We viewed a house last week that was absolutely spot on, ticked all the boxes and then some. We noticed that it was next to a social club that runs events on the weekend - so not a real city nightclub, more like a place that does wedding receptions, dance classes, 70s nights etc.
The estate agent then confounds our expectations of her profession and let’s us know that the local residents have gone 12 rounds with the club owner over noise and antisocial behaviour ( pounding music, lyrics clearly discernible in your living room, no door policy and a gang of Scallies drinking in the car park). A web search gives all the details - it’s a good area and the council are on top of things, threatened to remove the club license and things are now apparently all sorted. I’ve swung round a couple of times late this weekend and the noise is not an issue.
Anyone faced a similar dilemma? Seen the dream house with that one potentially fatal flaw? Just interested to hear opinions. I guess the consensus may be run, don’t walk, from this property. What is keeping us interested is that the area is good, the council and the police will take antisocial behaviour seriously.
I personally wouldn’t own a house next door to a business. The chance of it being a negative on your ability to resale it later would be to great in my opinion.
If you’re very tolerant of noise and the odd bozo peeing in your garden, plus the place is a bargain then you might have a find.
I wouldn’t take the chance. If it’s already driven the neighbors crazy, you’d be living next door and trusting to local politicians to keep things under control, the odds of major annoyance and lack of ability to sell it would be high.
Location, location, location: The one thing you can’t change about your home.
Many decades ago we found a spectacular old farmhouse, absolutely charming. But it was on a tiny lot, the last of the original homestead, the rest of the acreage having been sold and built up in ordinary little Levittown-type homes on quarter-acre lots. Worse, it bordered a major road on one side, across the street from a shopping center. We passed it by.
You guessed right: walk away. You say “…the police will take antisocial behaviour seriously.” But you also say “the local residents have gone 12 rounds with the club owner…” so the police must not take the antisocial behavior seriously enough. The fact that it was not so bad this particular weekend means nothing. Buy it and you will surely hate yourself several times a year, and it will be a nightmare to sell, as it undoubtedly is now.
I’ve owned (and currently own) homes next to businesses. The car dealership was in the habit of doing SOMETHING spectacularly noisy at 2 AM, every night. Finally got that stopped because of noise ordinances and the fact that we could count on the regularity of the noise. The gas station was a hood hangout, and every weekend and some weeknights there would be gatherings of gangstas and gangsta wannabes, all of them with their vehicle sound systems turned up to 11. Kept calling the cops on them, too, and got the gas station to agree to make complaints, as well, after I pointed out that there were other stations in the area that were open at the same time, and that customers who were confronted with that wall of sound and wall of gangstas might very well decide to get their gas elsewhere.
Today, I live with a phone company building behind my back yard. It still gets pretty noisy in the daytime, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was in the old neighborhood. I can sleep through noise, my husband can’t, and my husband generally sleeps at night.
However, I’d advise against this house. You’re going to have problems with noise AND with drunks, and it’s not going to go away in the foreseeable future, unless the place gets completely shut down. You need to keep looking, there are plenty of places on the market.
I think I could cope with a few bouts of self-hatred, say 10 or so a year, such is the awesome-ness of this house. I think I’m going to hold onto the dream for a little bit and go and talk to the owners plus neighbours to get the straight of it. But basically I see that you’re right.
Another property always comes along, like Lynn says.
Given the number of noise complaints, they haven’t taken antisocial behaviour seriously. Run away from this property.
My brother was looking at a house a while back. Dream house, just like yours. But had a drug addict centre next door - needles in the garden etc. He ran.
Psychologically, noise is much, much better to bear if you went in knowing about the noise and chose to bear the noise because of the other advantages of the house.
That is why people who moved near an airport because the breadwinner got a good job there, will hardly be bothered by the noise of airplanes. While the people who lived there before the airport got bigger, and have seen the noise levels increase and their house values depreciate, maybe they lost a few civil lawsuits, are likely to HATE the sound and be much more bothered by it. That may have been the case with the previous owners, who already lived there when the club moved in. But with you, it will be different. Under those circumstances, I might buy.
Also, look into ways of soundproofing your house. It might get old not to be able to sit outside on weekend nights. But maybe you can find the perfect combo of noise canceling headphones on your I phone. Or build a soundproofed patio or sound wall between your garden and the club.
Or convince yourself you get all the social buzz of the clubb without having to pay the entrance fee.