Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Original poster

to be a bit concerned as next door neighbour is lettting his house out?

130 replies

fifitot · 04/09/2009 19:26

I live in a fairly good area and have nice neighbours on the whole. The guy next door is moving out and is letting his house. I mean we could get really nice people in but of course we might not. My parents had this happen to them and are now living with the neighbours from hell so I suppose I am sensitive to this.

There is no reason for tenants to be any worse than owner occupiers as DH points out and if he sells it you would have the same concerns. It's just that I think renters just don't have the same 'investment' iykwim. I worry if we get young people sharing who might be noisy etc....Or some serial benefit wastrels.

Maybe I am just being a snob or paranoid or both!

OP posts:

MrsJohnDeere · 04/09/2009 19:33

It is the kind of thing I worry about too. The house next to us is up for rent at the moment. The 2 previous tenants have been single people, aged 50+, very quiet. I'm worried that we'll get a noisy couple next time.

LilianGish · 04/09/2009 19:38

Fred West was an owner occupier - sorry I think you are being a snob!

RealityIsNOTDetoxing · 04/09/2009 19:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

wilkos · 04/09/2009 19:39

well we rent and we are bloody good tenants!

you are being a snob, sorry

meemarsgotabrandnewbump · 04/09/2009 19:41

you are being paranoid, a snob and unreasonable.

In fact I'm almost not believing that this can be real!

LIZS · 04/09/2009 19:42

yabu. A family area normally attracts similar people. The lease will have a clause about not disturbing the neighbours and he may well choose not to accept those on benefit. If you do have issues during the tenancy at least you know him to contact. Not something you can do if someone buys or it is an anonymously owned buy to let.

meemarsgotabrandnewbump · 04/09/2009 19:42

noisy couples can buy houses too

RoryGilmore · 04/09/2009 19:42

snob. mortgage or rent, it doesn't matter.
grr.

CybilLiberty · 04/09/2009 19:43

At least noisy renters might not stay for years. Noisy buyers will.

BigMomma3 · 04/09/2009 19:43

Yes very much a nasty snob!

We rent and probably pay a lot more than our neighbours pay for their mortgages for the priviledge! No matter that we have no investment in the house, it is better kept than most because it is still our home but we also have the insecurity of being kicked out whenever it takes the landlords fancy.

A lot of our neighbours don't bother with us because they are like you and think they are above us .

MrsJohnDeere · 04/09/2009 19:44

In my case, I don't think it is being a snob, more fear or the unknown/love of the status quo. We moved from out last house because our lives were made a misery by neighbours from hell (who bought rather than rented).

RoryGilmore · 04/09/2009 19:46

wow, just read

'serial benefit wastrels'

You judgemental cow.

spicemonster · 04/09/2009 19:47

CybilLiberty is right - at least you know you're not stuck forever with renters. I live next door to a house owned by a Housing Association and my neighbours are all, without exception, lovely.

The woman next door but one however - [mad]

And she owns her flat.

Linnet · 04/09/2009 19:47

If he was to sell the house instead of renting it out you could still end up with noisy neighbours from hell. I think you are being a bit unreasonable.

bamboobutton · 04/09/2009 19:48

i don't blame you for being worried.

after several horrible experiences with noisy, inconsiderate, selfish neighbours we are always worried when lovely, quite neighbours move on.

we have new neighbours moving in next door right now and we are praying they are not party people.

luckily we rent so if they are horrible neighbours we can move quite easily.

AvengingGerbil · 04/09/2009 19:50

It's not snobbish. My lovely neighbour died last year and his house was sold and converted into a HMO for students. Instead of one 85 yr old gent, I now have up to ten 20 year olds in and out next door at all hours. (It has five letting rooms; they all appear to have partners.)

And the 'family areas attract similar people' argument in nonsense. This street was a family area until last year. Family areas attract property developers.

It's not that all student renters are inconsiderate/noisy/whatever, either; but annually you have the anxiety of what the new lot are going to be like. And with the best will in the world, they run on different schedules to people who have kids/have to get up for work every morning.

