Cancel House Purchase due to Neighbours

[Badger87]

So a few months ago we decided we wanted to move from our town centre terraced house out to a detached house in a countryside village.

Ours sold and we had an offer accepted on a house we were really like

However a couple weeks before exchange we have found out the neighbour house is owned and rented by a cult, Plymouth brethren.

The owner of the house we were buying was honest enough to tell us on a second viewing. He admitted it was a weird setup and they do not communicate with him whatsoever.

This has been a major red flag to us as we would now feel uncomfortable with such a situation.

We are now about to pull out the purchase however feel awful to do this just before exchange.

Are we overreacting? Anyone else have any experience of a similar situation?

Nothing to do with this particular religion but I would think twice about buying anywhere near any religious temple church etc just due to the sheer volume of people and parking.

I went to school with one and had PB neighbors growing up. Very nice people. Not great if you want sociable neighbors though.

You're right, just checked, my unpleasant neighbours are Christadelpian. Apologies PB.

You're being ridiculous. My first sister in law was a member of the Plymouth Brethren and we knew all her family and friends well - they were not remotely cultish. Would you feel the same if you had heard that Muslims, Jews, or a family from another religion were going to be your new neighbours?

I can’t see how they could possibly be a problem.

But I suggest you use your new house for occasional Satanists’ retreats, or start a swingers’ club, simply to balance the neighbourhood.

Yours would then have the better parties.😀

@MyFluentMintBee perhaps start a thread I’m not sure you’ll get a response on a thread about neighbours.
Cluster feeding is normal at certain ages. Hope you’ve both dropped off.

The Plymouth Brethren are not a cult 😂they are a denomination of mainstream Christianity. If anything they'd make great neighbours because they very much keep themselves to themselves and live very quiet, sedate lives.

Not but they will ostracise their own children if they leave the church %and cover up sexual abuse.

You get perverts in all religions. I wouldn't blame that on him being a PB member.

OP, it's better than noisy neighbours as many have said,

Of all the neighbours you could have, the Brethren would be way up there. They don’t recruit, I understand you are born into this religion. They keep very much to themselves.

Go ahead with yr purchase if you love the house.

We have a few Plymouth brethren on our estate and our son went to primary school with one of their girls. They’re no problem at all, keep themselves to themselves, but friendly enough for a quick chat on the street. I’d rather have them as neighbours than loud chavvy people or nutty obsessed oaps.

Unless it was one of the religions that uses a normal house as a place of worship and that worship involves cramming 300 people into a 2 bed semi, and then singing tunefully, but bloody loudly until 2am, five nights a week...

I would have no issue at all.

If its a religion known to be quiet, peaceful and unassuming, I would welcome them - can I swap for my neighbour who seems to have one child that turns into 17 and they all stamp up and down the stairs eleventy billion times a day, and when not doing that they're using some sort of power tool?

So dogs barking and biting. Disregard me, barely talk to my DH. Believe the end is nigh so caravans for extended family, boat, random badly kept animals

Sounds really odd. I was always struck by the fact none of them had any pets and on telling someone more familiar with them, they said they were forbidden to keep pets? Definitely no dogs or cats with any that lived on our street, and there were many households. It was bliss. No barking dogs. Not nearly as many cats shitting in your garden. Hardly ever heard their kids but saw them so they existed. They didn’t try and convert us as they didn’t speak to us as we were not their religion. All very very perfect.

Should add, if anything they would have had the shits with us as in warmer weather our kids lived in the pool playing Marco Polo and even I wanted to stab knitting needles through my own ear drums at times, but again, they didn’t seem to be able to talk to us so no complaints🤣. We did have another neighbour in the street (non Brethren) who would send their kids down in swimmers to join in when ours started up🤣.

A brethren family used to live next door to me. They were not quiet! They had 6 children and the kids were constantly outside kicking balls about. Then they also constantly had a lot of visitors in which they would be entertaining them till 2/3 in the morning. It was bizarre and a bloody nightmare. My DP at the time used to be livid about being kept up all night before work.

The kids damaged my car once and the parents just wouldn’t interact with me at all about it but otherwise they were generally nice to me. The kids were also always starting fires in the back garden.

When they left, the new neighbours said all the doors had locks on them and there was a massive hook in the ceiling. Don’t know what that was about.

Overall, they were odd and I wouldn’t choose to live near them again.

Being a Christian group and a cult are not mutually exclusive, and some ex-Brethren absolutely describe them as a cult. However the PB, though some of their practices are objectionable, are not going to bother you as neighbours.

Dementia?

If it bothers you it bothers you! Don’t move in somewhere you’re wary of the neighbours

Our neighbours belong to this religion and they're lovely. They don't overly communicate but ours do say hello and got us a nice card when we moved in. No issues at all. It's not a cult

We have quite a few PB in our village due to there been a church here. My mum used to work at the PB school in town as a teacher. You see them walking about in little groups in town. Yes, they could be deemed a bit odd but they will be quiet neighbours, they just won’t be particularly neighbourly I’d guess. So no popping round for a coffee (fine in my books). They’re not going to be playing music. They will just keep themselves to themselves.

If they said it’s used by the church you’d feel ok. The name has put you off I think as it sounds very dramatic. I’d be ok with it.

What is exactly concerns you? They’re a religious bunch. My grandparents were plymouth brethren and it was a very dull existence- no tv, radio, most boring church services. I can’t see they’re going to cause you any issue at all.

This .
I went to school with two girls whose family were Plymouth Brethren, it’s a church with fairly strict rules. Their lives were very quiet , no television for instance.

Our neighbours are brethren. Not sure if it’s different type of brethren as we aren’t anywhere near you. Honestly, nicest neighbours we’ve had. Good mix of keeping themselves to themselves but also brought a gift when our baby was born. Really responsive and helpful when our shared fence fell down. As people have said you could have way worse neighbours.
i also attended school with a brethren and she was also lovely.

We have several families in our cul de sac, they will smile say morning but that’s the extent of it they are quiet respectful neighbours.