To really regret buying on a council estate

[Gameofmoans81]

5 years ago we bought our first house. We live in a very expensive town so to get a house rather than a flat meant buying an ex council house on a council estate where about 90% of the flats and houses are still council owned. It’s a small estate surrounded on each side by millionaires in a good location basically.
I didn’t think anything of buying on a council estate - I’m not a snob, I grew up and have lived in normal working/middle class suburbs and rub along with all sorts of people in life and when we viewed it seemed quiet and fine. However after 5 years of living here I absolutely hate it to the point where it’s making me ill.
Firstly there are some lovely people living here, this is not an attack on council tenants but the actual truth is that these are main issues:
teenagers outside my house all night screaming/drinking
dog shit everywhere
rubbish everywhere - think bins tipped over and not picked up, used nappies thrown in hedge etc
sofas/tvs dumped outside for months
screaming arguments/fights/regular police visits
music blasting all day
weed smoke continuously wafting in to my babies nursery if we open the window
young kids out til late swearing and shouting at passers by.

I am desperate to move but the house next door but one has been on the market for well over a year despite being nice and a bargain and no one’s biting. No one but us is stupid enough to buy here. If you picked up our house and put it on the street behind us you’d raise the price by around £100k basically and it would be sold within a week.

i feel so trapped and depressed everytime I walk through the estate to get home plus I feel totally stupid for buying it.
And I feel increasingly furious at these people who are literally costing us thousands of pounds because they can’t be bothered to pick up their shit.
Aaarrrggghhh!

Living next door to a “bleeding heart progressive” also most definitely falls in the category of an “undesirable”!

I don’t care who the hell I live next to as long as they are quiet - ish and behave decently. Pretty low bar really.

@MsTSwift you have no idea of their childhood circumstances

Oh dear. I really don’t care - and neither would you after two years living next to that! Can’t be doing with clueless virtue signallers

I have never endured what some on this thread have worn their neighbours

Had I done so, I really would not give a flying fig about their childhood circumstances

I feel your pain and am in a similar situation!

I’ve had a valuation and hope to get the same next year but will suck up a loss if I have to. I am doing diy to make it as great as possible without gold leafing it (estate agent advice) and am going to do the councils job for them by clearing up rubbish (diy inside jobs first priority).

We aren’t trees, we don’t have actual roots so we can move on. I hate the thought of losing money but mental health is important too.

Sending a hug 🤗 we can do this!!!

Offer it for sale to the local council. There's a housing shortage. Our local Council bought a load of 'luxury apartments' that were just not selling prior to Covid. They paid market rate which was pretty appalling but hey, they have to keep developers happy. Give it a go, you never know. Don't accept a low offer either.

My child and I lived in Social Housing and it was nightmare. The flat was lovely, the rent was cheap and the location was fantastic. But the place was filthy. And although many of the neighbours were nice people the ones that weren't dominated. Within a week or two of moving in I had to explain to my child that it wasn't normal for the police to frequently visit. Loud and sometimes violent arguments in the common areas were, er, common. Drug dealing carried out openly.

The relief when we got out of there was huge.

Can you do a trade in for a new build?? If o ever move I think this would be the only way. Not an ex council house but an older style (1900s) property in an area of growing newer build properties. You’d get our house for the same price as a flat nearby on a slightly newer estate (for newer see 1970s!!). Unfortunately our issue was buying what we viewed and looked great became a nightmare after moving in and realising how much the previous owners had covered up and how much actual work needed doing. I’ve gradually replaced kitchen and bathroom. Redecorated other areas but still one massive job needs doing. We don’t have off street parking - we could but being blocked on due to angles is an issue. No garden. Nice enough area. Mostly people who rent privately though so have been through years of awful neighbours but currently have mostly lovely neighbours. I can’t afford to move - wouldn’t get a mortgage even to buy this house again due to massive salary decrease and becoming a single parent - but if and when I go full time on a better salary I’d definitely be thinking about a trade in.

OP this was my first house in London. Ex council flat in a posh neighborhood, surrounded by a mix of council and ex council. At the time I had to move for a series of reasons - I had difficult neighbours and my partner wanted to start a family outside of LDN anyways. I now live in a small village and I miss that flat terribly, noisy neighbours and all. So much life and things to do. The grass is always greener on the other side...

Location Location Location... So sorry to hear of your woes, but even non-council places can give rise to problems. I have one neighbour whose bamboo shoots are getting nearer and nearer to the house, and could cause real problems, and who has put up a shed that showers water onto one of my walls. Ignores reasonable requests. Good neighbours are invaluable, and just one bad one can be depressing - never mind loads of anti-social stuff like you are enduring. As per one or two other comments, things can be turned around, but it is an uphill battle. It does perplex me why people act in anti-social ways. A lot is down to how they are brought up I suppose, and schools failing to educate about parenting skills, which is silly where the majority of pupils will be parents sooner or later.

Can you sell up without loosing any money ? I would cut my losses . Honestly if live as thought me anything is I would prefer to live in a crappy house in a good area than in a huge house and feel unsafe . Really feel for you

I understand completely. Due to significant circumstances outside my control I was fortunate enough to secure housing association accomodation. The stereotypes are so true all around; dog poo everywhere, filthy gardens, rubbish, sofas. I don't understand it.

