Semi-detached with social housing

[Tirednhopeful]

Putting my tin hat on for all the “don’t be rude” replies, but would you buy a house sharing a wall with three council flats?

We are in South East London and are lucky enough to have a detached house currently. But it is too small for our growing family and work needs (genuinely - detached but not huge) and a large house on our dream road has come up that we can afford. Only issue is it shares a wall with three council flats. Looks quite shabby on the outside, and I just have no idea what to expect really.

And yes I’m conscious that you could get bad private owners on the other side of a wall anyway, of course. But realistically what do people think?

I used to live un a terrace that was 50/50 private and council. Zero issues beyond normal neighbour stuff. The absolute arseholes of the road were the couple who put cones on the road to save "their" parking space and they were private owners

Nightmare neighbours really are the pits. I can’t comment on whether this is more or less likely being adjacent to social housing. The two examples I know of were social housing. But I know lots of great people in social housing. The key thing is probably trying to find out what these particular neighbours are like. I would go so far as to see if I can chat to people down the street and ask what the street is like.

I live in a council house attached to a bought house. They're no problem at all. I can hear them doing DIY and I hear the teenage girls running up the stairs occasionally but overall no noise at all.

I live in social housing - I was incredibly fortunate to be given a lovely home by the council when me and my boys left a very toxic household. Most of my neighbours are now privately owned houses but there’s a few of us renters scattered around the street. I can hand on heart honestly say it’s the most wonderful community I’ve ever been fortunate enough to live in. Even the dodgy lot three doors down will do anything for you! Never judge - ever.

I would not be keen to share a wall with three flats (whether social housing or not). As that gives you three times the chance of one of them being very problematic and wrecking your life.

I would also be a bit concerned that if something went terribly wrong (like the wall falling down) then I would have to deal with the council rather than a person.

Would your house share a wall with all three flats?
Like would yours be a three storey house with a flat attached to each floor?

The fact its social housing wouldn't be as much of an issue for me as the fact its three flats. If you're attached to all three then you're trebling your risk of troublesome neighbours.

Either way, no I wouldn't.

But then again I wouldn't move from a detached house to a semi-detached. Is there any possibility to extend the house you're currently in?

You say "looks shabby from the outside" - do you mean the house or the flats?

Nothing to do with Social Housing, but a house converted into (presumably small) flats is likely to have different lifestyles yo a family. Parking, noise etc.
They might not appreciate family noise either

I wouldn't want to live next to three flats, no matter what tenure the housing is. Three times more chance that one of them will be a terrible neighbour! As someone who has an attached nightmare neighbour I would give anything to live in a detached house. Is there no way you could extend or do a loft conversion etc?

Is it that the house next door has been converted into three flats so you have one sharing a wall on each floor? I would have concerns with this, not because they’re council flats, but just because you’re sharing a wall with three separate households and the chances of having a bad neighbour are increased by that.

Also, if it is a conversion rather than being purpose built, there might be a fair bit of noise transference depending on the quality of the conversion.

On the other hand, I lived in a small purpose built block in SE London, which was built in the ‘50s and it was really well built and we had absolutely no issues with noise.

Have you had a look round?

Nope, sorry, I’m a snob, but nope.

If I’d visited at different times of the day and evening and it appeared fine, it wouldn’t put me off. But I’m not troubled by ordinary everyday living noise - I quite like the hum of people around me, I live in London, if I wanted silence I’d move somewhere placid. My parents live somewhere very quiet and conversely they have more issues with noise as a result as several neighbours are intolerant of ordinary noise like children, cars arriving and departing very late or very early, and DIY.

The vast majority of people in social housing are just decent people getting on with their lives, but the problem is when you end up with one of the minority who are not as a neighbour because the threshold for the landlord obtaining possession is so high, antisocial behaviour has to have reached serious levels and tenants given significant chances to change. It’s a risk, but with the new renters’ rights act I suspect it’s likely to become more of an issue even with private tenants next door due to the greater burden on landlords to demonstrate provable grounds for possession and pursue it through the courts.

As PP said, the 3 flats means a lot of neighbours. Potentially noisy, but the structure of the building will make a big difference to the noise level.

I think it depends on your own character more than anything. If you're inclined to get outraged over small things you will always have an issue wherever you live. The only way to find out is to spend time there. If you can smell weed and it looked unkempt it would be a no.

I lived on a council estate growing up and there was usually a few well known trouble makers on the estate, and some people had problems, but were not particularly unpleasant with it. Generally people got on well and it was a good community.

It really depends on how snobbish and intolerant to people's differences you are to start with, but you have to do a bit of research by the sounds of it to be sure.

I wouldn't want to live in a house that is attached to 3 flats, whether they are council or not.

I personally wouldn’t as we have had nothing but problems from the social housing tenants next door, but thankfully not attached, to us.

Just to echo what everyone else has said - the social housing bit is a red herring. The issue is that it’s three flats.

Even if the party wall has great sound insulation (unlikely) you would still have multiple sets of people coming and going, etc.

Social housing or not, I wouldn't want to live next door to 3 flats.

Purpose built council accomodation would not worry me so much, I live in the middle of a few flats which are hewn from granite with no noise or antisocial issues.

Converted houses tend to be poorly constructed and noisy. Even if the neighbours are great (they probably are) it just takes one wanker to move into the middle flat and it all goes to shit.

Sigh. I agree really, the three flats thing is a big issue in itself. But SO many London streets are like this (and weirdly more likely with bigger houses because there more likely to be converted). So I’m trying to decide whether this is just the compromise that we will have to make for bigger on a road that’s nice…

Can’t extend current house in any meaningful way due to strict conservation area rules sadly.

Has anyone lived in a semi detached Victorian house with flats next door and NOT had noise issues??

I used to live in a flat next to social housing tenant who had a lot of mental health issues and it was a nightmare. So much noise, bad smells and the council were useless and there wasn't any more support they could offer them and no chance of the person moving away. This is probably a particularly niche case though

No I wouldn't want that- social housing or not! Also the fact it looks shabby outside would be a big no as well

I don’t think anyone can judge council houses or estates unless they know the lay of the land there. So some are cesspits, others perfect. I’ve lived in both. No different to any other place. I will say from apartment living youve more turnover (if that’s the word!)so it can be dodgier

Its the 3 flats that might cause problems rather than the social housing aspect. I wouldnt contemplate it myself. I hear constant noise from my quiet neighbours who i know and get along with so im not annoyed by them. I know that if these were faceless noisemakers it would drive me crazy . Times that by 3 and its a potential recipe for disaster.

No, I wouldn't. And you're going to be hard pressed to find a semi-detached Victorian property that doesn't have noise issues. Many were poorly converted in the 80s and the options for sound proofing are limited. I can hear the people above and below just going about their everyday business (at normal volume, not shouting or stomping or anything like that), and I can hear the guy in the other property next door chopping veg for his dinner.