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Original poster

Buying an ex council house

71 replies

Rainsbow · 14/05/2017 16:36

There is no way of writing this nicely.

If one was to buy an ex council house, are the neighbours likely to be...council?

Please don't flame. How else could that be worded? It's not meant to cause offence. Buying a house its important to consider neighbours/local environment. I don't know how to find out if the other houses are now privately owned or still council tenants.

OP posts:

EggysMom · 14/05/2017 21:53

We bought an ex-Council house. We knew the neighbour on one side is HA, honestly thought the old couple on the other side had bought their house as they took such great care of it (I know, stereotyping) and have been surprised to find now they have both passed that it is also HA.

It actually prompted me to request the deeds for the neighbour's house from the Land Registry site - well, that and curiosity to see who owns a patch of land directly behind our rear fence. The deeds cover a substantial number of houses over three roads, you can easily see which have been bought and which remain owned by the HA. Here it's about one-in-six that are privately owned.

Unicorn81 · 14/05/2017 21:57

Most of ex council in our street are bought, unfortunately you can get arsehole neighbours anywhere council or not

anon1987 · 14/05/2017 21:58

I live In a council house..my. Neighbours own their house and aren't posh (to put it nicely!)

I can understand your concerns but please remember that just because someone is a council tenant does not mean that they are going to be bad neighbours.

My partner is a professional and works really hard managing a small company, he just doesn't earn enough for us to buy a house right now, and we don't have the luxury of having parents to help us either.
We private rented for years and unfortunately our ex landlords failed to sort out the black mould in our home, and as we have a disabled daughter, we were allocated our home which still costs us more then a lot of mortgages at £700 a month!.

I think it's important to check out the neighbours regardless of whether they are tenants or owners, you can get bad neighbours from any 'class' of people.

littlemissneela · 14/05/2017 22:01

We live in an ex council house and our next door neighbours are both council tennants and are both lovely. The one person we have 'met' who seems to be not very nice is a private owner. Its more about the people and not if they are council tennants or not. We looked at our street and noticed a lot of people are doing renovations so took that as a good sign.

KarmaNoMore · 14/05/2017 22:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

IfNot · 14/05/2017 22:06

I'm a council tenants and I sat out in my front garden today with a beer while a bunch of the local kids played football with my son on the green opposite. Does that put you off moving next door to me?
Good.

Expecting2017 · 14/05/2017 22:07

I live and bought an ex council house. We have privately owned one way and council the other way. The council neighbours are nicer and more helpful than the private owned

KarmaNoMore · 14/05/2017 22:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MaisyPops · 14/05/2017 22:11

In know what you mean OP.
There are some areas near me that I'd not move to because they're known for higher crime and anti social behaviour. They happen to be the more deprived area of town. Mix of council, private rent and bought though. Resident status doesn't make a difference.

People can be dickheads regardless of their housing situation. At least with a rubbish Tennant near by they can be evicted. If they're an insufferable bastard and own the property you're stuck.

SaorAlbaGuBrath · 14/05/2017 22:26

IfNot minus the beer (because I'm not a fan not because I disapprove) that sounds like my day

PonderLand · 15/05/2017 00:16

We live in an ex council house and have council tenants either side of us. When buying the house the solicitor went through our street and had a map which stated which houses were owned privately and which were council. Everyone (but one house) still has the same windows even though the estate is split at about 60% council tenants 40% private. So I wouldn't use that as a way of telling :) although they do tend to have the same fencing.

Our neighbours are nice but we are waiting for the council to cut back next doors 25ft conifers and that's a bit of a ball ache having to go through various places instead of just the neighbour. Both neighbours take care of their property etc (with exception of the trees but she's in her 80's so I think she should be getting help with maintaining the garden). This same street 10 years ago is a different story and I wouldn't of moved here then.

Original poster

Rainsbow · 15/05/2017 07:19

Many thanks for all posts. We have decided not to go ahead, other reasons as well as this

OP posts:

ShotsFired · 15/05/2017 07:37

My first flat was ex-council.

Flat 1 - Mine privately owned
Flat 2 - private rented to a succession of ok people but transient so never knew any of them
Flat 3 (above me)- council - the most godawful woman I have ever known who made my life a misery and put me in physical danger on several occasions.
Flat 4 - council - single mum with two nice young boys.
Flat 5 - private rent/owned - lovely family of 4 who also got grief from Flat 3.
Flat 6 - council - was a nice elderly gent, he died and then I never knew who moved in but they were quiet and no trouble.

So basically there were 5 normal/nice sets of people and 1 utter horror; who completely overwhelmed everything. Despite concrete proof, multiple police reports and whatnot, the council did the sum total of fuck all to deal with her. It was miserable living there all because of her.

Snap8TheCat · 15/05/2017 07:42

op did you ever rent? Did you become a complete different person as soon as you purchased a house?