"Be kind" 🙄Yes, just like my parents were to the three different sets of social tenants who were housed in the semi-detached house adjoining theirs who systematically spent in excess of ten years making the lives of their neighbours an absolute misery with their continual anti-social behaviours such as openly dealing drugs, fighting, screaming, swearing, throwing things, smashing down the adjoining garden fence, aggressive and constantly barking dogs, loud music, rubbish, dumped furniture, cars/motorbikes and out-of-control parties

My parents' house was burgled three times in quick succession before the last of these abject scumbags finally moved on, no doubt to make the lives of their new neighbours miserable, too.

I subsequently learned that the house adjoining my parents was considered by the housing association a neat way of dumping problem tenants outside of an estate setting (it was on a dual carriageway, away from the nearest estate).

My parents spent a decade living in misery in a house they'd worked hard for and were proud of and they were never anything less than tolerant (for 'tolerant' read 'frightened', predominantly) of the people who got housed next door to them during this period and who were all, without exception, truly despicable people.

Ten years of making report after report after report to a council, local MP and housing association that couldn't have given less of a fuck about the hell my parents had to endure. Ten years of my parents' mental health spiralling downwards, living in fear of abuse and burglary.

We're a working class family who spent years as social housing tenants before my parents managed to own their own home under the 'right to buy' scheme, and we've known more good neighbours than bad, but there are a certain breed who clearly enjoy creating mayhem and angst and living chaotic lives - because they CHOOSE to live that way and don't do a single thing to attempt to live any other way.

So "be kind" can, literally, "get fucked" when it comes to people who can't seem to manage to be anything less than entirely selfish c*nts towards their neighbours.

I heard that years ago, councils employed people to check council houses and their tenants. If the house was messy and unkempt, the tenants were shown how to clean them. If the gardens were a mess they were told to clean them up. They were reinspected at regular intervals. If there was no improvement they were not allowed to stay. Having a council house should not be seen as a right. It's a privilege - and comes with responsibilities.

If this is anti social behaviour, install cameras, quite reasonable on Amazon, I have two myself. Then report to the council, can be done, keeping your name out of it, if you need to.

Also ask your council to buy the house back, some of my friends have done this..

As someone mentioned put it up for sale

Lastly, have you tried the socials to do a house swap, can still be done even if bought, several families may want that area.

You may sell at a profit or loss, just because your neighbour hasn’t sold yet, does not mean you won’t. If you lose out money wise, it’s better than losing your health…..

Good luck

GrumpyMiddleAgedMum

OP has dealt with that in her second post. She's been told the council don't want it.

I have lived in mine over 30 years since 1991 and no one has ever come round to check us. But it does say in the tenants handbook routine checks can be done. However saying that my neighbours would report anyone if they felt anti social behaviour was apparent, and has done. We had a bungalow selling drugs and had only just moved in, six months later evicted. Councils are slow but ours actually isn’t too bad I have to say.

I think your best bet is to sell at a lower price and relocate to a different area. You can still travel in and out of London for work quite easily from most places outside of London!

DH and I relocated from South West London 4 years ago and it’s the best decision ever. The area we live in is fantastic and still only 30 mins on a train into Paddington. Do a bit of research and find an area you think you can call home, because this place quite clearly isn’t it!

I love my ex council house home. It's so so built and such good value for money. I love my neighbours - I know all the families around my green, many of whom are still council tenants. They will watch my cat and take my bins out and sit my kids. If I had a problem, any one of my neighbours would help me, even though I'm pretty quiet and keep myself to myself. I think I'm really lucky to live here.

Yes, you do...which deters buyers/lowers the price.
I live in a nice town, ruined by drug addled, anti social students; I'm waiting till five years have passed, so I can sell and move. The students next door who I complained to the council about, moved out two years ago.

I am so sorry to read this, it must feel like it’s making you ill.

If it helps, I saved up for a long time, went through a divorce and took promotion after promotion to afford a house in a nice area. I did it! Yet my neighbour lets their now grown up kids smoke weed on the patio under my kids bedroom window, have their mates over most nights and sometimes they fight and always swear loudly. I’m devastated that I worked so hard to avoid all this. I’m too embarrassed to invite other people over. I’ve spoken to them and they say there’s nothing they can do (!), plus the parents swear like troopers.

We plan to move, but need to save up again - at a time when we thought we’d be looking to extend. We are quite sad and annoyed, you’re not alone.

Wow. This is so shortsighted. People who behave like this have absolutely no care for their surroundings, nor their neighbours. All those of us that have to live like this want is to get some sleep before we start work at 7am, to be able to step outside our front doors without needing to be on high alert for dog shit, the neighbour who'll punch you/key your car if you look at them 'wrong', to be able to spend time in the evening feeling relaxed instead of constantly feeling assaulted by the noise from outside. People can be deprived of a decent standard of living due to shitty circumstances/lack of opportunity, but still have the common decency not to inflict their misery on to the rest of the neighbourhood. You'd have to be severely disabled to not understand that making loud noise regularly at 3am is causing everyone around you misery, that leaving dog shit on pavements where little kids play is rancid and that just because your life is shit you don't get a free pass on antisocial behaviour.

Council already said they didn't want it

Can’t complain really, they got their right to buy at a huge discount.

Start to think of your house as a financial investment, remortgage it with a buy to let mortgage, paying interest only. Leave 20% of the capital in the property, take the rest out to buy a new place. You'll have rental income as additional income for moving on.