AIBU?
To really regret buying on a council estate
Gameofmoans81 · 18/09/2022 09:03
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!
Cw112 · 18/09/2022 10:18
Local housing bodies are always looking to purchase more housing especially due to the house crisis, I'd try finding out what housing body owns the neighbouring properties and ask if they'd like to buy yours back, they should give you market value for it? Might be worth a try.
SurfBox · 18/09/2022 10:19
Had the same issue but was a lodger so could get out. Same problems-loud parties at night, a Religious guy doing loud chanting at 5am every morning, a mother and daughter in the same family having blazing loud rows at 6am....
Moved then to a different estate, was a large house share. Chavvy tenant constantly trying to start fights with me- talking to all hours on the skype keping me awake, going mad if I asked him to stop... Had the same problem in the next place. All these places had in common is that they were all council run and poverty stricken areas with social problems.
I am not a snob-born and bred on council estates but my advice is don't rent or buy on them ever if you can. You will get shit heads there who will make your life hell. Location is everything.
MindYourBeeswax · 18/09/2022 10:21
How about a little tolerance for those whose lives are so hopeless that they turn to drink and drugs and for those who are so bored that they resort to partying late into the night or shouting, as a PP said, in their garden until 3am.
One PP mentioned a woman who became a prostitute to fund her habit-do you think she wants her life to be like that?
Maybe they should all be herded onto 'sink estates', so that you don't have to see them.
All this hand wringing about these poor people bringing down house prices. Heartless. BE KIND
SurfBox · 18/09/2022 10:29
How about a little tolerance for those whose lives are so hopeless that they turn to drink and drugs and for those who are so bored that they resort to partying late into the night or shouting, as a PP said, in their garden until 3am.
One PP mentioned a woman who became a prostitute to fund her habit-do you think she wants her life to be like that?
Maybe they should all be herded onto 'sink estates', so that you don't have to see them.
All this hand wringing about these poor people bringing down house prices. Heartless. BE KIND
yea easy for you to say living in your million pound house in affluent close. Go live in a bad area and then come back to us when it fails.
rainbowunicorn · 18/09/2022 10:29
MindYourBeeswax · 18/09/2022 10:21
How about a little tolerance for those whose lives are so hopeless that they turn to drink and drugs and for those who are so bored that they resort to partying late into the night or shouting, as a PP said, in their garden until 3am.
One PP mentioned a woman who became a prostitute to fund her habit-do you think she wants her life to be like that?
Maybe they should all be herded onto 'sink estates', so that you don't have to see them.
All this hand wringing about these poor people bringing down house prices. Heartless. BE KIND
You are being ridiculous. Why should anyone have to put up with living in the conditions that OP does?
Plenty of people have marriage breakdowns and difficult lives without causing mayhem in their communities and behaving like scum.
FreyaStorm · 18/09/2022 10:30
MindYourBeeswax · 18/09/2022 10:21
How about a little tolerance for those whose lives are so hopeless that they turn to drink and drugs and for those who are so bored that they resort to partying late into the night or shouting, as a PP said, in their garden until 3am.
One PP mentioned a woman who became a prostitute to fund her habit-do you think she wants her life to be like that?
Maybe they should all be herded onto 'sink estates', so that you don't have to see them.
All this hand wringing about these poor people bringing down house prices. Heartless. BE KIND
Hahahaha.
You’ve clearly never lived amongst them.
They can afford drink and drugs because they’re benefitted to the max and don’t work
so have masses of free time to be a nuisance. The rest of us have market rate rents and mortgages to pay.
Nice view you have up there from your ivory tower.
After living 37 of my 38 years on council estates, I’m all for rounding them up into sink estates and cutting off financial incentives to breed.
MindYourBeeswax · 18/09/2022 10:31
SurfBox · 18/09/2022 10:29
How about a little tolerance for those whose lives are so hopeless that they turn to drink and drugs and for those who are so bored that they resort to partying late into the night or shouting, as a PP said, in their garden until 3am.
One PP mentioned a woman who became a prostitute to fund her habit-do you think she wants her life to be like that?
Maybe they should all be herded onto 'sink estates', so that you don't have to see them.
All this hand wringing about these poor people bringing down house prices. Heartless. BE KIND
yea easy for you to say living in your million pound house in affluent close. Go live in a bad area and then come back to us when it fails.
What an amazing gift you have-to be able to see where posters live. How ridiculous of you.
