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’ve lived in a terraced Victorian townhouse with flats the other side of the wall and not had noise issues: it’ll all depend on the construction. Some are really solid and nothing but direct bashing on the wall gets through.

The best you can do is visit the property at a time more people are likely to be at home - a Saturday morning, for example, since I realise it gets dark too early for you to want to do an evening viewing. And see what the noise is like then.

Now, as a social housing tenant myself, I can say we aren’t all noisy. I can also say that the landlord does have powers to kick us out for reason of antisocial behaviour and I suspect is more likely to do so than an absentee private landlord, based on past experience of crappy neighbours.

So no, it wouldn’t put me off, but I would absolutely be keeping my ears pricked when I visited the property, and would sound the owners out if they were there about the neighbourhood, does it have a WhatsApp group, etc, and see what vibe I got in response.

A Victorian converted semi not a purposeful built flat block I’ll have loads of noise and transfer x3! So no quiet in the bedrooms burn f the day if you’ve got a kitchen in every floor?

I’m a council tenant. My house is clean, well maintained and we are quiet and (imo) great neighbours. I help an elderly neighbour with her shopping and my partner pops in to sort odd jobs. Another neighbour owns their home, they are vile - house is a mess and constantly noise etc. Just because council doesn’t mean we are scum

Mumofteenandtween

I came on to say this.

No way I would consider this TBH. Even in a semi detached area on a private estate there can be noise and disagreements.Detached homes are preferred for a good reason! Most people on council estates are fine .However there is always an element of trouble somehow and 3 flats is being optimistic to stay the least !

I'm not bothered by noisy neighbours, my DH is. I think he would struggle neighbouring with 3 flats as there's likely to be quite a bit of noise so we probably wouldn't move there as a couple. I would be a bit worried about antisocial behaviour unless they are flats for older people. It would come down to affordability and weighing up the benefits. I'd guess finding a property like that one that isn't next to council flats would be a lot more pricey.

I wouldn't move from a detached. Consider an extension, loft conversion, garden room, purging your possessions, whatever it takes to create the space you need! I love my attached neighbours but I could do without listening to their bath running and them clonking about and they're actually very quiet overall. Being detached, you may have forgotten just how much of a pain attached can be???
So you are tripling these potential problems, as PP have said. Flats will be potentially more changes of tenant also perhaps.

Have you investigated creative options for the detached house, like garden rooms or internal reconfiguration or fit out?

I live in a street of mixed housing. They were all council houses, but most are now privately owned. Some by who originally bought their house from the council and others have sold and had multiple new owners. There is honestly no difference really between those of us in private homes vs those still owned by the council, at least in terms of neighborliness. All except one household are unobtrusive, neighbourly and keep the appearance of their property in good condition. You don't really know they are there. The one household who is weird, annoying, behaves in strange ways, has too many people/vehicles coming and going etc etc is privately owned.

I would be reluctant to have a house joined on to three flats regardless of social or private. People in flats tend to come and go (short tenancies) and have less investment in the community, and therefore less likely to treat the area with respect and be neighbourly (a trend, not everyone will be the same). My partner lives in a street with a lot of houses converted to flats/HMOs and it's awful. Litter in the street, smashed glass, inconsiderate behaviour, people standing in the street shouting, criminals running through the garden. It used to be a really nice area, and no social housing at all!

You sound like my neighbours and I, our flats are lovely and the communal areas immaculate. Everyone in my block knows each other and my downstairs neighbours have become close friends. So quiet here, I love it.

Now we have had a lovely lady move in to the next block, who's general demeanour and appearance can best be described as 'crackhead'. Letting their dogs shit in the communal garden and not cleaning it up, screaming and shouting in the street, bothering my elderly neighbours for food and money, hard drug activity, the works. The HA and community cops have done their best and it has improved.

I think a lot of people in social housing can understand the anxiety when someone moves out or dies. Only the most 'complex' tenants have any hope of getting a one-bed SH flat these days.

I’d be reluctant to buy a house attached to three flats, regardless of ownership.

It’s a lot of people, with more noise than being attached to just a house. They’ll have kitchens on every floor, for example.

Nope.

I live in a Victorian semi and it’s a nightmare for noise.

yes, this is my view too.

Putting hard hat on but I've decided to not even go and view my dream house because a SH flat block is right behind and overlooks it.

