It's been fifteen long weeks. Buying a flat and living in temporary accommodation. There are still fifteen outstanding enquiries on the contract all reliant on various information regarding the freehold/lease. Now the sellers solicitor has gone on holiday!
Please reassure me there is a happy ending to this!
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AIBU?
To ask for your house buying nightmares that turned out ok?
9 replies
teaandcakeat8 · 27/02/2016 12:05
OP posts:
OurBlanche ·
27/02/2016 15:29
OK. Bear in mind we have been here 2 years and are still busy undecorating and exploring the unsympathetic 'restorations' to this house. We anticipated some problems, but not quite what we got.
We rented for decades and decided that we would buy a house, decimating our savings, and would look for somewhere far less rural and isolated. So we started looking in the small local towns. Found the perfect house, put in offer, dickered a bit and got it. Then:
- Surveyor found some issues, roof mainly, possible spend £10K - not unexpected the house is very old, conservation area and Listed II*. Seller refused to believe it, managed to talk him down £2K, which at least paid for the scaffolding. The roof itself cost about £900 for replacement tiles and mates rates
- Moved in... kitchen floor immediately sprang a leak - which explained why the water was turned down to low pressure!! After discussions about re-routing the water supply, threats about whole floor coming up, after 4 hours 2 men jack hammered their way through the floor and fixed the pipe. Happily managed to break only 1 of the Welsh slate floor tiles, after checking we had a replacement, which they fitted for us. And all covered by the water policy the insurance company insisted we take out. And as it's a service contract it doesn't count as an insurance claim.
As they leave DH looks and notices that, previously hidden behind the back of the cupboards, the waste pipes for the sink, dishwasher, washing machine all have separate holes knocked through the walls - odd, he thinks, why knock separate holes through the wall? As he calls me in he knocks the bendy pipes, sink U bend and it all falls off! It wasn't actually fitted, just sort of slid into position, relying on gravity to keep it in place. Whilst he goes to buy new fittings I, again, mop up water and clean the kitchen floor.
- A week later the boiler just stopped - October, getting cold. Phoned local man, he condemned it and recommended BG as they had an offer he couldn't match. 2 days of doors wide open we no longer have a water pump that rattles the windows and the heating works., quietly.
As they were fitting the new pipes the BG men found that the supply to the bath wasn't properly fitted and the out pipe was just sitting under the plug... just sitting... so at any time both of them could have just 'gone' and drowned us, and the house next door, with dirty water and/or water under mains pressure!
A corollary to that is that the shower needs 2 shower curtains or the water spray goes through/past and collects on the floor, runs along a beam and drips through the ceiling, directly over the PC! Easy to fix but a bit of a worry.
- It rains. The conservatory sprouts 2 leaks. The oak construction included pegging, 2 of these are acting as water spouts. Closer inspection reveals this has happened before. Odd, the previous owner uses it to advertise his specialist oak construction company! DH works out that the water comes from the plastic roof. One panel has been set in upside down, so the clever fittings that keep the water out are now actively drawing it in! 30 minutes and some tape later, all is fixed, no more leaks.
- DH looks at some of the electric cabling... finds over 50metres of it round the house that is simply not connected to anything. Obviously had a previous life. On taking it all out DH found that some of the lights are connected by a doorbell switch... it seems that was easier than a proper junction box thingy. DH fixes that and checks the fuse box again... a good friend supplies proper fuses set to domestic levels.
- Windows this time. DH looks and realises that the reason the downstairs sash windows don't work is that they are screwed together. Takes out the screws and lo and behold, they work! We just need window catches/locks... took a day to choose, 2 to arrive and minutes to affix.
- DH checks the loft, he has remembered something in the survey. The main beam is cracked. No problem, just needs a securing plate. He looks, it is 'secured' with a 2 x 2 baton and a coupe of nails... way to go historical wood man! DH screws metal plate to it, all is good.
Oh, did I mention, we overlapped our rental so I could clean and measure. But the fleas waited until we were fully moved in to come out and play. It might have been my cleaning the carpets that woke them up! Took 3 weeks to get rid of them!
- The loo! This house and water, I ask you! Anyway. The cistern has a drip. So DH has a look and is puzzled by the Heath Robinson fixings. Takes them out and replaces with new, 'bog standard' fittings (see what I did there? ). Notices that the bendy pipe hasn't been clipped together properly... sound familiar? He investigates further, none of the bendy pipe fittings have been properly fitted... again so he replaces all of that, just to be sure. Took about 4 hours, cost about £80. Not hard or expensive!
I think that's it, so far. We haven't spent anywhere near £10K, but I live in fear that DH will meet the previous owner and tel him some home truths
Katenka ·
27/02/2016 15:42
Oh and we sent our deposit cheque to the solicitor with some forms we had to sign, his secretary took the forms out and put the cheque in the bin.
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