Modern housing developments
With the houses all copy-and-paste clones, built two metres apart. Especially when they have "owner's agreements" that prevent the people living in them painting them or showing any kind of individuality. Horrible.
(gordonjcp, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 13:38, 9 replies)

Hang on
So you buy a house, but you're not allowed to paint it the colour you want?

That's a bit shit.
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 13:49, closed)

I looked at buying a new build a couple of years back.
Turned out that it was leasehold. Fair enough. Not my bag, so asked if we could buy the leasehold.

No problem, a mere £500 (which on a £200k house isn't too bad). Thing is, even if we'd bought the leasehold, we could not (and none of this is made up):

o Put the bins out unless it was on the day they were due for collection (not the night before)
o Have more than two visitors cars
o Not have a satellite dish on the front of the house (or other antenna)
o Not paint the garage
o Not paint the masonry
o Lawn must be kept tended (not allowed to pave/slab over)
o Not park anything over a 3.5t outside for more than 15 minutes
o There was something about noise as well, but I forget exactly.
o Want an extension? You'll need permission not just from the council, but from the builders. Yes, they'll be charging you for that, even if you don't get permission.

Oh, and there was a "community charge" of 1% of the purchase price of your house (PA) for upkeep of the green areas.


So, yeah. Enjoy your new £200k house.
(A Nony Mouse, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 14:33, closed)

Two grand a year to keep the lawns looking nice?
Where was this, Kensington Palace Gardens?
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 15:05, closed)

According to the deeds of my c.1840 Edinburgh tenement
I wasn't allowed to store gunpowder or sell spirits. I'm not entirely sure who was going to enforce this but hey...
( splorp ®, Tue 12 Apr 2011, 14:26, closed)

So, a bit like a tenancy agreement then?

( Amorous Badger NAKED BEA ARTHUR PHOTOS 4U, Tue 12 Apr 2011, 14:49, closed)

Yeah fucks sake, housing looking the same, what were they thinking of with those ever popular Edwardian, Victorian, Georgian estates, fucking idiots
It's a good job that they never had owners agreements (whatever the fuck that is) otherwise we'd be robbed of pebbledashed stone cladded Victorian monstrosities with sash windows ripped out to be replaced by aluminum framed louvered pieces of shit. Hey that's to reflect your crazy personalty, why not have crazy paving, and why not paint the rest of the visible brick pink. Peoples 'originality' generally tends to end up with an eyesore of an abortion that makes the eyes bleed every time they come upon it.
( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 13:51, closed)

There's a similar housing development in Hull
In some parts, the front gardens aren't seperated in order to make it look all communal and social, you're not even allowed to put a garden fence up.

A mate of mine lives in Teesside, his neighbour had to jump through hoops to put a door on his open fronted garage.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 14:03, closed)

Covenants...
...very common here in Australia. I can see that some covenants might seem strict, but you should see the tat that some people come up with.
(emadex thinks the world will end on, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 17:05, closed)

Convenants is right.
Among some sensible one's ,we had one on our old house that prevented us from putting any kind of brass plaque or nameplate on the front of the house. Apparently it was to prevent professional people plying their trade from their home in the 30s. We also had to buy the no building in the back garden covenant from the builder. Surprising that the builder was still around ,as he built the house in 1932.
( bane, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 18:57, closed)