To buy my first house two minutes down the street from traveller housing initiative?

[MelMar1]

Please give me advice.
I’m sale agreed on a new build house in Dublin . I found out that there is a new traveller housing initiative going in right across the road from me. Please don’t say I’m being snobby I’m really not. I’ve just heard stories of anti social behaviour etc. I know there’s always some lovely people but I’m nervous.

Do I give the house up because of this? It’s a substantial amount of houses for the traveller scheme all together - six very large detached four bedroom homes. It is two minutes walk from me. I drove up to the development to see and the traveller housing initiative is not in front of me directly as I thought. It is not in front of or behind me but about 2 minutes walk down the road. I can only see gable end of one of the houses from mine. Not directly facing.
I need to sign contacts in 2 days and I am so torn.
Otherwise it’s perfect house for me. With this information are you saying yes or no?

Have you never considered taking the higher moral ground? If bigoted people are truly showing prejudice against you for absurd supposed behaviours that you would never actually dream of doing, the best way to shame them and show them up for their small-minded stupidity is to go high when they go low and to demonstrate that you are much better people than they are.

Can't you see that, if you seek to punish them for telling nasty lies about you by doing exactly what they're saying about you, their 'lies' become the truth and you only go on to prove to them that they must have been right all along?

I live near a small traveller settlement (caravans/mobile homes) and I’d lived in my house a few years before I found out it was there! Never had any problems with anyone there and their children have gone through the nursery I work at some got to know them through that and they were all nice, down to earth people. It wouldn’t necessarily put me off.

No way if they are anything like the traveller communities in England.
Absolutely no way.

Unfortunately we had travellers come local to my old house - we were warned to take everything in that wasn’t bolted down. They parked on a local green area and destroyed it. The kids I wanted to give them a chance and the adults and not try to be biased but the local Tesco was ransacked and they just walked in and took what they wanted no attempt to pay. They were violent and attacked some of the local kids and one woman walking her dog was attacked by the travellers in the park. It took weeks to clean it up when they left and it was vile.

In this case you need to think about resale - would someone else be put off and you can see from the answers here that the answer is yes.

Well I wouldn't risk it personally. It may be absolutely fine, but it also might turn out to be a nightmare and once word gets around that there are 'issues' there, you'll not be able to sell your house. I'd just not be prepared to take that chance if I didn't have to.

But what I don't understand is, what sort of 'Traveller initiative' has large four bedroom detached properties on it? Are they fixed, brick built houses then? Not a plot assigned for static 'mobile' homes?

If they are regular construction houses then I'm struggling to understand why they've been earmarked just for Travellers.

Nearly every post is setting out their lived experience.

This is mine ....

I am retired now but one of the jobs I held for 10 years involved me working very closely (and exclusively) with and alongside traveller communities of all kinds in England.

What I found is that travellers are much like you and I - some good, some exceptionally good, some bad, some exceptionally bad. Because their community is often more visible, the bad bits are more obvious and therefore bring down hatred on all travellers.

I deeply admired their family loyalty and respect for their history and traditions. I liked less their attitude to women's roles (though this is changing a great deal now and there are many well-educated travellers, both men and women), the times when they settle arguments with fists rather than negotiation, their unwillingness to integrate with the settled community, and the disrespect from SOME traveller groups for decent societal norms - like not leaving a mess for others to clear up..

Some of this is however understandable, given that in the recent past they have found themselves a beleaguered group since their previous traditional roles have been wiped off the map - e.g. seasonal agricultural work. And their former totally nomadic lifestyle can no longer prevail as there are few stopping places.

In the main travellers are the cleanest and tidiest of people - I have been welcomed into many trailers and they are spotless - you could eat off the floor - and they leave the plastic covers on the seats to keep them clean. These travellers are as appalled as you or I by the bad behaviour of a minority.

I have been to traveller fairs to interview people and take photos and they joined in with humour and good will.

Some whom I met I counted as friends; some I would be very happy not to meet again. But that goes for other human beings too.

I do not know what the answer is, but I also feel for the local authorities who have a legal duty to make provision for travellers in their area but get slagged off good and proper when they propose a site. Rock and a hard place for them.

On the topic of the OP's proposed house ..... in spite of my awareness of decent traveller communities and my inclination to stand up for them, this is such a huge purchase for her - a massive financial and life commitment - and if there is any chance that resale might be a problem then I think she has no choice but to withdraw from the purchase.

Nope - you'll never resell it. Unless its hugely discounted.

If they are regular construction houses then I'm struggling to understand why they've been earmarked just for Travellers. - local authorities have a legal obligation to provide accommodation for travellers, on sites or in social housing.

