After buy disappointments

o1s1n · 14-06-2021 7:22pm

Caranica wrote: »

Only valid as of the last census and well out of date in urban areas. Use it for work.

2016 was the last census wasn't it? That's not too long ago.

I'm sure it's not an exact science after 5 years but I'd say it would still give a good snapshot of an area.

Tork · 14-06-2021 7:27pm

I can't think of anything in particular after I bought my first house, though I would have preferred it if the previous owners hadn't broken the shower door before they left. Mostly, I remember feeling very deflated after getting the keys and walking into the house for the first time. A few of my friends told me they experienced the same thing after they bought their houses.

ZX7R · 14-06-2021 7:36pm

Built to close to my wife's parents

AngryLips · 14-06-2021 7:39pm

Don't have any regrets. There was a pub with outdoor area at the end of the street, didn't realise the noise would travel so much but it was lockdown so easily overlooked - also I don't think the noise would be a regular problem because it's just a neighbourhood local. Plus didn't expect that the kitchen needed a full re-wiring - that ended up costing a bomb. Don't regret any of it of course. These are more unforeseen problems.

Jmc25 · 14-06-2021 8:06pm

mick121 wrote: »

That is your solicitors fault, should have been written into the contract that she'd,attic etc has to be cleared.

Yes. Solicitor should insist on a closing inspection. You've ultimately signed the contract at that stage but good opportunity to scare the vendor into doing what they probably should do in any event

am_zarathustra · 14-06-2021 8:14pm

houseyhouse wrote: »

Use the small area population statistics tool from the CSO. https://www.cso.ie/en/census/census2016reports/census2016smallareapopulationstatistics/

Follow the link for SAPMAP. Zoom into your local area. Turn on the layer called 'statistical small areas'. Click on your area and follow the link to demographics. The info on whether homes are owner-occupied, rented from private ll, rented from council etc. is under the section 'Housing'. It's a great tool when you're moving. Can find out education levels, number of kids in different age groups, etc.

I'd never seen this, signing contracts this week so it was a fascinating read......generally good thankfully but cheers for putting this up.

Caranica · 14-06-2021 8:42pm

o1s1n wrote: »

2016 was the last census wasn't it? That's not too long ago.

I'm sure it's not an exact science after 5 years but I'd say it would still give a good snapshot of an area.

Yes, I use it for work and some areas are wildly out of date. But that's greater Dublin. More reliable for the rest of the country

Fred Cryton · 14-06-2021 9:25pm

Cash_Q wrote: »

Bought first house in 2018 after renting for 15+yrs , lovely settled estate near my family home, just within budget, ok decor and plenty of scope to put our own stamp on it.. kept pinching ourselves wondering what's the catch.. not one, not two, but three sets of neighbours from hell in our terrace. An otherwise lovely, calm, settled cul de sac, but these 3 were notorious among everyone once we got talking to the other neighbours. We sold and moved after 2.5 years, I'm sure you'll see why..

1 - elderly woman who essentially stalked our movements, appearing in the front and back gardens at the same time as us. Leaning out an upstairs window if she couldn't get downstairs quickly enough. Repeating conversations back to me that she eavesdropped on. Commenting on everything from our clothes, bins, visitors, state of the garden, choice of supermarkets, other neighbours drinking habits, previous occupiers sex life (!), her own underwear, bird**** on the window.. insisted on gifting us things for our baby, constantly reminding us that she did so. Considered herself a good neighbour. Polished her clean windows while we were having photos taken of the house to sell, she was IN the photos of the front of the house on Daft ffs. Lived there most of her life and acted as if she owned our house as well as her own.

2 - family of drug addicts. Fights morning, noon and night, parties raging, pregnant teen drinking, local youths invited to smash up their furniture outside their house and take it for bonfire wood, son released from prison died of an overdose in the house. Smoking out the back at all hours of the night, chatting and playing music. Sound insulation was so poor we could hear their kettle boil at night so imagine how amplified all that other stuff was. Renting long term from the council so little chance of them being moved on. We were attached directly to their right, you'd think the house attached to their left would complain? Nah, that brings me onto...

