Anyone used a detective to check out an area before moving house?

[wilbur]

I saw in a paper recently an article about private detectives who do reports on an area, find out about late night noise, scary neighbours etc to reassure housebuyers that a road/house is not going to be a disaster after they move in. Has anyone done this, or does anyone know where I might find someone who would? I've done an online search but it's hard to find anything. SW London, ideally.

which area are you thinking of?

look on up my street I think a detective is a bit excessive unless it is an extremely rough area.Up my street has a conversations section where you can leave questions relating to the area.I used this when we were looking at areas we weren't sure of and I got several useful replies

couldn't you do it yourself?
visit the area at different times of the day, knock on doors of neighbours and ask them politely what the area is like (I wouln't mind if someone did this), and use sometihng like Up My Street like noddy5 suggests.

Why spend your money on a detective when you can do it yourself...go to the area you are thinking of, several times, different times of day and night, talk to the neighbours, check out local services speak to shop keepers... only you can make your mind up if an area is suitable for you or not...save your money and buy an A-Z...

I used Up my street web site but I found the info for small cities is not very accurate, and it would not tell you if the neighbour next door is selling drugs.

We only realised about that when we moved in and saw all those fancy cars arriving at midnight and leaving early in the morning (Initially I thought she was running a prostibule). After some time we decided to move, we just realised things were not going to change and we couldn't live stressed out by our neighbours (the one to the other side used the back garden as a toilet). From the exterior the area was LOVELY, the houses as well and the area is tbh on the expensive side. I don't think that people of the area will say anything about bad neighbours (they may be the the bad neighbours themselves, be friends of them or just want to help the sellers to move on) so check the reaction of the seller when you ask about the neighbours and trust your intuition.

If your intuition tells you no-no but you still think the house is the most beautiful place on earth and the only house you could call a home, then I would go for the detective option. But my intuition would need to be crying murder for me to do that

It is not always good to judge people you don't know.The house next to us is a tip with people coming and going all the time and loads of kids.The parents also looked a bit rough but we have been here 2 years and they are a lovely family whose kids all live at home and they have their friends around all the time.From the outside it looks so dodgy but they are in fact all lovely people who are more interestd in enjoying family life than doing diy

Yep that's true, we only knew that she was on parole and the other neighbour was a lost case when DH befriended somebody who had attended school with both.

I realised the family next door was using the garden as a toilet when tampons came into our garden if there had been heavy rain. They may have not been bad persons but their habits really anoyed us. Oh and when it came to sell the house the person who came to valuate it mentioned a possible price, when he walked out he heard the neighbour swearing and spend a good time looking at our neighbours' garden, when he send the valuation he had deducted £7000 from the figure he gave me.

I know the area in general already, but the street itself is quite busy (it's a cut through that is part of a one way system, even though it is not one way itself). I've looked on upmystreet, but they're not very specific at all, and I have also been round, sat in my car at rush hour and so on, but haven't approached the neighbours. There are two things that I am concerned about, which is why I am considering a professional: One is that the street is close to an area with quite a few bars and I want to make sure it's not running with vomit by 11.15pm each Fri and Sat, or that people being chucked out at 2am make a huge amount of noise. The other thing is that the adjoining house (it's a semi) according to the council website was converted 10 years ago to be a basement flat and then a house above that was to be rented to "8 single people". I just want someone to check out how many people are living there - we are going to be sharing a wall with them and I am concerned about noise. The next door garden looks well kept and I don't think there are any serious issues, but I would like to be sure. This is supposed to be THE HOUSE, the one that we can stay in forever if we wish.

Wilbur, 8 single people can only mean students, and it is unlikely they don't organise parties or come back to their home late at night. BEsides, this is not the best time to have "their activities" checked as many will be in holidays or heavily studying for the final projects...