TeamCullenAllTheWay · 04/09/2009 19:51

We are in the middle of a terrace of 3 houses and both houses either side of us are rented. One side are lovely - have been there 3 years.

The other side though have had some horrors in. Not that it should make a difference but the landlord used to rent to council tenents.
We had lots of very young mums who just fitted every negative stereotype of people on benefits. It culminated in one poor girl being thrown down the stairs by her boyfriend and we had to call the police because we thought he was going to kill her.

The landlord came and had a chat with us and said he was going back to private rent as he was fed up with having to re-decorate and re-carpet his house everytinme a tenant left.
We have a lovely family in there now who are lovely.

I don't know why the fact it is rented makes us more nervous about what kind of neighbours we will get, but it does....

theyoungvisiter · 04/09/2009 19:51

"serial benefit wastrels"!!!

Nice. Very nice. I hope you never lose your house and have to claim housing benefit because you will know exactly what the judgy, smug, middleclass couple living next door to you will be thinking.

I've got news for you - bad tenants can be evicted. Bad owners can't. And no, having a deposit to put down on a house doesn't automatically make you a better person.

(I am an owner and live next door to renters and they are LOVELY and shag much more quietly than the previous owner occupiers who lived there before )

PrincessToadstool · 04/09/2009 19:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

lucky1979 · 04/09/2009 19:59

Our neighbours have just sold their house, and we're waiting for the new people to move in. I'm kind of nervous (I'm a bit neurotic TBH) that they might be awful, but we rent, so I could just move out if they are.

YABU to be more concerned because they rent, but YANBU to be a bit concerned in general for no reason, fear of the unknown and all that

scottishmummy · 04/09/2009 20:02

fifitot,you have a whole heap of prejudices without even meeting the new tenants.heavens above you need to give them a chance and not overdose on what if's

ElieRM · 04/09/2009 20:04

YANBU- I cannot think of anything WORSE than having to live next door to some awful benefit scum, or even those too poor to buy their own house. Urg. Move yourself. Into a middle-class compound where the houses are made from back issue of the Guardian and organic banana skins.

GoldenSnitch · 04/09/2009 20:05

Our house is a semi and the neighbouring house is rented.

We've had loads of neighbours of varying degrees of annoyance. The worst by far was a 'respctable' middle aged man and his Thai wife who would play music loudly all through the afternoon waking up my newborn DS. They took very little care of the gardens and often had a housefull for a noisy party.

Now, we have a single Mum with 2 kids who I would guess can only afford a house like that on benefits (although I do not know this for sure) She is lovely. The house is almost immaculate now - make me feel a bit ashamed of mine in fact! and because she has two young children younger than my now 2 year old DS, the house is quiet in the evenings when the children are in bed. No more parties, no more loud music - it's great.

You may find renters will be just as nice as owners.

cornflowers · 04/09/2009 20:07

Well, from my own experience, I think the ops concerns are justified. Our next door neighbour has rented out their house for the past 3 years and the current tenants are pretty awful. There are a lot of rental properties available at the moment, so finding tenants has become increasingly difficult. In the case of our neighbour,he had to reduce his monthly rental by over 150 pounds a month just to secure a tenant. I get the impression he must have been pretty desperate, because the tenants he has taken on are not people I'd want living in my investment property. They are a couple in their mid 20's with 2 small children (neither related to the mothers partner).These people are constantly shouting and swearing, playing r and b music at full volume out in the garden every afternoon, slapping and screaming at the children in the garden, out in the street and upstairs through the evening, having loud drunken parties on weekends (complete with fights), nightly screaming rows, not to mention their vicious barking dog, which headbutts our garden fence whenever we venture outside.
I know it sounds snobby, but we live in a very nice area, and these just aren't the sort of people that would normally be able to afford to buy a house in our street. They can however afford to rent.

scottishmummy · 04/09/2009 20:13

i didn't think anyone actually said "sort of people". i suggest you harrumph loudly about the decline of the area in the garden,maybe get some glistening torches hold dem high and round their place

make em feel folks are really neighbourly

what a lot of speculative huff and puff.they might be lovely

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6