New build on a new estate and social housing. I expect I’ll get torn to shreds but can I have your experiences please?

[ohwhats]

We are looking at buying the last house on a street that backs on to an area of the new estate that will be 50 plus houses owned by a housing association.
The house will be a real bargain, they are throwing all sorts of incentives in as I’m sure they want it sold asap as it will be ready in about 6 weeks time.
The sales advisor explained that the tenants will all be working and they won’t be misbehaving as they will lose their tenancy if they do.
DH thinks it will be fine and we should take a chance but I’m really not sure. Had anyone bought next to AH on a new build estate?

Yes I’d agree with that.

I thought the same when I read @Homebirdy’s post.

I am quite shocked by these replies! We live in a newbuild house, very small development of 30 houses and no space to build more. I think maybe 12 are housing association but you would not know. Everyone gets on well and are quiet and respectful.

I mean, that’s fine.. but you also edited your post to correct your own grammar too.

🤷🏼‍♀️ 🍪

LOL my husband commented on this, he had to go i to town at school time past the school at the rough end of town and saw how little regard to appearance that women have, he was really shocked how bad it was.

I consoled him and pointed out how lucky he was that I didn't do that.

Just to counter the gloom, we lived next door to HA housing for years, it was Victorian terraces so not new build. Multiple flats per large house.

It was absolutely fine, not one issue and lovely neighbours.

My neighbours love to sit outside their doors on camp chairs smoking weed, the other day my 7 year old and I were coming back from the shop when one of them emptied a bottle of pop into her own hedge and then threw the bottle in the hedge.. right next to her open front door. My 7 year old said “mummy that person just spilt their drink into the bush then threw the bottle in the bush.. just put it in the bin!” 🤣 baffled by some of their choices.

Oh and another family teamed up with their neighbours kids to put and fill a very large inflatable swimming pool… in the middle of the road. Quite literally.. not the pavement.. in the actual road where cars drive. But because the road loops around they didn’t see it as an issue because others can just go the other way 🤣

Oh and another family teamed up with their neighbours kids to put and fill a very large inflatable swimming pool… in the middle of the road. Quite literally.. not the pavement.. in the actual road where cars drive. But because the road loops around they didn’t see it as an issue because others can just go the other way 🤣

Same here. 42 years working in council housing. Dont do it. 25 years ago we did it and moved in to a beautiful house on an estate with housing association properties close by.

It was the worst mistake of our lives. Feral kids and all sorts of Anti social behaviour .

We moved again within 3 yrs to a “do’er upper “. I felt peace again as soon as we moved .

I was being sarcastic!

We live in a small cul-de-sac of blocks of flats, three stories high, just 4 flats per floor. Some are owner occupied, some are rentals, some are housing association.

It's considered - by others, we're not up ourselves - a "nice" part of town.

We're looking to move. In the last couple of years (fine previously) the police have been called frequently due to trouble from occupants of a couple of the HA. Eventually the HA kicks them out but seem to replace them with yet more troublesome tenants.

We've had property damage, anti-social behaviour, fights at all hours, and had one guy high on drugs sitting on the communal lawns with a machete. Turned out he was a schizophrenic who'd stopped taking his prescribed meds.

Some of the HA tenants are totally fine. I'm not tarring all with the same brush as for eight years there were no problems at all. However the last three have been a nightmare.

We wouldn't go anywhere near HA in future.

I wouldn't buy the house, OP. Not necessarily because of the social housing, but because of the very poor quality estates that are being built in the UK. The prime motivation for the housebuilder is, obviously, maximising the profit made on the land.
Build quality is bad, but also the estates are poorly designed and the density of housing too high. You'd be surprised how poor design can contribute to and/or exacerbate anti-social behaviour when it does arise.
I bought a new build on an estate with lots of extras thrown in, about 10 years ago, so have had experience of this. I can't say there was much of a clear divide between homeowner/renter and prevalence of ASB, though. Although, I did notice that those areas where the HA housing was, were even more densely packed and poorly planned than the other parts of the estate. Profit above all else.
For balance, I later lived in a very posh village with lots of big detached thatched cottages. The type of place where everyone has a wisteria creeping around an ancient oak door. We had a little terrace cottage there. There was a clear divide in the village between those of us had managed to just about afford to buy a house there, and everyone else. We were actually looked down on because we both worked, because the majority there had successful businesses. They didn't have to work for anyone else. The only working types that were accepted were ones that had quite prestigious jobs. The kind of people that get mentioned in the FT when they take on a role at a new company. Suffice to say, we were never invited to any of the many parties that went on.

I suppose there is always someone that can look down on you.