ShotsFired · 15/05/2017 07:43

@KarmaNoMore OP, I would say that you can get nice or nasty neighbours everywhere but well cared tidy front gardens is always a good sign.

I live in a very naice neighbourhood, but to get to a nearby town I shortcut through a road where the difference is like night and day. Along that road, gates are hanging off, there are gardens with rotting furniture in them, the chainlink fences are overgrown and weedy, there are literally cars on bricks - the works.

I don't understand why you would want to sit in your home and have it looking so horrible. Even if you don't have much money, it's free to pull up a few weeds or take a broken gate down; and the tip is also free (and I think the local council does free bulk waste collections for some too)

gamerchick · 15/05/2017 07:49

Im a council tenant please knock and ask if you run into this problem again just in case so I can put you off living next door to me.

Your attitude is not welcome.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 15/05/2017 08:06

Can vary so much.

A dd recently bought an ex LA in a nice quiet road where the front gardens were all tidy, no rubbish anywhere, no loud music or shouting/etc. However we did know from a friend of a friend who lives further down, that the road is 'nice'. Previous owner had lived there 60+ years - it was a probate sale.

We did look at ex LA houses in roads elsewhere that were a no no from the start - noise, shouting, rubbish in front gardens , etc. Cancelled one viewing without even going inside.

I think ex LA houses can be an extremely good buy, often so much more spacious than others, but IMO you do need to drive or pref. walk past and round the area several times at different times of day and weekends. Asking any friendly looking neighbours 'what's it like living here?' also helpful.

Kokusai · 15/05/2017 08:06

I bought an ex-LA house.

Some genuine issues are:

Quality of previous maintenance work. Sold construction but every bit of maintenance has been done in the cheapest easiest ugliest way possible.

Quirks of construction including shared water and electricity supply with next door.

Having to go thru the council rather than just neighbour about stuff like a PP mentioned eg tree cutting.

ex-LA are less desirable to people and prices often fall first and further in a downturn.

No issues what so ever with my neighbours. Everyone is very nice and keeps themselves to themselves.

A benefit of ex-LA is that the maintenance e.g. Roof doors windows of the LA properties is generally now done really well so they actually look smarter than the owned properties!

Another benefit is that the houses are unlikly to become whacking great HMOs with beds in every room like they can be if privately owned around here.

unlimiteddilutingjuice · 15/05/2017 08:25

It depends on the area I guess. As pp have said some will have been bought under Right to Buy and might have changed hands since then.
Some will be rented out to private tenants.
I'm very lucky in my ex council flat that most of the bought flats on my landing ate the original tenants. This is better for stability of the community.
The mix of your area will depend on the desirability of the properties and the availibility of other housing.

As to whether your neighbours will be "council" I honestly don't know how to answer this.
I find middle class people mean a variety of things by this. From harmless cultural differences (junk food in front of the TV, smoking, children playing out) to serious anti social behaviour (noisy domestic violence, drug dealing, intimidation).

In fact, if I had to define class prejudice it would be the inability to draw a distinction between the two!

If you want to know what the neighbourhood is like you need to visit at different times of the day and speak to the neighbours.

likeababyelephant · 15/05/2017 08:37

Nasty stereotyping there OP.

What next?. The young man next door in the tracksuit is a drug dealer?

IfNot · 15/05/2017 09:22

The thing is council tenants aren't nessecarily working class anyway.
And some people's idea of how the lower orders live is very narrow! My friends in nice bought houses eat more junk food in front of the TV than we do ( Dominos etc) as they can afford it!
You can be working class and read books. You can be a council tenant, sitting out in your front garden and then go in and make lentil curry for tea.
As for shouting and loud music, you maybe hear more of what goes on on an estate, but people in naice streets have all the same problems, believe me; adultury, gambling addictions, domestic abuse. They just hide it better.

gamerchick · 15/05/2017 09:32

I'm here with me crate of carling man

HateSummer · 15/05/2017 09:44

We live in an ex council house and one side is still a council house. It's a highly desirable area and houses are worth over £500k. We had 2 awful neighbours for about 10 years. I'm talking barking bull dogs, children being taken into care, screaming and shouting parents fighting in all hours of the night banging Windows etc. I saw them move in with 5 kids and the day they were kicked out they left with 1 .

The new neighbours are nice though. Quiet family. Not sure how they bagged a council house though because the woman is an accountant on about £100,000 salary and the man works evenings and nights in Tescos. They're actually quite snooty and and keep referring to how bad the crime is in our area .

gamerchick · 15/05/2017 09:54

Because council houses aren't linked to benefits as much as people would love to make the link official.

anon1987 · 15/05/2017 11:10

Probably for the best op you stink of snobbery. I feel a wave of relief for them now you won't be their neighbour.

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