Would you buy this house...

[Hairydogmummy]

Listed building, great condition, more than affordable, private back garden but shared car port/parking area and you need to cross other's communal garden to put the bins out. Also despite being a chocolate box conservation area, it's only across a main road from a fairly downmarket area. I can't post the ad as we just had an offer accepted and now getting cold feet!

I wouldn't. Shared spaces might be fine now with this set of neighbours, but what about the next person that moves in? Good fences make good neighbours and all that.

Plus with the listed status and rough area nearby, it sounds like it would be a difficult sell further down the line.

Nope. One mad neighbour and your life would be an utter misery. I think keep looking, rent if necessary and focus on location/ amenities in your future search.

No I wouldn't, there are too many negatives. Normally one comprise is worth considering but all of yours would put me off.
My friend had loads of problems putting her bin out by crossing neighbouring property - dog shit everywhere, kids toys and other stuff that she had to move, a padlocked gate etc.

Mumsnet is full of people who can afford to wait for the ideal. We have. A lot of shared drives round here and I’ve never heard of any drama. Sometimes someone has wanted to ‘do it up’ and the other side unwilling to spend the money. Or you get people who tinker with their cars on them every weekend which can be a pain.
I would ask yourself the following.
How does this place compare to other properties you can afford?
Does it meet your priorities (these will be different for everyone)?
Do the pros outweigh any cons?
What are you willing to compromise on?

You’ve just described a relative’s house and it’s 4 floor Georgian townhouse with two staircases and the bathroom of dreams. Old beautiful houses tend to have weird caveats but it otherwise sounds lovely. Will it be nice to live in?

I'm confused. Who shares the communal garden?

@AntiHop it's a massive Georgian farmhouse converted into three houses. The one we're looking at is on the end so they bought their part of the garden and fenced it off and now there's a right of way over the bit belonging to the others to reach the carport and parking area.

No, I would never buy anything with a shared right of way. I've known too many people have difficulties because of it. Also, better to buy the worst house in the best location rather than vice versa.

@SpringSpringTime yes I definitely think so and as you say there's always something with these sorts of houses. It's whether as @IheartNiles said, we can deal with the compromise. At that price it's definitely the best on offer. You'd never get any kind of large period house for that otherwise. Thing is, our price range is up to 100k more. We're just struggling to find the right house. There's a barn conversion we could go for in a much 'posher' area for another 100k but it has a postage stamp garden, is mid terrace and overlooked (beautiful open country surrounding the development tho and gorgeous inside)

[quote MikeUniformMike]@Janegrey333, the downside with listed is that the general public seems to think it is a big deal, so will be put off buying them.
And as you say, no major issues except for planning permission, particularly changes to the front of the building.

Friends seem to think that grade II listed means you need planning permission for everything including to cut down a hedge. [/quote]
You can't do anything without consent if it affects the character of the property.
Please ignore the bit about the front of the building, that isn't right. The inside and back wall is just as important as the front. Unless the front of the building is the reason it is listed (ie a specific architectural quirk)

So no, you can cut a hedge down no problem (so long as you aren't also in a conservation area?) But you would need consent for any work to walls in the garden, any out houses etc because they fall within the curtilage of the property. You can repaint etc - so long as it's not got important paint walls for some reason etc etc. Everything done without consent has to be reversible if deemed necessary.

(MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings)

Thanks @Lurchermom I think you commented when we were going to buy another listed building which had even more drawbacks! With this one, I think would be straight forward to add a glass box to the rear without disturbing the building at all, no knock thru. The architect we used before is already working on another project in the village and we've spoken to him.

@Hairydogmummy

Thanks *@Lurchermom* I think you commented when we were going to buy another listed building which had even more drawbacks! With this one, I think would be straight forward to add a glass box to the rear without disturbing the building at all, no knock thru. The architect we used before is already working on another project in the village and we've spoken to him.

If he knows the area, that will help. I'd also just pop a call or email to the council. It varies by council if you have to pay for advice now but they can usually give an idea on how they'd feel about modern additions.