You can’t change people’s minds about you especially if you are a gypsy/traveller. If people are prejudice they will always be prejudice they are brought up like it. Nothing I can say on here is going to change peoples opinions of me so I just wind them up. I’ve lived in a house for 20 years, married to a non gypsy, have worked for27 years on and off and volunteered in schools and youth clubs. I don’t traveller about and haven’t done since I was a little girl, never been in trouble with the law and pay my taxes. Do you honestly think anyone here gives a shit or believes me on anonymous forum? No we are all lumped together, blamed for what others do.

We used to live close to a gipsy camp (settled), no bother from them, gipsies would call on the door with lucky Heather. Near where I used to work there’s gipsy camps, settlements, houses have been built for them. Don’t often see them to be honest and not really seen signs which are bad. It is in a bit of an out of the way part though near retail park.

I’d probably say no myself to buying there.

Yes same here. Dogs all over the road, teenage lads riding tiny ponies, quad bikes churning up land, thefts and anti-social behaviour. Police and RSPCA won't get involved.

But so many people have had so many negative experiences with travellers that can you blame them for having a negative view of them? Nobody is saying that every single traveller is bad, what people are saying is that too many experiences with travellers have been bad and it's tarnished their opinions. Instead of fighting to get people to see travellers as mainly good eggs with only 1 in 100 a bad egg, why not work with the travelling community to change their behaviour so that they can show that they're not like their stereotype?

Travellers have some of the worst health outcomes in the country, highest rates of suicide, highest rates of illiteracy, criminality and highest poverty rates of any other group. One of the fundamental action points is suitable, permanent housing to tackle the above. They are Travellers by ethnicity, not because they live in caravans and travel around. Some choose to live in touring caravans, others have no choice.

Op whatever your personal perceptions are of travellers and whether the travellers in this particular development will cause problems or not is largely irrelevant here. The fact of the matter is that there are plenty of people out there who have a negative perception of travellers and that will 100 % affect the value of your property and make it harder to sell in the future. So it’s a definite no in my opinion.

Ah-ha! Im sure I’d be considered one myself! Woolies unite!
And be completely useless united 😂😂

What the decent taxpaying public want - is for travellers who wish to live in a settled place - that they purchase land at current market rates, while ensuring there is permission for what they wish to do. Just as the rest of us have to do. Also it should preferably be far away from those taxpaying people's properties, and should be no burden upon the taxpayer.

Absolutely not. The thing is even if you aren't too bothered by it, when you come to sell you will have issues and end up selling for below market value. I just wouldn't want to take a gamble.

We have travellers take over land near to us annually on their way to Appleby (money has been spent trying to stop them gaining access), given the issues they cause locally (theft, extorting money out of elderly people for jobs they didn't ask or want doing and the awful mess they leave behind) I wouldn't want to risk buying a house near people who have a reputation for behaving like this.

I'd pull out, it's a no brainer.

It is social housing assigned to travellers. The majority of travellers in Ireland live in houses now.

Shall we put them in a hole and be done with it? Would that make you happy?

One of the fundamental action points is suitable, permanent housing to tackle the above.

And as I said earlier, the travellers in my family will not settle because they don't want to pay rent, gas, electricity, water rates, council tax etc.

And come to think of it the last I heard of two of my cousins they had warrants out for their arrest, so they definitely won't be settling anywhere any time soon.

Not all travellers want permanent housing for many reasons and if they do, they can go through the normal channels like everyone else.

The estate agent told you "the loan fell through" for the previous buyers.

Hmmm.

Call me cynical, but I think the EA really meant to say "the previous buyers realised where they would be living next door to a THI, saw sense, pulled out of the sale and ran for the hills"

No, I would not buy this house either.

I notice a distinct ignorance attitude between Ireland and the UK.

Ireland is far more progressive regarding the Travelling Community. You must employ them and allow them into schools over there. Because of that, they are productive members of society and judgement is far less over there. The vast majority of Irish people would never dream of using disgusting terms as a descriptor towards them as the TC are robustly protected under the Equality Act.

Lets skip across to the UK shall we?...the Travelling Community are renouned for causing trouble. Why? Because they are persecuted for who they are. There is a distinct prejudice against them. Terms such as "Pikeys" are a common term, even amongst 'educated' British people.

Typical of Britain and just only serves to highlight that Ireland is a far more progressive country, and not just in that respect, but multiple respects.

I hate to say it but I would walk away.

There may be no issues with the residents at all but it will be difficult to sell it on, as you can see on this post.

Completely agree with this. If you were asking 'should I rent as a tenant?' then most of us would say 'Go ahead and give it a chance, see how it works out. If it's no problem that's great. If it's terrible you can always move.'

But this is a massive investment of your own money we are talking about. And if it turns out to be a mistake then you are well and truly trapped unless you can afford to walk away at a massive financial loss.

Whether the traveller families actually cause issues or not, responses on this thread show that you could have real problems with resale. I wouldn't be comfortable with that risk, so wouldn't do it. I can't help wondering if "loan falling through" is the real reason the last buyers pulled out - could be a convenient excuse for "ran a mile".