Blunt questions about a house we're thinking of buying

[HomeHelpMeGawd]

So....we've found a nice house that we're thinking of buying in NW London for something quite a long way north of £1.5m. Being done up at the moment, and we've had the party wall info through. From that, we've learned that the next-door-house on one side is owned by the council and let as two flats to council tenants. These are probably secure tenancies.

We don't know whether this affects the asking price for the house, or should in any way affect our decision. As we see it, the main risks / downsides are:

• the house won't get renovated any time soon
• the current tenants seem fine, but when they move, the LA may house a troubled family, and will have no incentive to evict even if they cause us and other neighbours significant grief, because that simply moves the problem on to another location.

Can anyone give an informed perspective on the likelihood and impact of these risks?

Well, my close friend lives in a very well-to-do part of West London and has noisy and inconsiderate neighbours on both sides. One spent over a year 'doing up, knocking through' and god only knows what to her house which, aside from the noise, dust and inconvenience, nearly brought my friend's house down.

I doubt that council tenants would do this, if that's any comfort.

I tend to think that having tenants as neighbours makes it easier to complain about unreasonable noise. I mean, if you complain and your neighbours just carry on then there's nothing else you can do except escalate to the council if they own their house, whereas if they rent you can also complain to the landlord.

We live next door (attached) to council property. No issues at all, lovely neighbours, well maintained.

Friend lives next door to HA property and is having a nightmare although has been able to use courts and HA to get some action taken.

Mixed housing stock is the norm in London. However I think for that money I would want detached, even if it meant a slightly less nice area.

Also, if the tenants are on secure tenancies and have children or other eligible relatives they may have tenancy succession rights. Council tenancies - especially secure ones- are rare as hen's teeth and people tend to hang on to them with every fibre of tgeir being ;) so your fear about new problem tenants may not come to pass for years and years.

Well we live in a mixed block and unfortunately I have to say that we will never ever buy this way again. We have seriously antisocial neighbours (swearing, dogs, drugs, etc). Complaints by other neighbours have not changed their behaviour at all and we can not directly complain ourselves as we do not want it recorded on house records when we sell. We are now looking to move after just 2 years for the sake of our DC. I do not want them growing up being scared or influenced by horrible neighbours.

Our house was the cheapest of that size of house within this area, due to the mixed ownership element.

I would ensure that the price is fair in relation to others without those boundaries.

I would also do a lot of digging around the neighbours, frequent visits and ask the local council for specific information on complaints. If we had done this we would not be forced with the expense if a premature move or putting up with the horrors of next door.

So I would say proceed with caution.

Thanks all. At the moment, we're tending towards pulling out...

It's a funny old world - for £1.5 million where I live (East Midlands) you could buy a nice six bedroom house in the country and be a million miles away from any potentially problematic neighbours. To be blunt, I just don't understand why anybody lives in London.

Neither do I sleepycat. I am in Surrey and the train journey to London is 20 mins direct but you can get a massive house for that money, detached with a huge garden.

I would be a bit worried tbh and if it was me, I probably wouldn't proceed.

Me three Sleepy. Never in a million years do I understand living in a shitty terrace with awful neighbours, shit schools and still paying a million quid for the privelige. ]

You need your bumps felt.

Oi, some of us like London you know! It does have quite a lot going for it. Having said that I live on the very fringes :)

Erm, if you're gonna be rude about the choice to live in London, you might as well be accurate.

The terrace is not shitty, it's fantastic. It's done to an exceptionally high standard (the kind of contemporary finish that is much easier to find in the world's leading city).
It may or may not have awful neighbours.
The kids are going to some of the best schools in the UK.
It's a lot more than a million quid.
They and we get to live in a city with some of the world's best food, theatre, museums, career opportunities etc etc. And they get to grow up without needing to be ferried round constantly in a car, thanks to the UK's best urban transport.

There's plenty of problems with London, but ignoring the upside makes no sense whatsoever.

We've chosen not to go ahead in the end. We're going for a different option instead. Thanks for the advice

Good grief. I can't help thinking those council tenants have had a lucky escape... Who would want to live next door to people who mistrust and despise you without even knowing you?

Projecting much? The OP was worried about future possibility of who could be potentially housed next to you. It's a valid question whether you're spending a 100k or a million.

I think you made the right decision op regardless of the price of the house you have to be totally comfortable with your decision. We bought a lovely mid terrace in Bournville but once in discovered the neighboring property had been carved into bedsits. Music blaring all the time, tv on all night - I hated it there and we moved within the year,

Err, why wold the council tenants be potentially worse than any other tenant or owner occupier?
My neighbours are awful and their children go to private school.

For me I'd rather have a tiny detached than a big terraced or semi. I've had neighbour issues once in the past and I never want to go there again. If I had over £1.5m here I could afford this so wouldn't have to worry
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-38970961.html?premiumA=true
or this
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34384291.html

Sod London!

It's all very well to say sod London, but some of us are tied to the area for our jobs, the same jobs that let us get a mortgage to buy a house. Even if we looked down there for a job, we would earn less and be needing to find 2 new jobs.

Oh, I forgot to say we have a 5 bed detached house set into a park, but the area could be better. It is about half way between my job and DHs.

The OP knew this house was attached to another. That didn't bother her. What bothered her was that it was attached to coucil tenants.
Licky escape for the tenants I think.

Why don't you just have a chat with the tenants next door and make your mind up? Then you can establish type of tenancy etc. Don't be scared of making an approach they will understand why you are asking. If they speak English lol.

Yup, we were less bothered by the house being attached to flats with private tenants than flats with council tenants. That's why I titled the thread "blunt question". Cos we had a shit time with private tenants in our last place, but I was worried we could end up having a disastrously shit time with council tenants. I saw the risks of ending up with problem neighbours being higher, and our ability to do something about it as being lower. If merely thinking that the risks are higher with a council tenant colours me evil or prejudiced in your eyes - well, so be it. It wasn't a chance I wanted to take, in the end.

Elansofar, thanks for the suggestion. The issue was that we were worried about future tenants, not the current tenants, who seem fine. In particular, the risks of large troubled families, when we are after peace and quiet.

I wouldn't have bought the house in your position and would be happier if my neighbours' flats were privately owned.

I'm in London in similar terraced housing and there are certain streets around us which have a higher proportion of council tenants. Those streets do tend to be noisier and the properties slightly more run down. There are a few large families and a number of problematic dogs (pitbulls or similar). It is a generalisation but one based on what I see around me.

It's also a potential issue for selling a property. Our neighbouring house is divided into 4 flats, each in private ownership by professionals. A number of purchasers asked about our neighbours in order to check that there were no council tenants.

What did you decide to go for in the end?

Bid going in tomorrow on a house in Hamostead Garden Suburb. So traded distance for predictability...