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AIBU?

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Original poster

Affordable housing/council houses and their front gardens

60 replies

Dentalpainsucks · 04/12/2023 13:42

I know this is a stereotype but things are a stereotype usually for a reason. I'm 48 and in the 30 years since I left home I've lived in ,ultiple towns in the UK as well as abroad.

Most recently I've bought a new build on a small development where all the affordable housing is at one end of the development (and a style of house you don't find on the private owned). As its new build, there are no real hisotical factors about the area that come into play. However, if you go down that end of the development, you see:

Kids toys strewn all over the front gardens and paths

The odd matress or two dumped

And I think what sparked this is they now have the ubiquitous - car up on ramps in the front garden. Two of them (and there are only about 30 houses in total)

I know I'm going to get flamed for this but why does there appear to be no pride or attempt to keep it tidy. Pride and tidiness doesn't cost money

OP posts:
LakieLady · 04/12/2023 18:09

My MIL lives in a council house and has really beautiful gardens, front and back, full of roses (over 150 at the last count) and always keeps her grass cut despite being 85.

Her NDN otoh bought their former council house privately and their front garden is an overgrown shit heap. Their back garden has been concreted over.

Nonoatchristmas · 04/12/2023 18:09

lkwhjis · 04/12/2023 14:08

You are not wrong, OP. You’ll get lots of faux outrage here. You can always tell social housing apart from privately owned homes on an estate. The reason is how the social tenants treat the house.

There is a reason why these houses sell cheaper than privately owned ones. And there is a reason houses adjacent to social housing are valued lower. You can’t argue against market forces. If the tenants were so good, everyone would want to live next to them.

You are not wrong, OP. You’ll get lots of faux outrage here. You can always tell social housing apart from privately owned homes on an estate. The reason is how the social tenants treat the house.

Im not in a council house (I bloody wish) but I rent. Next door own their house. Guess which one has had a mattress outside for weeks? I’ll give you a tiny clue - not mine. You can always assume, but you can’t tell I promise you.

Iam4eels · 04/12/2023 18:10

lkwhjis · 04/12/2023 14:08

You are not wrong, OP. You’ll get lots of faux outrage here. You can always tell social housing apart from privately owned homes on an estate. The reason is how the social tenants treat the house.

There is a reason why these houses sell cheaper than privately owned ones. And there is a reason houses adjacent to social housing are valued lower. You can’t argue against market forces. If the tenants were so good, everyone would want to live next to them.

What absolute bullshit.

I live on a street that's a mix of privately owned and council housing, you cannot tell one from the other as each house has it's own unique features added/removed by various tenants and occupiers over the years. We did have one lot of problem tenants (in one of the privately owned houses that was rented out while the owner was working abroad) but they were evicted for noise nuisance.

The houses in this street sell for more than the houses on the nearby new build estate.

TheHateIsNotGood · 04/12/2023 18:21

And if you want to buy a really good house (and have the money to pay the premium they attract) then buy an ex-council house from the 1940-70s. A lot of bang for your buck.

I've only rented them both privately and council/HA and if I could afford to buy an older built ex-SH property I would. Due to principles I handed the keys back for my HA home when I became in a position to buy as I knew how many other people really needed it.

I'm guessing I'm in the minority on that point.

Billybobranaway · 04/12/2023 20:08

I live on a new build estate. The majority of the houses are council owned and the ones that are privately owned look exactly the same on the outside apart from the light fixture.
Whilst the houses were being built the site manager told us that the social housing, homes are actually bigger inside as the council has certain specifications that they had to meet.
All of the houses are maintained well and any rubbish or God forbid mattresses are removed quickly.
We aren't allowed to have works vehicles, caravans etc on our drives either. There is a house that often has cars jacked up though and horror oil on the drive. He owns his home though.

ExTheCheater · 04/12/2023 20:30

My road goes like this... owned, council house, owned, council house, council house, owned. I know because I know the neighbours but you couldn't tell by looking at the street. Though my friend works for the councils housing team and our council use cheaper materials so on the most recent new builds in our area you can tell by sight which are council homes.

Nodairyforme · 04/12/2023 20:44

The road I live on is pretty much split in two, HA and privately owned. I live on the border of the two, and if I look either way there are one or two houses as you describe. I think there's a minority of people from whatever background/ income level who don't give a toss. I also imagine though that the judgement is sadly reserved for those who are less well off.

AnxiousPangolin · 04/12/2023 21:03

I used to be on the committee of a development with an HA area and 9/10 times, the anti-social behaviour and fly-tipping issues were there. It was frustrating because we knew it wasn’t every HA resident, but enough of them to cause a problem.

I now live opposite an HA block of flats and the issues with fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour have been constant over the last 15 years. The other end of the block which is private has had nowhere near the same problems.

It’s naive to pretend that all HA tenants are the kind of poor that MN approves of.

Doihavetogotoworkdotcom1 · 04/12/2023 21:27

I agree with you op.

itsgoodtobehome · 04/12/2023 21:31

I actually agree with OP. Our house backs onto a street of council housing, and every single back garden is filled with absolute crap. Old vans, abandoned cars, rusty bbqs, old bathtubs, broken lawn mowers, I could go on. They are all massive hoarders and just seem to hoard junk in their gardens.

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