Just think about when you want to sell the house in s few years time and the potential buyers come on here and ask the advice to them so be what you are receiving now /ie don’t do it.
LAs and HAs have no interest in evicting probkem tenants /especially if they have kids- as they still have to be housed elsewhere.
And the only evidence of their ‘misbehaving’ will be your logs/diaries etc /a friendwas far too scared to report her drug dealing neighbour for very obvious reasons.
And don’t forget the need to accommodate all the young men of fighting age as this gvt doen’t want to stop the influx of small boats.

It’s cheap for a reason OP, don’t do it, your gut instinct is right.

Yeah - they told me this when I bought mine. Absolute bullshit. Within 6 months the estate was a nightmare of drugs, excluded children, break-ins, vandalism and constant police cars. Eventually managed to sell but it was hard, hard work. Don't risk it - it's utterly soul-destroying realising you've made a terrible mistake....

The quality and position of HA properties on an estate will be less than the normal/standard because councils pay the developer a set amount to build those properties.

I recently looked at a couple of housing estates and in the plans the HA houses we dotted about and listed as rented houses. It would seem that HA/council tenants are less inclined to look after their properties and have a higher rate of anti social behaviour. Why would you chose to pay £££ to live around that? I think councils moved away from council estates to integrating HA properties with private, the problem seems to be us that they don’t manage the ever increasing problem tenants.

I would never take the risk of living near HA houses, society is well in the way to breaking down with little/no protections for those trying to do the right thing.

It is 100% the experience in our primary schools new build catchment housing unfortunately. And it is a daily event of the SH children being involved in bike and scooter thefts from people's properties, heck even a wheelchair a couple of weeks ago; trashing of other people's properties; vandalising cars in the neighbourhood; throwing rocks at windows; assaulting other children at the playparks; and the language they use while out and about, primary school children! is beyond appalling. The local primary school is constantly being hounded by parents complaining about these children who not only do the above, but bully and hurt their own children at the nearby parks etc after school.

It's pretty awful ... a lot of the families have been 'managed moved' from other SH areas and now wreak havoc in their new location. And the parents won't hear a negative word about their children's behaviour even while being unable to control them themselves.

I'm afraid whether they're working or not is relevant to some behaviour. I am a SH tenant, I work, my husband is severely disabled. We have one lovely SH neighbour, and one group that spend all day every day making noise, and spoiling the entire road for everyone else. Out of 10 SH homes on our new build estate they ruin it for everyone. They don't work, the reasons why are irrelevant to me as there is no excuse for the way they behave, but as they have nothing else to do their home is like a drop in centre. Two ASB noise restrictions in last few years have just led to them finding other ways to wreck this for everyone else and we are all driven mad by them. It gives other SH tenants who just want to live good and peaceful lives a rotten name as I've told our housing officer over and over.

Don't believe what the sales advisor tells you. The clue is in the name. Ask the HA what they do if tenants cause a nuisance.

In my local experience, HA managers do not deal with problem tenants in a firm manner. This is so unfair to decent tenants who just want to get on with their lives in peace and rely on the managers to do their job.

My neighbours have had to deal with repeated bedbug infestations coming through walls and ceilings and in another case a close neighbour who follows her around filming at close quarters while she is working in her garden and spoiling her garden when she is absent as well as trolling the streets for rubbish to leave in the front and rear gardens. All well known to HA managers but nothing effective has been done to date.

I think your post highlights another issue that sadly there are a high proportion of severely mentally unwell people living in SH. Understandably as often unable to work but some of the resulting behaviours can be very difficult for neighbours to live beside and also for HA’s to take swift meaningful action when the behaviour becomes unsafe or threatening.

When the drug dealers down the street from us were raided by the police and found with both stolen property and heroin in the property, we did complain formally to the HA.

They didn't care. The police did not prosecute the couple because she blamed him, he blamed her and there was no strong evidence one way or the other. The bar for being evicted from a HA property is very high, especially for families with children. Easier to just keep them where they are, and to hell with their neighbours, whether other HA tenants, private renters or owners.

We were also lied to by the builder's agent who showed us the house, they claimed all the other properties had been bought by other people just like us who were going to live in them themselves. We sold up and moved well away as soon as we could after the police raid as had we stayed our kids would have gone to school with the drug dealing couple's kids.

Yes, you are right and I was told the Government give HAs extra funding to take on these individuals who make other people's life hell.

Im a HA tennent, ive just had the front redone and the backgarden done. My home is tidy and clean. Theres a fairly large portion of HA and ownership.

This is a new estate in a village so probably different from a town or city.