As @Locutus2000 said, it's not about thinking all SH tenants are "scum" - absolutely not. My worst neighbour was a private renter too. It's because the demand for SH is now so high and therefore the most in need (which often means the most complex needs) are prioritised, rather than the 'decent families/individuals who just can't afford private rents'. If there was a guarantee it would only be the latter I'd love to have them as neighbours, unfortunately it's just too big a risk.

Blimey thats bad! I honestly dont know how you cope.

OP - as others have said it’s the 3 households that would put me off not the fact it’s social housing. Think about it .You could have:
Flat 1 - person who plays music at all hours. Flat 2 no music but young children who make a reasonable amount of noise. Flat 3 couple who argue the time.
You might be able to put up with one of these things but all three would be so difficult.

You might of course hear no noise at all but the issue is you wont know until too late.

I think you'd be mad to move from a detached to be honest. Not worth the risk.

I agree with others who've said it doesn't matter whether they are council or not, it just depends who is in them

We lived in a row of terraces, ours was one house and next door was split into three flats. The guy who lived in his council flat was lovely and quiet, the guy who owned his top floor flat was an absolute dick of colossal proportions and caused us endless issues

No I wouldn’t, but not because they’re social housing but because it’s 3 flats. I don’t mind a semi detached house sharing a wall with one house, but three flats means three chances of noisy neighbors, and accumulated the noise might be more.

I lived in a semi which was joined with a housing association property. For many years no problem, then the tenant died and the new family were a nightmare. After three years we moved away. Another semi in the street also was 50/50 private and housing association again no problem for years then a new tenant moved in even worse than our experience drugs, parties which went on the whole weekend. Down to pure luck if your neighbours are decent people or not. The only positive is that if the problem neighbours are house owners there isnt much you can do, but housing associations/ councils can evict tenants for anti social behaviour. We chose not to make a complaint we would have had to declare it if we tried to sell the house - easier to move in silence

Im a senior manager in social housing and honestly I wouldn't. The issue is that tenants come and go and social housing is in such short supply that it is, a lot of the time, the most vulnerable and/or chaotic individuals that get housed. Social housing has changed beyond all recognition in the last 4/5 years.

I wouldn't really care if it was SH or not. In my area even the estates are 50-50. My street is about 60-40 SH.

The fact it's a block of flats obviously means potentially three times the noise of a house containing say, an elderly couple. But a house could contain a noisy family with six kids?

They could all be perfectly reasonable neighbours.

It's not like it's 300 flats, a hostel full of substance addicts or an HMO with 18 'dwellings' that used to be a two bed house.

I think the fact that there is potentially 3 nightmare neighbours is the biggest issue, not whether it’s social housing, you could be lucky and have great people but this is the case wherever you live really regardless of whether it’s owners or tenants.

I personally wouldn’t do this myself it could be a huge issue.

I live in a terraced row, not flats but still being joined on to people can be noisy if there are neighbours with little consideration.
Thank god my old neighbours moved, 3 kids running up and down the stairs against the joint wall was hell. I wouldn’t move next to flats.
It’s perfectly possible to have consideration for neighbours and keep noise to a reasonable level. With 3 adjoining flats, that might mean one of those neighbours could have a real impact.

Nope. I've lived next to two social houses in my life (one has three flats, the other a house) and they were both a complete nightmare at one point or another.

The landlord of the house stopped renting via the local HA because the tenants completely wrecked the place. Don't get me wrong, we've had lovely tenants in the flats (two spring to mind) but we've also had domestic abusers, and one tenant was so bad she was taken to court - twice.

I live in a London Victorian terrace and next door has been converted into 2 privately owned flats. Never had any noise issues but there is only 1 person living in each flat.

I wouldn’t buy a house attached to a council owned property as I wouldn’t want to have to deal with the council for any issues. E.g. we needed work down to our roof and chimney. The issue impacted us and our neighbours but we sorted it between ourselves, got quotes and split the cost. Or when we were doing an extension we needed a party wall agreement. I dread to think how long those things would have taken if I was dealing with the council as opposed to directly with my neighbour.

Having grown up on a council estate, I'd say it depends on that particular street. I remember some being horrendous with anti social behaviour, but our street (we lived an ex council house) was absolutely fine and never any issues from either council tennant neighbours or those that also owned their houses.