Pulling out of an offer because of the area?

[rainydaysfordays]

Thought we'd found our dream house and honestly thought we'd done our due dilligence, visited at different times of the day etc. Made an offer on the house and joined a local fb group hoping to get advice on a removals company...and wow. I know they're usually full of people having a moan, but it's highlighted a whole bunch of problems we had no idea about; complaints about high burglary rates, antisocial behaviour, endless noise complaints about local businesses that the council isn't tackling, drug use near schools, etc etc. I feel like we've been incredibly naive, and I'm heartbroken at the idea of pulling the offer, would we be stupid to proceed having seen all of this?

It depends - is this Fb group specific to the road you'll be living in or is it covering a city sized area?

You can look up crime rates on public databases, and probably should anyway.

In terms of ASB, is it a couple of crap families in a massive estate or gangs of kids roaming the streets? Have you been and spent much time in the area you're looking at?

Remember, no one goes on that groups and says how wonderful their neighbour is, how lovely the kids playing outside are, how everyone is considerate etc - it's a microcosm of complaining and moaning.

I would be inclined to post on there asking what people think of living in the area. You'll likely get a more balanced view than the general chitchat. After all, if you judged relationships based on the majority of posts on MN no one would ever try one!

Disconcertingly, high burglary rates can often be in areas seen as attractive, but without high numbers of burglar alarms because they are good targets. It's often one or two individuals responsible, and once they've been caught then the numbers drop right down again if my local area is anything to go by.

Have you been on police.uk? You’d get an objective comparison between this area and other areas you’re familiar with.

I live in a lovey quiet area, few young kids play on the streets, dead end road so not much traffic, local kids cut through and can be loud later at night, but they walk past.

Looking at the FB page we have a local park that was trashed, kids hanging rounds on the swings early evening, dog poo! Always a pleasant rant!

There’s one group of late teens causing some damage to cars.

Now there are lots of houses, the local MP is targeting the police and council to help these families.

As I see it there’s a glut of these kids from similar families, they’ll soon be in work or moving out and their petty crimes will stop.

They are several streets away from me and I never see any problems. I don’t feel unsafe.

I lived in a very densely populated flatted area. The FB page was always full of complaints about bins, flytipping, antisocial behaviour, vandalism, burglary. The list goes on. Can honestly say in the six years I lived there I wasn't bothered by any of the things complained about and I loved living there.

I have no doubt these things were happening but I often think people visit online forums to share negative experiences and whilst it can appear like a lot, it's maybe just a handful of people. Agree with PP who said about posting for general experience of living in the area. You're likely to get a far better feel.

Every area has a Facebook group full of people moaning about it, fact. It wouldn’t bother me

My village fb group is full to bursting with moaners! Since I moved here over a year ago I've not experienced any of the negative stuff they go on about. Honestly I wouldn't let it put you off.

If I relied on my local neighbourhood's social media for information, I'd be moving like a shot. The people who can be bothered to post (a generally small number) are those with hot gossip, an axe to grind and, sometimes, a genuine issue.
Unfortunately, there are many areas affected by crime and drugs and in an ever increasingly hard pressed economic climate, councils often make poor calls with regard to commercial issues. If you like the house, it's not next door to a kebab shop, bar, brothel or some such, the neighbouring houses are in good repair, the residents seem nice and the local infrastructure suits you, go for it.

I live in a stunning area just north of Cheltenham and anyone would think we live in the bronx looking at the Facebook page.

Go look at the crime statistics for the area

Hi OP, we moved out of London last year after almost a decade in our flat. Our postcode area was really mixed - some drugs, some crime, some poverty and homelessness, etc. Some bijou coffee shops, an organic veg shop and some £1.2 million houses! Our ROAD (and the roads on the routes we used to get the station, etc) was lovely, full of families, neighbourhood watch, super safe. I LOVED living there and felt like I was in a bubble of loveliness... (don't get me wrong though, Somerset is nicer!) In my experience all this stuff is super-subjective and very localised. If you lived next door to a drug den you'd complain about it constantly - fair enough! - but if you live 2 streets away and no one on your road has ever been burgled (because of super-safe terraces) then it's not really going to affect your quality of life. Good luck!

These online groups attract all the typical complainers and nosy neighbours, I wouldn’t take it as gospel!

My friend lives in an area renowned across the country for being posh. If you go on her local Facebook group you’d think it was Victorian east London.
Have a browse of other groups/the police statistics first.

I’d post and ask the positive points of living there.

I live in a stunning area just north of Cheltenham and anyone would think we live in the bronx looking at the Facebook page

I was about to post exactly the same thing about where we live 😂

The pissing and moaning that goes on round here about minor annoyances is breathtaking!

Local FB groups everywhere are full of moaners. I live in an area with some of the lowest crime rates in the region, judging by the local FB you’d think it was south central LA in the mid 90s.

"This village is going down hill" "it's not what it used to be" "what is happening to this place?!" Usually in reaction to dog poo or someone having the AUDACITY to use a fire pit.

I agree with the pp asking what it's like to live there, you'll get negatives, but hopefully plenty of positives too.

Every local Facebook group is full of this. I recently moved and if you went by the local group, our new area is a burned out dystopian ghetto ruled by crime lords. It really isn't! I've stayed in the group though because it amuses me an inordinate amount to be informed that I should "watch out. Youths have been spotted on X road" or similar.

If you went by our village Facebook page you’d think we were up to our necks in dog muck, needing to guard our sheds with shotguns every night, and had a gigantic vicious hound guarding one of the paths. In face, we have the occasional stray poop left around (tell me where doesn’t), the odd suspicious type seen (ditto), and a slightly overzealous JRT who lives near to me and has never troubled us in the least beyond a bit of a yap. We also have a lovely community of people who look out for one another - loads of fundraising events for the school and church, a community woods looked after by volunteers, and a volunteer group during lockdown that looked after shielding people in the surrounding villages, delivered arts and crafts kits to local children and so on. But you definitely hear a lot more about dog shit on Facebook!

Certainly do more research but I wouldn’t the Facebook whingers put you off a potentially lovely area.

Hmmmmm this is a tricky one. I live in what's considered an affluent area (think middle class suburbia). On my road they started a whatsapp group, all lovely and neighbourly or so I thought. Turns out there's a high rate of crime in the area, burglaries, cars been stolen or vandalised.

A man was sat on a wall on my street looking dodgy (according to some of them) so whatsapp was going crazy with them messaging back & forth, poor bloke was delivering leaflets.

I decided to leave the group after a neighbour one late Saturday night (around 11pm) said a man wearing a balaclava had been seen prowling the street. I didn't sleep a wink and I had a 10 day at work on the Sunday (nurse). I've not been on that group for several months now and it's bliss. I've not noticed any crime and feel as safe as I can, if I'd read the whatsapp posts I'd never have bought in this area!

Thanks so much everyone, don't know why it didn't occur to me to just ask the question on the group rather than panicking! Lots of people quick to reassure me it's a peaceful little town with a good sense of community, so glad I asked rather than acting on a gut instinct

Google Street Check. It breaks down crime information about the area you’re moving to, even down to each street. We live in an area only half a mile from quite a bad street for anti social behaviour etc, but it doesn’t affect us at all tbh.

Ask your current contents insurance company to quote for the same contents at the new address. This might be an indication of burglary rates.

My local Facebook group is like that but actually it’s a lovely place to live and the group doesn’t represent it fairly