Hi
I am thinking of buying a house on City Rd, but would like to get some feed back on the area. The house is situated just further down the hill from the top of Granville Rd.

Any comments good/bad would be gratefully received.


Thanks

My OH used to live on City Road (just across the road from the post office) and to be honest, it wasn't that bad. I spent nearly every weekend there and never saw any trouble, heard yelling/screaming or anything! It's pretty quiet most of the time, apart from rush-hour times that is.

Parking could be a nightmare but that depends if you've got a garage or not. There is however, a lot of student accomodation on City Rd.

Hope that helps a bit.

its not to bad down that end, its further up where all the trouble is.

As a local, Ilike the area. Might depend on your neighbours though. From a structural point view. Some do have issues. There are some in the vicinity you are taking about, which are across the road from those group of shops.I went to view one afew years back. There has been movement on quite afew , I was told. To the extent that some may not be mortgageable. The giveaway in this case is in the attic room. Supposed to be level, the differance from one side to the other was about 4 inches! Basicaly the front and back had moved. Which means looking at thefront of the house it looked normal. Mine shafts do run under part of city road.

I'd avoid the top of City Road where the social clubs and shops are. I drove past the other day, and there must have been a couple of dozen track suit models hanging around outside one shop.

Lower down, where you are looking, is much quieter, although these things are relative obviously!

Good luck!:thumbsup:

Thanks for everyone's responses - you have given me a lot to think about.

Do you remember what number the house you looked at was Davi?

your welcome:|

Thanks for everyone's responses - you have given me a lot to think about.

Do you remember what number the house you looked at was Davi?
I can`t remember the number, but it would be an obvious fault showing in attic. It reveals itself as a stepped effect halfway across the floor, rather than asloping floor. Asurveyor for mortgage would pick up on it, but what happens in those situations is morgage lender would suggest astructural survey. These kind of surveys tend to end up ambiguous at best, and would probably be unlikely to satisfy lender. Its best to walk away from anything that does not look straight. Also in this case it might have effected afew of them together. The one I looked at, I was told it needed to be a cash buyer. Even if someone is acash buyer, they still need to only buy a house that can have a mortgage on it. When I`m in the vicinity I`ll see if its the same house, or in same row.

Thanks a lot

Hi, again, the no. I looked at was 167. there is one for sale lower down at 141, but be abit careful if that was what you were considering. I`ve also noticed that ahouse at bottom end of manor lane is for sale (no. 48) near where I usedto live for 7 years(no. 54) The house I had was an absolute gem, with a 40 ft south facing garden. Most people round there tend to be owner occupiers. Every one was friendly, no hassles at all for 7 years. For afirst time buyer I can recommend that part. Hope that helps.

Thanks Davi- I was lookin around the bottom of manor lane. I did notice 141 but that is not the one im looking at- but what makes u say be wary of it? As a first time buyer i need to know what to look out for.

No. 141 might be structuraly sound, but it is on the same row as no.167. what you will notice is that all of them are raised quite high above the natural ground level. ie, the pavement and road. The wall at the side of the pavement is a retaining wall, supporting alot of wieght of soil, and maybe pressure of house itself. The one I saw had moved quite considerably. And so it is possible that others have been affected. If there has been movement, it may or may not be continueing to move, for whatever reason. Also end terrace houses, can sometimes have problems that mid-terrace, don`t have. Maybe damp penetration , or bulging gable wall. No. 141 is not end terrace, but in general differant houses can have differant things to think about. ie. interwar year semis have cavity walls and sometimes the wall ties have corroded in parts. they then need to be chopped out and new ones put in. I don`t want to put you off in any way. but always think about structure above decoration.

Thanks for these pointers, surely the mortgage company would not lend on a house that was structurally unsound.

Thanks for these pointers, surely the mortgage company would not lend on a house that was structurally unsound.

Things can slip through. Some of the basic surveys in the old days almost involved a drive-by without stopping! (Exaggeration, but you know what I mean!)

I'm sceptical of surveys in general for various reasons.

1) They can be an expensive excercise in pointing out the b... obvious! e.g. "There's been some movement..." Yes, I can see the 1 foot wide crack too.

2) They've (the bank) insisted on a survey on a property when the land itself the house sits on is worth more than I wanted to borrow. i.e. the house could have been a pile of rubble and there would still be no risk to the bank.

3) I've had a "full" survey done, with a worthless resulting report. They weren't allowed to lift carpets to examine for rot/damp in the joists. About 25 pages telling me nothing I didn't already know, and I'm no builder.

4) Similarly, as a vendor, a couple spent a fortune on having a survey done on our house, which took about 6 hours. He told the buyers that the house needed a new roof before the winter. (It didn't, there were about 3 cracked tiles.) But the sceptical side of me believes that there was a certain amount of fee justification occuring to the buyers, giving them something to haggle with. We sold the house, and several cold, wet winters later, guess what? Yep, the roof is still the one we had.

Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant about surveyors didn't it!! :o

All that said, the bank will insist on a basic survey I would imagine. For security you could have a more detailed survey, and at least you'd have legal come back if they missed something important! That's the one big upside!

Thanks for everyone's advice, I'm gonna make sure im completely sure before putting any offers in anywhere.