MsTSwift · 18/09/2022 10:31
Mindyourbeeswax thank you for the Sunday morning chuckle! I take it you have always lived amongst decent folk. Try experiencing the following and see how sympathetic you remain
Drug dealinf
undesirable types loitering outside our front door to buy said drugs who I had to walk past everytime I left house
loud gangster rap
loud sweary arguments
fights in the street
large out of control aggressive dogs that leapt the fence and shat in our garden
washing smelling of weed
We had our first newborn at the time. We moved to a lovely middle class area. Our neighbours are now thoughtful quiet retired doctors. Bliss
Biker47 · 18/09/2022 10:35
I grew up and lived most of my formative years in a council house on a council estate mixed in with some houses already sold off to private owners, and with that I'd say; Fuck ever buying a house on a council estate, ever! I bought on a new build estate and ensured I picked a house nowhere near the handful of social housing houses that were forced to be on the estate.
That's not to say that isn't without flaws, private owners can still be just as big scumbags as council tenants but anecdotally I'd say the number is a lot lower when you have a bigger stake in where you live.
MindYourBeeswax · 18/09/2022 10:35
@MsTSwift I am not denying that goes on but asking for a little compassion as to why it goes on.
@FreyaStorm I think you have said what most posters on this thread think but don't want to say. Ugly thoughts about too many benefits and "paid to breed".
An ugly thread
Flobbertybillop · 18/09/2022 10:38
MindYourBeeswax · 18/09/2022 10:35
@MsTSwift I am not denying that goes on but asking for a little compassion as to why it goes on.
@FreyaStorm I think you have said what most posters on this thread think but don't want to say. Ugly thoughts about too many benefits and "paid to breed".
An ugly thread
Absolutely agree, a hideous thread :(. Not denying the issues
I live on a social housing estate, and it’s completely lovely.
CaramelTwirl · 18/09/2022 10:41
FreyaStorm · 18/09/2022 10:30
Hahahaha.
You’ve clearly never lived amongst them.
They can afford drink and drugs because they’re benefitted to the max and don’t work
so have masses of free time to be a nuisance. The rest of us have market rate rents and mortgages to pay.
Nice view you have up there from your ivory tower.
After living 37 of my 38 years on council estates, I’m all for rounding them up into sink estates and cutting off financial incentives to breed.
MindYourBeeswax · 18/09/2022 10:21
How about a little tolerance for those whose lives are so hopeless that they turn to drink and drugs and for those who are so bored that they resort to partying late into the night or shouting, as a PP said, in their garden until 3am.
One PP mentioned a woman who became a prostitute to fund her habit-do you think she wants her life to be like that?
Maybe they should all be herded onto 'sink estates', so that you don't have to see them.
All this hand wringing about these poor people bringing down house prices. Heartless. BE KIND
I'm more concerned that people like you are allowed to have children.
Gameofmoans81 · 18/09/2022 10:42
MindYourBeeswax · 18/09/2022 10:21
How about a little tolerance for those whose lives are so hopeless that they turn to drink and drugs and for those who are so bored that they resort to partying late into the night or shouting, as a PP said, in their garden until 3am.
One PP mentioned a woman who became a prostitute to fund her habit-do you think she wants her life to be like that?
Maybe they should all be herded onto 'sink estates', so that you don't have to see them.
All this hand wringing about these poor people bringing down house prices. Heartless. BE KIND
Do you want to buy my house? Pleeeaaase? 🙏
Twiglets1 · 18/09/2022 10:44
MindYourBeeswax · 18/09/2022 10:35
@MsTSwift I am not denying that goes on but asking for a little compassion as to why it goes on.
@FreyaStorm I think you have said what most posters on this thread think but don't want to say. Ugly thoughts about too many benefits and "paid to breed".
An ugly thread
An ugly thread maybe...an ugly situation for OP definitely. Have you read about her situation, don't you feel any compassion or urge to be kind to her?
@Gameofmoans81 I think it is clear that you need to put your property on the market at a realistic price (strategically I would price it lower than your neighbours one that hasn't sold) and get the hell out of dodge.
CaramelTwirl · 18/09/2022 10:44
Gameofmoans81 · 18/09/2022 10:42
Do you want to buy my house? Pleeeaaase? 🙏
MindYourBeeswax · 18/09/2022 10:21
How about a little tolerance for those whose lives are so hopeless that they turn to drink and drugs and for those who are so bored that they resort to partying late into the night or shouting, as a PP said, in their garden until 3am.
One PP mentioned a woman who became a prostitute to fund her habit-do you think she wants her life to be like that?
Maybe they should all be herded onto 'sink estates', so that you don't have to see them.
All this hand wringing about these poor people bringing down house prices. Heartless. BE KIND
Have you had enough people calling SH tenants scum yet?
CovertImage · 18/09/2022 10:44
I am not denying that goes on but asking for a little compassion as to why it goes on
It's easy having compassion from a distance. When you're living in the middle of it, your mental health is affected and it's making your life utterly miserable, not so much.
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.