Would an uncared-for neighbouring property put you off buying?

[HouseHunter2026]

I looked around a beautiful semi-detached house earlier this week - great size for long term living and in a great location. The trouble is the adjoining property is owned and lived in by an elderly man who isn’t able to care for it. The garden is overgrown and unloved and the pebbledash is crumbling on his side of the property. On his driveway is an old unused car and it’s also overgrown, although not visible from our driveway. Fear for what the inside may be like!

Would you still buy it? This is the only thing causing us to pause at the moment but am I being unreasonable?

I’d walk away. My aunt is in a similar situation- there is now dry rot in the adjoining house roof timbers. It’s a total nightmare.

It would definitely put me off.

If the owner is an elderly gentleman he may go into care or pass away in coming years, so if i loved the house i would take a chance.

It would put me off, but if it's a long term purchase and I loved the house I think I'd still go for it. Without sounding morbid, it won't be forever. Id be more put off if it was a young couple living nextdoor and the house was unkept.

If it was literally attached it would put me off. You’ve no idea of the issues lurking in a property that’s so neglected.

I’d walk away. My father had no end of trouble with a neglected adjoining terrace. Damp from faulty drains, roof problems.

i could hear the scrabbling feet of mice running about in my roof when the elderly lady next door was put in a home and was empty.

it took years to sort out what would happen to her house. meanwhile it was cold and i feared squatters.

Locally, there’s a house that is completely run down. About a dozen broken cars on the drive and the grass verge, broken fence, render crumbling of the walls, peeling paint, neglected front garden with a broken drive. All the neighbours complain, but the owner laughs at them and it seems no one can do anything.

Every time we drive past, I feel so sorry for the neighbours, particularly the attached ones. They’ll never be able to sell their house and goodness knows how the fabric of their property is affected.

So no, I wouldn’t buy a house next door.

It would put me off too. I wish I hadn’t bought the house I’m in, I did think next door (I’m an end terrace) looked a bit unloved but was buying in a very fast market and kept missing out on other properties so decided I probably couldn’t afford to be too picky; lesson learned.

I had an extremely similar situation, albeit with a detached house.

we nearly cancelled our viewing after my wife saw the state of the house next door; overgrown garden, rotting wooden window frames, clearly empty.

But the house was perfect and the street was ultra nice and no other issues.

We asked a few neighbours and got the story that the next door owner had been elderly and struggled, then had to go into care and recently died, so it was going through probate.

It didn’t seem like it’d realistically affect the stricture of our new home, but it was certainly an eyesore, and the near guarantee of a developer buying and doing a big renovation was a big consideration considering we WFH quite a lot.

Ultimately we offered, a good amount under, eventually negotiated a bit, but got 30k off asking.

Sadly the vendors pulled their house off the market 3 weeks after accepting our offer, so we’re back looking now.

Another friend just completed on a 3 bed semi attached to an empty, run down property, with the owners currently struggling and failing to get planning permission for a big extension. It was missing some rendering and had a big hole through to see the floorboards / joints on the front of the house.

Again, my friend took the risk. The price was great (well under the market) for a big 3 bed with a garage in our area, he got it a bit under that, and the state of the house he got was really good. Easy choice.

Thanks everyone, these are helpful thoughts.

My main concern to be honest is safety rather than resale. I know ‘our’ house is gas & electric and my fear is that the adjoining house uses gas too (almost certainly) and as such whether they’re keeping it maintained. A house nearby my current one exploded not long ago and an elderly gentleman died because of an internal gas leak that happened been repaired

This

Nope - not with a bargepole.

As you seem to know it's an elderly person who will likely go into care soon, I'd go for it. It will most likely be sold to pay for their care and you'll get new neighbours who want to do it up. If it was a younger person who was presumably living a lifestyle where they chose not to take care of their property, it would put be off because they might not care if something was happening that damaged my property.

I have just sold my late father's property two years after his death and the old car and overgrown garden were definately features, but the car was got rid of soon after he died, and we were hot on stuff that affected the neighbours like a pipe leak onto their drive, pigeons pooping on their drive, and fence repairs.

My daughters next door house was like this. Next door had a leak and it came through to hers. It got sorted but it caused a lot of inconvenience. The house was sold and done up and shes glad she stayed as the neighbours are great now.

