Our garden is not the cause for the lack of sale

[maoiBYRD]

Neighbours have just blamed me because our garden is a mess. That’s why they can’t get their sale for the flat upstairs.

They are selling for 10 grand over the asking price. You can get a three bed in the next road for 5 grand less, they are going with an online estate agent and you have to do viewings yourself. We are in the middle of a pandemic and no one is buying at the moment.

I’m currently clearing the flower bed of the “jungle” of wild flowers, potatoes and garlic that I created with my little girl, and trying to find a scrap man to take away the bikes and scooters and wondering how how I “shape” a bush that we really want to keep because my mother planted it.

Would a neighbours garden really influence your purchase of a property?

Im digging up the unsightly veg bushes. I will clear the garden. We don’t have any rotting cars or rat nests. It was just a bit overgrown with wild flowers and veg. :(

In my neighbourhood there is a nice family with a couple of young children. The house is odd for this area in that their garden is in front. It's a mess of toys, bikes, a trampoline, a pool, etc., overgrown and wild. They prioritise their children's happiness and they do seem genuinely nice. I wouldn't enjoy looking at it from my window though and I wouldn't have bought near them.

I work for an estate agent one day a week, and several properties in my road have been up for sale. One property is completely overgrown front and back, doors hanging off , pots buried in long grass etc and it most definitely has put people off buying as they do not want to live next to it.

It personally doesn't bother me, I am "live and let live", but comment after comment came back after viewings in the road, that they did not want to live next door to such a mess and that it looked awful and why didn't she tidy it up etc etc. It is a lovely little cul-de-sac and most people do look after their property and garden.

It did really upset people who were trying to sell their houses and they did ask the householder nicely if she could tidy it up, some even offered to do the work themselves, but they still refused to do anything about it.

OP has probably gone to fine a scrap metal man now

Why are you being such a martyr @maoiBYRD

You don't think your garden is to blame.
You don't think there's anything wrong with your garden.
Your ripping things out left right and centre even though you don't want to

Why are you getting ready of bikes and scooters if they're in use? Why are you ripping out vegetables that could feed you? Why are you cutting down a bush your mom planted?

@NikeDeLaSwoosh

...and how can it be 'selling for £10k over the asking price'?

The asking price is what they have it on the market at.

But op claims it's not selling because of her garden?

Lots of judgements here on very little information. I can't really say unless I've seen what your garden looks like. However my neighbours could get stuffed before I'd dig up a perfectly good veg patch.

Interesting question and the answer from me is yes

We actually viewed a house on Saturday and one of the neighbour's front gardens was really overgrown and the wheelie bin was laying on its side

I want to live in an area where people take pride in their property and as I already had a slight doubt about the street that was another nail in the coffin

It would put me off too. I wouldn't want to look at a messy garden and I'd worry that the neighbours were bad.

Would a neighbours garden really influence your purchase of a property?

Of course it is off putting. Why have you let it get to this state?

SIL has neighbours with an really untidy garden. The seeds from the weeds blow over from their garden into hers, so she has to spend a lot more time weeding than she should.

They prioritise their children's happiness

I simply don’t understand comments like this, every parent I know prioritises their kids happiness, but still manage to maintain their garden. They are not mutually exclusive.

If you're talking very overgrown with lots of junk in the garden (which it sounds like you are) then yes it would put me off.

The price may well be an issue but the garden would stop me even putting in an offer.

It's a big red flag not just from an aesthetic point of view (who wants to look at an overgrown mess filled with scrap) but also because it indicates how the neighbours value their home/community in general.

This is especially true wrt flats - if you don't care about keeping your garden tidy and free of junk do you care about other anti social behaviour? Noise, communal areas etc etc

Why are you clearing and pruning plants you want to keep?
Personally I'm not keen on living next door to a garden that is just lawn,decking and shed.Where is the wildlife going to go?
It looks tidy though 😕
It's your garden,you can do what you want with it.

It most definitely would. I always associate a messy garden with a messy house rightly or wrongly. I deliver parcels and whenever I see a garden full of broken toys, bikes, scooters I assume they're a bit rough, sorry! That sounds bad, but I do.

Yes garden with rubbish or totally uncared for would definitely affect me particularly if as you say the flat is over priced. I’d expect there to be no obvious drawbacks if asking lrice is at a premium (and even then would be likely to offer lower anyway)
Wouldn’t want to live next to neighbours who don’t give a toss about their garden.

Not saying that’s you at all btw but if it is then of course it can affect things.

Well pick it up then.

I do. Never said I didn't.

@ohcaptain feel free to think that. Makes no difference to me.

People need to be less judgemental. There must be loads of people missing out on their dream home because of what next door's garden looks like. Ridiculous.

Living in my dream home does not involve looking at other people's dogshit and junk

A house in a road near ours took almost a year to eventually sell for tens of thousands under the going rate, for no other reason than the sight of some of the neighbour's messy front gardens piled with rubbish and scrap. People who drove by and judged that the neighbours were going to be a nuisance were 100% right, they are very antisocial in so many ways. I feel sorry for the people who have bought it.

Would a neighbours garden really influence your purchase of a property?

Yes and it has done. We didn't bother even continuing the viewing on one property because of the state of the outside of the neighbours property.

A shitty outside makes you wonder what they are like.

Next doors house (identical to ours except that it looks over a very neglected garden)when brand new was being sold for £25k less than ours. When we questioned the housing company they stated that it was because it overlooked such a mess and the one we were looking at didn't (unfortunately it was already sold otherwise we would have bought it as I don't care what my neighbours garden looks like and it was cheaper!)

Do you need some advice on how to prune the bush your mum planted. Don’t do anything drastic to it

TBH, if I was that fussed about the garden, I'd be looking for a property that had a garden, rather than looked out on someone elses.
A garden full of tat and rusting bikes might concern me in that it would make me concerned about what the neighbours below me were like (and it wouldn't be favourable).

However I was surprised - diagram alert - when a friend who is a very keen gardener bought a house that had a narrow long garden portioned off with neighbour; neighbour's bit of garden was very messy and unkempt, but it didn't put her off.

Junk bikes and scooters would make me think you have several children who have grown out of them, you can't be bothered to get rid of them, and now probably have feral teens. Would put me right off, especially in flats. My judgy pants would be up round my ears.

@PhilCornwall1

Would a neighbours garden really influence your purchase of a property?

Yes and it has done. We didn't bother even continuing the viewing on one property because of the state of the outside of the neighbours property.

A shitty outside makes you wonder what they are like.

My sister went to view a property where the neighbour was flying a St George flag from a flagpole in the front garden.

She didn't bother with the viewing either.

I would be very, very wary of buying somewhere where the garden is a state. Especially as this is a flat. It’s an outward indicator that the property isn’t cared for and would make me worry about the attitude of the people that live there. If they won’t even tidy up when they know a neighbour is trying to sell they don’t sound like they’d be good neighbours.

So many judgmental posters assuming that untidy garden = ASB, noisy etc.

My garden is dreadful. I also have arthritis in my back and standing for more than a few minutes can be agony - bending even worse. I can't really afford a regular gardener, as my working ability is somewhat limited also. So the garden gets very overgrown. I'm single, very rarely have visitors & then only watching TV & chatting, don't play loud music, do my best to get on with neighbours & always help them out if I can (and vice versa). Even my cats are indoor only, so no cat poo; not a lot I can do with the local urban faxes, who poo everywhere!

So in just about every way, I'm an ideal neighbour EXCEPT my messy garden.

I would make the assumption that an overgrown jungle of a garden with scooters and bikes would perhaps indicate nightmare neighbours too.