3 - small time drug dealer, supporting the needs of 2 above! Bench in the front garden for drinking in the sun with occupants of 2 above, music blaring from the car on the drive. Smart comments about everything and anything as we tried to come and go quickly and quietly. Inherited the house from his mother so not going anywhere and acted like he owned the whole terrace. Relationship broke down and he started drinking with the local homeless addicts and bringing them around the place. Front porch kicked in by teens over drugs/money, of course he said it was mistaken identity.

We miraculously sold that house at a small profit enabling us to move just 1km up the road. Best thing we ever did, don't know ourselves with the peace and quiet. Lovely neighbours all around us. That first house we had driven up and down the street at all times of the day and night, nothing could have warned us about these people. Sale occurred between Nov-March.. if we had seen the garden drinking in the summer that would have set alarm bells but nothing in the world could have prepared us for how bad it was.

We are extremely lucky to have gotten away!

Probably the way around this is to spend time scoping a new potential home out. 20 hours over 5 nights should do it. Park your car and watch. Take walks around the estate. It's worth it.

Would advise to simply call to the door of your potential neighbour. Make up some reason like you're looking for directions. You'll get an instant feeling of who they are, certainly you'd be able to tell if they fall into category 2 or 3 on your list!

Jmc25 · 14-06-2021 9:40pm

Fred Cryton wrote: »

Probably the way around this is to spend time scoping a new potential home out. 20 hours over 5 nights should do it. Park your car and watch. Take walks around the estate. It's worth it.

Would advise to simply call to the door of your potential neighbour. Make up some reason like you're looking for directions. You'll get an instant feeling of who they are, certainly you'd be able to tell if they fall into category 2 or 3 on your list!

Honestly to anyone buying, do this. 9 times out of 10 you'll be fine without our but don't take that chance.

Particularly about knocking on the door for a chat about literally anything. You'll get a vibe within 30 seconds that will save you 20 years of bother.

Diemos · 14-06-2021 10:29pm

Cash_Q wrote: »

Bought first house in 2018 after renting for 15+yrs , lovely settled estate near my family home, just within budget, ok decor and plenty of scope to put our own stamp on it.. kept pinching ourselves wondering what's the catch.. not one, not two, but three sets of neighbours from hell in our terrace. An otherwise lovely, calm, settled cul de sac, but these 3 were notorious among everyone once we got talking to the other neighbours. We sold and moved after 2.5 years, I'm sure you'll see why..

1 - elderly woman who essentially stalked our movements, appearing in the front and back gardens at the same time as us. Leaning out an upstairs window if she couldn't get downstairs quickly enough. Repeating conversations back to me that she eavesdropped on. Commenting on everything from our clothes, bins, visitors, state of the garden, choice of supermarkets, other neighbours drinking habits, previous occupiers sex life (!), her own underwear, bird**** on the window.. insisted on gifting us things for our baby, constantly reminding us that she did so. Considered herself a good neighbour. Polished her clean windows while we were having photos taken of the house to sell, she was IN the photos of the front of the house on Daft ffs. Lived there most of her life and acted as if she owned our house as well as her own.

2 - family of drug addicts. Fights morning, noon and night, parties raging, pregnant teen drinking, local youths invited to smash up their furniture outside their house and take it for bonfire wood, son released from prison died of an overdose in the house. Smoking out the back at all hours of the night, chatting and playing music. Sound insulation was so poor we could hear their kettle boil at night so imagine how amplified all that other stuff was. Renting long term from the council so little chance of them being moved on. We were attached directly to their right, you'd think the house attached to their left would complain? Nah, that brings me onto...

3 - small time drug dealer, supporting the needs of 2 above! Bench in the front garden for drinking in the sun with occupants of 2 above, music blaring from the car on the drive. Smart comments about everything and anything as we tried to come and go quickly and quietly. Inherited the house from his mother so not going anywhere and acted like he owned the whole terrace. Relationship broke down and he started drinking with the local homeless addicts and bringing them around the place. Front porch kicked in by teens over drugs/money, of course he said it was mistaken identity.

We miraculously sold that house at a small profit enabling us to move just 1km up the road. Best thing we ever did, don't know ourselves with the peace and quiet. Lovely neighbours all around us. That first house we had driven up and down the street at all times of the day and night, nothing could have warned us about these people. Sale occurred between Nov-March.. if we had seen the garden drinking in the summer that would have set alarm bells but nothing in the world could have prepared us for how bad it was.

