House viewings - neighbour refuses to take down flag

[KayleighhMum]

Our house is up for sale and we have viewings commencing from tomorrow - 7 in total lined up over the course of the week.

Our neighbour hung a large England flag from his top window on Friday and it has remained up. DH saw him outside the front on Saturday and politely asked if he could take it down before Tuesday. He basically laughed and said if any prospective new neighbour dislikes the flag then they won’t be the sort of person he’d want living next to him. It remains up now.

I am concerned this would be off putting, but speaking to my mum earlier she thinks I am over thinking things and it wouldn’t make a difference if someone likes the house.

Do you think we should try and ask again or would you assume it shouldn’t put people off? We are semi detached so it will definitely be noticed.

No prior issues with this neighbour who has always been friendly etc.

Would put me off. Has a certain connotation and nothing to do with being patriotic. Being interesting to know the estate agents take on it.

It’s because of that part of history where we brutally colonised a quarter of the world, and invented the international slave trade and stuff. So yeh, the British flag is not perceived as harmless. It’s a small price to pay imo.

Someone who flies the flag in their garden and always has done is quite different from the latest campaign which, as a pp pointed out, is attempting to create an all white ghetto where 'others' aren't welcome. I knew someone who was very left wing and anti racist who flew an England flag as he wanted to reclaim it from the far right. The OP's neighbour might be like this or he might be a Yaxley-Lennon follower. A potential purchaser has no way of knowing.

Would definitely put me off.
If there was a world cup or something I may tolerate as it would be a temporary thing.

Otherway no way.
Just me.

The obvious response is to put an Irish tricolour (and maybe a Palestinian flag) in your own window (at least between viewing times), so that he starts to fret about hordes of Irish-speaking, general-purpose protesters living in his midst. Fiendish!

Right but England is the dominant power in the union, so that just makes it worse.

Would it put me off? Probably not but I’d probably mention it to my DW on the way home.

Things that may make me pause on making an offer….. Motorbikes/cars/settees/fridges in the front garden.
Ferrel children/dogs running round the place.
Other half of semi detached house in very poor state of repair.

Would I have mentioned to neighbour - probably not.

(For the record our neighbour has flown a St George’s flag for a year or so.)

I gave two examples of how the flag could be innocuous or not ie. football fan or patriot - no problem. Racist or Reform - a problem.

It would put me off personally buying it to be honest but you can’t ask him to take it down, and definitely not again. You might get lucky and have a prospective house buyer that that would appeal to or that they wouldn’t mind and you will be able to sell it.

A Union Jack flag would not put me off buying at all though (perhaps even endear me) as I associate it with drastically different things/demographics/values.

There are quite a few houses with flagpoles where I live. They haven’t been flying their flags as usual perhaps due to not wanting to be associated with the far right flag campaign.

Total misappropriation of our flag!

If he was Spanish and had a Spain flag up would everyone still avoid viewing?

Yeah, no thanks 😂

Sadly it will put a lot of people off, particularly if it’s in a nice area and/ or is a good house. However as everyone has said, you can’t push him further on taking it down just like you can’t push people to tidy their gardens or stop smoking weed or screaming at their kids in the garden because you’ve got viewings.

I feel I will get told off for this comment as I have been off the news and debates past few weeks. But what is the problem with the flag? It is the UK, are people not allowed to put flags of their country up? I wouldn't think anything of it. (I am not British). I don't understand the problem really.

Maybe he thinks the Red Cross on it indicates a licence to dispense pharmaceuticals. Worth asking, I’d think, even if tomorrow is a work day. 😹

Is everybody hard of understanding today? I clearly said there's nothing per se wrong with the flag, but sadly it has become tainted through co-option by racists. I gave two examples of people who might fly the flag for non-racist reasons.

We all know the flag has connotations. Don't blame me for acknowledging that. I think its a damn shame that the English flag has become associated with the far right, and I never said you shouldn't be allowed to fly it.

Again for those at the back: its not the flags fault we are in this position, and its not the fault of patriots. But neither is it the fault of minority communities who have good reason to wonder about the motivation of the flagwaver.

Estate agents have found that houses prices are dropping in areas where there are lots of those flags. I think people read it as a sign of troublemakers

No, but if you look into the history of the British empire, and what it took to establish it, and what it took to keep it in power (we're now moving into fairly recent history), and after that are still a big enough fan of Britain that you want to fly the flag for it outside your house, I'd question either your motives or your intelligence. Or both.

Yes, I think I might! Some people are very nice people, good at heart, but are misguided or influenced by things they see in the Daily Mail or social media. Maybe he's one of those.