New build next to housing association

[Happydove]

This will sound awful but I need opinions. Pearl clutching Boden wearing mumsnetters are who I want blunt opinions from here!

So new build development nice 4 bed house with big garden BUT it’s next to the housing association houses. As in they back onto the garden all along one side and end.
For this reason the house is affordable for us plus the garden is biggest on development.
This is a expensive town and certainly not a cheep house.
Be honest would you consider it? We are talking at least 5 LA gardens along one side of the garden.
I know it sounds horrible and snobbish but I’m worried about antisocial behavior would we have resentment/ a social divide that could cause a problem etc.
We are both professionals I’m public facing ( locally) DH is a high earner but not local. We have children also.

Very many new estates don’t get planning permission unless they have around 25% social housing so this house will not be unusual. Why do you think social housing is full of anti social people? Where IS this house? Most tenants are just like you but with less money! I’m sure a new estate 4 bed will put you in a position of envy from your neighbours but if they met you they would soon see your true colours.

I would suggest you really shouldn’t live there because I’m not sure you will be happy. Best to go for 3 bed in a better area which would be more in keeping with a high earning DH. I’m surprised you want a new estate at all. It doesn’t fit with your lofty status.

You just have to know the area- I know plenty of housing association estates I’d be happy to live next to, (most are flogged off by now too.)

I’m currently sat in my housing association house wearing Boden and feeling very conflicted!

what type of HA properties are they? shared ownership, social rent, affordable rent ?

I live on a housing association estate. We bought our house on the right to buy 40 years ago and have housing association houses,both sides of our terrace and in the block opposite. We’ve had several different neighbours and they have all been fine. Lovely neighbours

You've been slated here but the reality is that some issues on new build estates tend to come from the social housing residents. On my new build estate that is certainly the case with a minority of the social housing causing problems. There are tennants who look after their property and those that don't so you can't universally say that social housing is the problem but it is a factor. From my house I can see a couple of the social houses and one night there was a screaming match between a social housing resident and the home owner opposite. No idea who was to blame but they both looked equally like twats. Around the corner one social housing resident is notorious for terrible behaviour to the extent that her neighbours are trying to get get her evicted. There's a reason your house is so affordable...

Be like Sandra Bullock and invest in some blindfolds so your children never have to encounter the "poorer folk"

Just buy a different house.

Don't buy.

I had a choice of two new builds, one opposite housing association properties and one just round the corner on a new estate. I chose to be round the corner. Initially there were teething troubles, noisy parties and off road bikes whizzing up and down. The pearl clutchers came out in force and the police were called more times than i can count. I remember watching one officer athletically vault the rear 6ft fence chasing an individual, it was a sight to behold. It calmed down very quickly as the new tenants realised they were not in kansas anymore and the residents would report them to the association and call police. Yes the houses were not as well kept, scruffy gardens, kids toys abandoned outside, but we honestly loved living there and it settled very quickly.

I would check crime stats for the area also searching the street name into google news will show stories. It's not snobbish because some estates are bad. I moved in to HA because my old flat had damp and me and DH were getting very ill. I was worried but we have had no issues. It's quiet and mostly families. Also a drive around the area might give you a feel for it.

Don't buy it. We don't want small minded poorly informed idiots moving in ta

ps it sounds horrible because you are horrible

I wouldn't buy it, as it sounds like you will have a LOT of adjoining neighbours to deal with - you mention 5 on just one side... so potentially double that when you take into account the other side and the back. That has huge potential for aggravation and noise issues, especially if they are compact houses with families in. Imagine trying to enjoy a bit of peace in that garden during the school holidays... you could potentially be surrounded by dozens of children playing in those adjoining gardens (which of course they would be entitled to do, totally reasonable) but the noise level could resemble a playground.

As for the issue of those houses being run by a housing authority, that would also worry me, because sometimes housing authorities are forced to take problem tenants that nobody else will rent to (people who may have been previously evicted, for instance), so I would feel there is increased potential for anti social neighbours. I say this as someone who went to a secondary school on a very rough council estate, where there were many decent families, but the small minority of violent, anti social families dragged it down for everybody.

I think you'd be better off with a smaller garden and fewer adjoining neighbours. The person who buys that house will need to be very noise tolerant and very easy going - do you feel that describes you? If not, walk away, the bargain price won't be worth it.

