Am I mad wanting a move from my 2 bed house to 2 bed flat?

[toja555]

The situation is simple. I bought my 2 up - 2 down Victorian terrace in south London last year and have never really loved it. I guess for any other normal person it would be OK, but I hate climbing up the stairs every time, everything is old and squeaky, the bathroom is damp and leaking, the garden is small, slugs everywhere, conservatory is starting to rot, the neighbours are odd, and unless I find spare 10k-20k, I will never be happy here (not sure though whether I would start loving it even if I had money to invest). Is not as bad as it sounds, but it is just not my place.
I am quite keen on 2 bed garden maisonettes which I see on Rightmove in various locations ? perhaps I could buy one for a similar budget that from my house, in slightly better area and slightly better condition.

Is it a mad thing to do? I mean to sell the house because I don?t love it and buy not a house? I would need something within 200k for me, DH and 2 boys in commutable distance to London (closer Surrey or Kent, preferably).

I sold a 3 storey house for a 2 bed maisonette for the reasons you state I never regretted it

I would hate having an upstairs neighbour again.

I honestly would.

I hate having a downstairs one now.

I think you are insane.

I hate living in a flat.

Expat your neighbours are spectacularly bad though so no one can blame you but hopefully ther op could check that out.We had a lesbian couple below who were great!

i love living in flats and bungalows.

Flats are easier and cheaper to run.
Easier to clean them too - no up and down with a heavy hoover.

Victorian house is probably better as investment. but if is not your style...i see the house -the only or first one- as a personal thing, i have to like it i dont care about value and what other people like (many people disagree with this view including my dh). I do 'value' and 'investment' with 2nd or 3nd home but the main house has to be what makes me happy.

On the negative:
Service charge.... in London they seem to be increadibly high (I pay literally 20 times what a friend of mine pays in another part of the country for a flat half the size).

No option to expand the property of make drastic changes

Neighbours - you can end up with them on ALL sides, and if only one set are noisy...

On the positive:
Someone else cleans the halls and stairs (sometimes even the windows) and does the gardening.

Potentially more secure than a house

Well, if you're in a terraced house now, you're already living cheek by jowl with your neighbours, so not sure it would be that much worse to have upstairs neighbours as well.

I'd live in a 2 bed flat rather than a 2 bed house any day. Far far easier.

Only thing is sharing things like common parts and paying service charges can be a pain.

I lived in flats for years before moving to this detached house.

Hated living in flats, the noise, people running up and down the stairs, smoking in the communal areas and it wafting in our flat, parking traumas (even if you have your own allocated space it will still get parked in), rubbish bin trauma, i.e. others used to dump mattresses etc in rubbish area and not have them collected, lack of private garden, I love letting the DCs out surrounded by 6ft fence and padlocked gate.

Could you definitely not get a modern house within your budget?

Thank you for all replies so far. For someone who appreciates Victorian houses, ours could be a great potential, with possibility to extend and renovate. But it?s just me, not wanting to take this opportunity (not having money for it, anyway).

I probably have to be more accurate by saying ?a flat? ? actually I am only looking into maisonettes with gardens ? in that way I would have a separate entrance, private garden, no communal area, minimum number of neighbours. At the moment I am quite keen on Cheam (near Sutton), prices seem affordable? I just need this pinch myself and start DOING something about it.

Oh, no, noddy, it's anyone now. I've gotten too old and crumudgeonly.

And everything sweetkitty pointed out.

I am dead sick of this.

We are back to the idea of a caravan, tbh.

Or lodge.

Would rather get rid of nearly everything and move across the country again than deal with much more of this.

Last week we stayed in a mate's main door, ground floor flat in Edinburgh.

And whilst it was very nice and spacious, in a terrific area (he is selling it that is why it is empty at present, and it's not cheap) and fairly well soundproofed, the twat upstairs had a housewarming party (even though he is renting) and so we got to hear that.

If I had the kind of money to buy that flat (£180K) I'd move a million miles from nowhere before I lived like that again.

Not for all the shops and cinemas and what all in the world.

Sorry expat you have had so much shit with homes it is is unfair and a decent place to live should be a basic bloody right.My dp has become like you though he is a grumpy old man when it comes to neighbours!

OP, no, you're not mad, and clearly there are flats and flats (unless you're cumudgeonly like Expat )(and sympathies to her, she's put up with a shitload).

I think what you're suggesting makes a lot of sense. If you think you can cope with someone else overhead - they might be nice and quiet, you never know - then a garden maisonette seems a good idea to me.

Hmm. I don't think expat or I can spell curmudgeonly!

Oh, yes, and that flat had £70/month maintenance charges.

On top of council tax.

Well, he wasn't paying but the maintenance because he owns the flat outright and there is no one in it.

But above that main door were two flats that were in a stair.

Yes maintenance charges ours were £110 a month at one point.

I know anywhere you cannot control your neighbours but when we moved in it was mostly owner occupied, young couples like us, but over the years more and more were rented out mostly to erm well let's say non working people who would spend days hanging about outside looking at cars.

We were out in the countryside last week and I kept seeing houses up the sides of hills miles from anyone, that's what I want, antisocial bugger that I am.

It's not the easiest of lives, though, sweet, especially for children.

Really, you've got a pretty ideal set up if you are in a detached near a city, IMO and IME.

These flats were a mix of owner-occupier and rent. As the rent was not cheap, it was all professionals renting or owning with some retirees/older people.

But young professionals with no kids like to party at weekends, too.

Not being able to control neighbours on all four sides is really not a situation I'd want to be in if I were a buyer.

At least, as a renter, it's a matter of saving up a couple of grand and moving on (for us, we stay put due to debts to pay off, then to save for deposit and rent and we're out).

Also, isn't a maisonette flat one with stairs in it?

Ours is a maisonette and there are stairs.

expat - we don't live in that great an area but where we are is nice, quiet little cul de sac, 20 mins from Glasgow, 40 from Edinburgh where DP works.

I would never live in a flat again if I could help it.