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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be furious at Barratts Homes.. we thought we had bought our dream home

220 replies

ButtonMeUp · 19/09/2008 22:57

in a quiet location with working families and young kids. Is lovely, mid terrace, overlooking woodland, nice neighbours.. well in the houses sold that is.

Have now found out that the remaining properties including the 2 next to us (we are mid terrace) are sold to Housing Association as Barratts have been unable to sell them at the ridiculous prices they were asking.

THis means that the back garden is directly overlooked by housing association, with waist high fences. We already have so social housing here and have had some issues in terms out of control dogs, very loud parties, shouting and fighting etc. TO have that right next door as a possibilty is a real worry.

We paid a lot of money for our home and regardless of economic condition the value of the property will be affected by the fact that we are mid terrace with social housing.

I know i am likely to be flamed by some for not being politically correct but the fact is with socail housing there are often social issues and i didnt want to live next door to that. We saved for a long time to afford our home and now we are dreading the tenants moving in.

I have also been told that one of the women who will be going for one of the house is a well known drug user and that dealers will visit her...

and Barratts have really put us in the poo.

OP posts:
KatieDD · 20/09/2008 08:36

The stamp duty treshold kicks in at £175k, then rises to £250k and then again at £500k so paying just £10k over the treshold would cost you another £5k in this case.
However it turns out the OP wasn't a twat because she got Barrats to pay it.
Hope that clears it up for up.

macaco · 20/09/2008 09:06

You can always get horrible neighbours, no matter where you are. I own my own house in a nice area and my next door neighbours are noisy wankers.

undercovercat · 20/09/2008 09:17

You know I always wondered why people brought on those Barratt estate type places. I didnt realise they didnt let you know that half of them would be H.A.
I live in the only H.A house in my road, the rest are owned. Next door paid £250,000 for their house the year before last.

IllegallyBrunette · 20/09/2008 09:24

You know what pisses me off on these new estates, is that they always make the HA houses look different, so that it is obvious that they belong to HA.

We have 2 estates near here where you have a row of lovely lovely houses, and then a row of 4 or 5 houses which are HA, which have diffeent windows, doors, shape of roof etc, so they stand out a mile.

I live on an estate which is all HA housing and I get no more trouble than anywhere else that I have lived, and I have privatly rented and owned a house.

SparklyGothKat · 20/09/2008 09:35

I live on an estate with a mixute of HA and private. My direct neighbours (HA) I hear nothing from, the lady opposite is private and gobbing, shouts, screams etcetc. I am HA and am not ashamed. We have loads of students living around us and IMO they are far worse that anyone in the street that live in the HA houses, parties all night, drug dealing, shouting etc

DrHorrible · 20/09/2008 09:40

Many people who can buy their own homes can also afford to buy drugs

conniedescending · 20/09/2008 09:41

many houses valued between the 250 and 300k mark are difficult to sell because of the stamp duty increase so I do see where Katiedd was coming from....

SparklyGothKat · 20/09/2008 09:43

AND you should see the woman who lives around the corner!!!!! she owns her little 3 bed house, her husband is one of the biggest drug dealers in the area, and the mouth on her is shocking!!! She screams at the teenagers and children calling them 'little c*nts' Stood in front of DH's car and screamed abuse at him (god knows what for ) she is very odd lol

wb · 20/09/2008 09:46

Good apology OP.

I'm amazed that so many people on here equate housing association with poverty. Where I used to live in London quite a lot of nurses, teachers, council employees etc on average (national average) salaries lived in HA properties - they just couldn't afford a mortgage.

bloomingfedup · 20/09/2008 10:01

YANBU. I'd be really pissed off as well.

hatrick · 20/09/2008 10:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

pgwithnumber3 · 20/09/2008 10:29

Even so KatieDD to make that comment in the first place made you look the twat...

unaccomplishedfattylegalmummy · 20/09/2008 10:37

WELL! I have recently moved into a mid terrace brand new house with waist high fences and you know what I am HA I mean how dare I be given a nice house for me and my DH and our kids we should have been left in our old house which is being demolished and then just slung out on the streets obviously.

The lady who lives next to has 2 grown up children and is HA also you know what she is lovely always says hello and stops for a chat. Next door on the other side a re 3 girls (I think they're teachers) who have bought they're house, they are the snobbiest, most unpleasant people you could meet, refuse to say hello to us at all because we're HA.