We are extremely lucky to have gotten away!

Do you feel bad for the buyer?
Did you disclose what they were buying into?

FromADistance · 14-06-2021 10:33pm

Diemos wrote: »

Do you feel bad for the buyer?
Did you disclose what they were buying into?

Caveat emptor.

You can argue the morals all you like but it's not his / her problem.

Cash_Q · 15-06-2021 6:44am

Diemos wrote:

Do you feel bad for the buyer? Did you disclose what they were buying into?

Yes and no.. nobody warned us what was in store when we bought the place. It had been rented out for about 10yrs previously. We had to get out of there and sell, we had to put ourselves first. Disclosing anything about these neighbours would have totally jeopardised the sale, I dont think anyone would have disclosed this.

We previously rented flats/apartments for so long and waited until we bought before starting our family so that we wouldn't have to uproot kids.. in the end we moved out 2weeks after our second child was born and stayed with family for 10weeks til our new home was granted probate.

We met an old (nice) neighbour who said the buyer is a bit more 'feisty' than me.. as if I wasn't feisty enough to handle them?! She had never heard what we heard through the walls! Maybe she meant the new people are not unlike the nasty neighbours, I don't know. The EA actually knew what was going on and the buyer is a friend of a friend of his.. I think it's going to be one of those houses that is sold again and again. They could have checked the PPR and seen that we only bought in 2018 and it was for sale in 2020..that would have raised concerns for me as a buyer.

Fred Cryton wrote:

Probably the way around this is to spend time scoping a new potential home out. 20 hours over 5 nights should do it. Park your car and watch. Take walks around the estate. It's worth it.

Yes that definitely would have been telling. I thought it was enough to take a quick drive up and down the road at different times and on different days, but I really should have parked up. I thought I knew the place well as its a cul de sac of about 30 houses 10 minutes from where I grew up, but you really would never suspect from the outside what was going on in these houses.

Gumbo · 15-06-2021 8:15am

Marcusm wrote: »

And that is why the surveyor should have insurance to deal with the claim for negligence which you will file!

You’ll get nowhere with a claim like that.
The prepurchase survey is visual only. The leak could have occurred 3 minutes after the survey took place or 3 mins after the person bought the property.

babi-hrse · 15-06-2021 8:29am

I seen one last week a lad bought a new build one off house moved into it and 3 weeks later has someone rodding his sewer line with a camera to find out why it was all backed up.
The drain was never connected up it was long enough to go to the end of his driveway and then stopped abruptly. He can't use his toilet now

15-06-2021 8:32am

o1s1n wrote: »

2016 was the last census wasn't it? That's not too long ago.

I'm sure it's not an exact science after 5 years but I'd say it would still give a good snapshot of an area.

This area didn't exist in 2016...

ongarboy · 15-06-2021 8:59am

Tork wrote: »

Mostly, I remember feeling very deflated after getting the keys and walking into the house for the first time. A few of my friends told me they experienced the same thing after they bought their houses.

I think that this feeling of deflation or anti climax when you first move into a new home is more common than we realise even if you've bought a state of the art home with no apparent issues. Especially if you are moving somewhere new or unfamiliar, there's an unsettled feeling that can take time to dissipate. The only exception I think would be if you were escaping a previous home from hell.

Thankfully I had no structural, sound quality or neighbour issues when I bought mine. However I also did have that initial deflated feel that first week but it did quickly go away. One gripe is that the previous owners left the wheelie bins full and had about 3 industrial size refuse sacks next to them with more rubbish. It took about 3 weeks of bin collections to clear their crap before I could start disposing my own. I was disappointed that they did that considering the amount of money I had handed over to them for the purchase!

gladerunner · 15-06-2021 10:07am

When we moved into our cottage we didnt realise it came with its own Granny.
An elderly neighbour across the road was so friendly with the people that left, that she basically haunted us.
She called every day, walked uninvited into the house, stayed hours at a time.
She called when we had family visiting, she called when ever we had work done to supervise, she called late at night when her daughter was away.
It was relentless. We had to buy blinds and gates to try and deter her somewhat.
Just to add, she is a lovely woman and we are still pals, but it required a large amount of diplomacy at the time.
Covid cured alot of it

Like the person with the full attic, we also got 3 full sheds of mostly crap.
Had to hire multiple skips.

