just found out the neighbours have a turning circle on front lawn

[user1467297746]

finally found a dream home! detached- check! large garden check! overlooking fields check!

offer accepted check!

we must have been in a daze becos we didnt realise that the tarmac in front of the front door connects to the neighbours drive.. well on the day I thought odd- but nobody said anything.

anyways- turns out they sold the turning circle to the neighbours!

Its right outside the front door! How odd is that! I guess we might see a the odd car or van reversing in there!

They're not supposed to park there.

wwyd? The house needs some work - the price sort of reflects that- but but I'm sort of speechless! walk out of your front door into neighbours reversing?! literally 5 feet from front door! :(

[wowfudge]

The garden is long and it will get sun further away from the house. The EA is the vendor's agent so why 'shame on the EA'?

[phoenix1973]

If the front of the house is south, then the rear would be north. That's grim. Not much light and lots of moss. It's ok if you have shade loving plants.
However, the main issue is the neighbour and their numerous vehicles outside your prospective property. You know it's gonna happen!
You will be stuck with it and be unable to do anything about it.
Grim. Walk away. Don't worry, you'll find a nicer one.
Also shame on the EA.

[ChopsticksandChilliCrab]

Selling it is going to be a nightmare OP. I would walk away.

[Palomb]

Op you can put your address in here and it will show you when your garden will have sun :)

[Maverick66]

Definetely would not buy this house.
As others have said what happens when you have visitors?
What happens when neighbours have visitors?
I would remind you of the old adage
The day you buy, is the day you sell.
You might live with this and have no trouble but when you come to sell the house will someone else want to buy it?

[Westfacing]

It's a standard-design detached house; why would you even consider buying a property with an obvious problem that will no doubt cause you all manner of issues in the future.

It's likely to have been a let for a long time because it's so hard to sell.

Unless it's ridiculously cheap for the area, and it's all you can afford, I'd drop out.

[Mol1628]

I would walk away. If this is worrying you now then it's not worth it. Plus should you want to sell in the future it will be an obstacle to potential buyers then too.

[wowfudge]

It's a lot to think about OP and depends how long you plan on being there if you do buy, etc. Effectively you've got a house which doesn't have a full front garden. If you decide to go ahead, have a look at what similar houses with less space between them and the road go for and adjust your offer accordingly. Did the EA deal with the lettings? Might you be able to have a chat with the last tenants and see whether there were ever any issues? If the EA wants to get a sale, they may be happy to try and facilitate this for you.

[user1467297746]

wow wowfudge! thats good detective work! the front of the house faces south/south west i think. with the neighbour on the south east.

the back of the house next door is quite long- and you can see from the satellite that the house is casting a shadow over the garden.

I think most of the light would come from that direction?

EA wasnt able to answer when the rear of the house would have sun - I am sure some of the garden would have sun with it being so big!

[wowfudge]

What direction does the house face? I've found the house on Rightmove (I'm nosey) and on street view the next door house does not look so imposing. You can see it's a busy road which would make reversing in difficult.

[user1467297746]

hi wowfudge - we totally assumed the turning circle was part of the property.

I think for us to be happy we would want a better price, since I think we would have to rework the house quite a lot inside to remove focus from that bay window. perhaps windows on the side away from them, altho that might cause privacy issues with the neighbours on the other side

Another issue now we are really analysing it - is that the house next doos is so close and will cast a shadow over the garden and rear of the house for most of the day.

Fair point about the next door occupants not wanting to antagonise, but I think the number of negative responses here and the EA I spoke to today does suggest its an issue. if it was a semi it would be a more common arrangement, but as a a detached in such an area, it really does raise eyebrows..

[PausingFlatly]

She wasn't sure but thought it was the previous owner who had built the house next door. And the land belongs to the house next door,

was a rental until last week

This all fits together.

Owner of first house builds new house next door.
Gives new house chunk of garden of first house as parking + turning, to make new house better.
Doesn't care about impact on first house, as rents it out and who cares about tenants?

All very convenient for owners right up to moment they try to convince subsequent potential owners of first house.

[wowfudge]

You're not the lone voice club - we cross-posted. I live where we have a shared drive which we own, as I posted upthread. That house and its huge garden the OP has seen have a lot of potential.

Some of the responses on this thread are verging on the hysterical (I don't mean funny). If it's a serious contender I'd look at landscaping the part of the front garden retained by the original house to improve its kerb appeal.

