many high streets have FD on them so because of the location, it wouldn’t bother me as much. If it was a quiet residential street, I would be put off. That said, I’d be much more put off by the smells and noise of a takeaway or similar there instead.

I don't think it would bother me

It isn't a busy high st. There's a corner shop, a veg shop and this other shop which used to be a gift shop. Quite a bit further down the street there's a pub and a take away.

I guess I can't do anything anyway. It's not like you can object to it on the grounds of it devaluing your house.

We had more parking issues living 2 blocks down from a church that occasionally hosted large funerals, btw.

God, English people are weird about death. It's not like it only happens to a tiny, unenviable minority of unlucky souls, you know.

OP, console yourself that you are not living in Ireland, where two separate parts of the average tripartate Catholic funeral do take place at the funeral home, and where several hundred people attending would not be an unlikely tally. Some funeral homes have two doors so that a long queue of people can make their way inside via one to condole with the family and exit via the other.

There's a FD in the next street to us. They have a mortuary storage, but don't have a chapel of rest so only the hearse and empty cars ever leave from there.

The people who do go there to organise funerals tend to park much more considerately than those who went to the dog grooming place that was next door to it.

The dog groomers hit house prices much harder than the FD because of the noise

I lived opposite a funeral home and I liked it, the employees were really fun people to get to know with a great sense of humour (they need it in their line of work!). The only issue I ever had was a hearse reversing into my parked car and taking a chunk out of my passenger door.