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.

I would never buy your house, sorry.

I think it would be concerning for me as the houses are attached so you have to get along in a different way to some neighbour situations. My husband and I are immigrants and it would be unfortunate to choose to make our lives harder by attaching ourselves to someone who doesn't think we should live here.

And of course there are plenty of reasons to fly a flag... but someone choosing to put one up out a window at this very moment is saying something very specific.

It would massively put me off, so I feel for you OP, but you won’t get anywhere asking the knob neighbour to remove it (sadly!)

These types of people are beyond reasoning with.

So what? Literally who cares?
OP will get enough offers if her house is priced correctly. I do not know one person who would give a shiny shite about a flag hanging outside if they were looking to buy a house

This is not representative of the real world. I doubt I would even notice.

You're right. Labour supporters come with their own issues. They prefer to threaten Jews and stand outside their homes to intimidate and threaten to burn them down. But tbh, anti semitism is rampant among their own party, so the government are leading by example i guess.....

I would imagine that some of the 95% you've quoted are just fed up with the state of the country and want to show some (albeit misguided) loyalty.
By the way, not everybody who puts a flag up is either racist or a sports fan. We've just commemorated VJ Day, for some people, they'll have had relatives involved in that and want to commemorate it in their own way. I'm guessing though that in itself is now problematic and will soon be yet another thing we're not supposed to mention!

It’s their house, they can do what they want.

Sorry but this is a bit ridiculous - from someone who voted Labour in the last election (for the first time) and works for a Jewish company. I have never stood outside any Jewish persons home except if they were a friend of mine and I was visiting!!!!!

In the past it definitely wouldn't upset me to see flags being flown from any place and any country but at this exact moment in time there is definitely trouble brewing and the flag is causing contention.
The fact that it is causing such a divide should make us all aware that these people are out to cause trouble and nothing more. I understand the OPs worry because where this country currently is - she herself probably wouldn't have noticed it or probably even had a laugh about it before all this started.
Good Luck with the sale x

Yes, all things being equal I would prefer that to racists owning that symbol. But all things are not equal and the price of reclaiming it is to make non-white Britons feel unwelcome or unsafe - so no, absolutely not.

That is the only decent answer. No-one who is not functionally (or overtly) racist would say 'I don't care if black kids are scared, I don't care if Asian women feel unsafe, I don't care what my dual heritage colleague thinks of me - I'm going to reclaim this flag for normal English people.'

It is what it is. The flag is, at least for now, fatally compromised. Not everything can be fixed. Perhaps it's time for a new flag anyway - one which looks forward, not back to a perceived glorious past built on slavery or colonialism or other forms of oppression.

Something I want to point out, a few mentioned what if people put their flags out because they had family who fought in the war or whatever

Well, guess what? In World War 2 people fought against racism among other things

If you decide to put the flag out now when the racists asked for it, then you're LITERALLY spitting in the face of veterans who fought against that

Facts are racists said to put the flag out, if you do it right now you know very well what message you want to send

Anyone who thinks this doesn't reduce curb appeal and put potential buyers off is being foolishly naive.

Not everyone will have a problem with this, but house sales can be on a knife edge as it is, and thinking you might be next door to someone who flings flags around might kill a sale. I'm definitely a snob by many metrics, but I'll own it and say: no, I wouldn't want to live next door to someone who reacted to the current wave of knee-jerk racism in the UK this summer by going along with the rest of the knuckle-dragging flow and slinging a flag out of the window. And pretending it has something to do with supporting the women's rugby. [Hmm]

All sorts of things can stop a house sale: overly weedy gardens next door, loud music while a viewing is taking place, barking dogs - I think a seller would be justified in asking, politely, if those could stop while they were trying to sell their house, too. OP clearly lives next door to a selfish neighbour.

Plenty of people posting on this thread have said it would put them off and I'm sure most people I know would be put off. One of my friends has a neighbour who has a flag pole with an England flag and a Help for Heroes flying and has done for years. This is a completely different thing.

None of my Labour supporting friends do this some of them are even Jewish themselves.

I had this exact thing myself about 12 years ago. My flat had been on the market for 6 months and it was the neighbour above. I didn’t really want to but ended up writing a really sympathetic email asking if they’d consider taking it down (we had already had to move away, hence a quite urgent move). They were ex-army and a nice family but it was really tricky, it had been left up after a World Cup/Euros for a few months. In the end they were really nice about it and took it down. I think a flag on a pole is one thing but one hanging out of the window (which is what I also had) just looks a mess before any other connotations. Whatever you think about it, there’s no doubt, it will put people off.

We are awaiting updates from our estate agent, final viewing was at 4. The flag was up when we left this morning.

Something kinda related I just remembered

The people whining about the flag and talking about patriotism as if there's not a entire racist movement happening literally right now?

They remind me of USA pride month drama, where all bigots started whine about soldiers, veterans and so on, and how July should be their month instead

Anyone with half a brain could see they didn't give one single fuck about soldiers and it was all a excuse to show veiled bigotry, a lot of the time not even veiled really

The people here who keeps twisting themselves into a pretzel to justify it as patriotism, sports and so on? You're not fooling anyone

Some of you are being very in your face obviously purposely dumb and obtuse

Why not just stop being a coward and just admit you agree with why some are showing their flags right now?

Cause seriously, it's pathetic, at least have some spine and be open about what you really feel instead of offending our intelligence

It would put me off and I'd not make an offer. Sorry

I wouldn't even bother viewing your house if it had a massive flag hanging next door to it. I don't want people like that as neighbours - by which I mean absolute bellends - so it would actually be great to me that they signposted what they're like right from the start.

The poster you are responding to is either a right wing agitator or a total nutjob.

I’d keep one up all year round if it deterred short sighted morons too. I’ll bet most the neighbourhood will be glad to see you sling your hook.

A lot of right wing agitators are nutjobs :v

Which kinda reminds me of people who whines about woke, some are so deranged it's hard to tell them apart from trolls

You mean short sight morons like idiots who think immigrants are the cause of all their problems and stopping them will magically fix the country?

Also, since OP didn't make any mention of any other neighbors putting flags, we can easily assume tbe opposite, the neighborhood would be glad to see him leaving instead :v

I think you are right.