To buy a house next to housing association properties?

[Brightskiesahead]

I need some advice/opinions please.

Soon to be divorced and left with some equity to buy a small house for me and 2 primary age DC.

One has come up on a new build development which is great on paper. Detached, 3 bed, garage, 2 parking spaces and west facing garden. It's in budget. I can't stretch to the next house type up. But the house types I'm looking at are next to housing association properties. The immediate neighbour is a disabled property then its 5 terraced houses of HA.

Would you buy it?

I can't investigate the area as it's not complete yet. The general neighbour hood is lovely (I live close by currently).

Yess there lovely little girls tbh x

@CrazyCatLover

Wouldn’t touch it. Lived on an awful street like that before. HA people have an attitude problem towards people who actually own their house and have a job.

What absolute nonsense. Most people in HA properties do have jobs for a start.

I wouldn’t! Living next to housing association properties has made the last 3 years of my life a living nightmare. Noisy, drunken neighbours are constant. Glad we’ve moved now.

@Tenyearsgone

Oh so it's ok to be a drug dealer as long as you deal in coke and not weed and do it quietly. 😂

You couldn't make this shit up.

Well, in the context of nightmare neighbours they wouldn’t be a problem.

Oh God no OP don't do it! What if the neighbours try talking to you and you have to interact with poor people? Not worth the risk (yes I am being sarcastic)

You get good and bad wherever you live private or rented my advice would be to do a few checks of the area during the day and evening. I live in a HA property and it’s ok . Wherever you live you can’t hand pick your neighbours unfortunately.

HA renting scum here! I live on a nice estate like this (single mum works full time) and annoyingly we aren’t allowed to fly tip, cos the HA (Moat) come and check up on all of us reprobates. Anyone leaving a manky sofa outside is in breach of your contract and you get a warning and reduced tenant rights (only allowed emergency call outs if your house is falling down) and eventually kicked out. In the first year you are on probation and might not get your contract renewed if you misbehave around and bring down the prices of the homeowners houses. I got told off once by my housing officer for not mowing my lawn as I hadn’t yet bought a lawnmower after I moved in (from a flat). I also got sent a warning (including photo) for a bin bag outside a gate that wasn’t even my house 😂

Anyway good luck, sounds like you will need it, because there are no such rules for homeowners and they can do what the fuck they like on their own property without any fear of having their contract terminated

The HA end of our new build estate is mostly okay. Some houses are a bit scruffy outside with litter and toys etc. some of the men do work on their cars at weekends. Their children can be cheeky and run in front of cars and my youngest ds was bullied so he couldn't play out any more. Other than that, it's okay.

Is never ever live next to social housing again. It was an absolute nightmare and not just one set of neighbours, numerous.

Thankfully in our forever home now away from all of that. I don’t see why people are obligated to provide social housing on new build sites etc now. I think that’s ridiculous.

I’m a HA tenant and I can’t believe the people who are getting their knickers in a twist about the OP, she has a valid question. I’ve had some really shitty neighbours, mainly other SH tenants, but some private too. I have great neighbours now, but some still fly tip, have druggy friends, dogs who crap everywhere (that’s me counting myself lucky). The HA do deal with most things quickly, apart from the dumped bed and mattress that lived by the bins for 10 weeks.

OP, as someone who also has judgmental family, go with your gut and not other people’s views. I hope you find your forever home.

@MissMarpleDarling

Oh God no OP don't do it! What if the neighbours try talking to you and you have to interact with poor people? Not worth the risk (yes I am being sarcastic)

If you read the opening post you will see that the poster does not deserve your sarcastic comment. It is not the op who has said anything at all derogatory about people in social housing.

TomorrowIsAnotherDae Sun 17-Jan-21 14:32:32
I’m a HA tenant and I can’t believe the people who are getting their knickers in a twist about the OP, she has a valid question. ............
...................

OP, as someone who also has judgmental family, go with your gut and not other people’s views. I hope you find your forever home.

Very well said!

HA!!! Heaven forbid!!

There are four houses on my road. Two privately owned (including ours) and two HA.

The most annoying neighbours we have are in the other privately owned house.

I live next door to a HA property. Generally all is well, but there have been issue with antisocial behaviour and police involved in the past. But, there has also been with other private properties on my street. The tenants smoke weed all day outside my window which is unpleasant. But before theysmoked the weed, it was boozy parties. Much more annoying. There is also lack of maintenance of the property. It's good that I have someone to contact (HA directly), but they are not good at fixing stuff. Had an issue with a shared roof, they dragged feet so we just instructed a roofer and paid ourselves.

