2nd thoughts about buying house with swimming pool next door

[WiseGreyShark]

We have found an ideal property for us but the next door neighbours have a swimming pool in their garden. It's built into the ground, not a inflated pool.

I am having second thoughts incase the pool floods or there are other problems. My wife loves the house and it ticks all the boxes.

The houses are detached if that makes a difference.

Any thoughts? Thanks

I’ve lived directly next door to houses with swimming pools three times before. There were never problems with any of them.

You are being ridiculous. Swimming pools don’t flood.

Yeah the noise needs to be considered. My friend has a pool and the kids get v loud around it. They are not overly near the neighbours but I can hear them a distance away as we approach the house.

I really want to live where all the posters do that are concerned about noise all summer long. (Or hopeful for pool invites all summer.)

This summer in Yorkshire there would have been 45 minutes of pool noise in April, a good 2 hours in July and 17 minutes in August.

I wouldn't be worried about the flooding aspect. Is there any chance that the house is an airbnb or rental, that would put me off more.

Ha - as long as I have had my daily swim (which I am quite evangelical about in the summer) then yes, come on over. I'd rather it was used when it was open.

OP - do you mean the pool leaking? (Because that has never happened either. We are very vigilant with tile replacement, maintenance etc, but even then there would be a thick old layer to get through before any fissures were discovered).

It might be prudent to have a drains survey though. For example, in the unlikely event we would have to drain our pool, we know exactly where the water would flow away to. Perhaps it might give you peace of mind to understand the plumbing in your area (if you can find out?!)

Garden pools attract rats. So have a look over the fence to see how well maintained the pool is.

i have a friend who lives next door to a house with a pool. There have been issues with rats and the people obviously enjoy outdoors - so there are bbqs and outdoor sound systems and a tv etc all in the garden. My friend is a read quietly in the garden type and she never gets a peace. Parties every weekend.

They do seem like a happy bunch next door though😊

I’d buy the house and start making friends hahaha!

If its in the ground then surely it's more likely to act as a holding tank in times of flooding/torrential rain then be a source of flooding itself?

This is exactly what I thought your objection would be!

How would also below ground swimming pool flood? Even if it developed a leak, it would just seep away into the ground?

With regards noise, if you live next door to a house with noisy kids there will be noise, swimming pool or not!

Our neighbours have one. It’s never been an issue.

My parents have a pool, a proper big tiled type one with steps etc. It has never flooded or leaked, it was professionally installed etc...i don't know how common leaks are?

Biggest concern for neighbours would probably be noise in the summer, we are there most days when not at the beach and while my kids are well behaved, 3 kids in a pool with however many friends at different points will inevitably be noisy.

If you've got children, they might want to use the pool. They might nag you, nag the neighbours, and drive everybody up the wall

Not in our bit of Yorkshire. We put a pool in our garden and used it every day for around a couple of months……and it’s not heated. Plenty of sunshine to warm it up each day, we plopped in for an hour late afternoon, lovely.

Ground level pools don’t flood. They have a closed circulation system totally controlled by the user, and a good owner will check and maintain at least every couple of days. So, worrying about one flooding is sort of the far end of anxiety, needless in all but a very very rare occurrence that would be entirely man made, ie after backwashing, the fill up is left on too long. I managed 15 huge public pools, in all my 25 years, we only had one pool tip over the edge after a backwash, and that took all night! I’d check for subsidence though🤣

Shrieking kids all summer would put me right off.

Are the two properties on level ground? I rented a property where the neighbour to the back of the property had a swimming pool. However, they were a little uphill. The property I lived in had raised garden along the back that was level with their property, and a retaining wall. So the house I lived in was lower than their property.

We had a deluge of rain and their pool flooded into my property and poured over the retaining wall into my house. It carried mud from the garden into my house. It was awful, caused quite a lot of damage and I had to move out.

Despite this I wouldn’t have a problem living next to a pool if both properties were level or if the property with a pool was lower.

Are you able to make some kind of discreet enquiries in the neighbourhood - do the neighbours have loud parties, or are they lovely friendly people who will invite you round to use the pool in the summer?

I am having second thoughts incase the pool floods How do you envisage it flooding?

Wouldn't you have had the same problem without the pool? It would be the same amount of rain on the garden, and in a "deluge" it wouldn't soak into the soil.

We have a pool, and it’s barely used. Occasionally on the l
odd summers day. Our climate is not conducive with multiple weeks in the garden swimming! It most certainly wouldn’t put me off, no. The chance of it flooding is zero.

Surely if the houses are big enough to have an in ground pool they are going to have large gardens ,it's not like an estate where the gardens are back to back ?
Noisy kids enjoying the pool wouldn't bother me though.

I live in a hot country and most of our houses have pools.

I wouldn't think twice about a neighbors overflowing.

If there is a lot of rain and it's getting pretty full, then a backwash to pump water out is all it takes. The backwash pipe is most likely plumbed into waste somewhere.

My kids played in the pool all summer long, so I'm not going to begrudge my neighbours kids having fun either. (That is for the pp who mentioned screaming brats.) ..

My next door neighbour beside me (level to me) who also had retaining wall because of being built into a hill and also had a neighbouring property behind them (without a pool) didn’t flood. So, I logically concluded that the sudden deluge of rain coupled with the pool caused the flooding. I live in Australia. I’ve heard that it rains a lot in England but I don’t know if you get the same kind of sudden torrential rain that we do.

However, I fully accept that there could have been other contributing factors as to why my property became a waterfall and next door neighbour’s didn’t. Perhaps the water was diverted by other structures.

Are the houses in that area large / large gardens where pools are in-keeping with the area? If so probably wouldn’t put me off.

However if it’s one of those ones where someone has built a pool themselves and crammed it in to a tiny garden that would put me off.