Just put in a large row of Leylandi.

Defenbaker most HA's will have a clause in allocations policies that will dramatically reduce priority for rehousing for someone who has previously been evicted. Most evictees end up in the private rented sector.

Bare in mind OP. If you have a social housing tenant who commits ASB, you can contact their landlord, who (so long as there is evidence and records of complaint) can look to take tenancy action if it's deemed proportionate and necessary.

If you have a private owner occupier who does the same thing, you will struggle to get anyone to take much action. Obviously the police and local authorities have some duties but it's much tougher to take action.

I've worked in social housing for 10 years and honestly can say I've seen equally horrendous behaviour from leaseholders/owners over the years.

In the flat I used to live in (owned) the man who lived in the flat above mine (he owned his too) he would spit and throw cigarettes out of his window... no one would help to address this.

My house now backs onto social housing properties and aside from the odd football playing noise in the garden (which children of any tenure will do!) we have no complaints.

I wouldn't buy it.

A friend worked for a large housing developer and they had lots of problems with a new build estate of private and housing association. In her words, 'a nightmare'.

I bought my house completely unaware that it was ex council and that many of my neighbours were still council tenants.
(It’s a 30s Estate but a very small number were bought off plan by the council)

It makes bugger all difference.

From a HA perspective getting new build stock on a well regarded housing estate is excellent business. Housing Associations will be in competition with each other to be the preferred partner to housing developers on any given site. Therefore it is in the HA's interest to ensure that properties are let appropriately and managed well - the estate getting a reputation will harm the developer/HA relationship. Am not saying there aren't ever any problems but the presence of social housing does not mean there will be problems.

I want to say don't worry but we had problems from our council house neighbours in our last house, vicious dog barking all the time, pot smoking in garden etc. Managed to get rid thankfully but too multiple complaints

I'm approaching this question from the other side. I'm on the waiting list for a HA property on a new build estate where 75% of the properties are to be privately owned. Don't judge a book by its cover, I'm a single parent of a 15 year old who spends 50% of his time at his dad's, so for half the time I'm at home on my own, I'm disabled & chronically ill, so I spend a lot of time in bed. I don't have wild parties or barbeques, I don't play loud music. Who is to say that you wouldn't be living next door to someone like me. Most HA put new tenants on probationary tenancies for at least a year which means that any complaints & they are out. Looking at the houses on the estate I am waiting for, the HA tenants have the best deal, instead of 3 bedrooms & an ensuite being crammed in on one level, the lofts have been made in to one bedroom, giving more room for the other two bedrooms. If you look at the houses from the outside, you can't tell which is which. Don't forget that you may find yourself living next door to someone who has bought their house & may be more anti social than the HA tenants.

Basically the consensus is that it is a gamble, you may have some decent neighbours who work full time and keep their property together or you may have some unemployed people with kids who don't care with endless asb problems, with 5 LA gardens along side your one garden I would say theres probably more of a chance of some asb neighbours. But who knows, if they have moved in allready maybe go and have a walk around at different times of the day and see what it is like.

@myrtleWilson - interesting info, I didn't know that.

@Aibubabes2 - true, owner occupiers can be a nightmare too, and have no landlord to threaten them with eviction for bad behaviour.

Still, it does sound like the house in question will have a lot of gardens abutting it on all sides, and I think that the more neighbours you have in close proximity, the more potential there is for neighbour trouble, so I would not buy that house.

The house next door (2 bed semi) has been privately rented to 8 tenants over the last ten years. 2 of them were fine, the other 6 were problem tenants. Most of those problem tenants were living on benefits and had various drink/drug/mental health issues (violent tendencies, extended periods of shouting and smashing things). A house opposite was rented to a nightmare family. One of them worked, the rest were on benefits and were constantly having garden parties with loud music and loud arguments, which spilled onto the street. The landlord evicted them and they smashed up the place and left piles of rubbish behind. New tenants moved in. They both work full time and keep the garden nice. When they heard about the previous tenants, they said "Please don't think all tenants are like that!" They couldn't be nicer. It must be hard for decent tenants, whether HA or not, whether on benefits or not, when the problem ones give all tenants a bad name.