I definitely would t rule it out purely because they’re HA - I’ve been the single mum living in HA property before. Never been loud, never had loads of friends round or made mess/noise/screaming/scruffy kids etc. The most annoying I’ve ever been is probably leaving or returning from shifts (ambulance) at stupid hours during the night but always tried to be as quiet and respectful as possible.

However, I would still be very wary and I know “judging a book by its cover” is probably the wrong thing to do but I’d like to hang around for a bit and get a look at the neighbours or at least the general state the property/gardens are left in - however this would probably make you look like a weirdo, at the end of the day it’s something that could devalue your potential property.

@bellropes

I don't get what the point is about men doing work on their cars at the weekend?
So if you privately own your house you wouldn't work on your car outside?
My DF is a mechanic, my parents owned their house and my DF worked on his car most weekends.
I have 2 cars and wash them outside every weekend. Will people look down on me?

I agree with ImBoredAgain. It’s a question of the layout of the development, the HA managing it and the general condition of the area. Poorly maintained property can have a detrimental effect on resale.

It’s interesting that, having been walking round our immediate area much more frequently over the last year, the properties and gardens that are less well maintained, on the whole, are HA properties. Obviously, not exclusively so, but the weeds, bikes, scooters and bins in the front of the houses are unsightly. It always makes me want to take a fork and dig out the weeds when we go past. There are some well maintained ones too, but they are in the minority.

Definitely avoid living next to a Group of HA homes.

Especially as your obviously the type of person who isn't comfortable with them and has to even ask the question - also you might catch something from them like poverty!

My DH and I first home was a HA, I had just finished uni and we moved there as a shared ownership property so we bought 50 % of the home.

Our neighbours in the other new HA were lovely families

We loved living there and only moved due to work

If they are long term tenants I wouldn't have a problem. If they are tenancies where people change from one year to the next I wouldn't be so keen. Like I wouldn't want to live next door to a high turnover rental either for the same reason.

I can't see properly from the site map just how close you are to the ha properties ...

But .. I have recently moved in to a ha property , I have a good job and take great pride in my home , it was my plan to buy this home but via right to acquire , however having lived here a few months and seen the Calibre of my neighbours I won't be . The gardens are a mess, kids leaving bikes all over the shared driveway, digging holes in the communal grass, throwing bricks , leaving litter , bins over flowing cause they can't be bothered to put them out , police cars , arguments, I could go on.

I live in a nice area . A 2 bed here is £275k . It's true that not all ha Tennant's are the same, we are in a cul de sac of 5 new builds and I am the only one who takes pride in their home and has manners !

Don't buy the house if you are close enough to the ha properties for it to cause you any issues . I am hoping to move from here before the kids Nextdoor are teenagers as I dread the kind of behaviour I will have to tolerate !

You are not a snob ! You are very wise to take this on to consideration !

@Brightskiesahead that's the housing development being built next to me

HA is fine, ignore any horror stories you hear, they will be few and far between. You can have shit neighbours who are owner occupiers, privately rent or HA rent - if they're wankers they're wankers no matter their income, but tbh round here people are generally lovely

@Frouby

Yabu.

I live in a HA property in a new build estate. We don't want your type round here, bloody owner-occupiers lowering the tone. My street is lovely.

Same!!!! I also love. A new build HA house and my neighbour on one side thinks he owns my house too. Looks right down his nose at me.

I saw a comment on a video on fb the other day where someone said (can't remember the context) "Ha! So she's ended up next to doss houses! Serves her right!"
Broke my heart. Can't believe people actually think like this

@AvoidingRealHumans

All new build developments have to have a percentage of social housing in so you won't find one without. You might need to get your head out of your arsehole and get into the real world. Whether or not you have awful neighbours won't depend on their residential status. I am in a HA property on a new development and have lovely neighbours on a mix of HA, part buy and privately owned street. Good luck in your future as a single mother.. oh I'm also one of those and that isn't as bad as you clearly think it is either.

Not true, it's only developments with a certain number of properties. They can opt by paying a lump sum to the government. Obviously very high end developments don't have HA at all.

@Voice0fReason

I lived on a street with mixed HA and owned. My old neighbours were a complete nightmare. I have never lived next to more disgusting people. The problem was, they were owners, so there was sod all we could do apart from wait for them to move (we had a street party when they did).

Love this!

@PinkTonic

My daughter has just sold her house which has HA houses behind. The two closest spend their days sitting on their front in their dressing gowns shouting to each other and calling their children cunts. She couldn’t have her windows open last summer while working from home. When she had viewings she hoped for rain. Obviously you could be lucky.

We're not all like that, thank you very much!!!!