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!

[mamabear715]

I'm so sorry. It sounds like a nightmare.
All I can think of off the top of my head is to start by organising a clean-up group. There may be one already - check on facebook locally. Pester the council to collect the larger rubbish.
Report bad behaviour to the police every time, until people get the message. Ditto with loud noise to the council. Other like minded folk are probably also sick to the back teeth with it. Do it all quietly & unobtrusively though, so you're not on the idiots' radar. Hugs..

[RedHelenB]

I always find this so odd about London. How come the yobs don't go onto the nicer street if it's only one street away?

[nzeire]

Just sympathy. We did the same in dublin and I just hated it. No fucking pride.

we made it beautiful and I did enjoy the house and location which were both great, but the estate itself, grim

we bought, house boomed in value, then dropped to less than what we paid for it
now rent it back to the council and try not to think about it.

[fairydust11]

I think you will need to sell your house for less than you wanted to. I’d say it’s the only way of getting out asap if it’s making you feel ill.
Weigh up how bad it’s making you feel and if you feel you just have to leave, sell it for a much lower value than your next door neighbour’s. That’s the only way of moving as soon as possible. Good luck.

[girlmom21]

Report dog mess, anti social behaviour etc to the council.

[nzeire]

I used to go out with rubber gloves and bags and collect rubbish. Also hounded the council about graffiti etc

[OnlyFoolsnMothers]

Sorry OP that’s rubbish. Everything sells at a price- have you worked out what you could afford to sell for?

[yaboreme]

It's awful, so sorry you are in this position. We did something similar years ago and moved because of it.

If no one was going to buy, we thought about perhaps renting it out? Could this be an option. At least you would be able to chose the tenant?

It depends on your situation but could you sell at a loss and move somewhere smaller for a short while until you could move again.

It's sad, because I know how unhappy it can make you.

[Comedycook]

@girlmom21

Report dog mess, anti social behaviour etc to the council.

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?

[Spck]

Could you afford to rent it out and buy somewhere else? It would still be a headache as you might not get good tenants but living where you are miserable is awful.
if you rented it out you would move to an interest only mortgage so monthly payments would be a lot less. There are online calculators where you can work it out.

[Lcb123]

Yep, we bought a flat on a council estate and trying to sell. It’s not been the worst but lots of flytipping, often loud parties etc. it was all we could afford to buy but decided we could tolerate it for 3 years in order to sell and then have a bigger deposit. It’s made me realise how getting the right location is the most important thing, I’d never compromise on that now
you’ll either have to wait a while to sell or just accept a low price

[QuebecBagnet]

A friend of mine was in a similar position and approached the council about them buying the house back for council stock and they did. Market rate, no estate agent fees, etc.

[Lcb123]

@Comedycook

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?

only if you’ve had an official dispute

[anewbook]

You need to get out for your own sanity.
Have been in a similar situation and the effect it had on my health was no joke.
I understand how stressful it can be.
Do it up as much as you can, a few licks if paint, put it on the market.
Best of luck OP!

[nachoavocado]

@QuebecBagnet

A friend of mine was in a similar position and approached the council about them buying the house back for council stock and they did. Market rate, no estate agent fees, etc.

Good shout

[VladsPants]

@RedHelenB

I always find this so odd about London. How come the yobs don't go onto the nicer street if it's only one street away?

The op doesn’t say it’s in London?

[SheWoreYellow]

@VladsPants

The op doesn’t say it’s in London?

Yeah, a friend of mine had this in Leeds. She did eventually sell it though.

[girlmom21]

@Comedycook it's not a neighbour dispute to report issues like that to the council

[Janedoe82]

I think great idea to see if council will buy it back

[Ilikewinter]

So im going to suggest something that wont be popular but we once sold a stinker of a house via Quick move now, yes they offered us less than market value but we had a lot of equity so we still took a proift out of it....and it got us out and fast.
It took them nearly a year to sell it on and for not a lot more than they paid us for it.
It might be worth a look into?

[KangarooKenny]

Put it on the market. You aren’t moving forward if you don’t do something.

[chocolateoranges33]

Where I live the council will buy back their old properties for market value as they need to increase the amount of properties they own to rent to the community. It doesn't matter how long ago they were taken out of the council stock.

Have you approached your council to ask if they run a similar scheme? If I was you I'd contact the leasehold team and ask if they do buy backs.

Good luck

[Darbs76]

I’d just put it on the market and see what happens. No point just thinking it won’t sell and doing nothing but being miserable

[chilllove]

Neighbour dispute is a grey area when selling. The council will do very little about antisocial behaviour and you may have to declare it, so I wouldn't even go there.

Move. Take a hit with profit (if you can afford to) and get out of there. I have lived with antisocial behaviour for 4 years and it has taken a huge toll on my health and affected every area of my life.

Don't waste years unhappy, cut your losses and run!

[MichaelAndEagle]

I think see if the council are interested in buying it back, if not options are:

• sell it cheap, someone will buy it if cheap enough
• sell it to a company like Quick move
• rent it out and rent something else to live in/buy something else if you can.