Anyway - summary I wouldn't worry about it being Grade II but I'd be concerned about the shared spaces etc, but we've been burnt before (though renting at the time).

Thanks will do. I'm also thinking of knocking on the neighbours' door as I know the vendor is away this week. See if I can suss them out. They bought theirs 2 years ago and are still renovating it. I do wonder if them moving in has motivated the vendors to sell quickly. They accepted our offer of 10k lower than the asking price immediately so I do feel a bit like they want to offload it even after living there 20 years. My DM says 'I smell a rat' and I know what she means. Maybe the new family are a nightmare. They have two teenage boys and a tiny communal garden. Maybe they're being a noisy and kicking football around. We did see them coming back from football when we viewed. One of them kicking the (communal) gate open moodily!

@Hairydogmummy I’m in the process of buying a end of Victorian terrace, the immediate neighbour is allowed to access via my garden to put her bins out, otherwise she has to go through the house.

It has worried me and everyone has said don’t, which will prob be an issue when I sell, however I really like the village, it’s also chocolate box, it’s not listed but in a conservation area, I’ve decided to take the risk. I did meet the neighbour first.

In older villages where houses were built like this, residents accept the situation. As this is a fairly recent conversion, it’s a slightly different proposition. Shared spaces and access through my garden wouldn’t thrill me either. You could have people toing and froing quite often.

Many Victorian terraces have a single archway entrance to access back gardens. The rights of way go across the other gardens. It’s a normal arrangement and accepted. With this farmhouse, it’s trickier I think.

Get DH to accept rented whilst you continue looking.

There is a lovely listed tudor house not too far from me. If it was 1/2 mile away in a nicer area it would sell for more and faster, but the location is just too sketchy really. I think it's even worse that it's obviously the nicest property around.

Have you asked the questions about neighbours and disputes?

So I've been today to see the neighbour. Lovely lady. Instagram interiors person with a little shop in the village next to where we live now. She's got photos of hers all over her Instagram account. They've spent a fortune and still not finished it. It's like something out of a magazine! She was really nice and said didn't mind us walking over her land, she's used to it as has owned listed buildings before etc. Everyone apparently lovely, no issues with parking. However she did say it's a flying freehold which isn't on the property details and we weren't told this by the agent or the vendor and I know these can be tricky. The boundary isn't straight up to the roof. Also the communal gardens are being divided at the moment by the council and again we weren't told this. They are literally about to fence theirs off as are their neighbours. There's three houses in a row. Presumably the right of way would still be there for us to put bins out etc but would be through two more gates but she wasn't totally clear on that so would need to do more digging on that one.

What’s her Instagram page, I fancy a nosey

Why is the council dividing up the communal gardens? Do they own them? Do the home owners not own the gardens between them? This sounds very odd. Surely each house has clearly defined communal use of gardens, ownership and rights of way. The fact that there is some confusion over freeholds and the gardens plus everything else is a worry. That the neighbour doesn’t mind you going across her land is besides the point if you have a right to do it. What would you do if she had said no? She didn’t want you going in and out of her land? How would you enforce your rights?

It's maisonemmajane

@PresentingPercy I would have definitely walked away if I'd got a bad impression. It was all converted from the original building in 1975 and ownership of the communal areas passed to the council. Not sure why they gifted it now to the owners. Assume that was at the request of the owners as it's no benefit to the council. The owners all pay a charge to a housing association on behalf of the council for the use of the parking etc so that will still be there regardless of garden ownership. It's abbot fishy that the vendor never mentioned the change in arrangements at the back. He went in to lots of details about it but didn't say it was being fenced and ownership was passing to the homeowners

I wouldn’t assume anything. I would make sure I had a good solicitor.

We went to view a house recently. Advert said "driveway" after arriving and digging a little EA casually says it's a shared driveway. We left within minutes. Can of worms

It partly depends where it is. In London you're only ever a short distance away from a "downmarket area". So if it's in London I would consider it, but if not then no.

No no no!
Trust your gut! X