I am questioning why so many posters think the occupants of the new house next door would deliberately set out to antagonise their next door neighbours. The vast majority of people seek to maintain cordial relations with their neighbours. It's what you do for a quiet life.

[confuugled1]

I wonder if discovering about the turning circle is what put off the previous people that put in an offer then dropped out...

[StepAwayFromTheThesaurus]

I don't understand why the fools who built the new house (and 'turning circle') didn't just knock down both houses and build two new houses with ample space around them and not encroaching on the garden of the house next door. Or at least build the new house further back in the plot to create more space at the front. Looking at the google maps picture, the new house looks totally squeezed in and really crowds the original house.

There's no way I'd buy this house. Yes lots of houses have roads very close to their front door, but they don't tend to be detached houses on big plots. What people are happy to accept in a Victorian terrace is very different to what you'll put up with if you're buying a detached house.

There are other houses, OP. One's where the space pursue your front door and bay window actually belong to you.

[SoupDragon]

Assuming you love the house, with the land on the other side, I actually think it is livable with. Reconfigure the front garden so that it obviously enters from the left and put a low/car height fence or hedge along the curved part of the turning place plus down to the road.

It is really odd though.

[wowfudge]

You would need to ensure you, as owner of the neighbouring house, had the benefit of the covenant and so could enforce it. The house has a huge garden and you could put a low hedge in rather than have a view of the tarmac from the living room window. Plenty of people pave or gravel their front gardens in order to have off road parking anyway. This isn't a parking space. While this is quite an unusual set up, if you love the house and can afford to do what you want to it then it could be a great purchase.

There are new build estates with similar set ups and if it weren't for the fact that it looks so obvious that the turning place was once part of the house's garden, no one but bat an eye.

The sale of the land should have been documented and the title to it should form part of the next door house's title register.

I have a question for you OP: when you viewed the house, what did you think was the set up?

[Joinourclub]

I'm going to be the lone voice in saying that it wouldn't stop me from buying the house if it is in the location for you and gives you the space/ potential you need. Where I am that money wouldn't buy you a one bedroom flat let alone a house with an enormous back garden. Plenty of very expensive houses ave front doors directly on to the pavement and then busy road and the people living there seem to cope. I assume that you would ultimately mostly be using the back of the house as your main living space anyway as that opens on to that lovely huge garden. I think you could do some planting to make it look better, not so much to completely screen off the area with giant evergreens, but more to define your pathway from your drive to your fro t door with some shrubs. Yes it might put future buyers off, but you are not buying to sell. That looks like it would be your home for many years.

[MaryPoppinsPenguins]

Don't buy it. You will regret it.

[MovingOnUpMovingOnOut]

That dog leg is not a turning circle. It's bloody odd but how much of a problem would depend on where you are. I'm guessing not London from the price. If that sort of arrangement is common for the area it's not such an issue. If it is the only one and people could be put off by it then it is a big issue!

I'd want to know everything before making a decision. What does your solicitor say? Has s/he seen the paperwork?

[JaneAustinAllegro]

sounds like it may have been a condition of the planning on the new house that this "turning circle" was installed in order to prevent that house reversing out to the road, which is why they did such a crazy thing in the first place.
The people with the caravan there now might be absolutely magnificent about not parking in it, but you never know who and their horsebox may move in later. There's so much potential for misery here that I'd walk now. And I'd bet a dollar that the reason "the chain fell through" previously is because the previous purchaser's mortgage lender report on title flagged this as an issue / reduction in valuation and therefore loan.

[Sooverthis]

Walk away

[user1467297746]

Spoke to a different EA there- the young man that showed us around was off and she said that they were surprised by the unusual arrangement and it was done for the new build since it needed to have space so they didn't have to reverse onto the road,

She wasn't sure but thought it was the previous owner who had built the house next door.

And the land belongs to the house next door, but there is covenant that they aren't to park on it.

Totally not convinced! But she said they have had 3 offers over its first weekend on the market.. It was asking 195 - we initially offered 176 - but on learning of the turning "circle" we have dropped our offer to 166.

It does have so much space on the side we might extend there and change the internal layout?

[PikachuSayBoo]

What's the agent said this morning?

[Onlytimewilltell]

That was very sneaky of the estate agent to park there when it literally has nothing to do with your property and there is a drive at the side!! That is going to block your light when they put their caravan back, and wake up whoever is in the front bedrooms.