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!
AIBU?
To really regret buying on a council estate
Gameofmoans81 · 18/09/2022 09:03
venus7 · 19/09/2022 18:59
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.
Comedycook · 18/09/2022 09:15
I'm not 100% sure but I think if you come to sell, you have to declare if you've made complaints about neighbors don't you?
girlmom21 · 18/09/2022 09:13
Report dog mess, anti social behaviour etc to the council.
mum2bee2022 · 19/09/2022 19:14
Can’t complain really, they got their right to buy at a huge discount.
Tabitha005 · 19/09/2022 18:31
"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.
PangoPurrl · 19/09/2022 19:03
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.
MindYourBeeswax · 18/09/2022 10:58
Again, I believe the behaviour outlined by the OP goes on and I believe it makes life difficult for her and I sympathise.
But these behaviours go on for a reason, usually things like a lack of money and, worse, a lack of hope.
It's hard to care about a village in bloom type of things when you have to be a prostitute or your children won't listen to you.
One solution could be that instead of paying rent, the housing benefit is paid as a mortgage payment to the council so that they are paying for a house they will own and any equity that builds up in it will be theirs.
This could give people a stake in the property, some hope and bad behaviour might diminish. After all, they would then be in the same position as the OP and wouldn't want to see their asset diminish in value.
LoisLane66 · 19/09/2022 19:26
It's a wonder the millionaires surrounding your estate aren't complaining about your area lowering the tone.
Is it a large estate? Do the offenders not go near millionaires row?
Have you companied to the council's environmental health department? Take photos of the mess, the teenagers, the dog poop, the bins knocked over and record the noise on your phone. Send all that in an email to your council AND your MP.
I'm amazed that your council, knowing you are bordered by million pound +++ homes, are ignoring the shit in the middle of a classy area.
MindYourBeeswax · 19/09/2022 19:27
But there will be a reason for this. Why is it that those with less hope carry on like this because surely this isn't the life they want for themselves or their children.
My theory is that they have no stake in their homes or the area. Most of us don't want to ruin the biggest investment we will make-our home.
So, if council rents could somehow be counted towards a mortgage payment with the renter owning all the equity eventually, they might be more inclined to take care of something-their home and area-that will benefit them financially.
I know some people will say that's like rewarding them for poor behaviour and I suppose, in a way it is. But I think their neighbours would rather have this than have to live in awful circumstances.
So, it's not perfect-it may be unfair-but the end result is a better place to live.
Surely, it's better for them to have equity and behave well than not and behave badly. Sometimes, life is about messy choices in order to get a good result.
PangoPurrl · 19/09/2022 19:03
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.
MindYourBeeswax · 18/09/2022 10:58
Again, I believe the behaviour outlined by the OP goes on and I believe it makes life difficult for her and I sympathise.
But these behaviours go on for a reason, usually things like a lack of money and, worse, a lack of hope.
It's hard to care about a village in bloom type of things when you have to be a prostitute or your children won't listen to you.
One solution could be that instead of paying rent, the housing benefit is paid as a mortgage payment to the council so that they are paying for a house they will own and any equity that builds up in it will be theirs.
This could give people a stake in the property, some hope and bad behaviour might diminish. After all, they would then be in the same position as the OP and wouldn't want to see their asset diminish in value.
iekanda · 19/09/2022 19:40
I live on an estate (it’s not council, it’s a 1990s new build). I have noticed that whenever someone wanders through and leaves dog shit or litter or anything gets messed up for whatever reason (eg bin men drop recycling) then a resident always sorts it out. Now, if I see dog shit near my house, I immediately pick it up. I also pick up recycling and any other mess. Could you try and keep the vicinity of your property clean/tidy even though you did not make the mess? There is a public bin near me which helps as I just Chuck it all in there.
you can ask the council to put up notices saying to pick up shit, but it’s worth actually picking it up yourself. It encourages people to leave as they find. If someone with a dog who doesn’t want to pick shit sees a couple of piles, they won’t be inclined to pick up the shit their own dog does.
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