KevRossi · 15-06-2021 10:23am

Fred Cryton wrote: »

Probably the way around this is to spend time scoping a new potential home out. 20 hours over 5 nights should do it. Park your car and watch. Take walks around the estate. It's worth it.

I'm looking to buy this year. I tend to take a walk/cycle around some areas on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon or evening on a good sunny day. You can get a good idea if there's a 'party house' on the street. I've knocked a couple of streets off the list because of a few things I've seen over the past couple of weeks. Of course, there's people having one-off bar-b-q's, but you can also spot the houses where it's ongoing. It usually means they're on the lash all winter indoors as well.

Also early on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Have a look at rubbish on the street and the kind it is. There's a spot at the bottom of an estate that I had an eye on that is always full of cans first thing in the morning, but they're gone around 10 a.m. I can only assume it's a wild drinking spot and that there's a neighbour cleaning it up in the morning as they're sick of it.

And of course, just google the street and put 'court' or 'garda' or any number of other words in after it to see what pops up.

Toots · 15-06-2021 12:40pm

D3V!L wrote: »

We did that on the sale of our house. Turns out the attic was full of rubbish. The house was immaculate apart from that.

They cleared out the attic alright. Destroyed the stairs carpet and made sure they scraped the wall all the way down as well. :mad:

What assholes! Was there anything you could do about it?

D3V!L · 15-06-2021 12:41pm

Toots wrote: »

What assholes! Was there anything you could do about it?

Only found out when we got the keys

Toots · 15-06-2021 4:48pm

D3V!L wrote: »

Only found out when we got the keys

An that's awful! What a lousy thing to do, some people are just rotten.

SouthWesterly · 17-06-2021 12:44am

Moved out of Dublin to a rural area. Have great neighbours and a view I could never dream of on the east coast.

AngryLips · 17-06-2021 8:16am

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Moved out of Dublin to a rural area. Have great neighbours and a view I could never dream of on the east coast.

This sounds like an awful after-buy disappointment

Mimon · 17-06-2021 8:24am

Toots wrote: »

What assholes! Was there anything you could do about it?

Whoever was in the house before us fecked a load of old furniture, beds, mattresses etc. over the back wall into a strip of land there.

Didn't have a clue until I went to retrieve my son's football.

The ESB were putting up new poles in this area afterwards and went to have a chat with the lad attaching the wires - he blanked me, probably thought it was my rubbish!

The ESB cleared it to get access to put down the poles.

Mimon · 17-06-2021 8:27am

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Moved out of Dublin to a rural area. Have great neighbours and a view I could never dream of on the east coast.

Found it hard to adjust the other way being from a rural area and saying hello to everyone and getting blanked. A nice estate in Glasnevin I was renting in was the worst. Full of snobby aloof people. Very strange.

Government buildings · 17-06-2021 8:58am

Mimon wrote: »

Found it hard to adjust the other way being from a rural area and saying hello to everyone and getting blanked. A nice estate in Glasnevin I was renting in was the worst. Full of snobby aloof people. Very strange.

I found this in all the middle class areas in Dublin. No real community.

dubrov · 17-06-2021 9:47am

Government buildings wrote:

I found this in all the middle class areas in Dublin. No real community.

or nosey neighbours

listermint · 17-06-2021 9:50am

Only disappointment I had was that all the work had to start. But we were fully aware of that pre purchase.

weisses · 17-06-2021 9:57am

Thanks all.... Reaffirming why i well never buy a semi detached or gonna live in an estate

17-06-2021 10:00am

D3V!L wrote: »

We did that on the sale of our house. Turns out the attic was full of rubbish. The house was immaculate apart from that.

They cleared out the attic alright. Destroyed the stairs carpet and made sure they scraped the wall all the way down as well. :mad:

kind of happened us.
Went to the house the morning for final inspection.
Garage full of ****e,old pvc windows,a pallet of random tiles etc etc
Told them I wanted them gone and the old fella said he left them there in case we needed them.....
I would have been pissed but he also left 1000s worth of gardening tools including a big mower.

After buy disappointments

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