No I wouldn’t, having been in that situation. The terraced house next to me was in ok condition when I bought but over the years the man got older and neglected stuff. He would also never pay for anything to get fixed even if it affected my side, e.g. gutter overflowing onto my wall, fencing falling down. He did eventually go into care, but then the house stood empty for 2 years during probate. In that time some of the ceilings fell through, there was a hole in the roof, mice, one side of the house was bowing, garden had foxes living in it.

It has been bought now and done up, but I’d not buy a house next to one that is visibly neglected.

Depends on the type of 'uncared for'. My next door neighbours are lovely but real 'crunchy' types who believe there's no such thing as weeds only unloved plants so their front garden is hip high in undergrowth and their front window is totally obscured. From the road you'd think the house was derelict. But it's rented, and the landlord keeps the inside very much up to scratch, it's just from the roadside that the house looks neglected.

So first glances can be deceptive.

For the people saying he is elderly and will likely go into care soon or die, what is classed as elderly?

Just to put another spin on things, even if he is 80 for all any of us know he could still have another 10 years or more living in that house. I know this because the house next door to my parents house was owned by an elderly lady who couldn't take care of her massive garden and home and it became overgrown and unkept. She was 75 when her husband died and she started to let things go. She is now 95 and STILL in that house. The garden has had attempted cut backs over the years by her son but is still very poorly maintained and very overgrown and her house looks grim and uncared for.

So please bear that in mind and don't think that this isn't going to last long because it very well absolutely could, so you need to think about that.

Oh it would put me off as we have a house like this near us. My friend lives in the other half of the two semis and it drives her mad but she has had to live next to this women and her awful house for almost 30 years now.

Friend's house is pristine with an immaculate front garden.

Nextdoor has so many missing roof tiles that birds are flying in and out constantly so local kids call it the birdie house. The wooden window frames are rotten, there are windows with missing glass that she hasn't even covered with board. The front garden is paved but was covered in overgrown weeds. The women's daughter once tried to pretty it up by creating a container garden to cover up the state of the paving but they were never cared for and are now all
just dead with weeds everywhere. At one point there was an old car on the drive with weeds growing through it.

When her children were young she would buy a paddling pool each summer and leave it to grow mouldy and then chuck it to the back of the garden and buy a new one. The back garden is just as bad as the front one now.

We can only imagine the horrors inside as no one has ever been in and the children never invited friends over.

The houses around here sell
for just under a million but she would be lucky to get half that as whoever bought it would need to spend a fortune.

My friend is now at the stage of live where she would want to downsize but she has no idea of anyone would want to buy it because of the state of nextdoor.

When we were house hunting we saw a good house that was next door to an abandoned house with disputed ownership. The door literally blew open and shut with the wind. I didn't proceed because of that as it was ripe for vermin or squatters and eventually would have been only fit for full development.

A bit tatty due to an older person being there I could probably get on board with.

I didn't pay enough attention to neighbours when I moved. We are attached to a house where the people have not said hello or nodded in 18 months. We have tried to knock to say hello a couple of times but they don't answer the door. I don't know how we would proceed if we needed to communicate with them about something like a fence or future building work.

The alternative is to approach him and ask if he is interested in selling. Take the stress away by doing it off market.

Then you have the space and location you like and can truly make it yours.

Or he may not and the property further deteriorate - a bit of a hostage to fortune

We had this. It wasn't so bad when we bought, but as the years passed, the couple next door got older and older, there were some mental health issues as well and eventually it did become an issue in so far as their lack of maintenance was starting to affect our property (leaks etc) and would definitely have affected its saleability and value. By the time the wife had died and the husband went info a care home, it was barely habitable.
As it turned out, the house was purchased by a nice young couple to do up and live in, but I lost of lot of sleep to the worry of it being bought and flipped badly/cheaply by a developer, or turned into an HMO or something.
Would I knowingly take the risk again? Probably not to be honest, unless the house was really special and the property next door not too decrepit.
Also consider that when it does ultimately get sold, whoever ends up buying it will have a massive months-long renovation - which you will be living next door to.

An elderly man with unkempt garden is fine. A bunch of able bodied people who just don’t care - no. I was put off one place as I saw that the neighbours were a bunch of early 20s lads (I saw them leaving to go out) and the front garden was strewn with rubbish. I imagined loud parties and weed.
The old guy? My son would probably go around to ask if he wanted it tidied for free.

As a renter we moved into one similar. Old man died.

Utter twats bought it and spent a year making as much fucking noise as is humanly possible before moving in...
And now their fucking ddogs make as much noise..