So honestly I feel sorry for your new HA neighbours having to put up with your horrible snobby elitest attitude.

Our estate is a mixture of privately owned and HA houses. The majority of the HA residents are the nice ones who will say hello, the privately owned residents refuse to speak to us and look at us lie were something they stepped in.

What a horrible snobby cow you are.

fedupandisolated · 20/09/2008 10:40

Am a HV (a nurse) on a nurse's salary.
I can't afford a mortgage
I can't afford to privately rent either.
Am awaiting a HA property.
I work almost full time
DS goes to school
I don't own any big dogs
I am known to have a glass of wine or two
I don't strip naked and run round the garden after though.
Nor do I fight with my neighbours.

And ..... I can understand why the OP is pissed off (and have seen her very gracious apology).

There are some truly dreadful neighbours out there. Sadly not all HA either.

Bettyboobird · 20/09/2008 10:49

I am a graduate, training to be a teacher, my husband works in the motorsport industry- we are both very presentable, intelligent people. Our 2 dds are a delight and people always compliment us on their beautiful manners. We are quiet, and the front of our house looks like a show home. Our back garden is always mowed, and we have spent a lot of time on it. Our neighbours often pop round to say hello and walk our (little) dog.

We live in a HA house.

I would hate, on the other hand, to live next to a snob like the OP. Talk about delusions of granduer. Barratt Homes...

shakes head and walks away from this thread

Peachy · 20/09/2008 10:53

HA- widowed parent? disabled people? normal people down on their luck

shoot the lot of em

you now this post is stupid, you don ned us to tell you that youre a bigoted prick or a troll (if trolling avoid company names btw- dodgy)

littlelapin · 20/09/2008 10:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Flossish · 20/09/2008 10:58

In your lovely house where there are no 'social' housing what sort of neighbours were you hoping for? what if the people who brought the houses rented them out to undesirables?

On my street there is a section of social housing. About 6 houses and 6 flats. we have had occaisional noise problems from two of them and one slightly more serious incident. When we moved in both our neighbours were home owners then one sold up and the house was up for let. Did I worry about who might move in? No i waited to see and kept an open mind and we have some new pleasant neighbours.

fedupandisolated · 20/09/2008 11:03

Yes - realise she apologised ll - did acknowledge that in my post.

Sadly though there are many people out there who think this way and wouldn't apologise for it.

littlelapin · 20/09/2008 12:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
ButtonMeUp · 20/09/2008 21:24

See i have been flamed as i well deserved. I am sorry again for offence i caused. Your all absolutely right and just because a person doesnt own their own home doesnt make them less nice or more nice.

Actually get on very well with people here regardless of ownership. I think i was stupid as a private person could have bought and be a complete arse.. (then i guess we would be well suited some might say).

I cant convey how i regret how i came across and actually very embarrassed as I would have reacted very much like many of you have. We are lucky to be able to afford our own home (but given the current financial crisis who knows how long that could last!).

I think I really truely messed up and am happy to walk away.

OP posts:
BoysAreLikeDogs · 20/09/2008 21:26

Good to see you, BMU

2shoes · 20/09/2008 21:27

don't walk away we all mess up at some time.
I live in a HA house(have to for the disabled access) and most of the people round here are nice, we are lucky as our near neighbours are part buy. but there are some bad people arround, but that happens anywhere(one lot rent a private house)
But Barratt homes are still crap(dh has worked for them)

Twelvelegs · 20/09/2008 21:38

Oh dear, TBH you are more at risk from horrd neighbours if you live ina HA estate. Surely noone can deny that? Crime rate is higher and so it follows that people in the socio economic group that end up in HA are more likely to be anti social. Why is that such a dreadful thing to say? Obviously they're not the only people that are crime committing, noisey drug takers... or even worse have 'the biggest house in the village' syndrome like my parents next door neighbours.. where the 'lady' of the house snips at my Mothers flowers and looks down upon everyone.
But come on people if you had just struggles to buy your dream home and then found out that a drug dealer was given the same HA housing as you had, wouldn't you be pissed off?
May not be PC but she's (the OP) only human.

Twelvelegs · 20/09/2008 21:41

And then you still couldn't type .