To be miffed about my filthy house

All very well being sympathetic when you are not the one left to deal with it!

You’re being ridiculous. Vacant possession only means there are no human occupants. It’s not a rental; you have bought the house. You will not get any money off anyone so don’t waste time & money chasing it. Put it down to experience (and check the loft!!)

Poor woman living in such a state 😔, it must have been awful for her.

I am yet to buy a house for myself that is even vaguely in the state of cleanliness than the one I’ve just sold. Unfortunately that’s life. You don’t need this to ruin the ownership of your new home. Some people live very differently to the way you do. You don’t know the circumstances of the previous owners but any number of factors might be at play (dementia/mobility issues) so don’t take the state of the house personally - it might not reflect how it was once kept. If you own dogs and don’t clean carpets the smell will be horrific but if you live there you probably have gone ‘nose blind’. No amount of cleaning will remove it, you need to remove the carpets. Consider a cheap temp flooring for the time being. Your solicitor should be dealing with the possessions left behind so get them on it. Practically, air the house, buy pots of bicarb (or a big bag and decant) around the house out of reach of the kids and it will absorb a lot of the smells. When you’ve got tiny kids you are tired and that’ll make things seem worse but you have got a lovely new home at a good price so concentrate on that. Congrats on the new home!

You can normally insist that the previous owners remove their possessions from the house, or charge for them to be removed/the skip. Check your contract of sale.

You can't charge for cleaning, the house is sold as seen.

I had a slightly different issue in that when I sold a house, the contract said all fuel must be left. There was half a tank of oil and a wood shed full of logs, both of which I left.

I later received a bill for £1200 for clearing the garden shed of 'my possessions'. I sent it back to them with a copy of the clause about fuel pinned to the front. There's no pleasing some people. 🙄

I’m not sure I fully understand how it can be that filthy and full of stuff and you didn’t notice, it would utterly stink and the grime would be apparent if it is as bad as you say, caked on. Or now a deep cleaner from a cleaner and it’s still not clean enough?

Rip out the carpets and wash down the bare floor with a bleach bicarb mix. Wash down the walls with sugarsoap and just paint everything white. It will help with your mh whilst you unpack and you can decorate later.

Sounds like you have been naive.

Can you move into an Airbnb for a week while you get it to a liveable condition?

Of course it's not standard nor acceptable, but I really don't understand how it was such a shock. If there was so much stuff you couldn't actually see the grime didn't you wonder?

And as PP say, it's not as straight forward as thinking her adult children 'let' her live like that. If she had capacity and didn't want to engage then what else could they do?

Unfortunately people who horde or don't clean, even if you go in and deep clean, quite frequently it can build up again remarkably quickly.

As long as the house is structurally sound it's all fixable.

The first house that I brought was a building society repossession. It was in a state - maggots in the sofa that was left behind for example. It was reflected in the price. I am looking to move and finding that houses that need work/state - it generally shows in the price. If its cheaper - there will be a reason - usually dated kitchen or bathroom or some sort of paved back garden. Probate houses stand out and hang as the beneficiaries put up houses which require alot of work and don't reflect the work required to bring it up to modern expectations. You will bring the house up to your expectations - but will take time.

Hm, from threads on here I understand it's a lot more complicated than that. Older people can be very, very difficult and don't always just let their children whirl in and clean up or organise help.

For all you know, her move might have been the result of a long hard road of her children trying to sort things out.

Find out where she lives and dump all her stuff there

So a lot of the dirt/caked on grime is on the walls/floors, and she had so much stuff piled up everywhere, you honestly couldn't see.

So she wasn't realistically going to clean all that, was she?

Clean your new house, then enjoy it!

How can you not have noticed it was that bad?

What about the bathroom though? If it was so bad you wouldn’t even take the bathroom in there, surely you noticed that when viewing?

Don’t get me wrong, it sounds grim and you shouldn’t have to foot the bill - just wondering how on earth you missed it if it really is that dirty?

@constantlylactating

what a nightmare! I hope you took loads of photos so when it's all done you can look back & see how much you've achieved!

I hope you got it at a good price.

It sounds like she's not really been able to manage the move the way you'd have wanted her to op and likely hasn't had the necessary support with it. She sounds vulnerable. To be honest I'd be inclined to feel sorry that that's how she's been living in the first place. Horrible for you moving in with a baby but I think if she had hoarding tendencies (which it sounds like from what you've described) it's not unreasonable to expect what you've found unfortunately. Hopefully the deep cleans will put a lovely new shine on it for you and you're able to make it your own.

Disgusting

We bought a house and it was unclean but not unmanageable but the outhouses x 2 were FULL of their unwanted shit! They left loads of stuff in the garden to take away 2 days after moving but only took 40% at best. I photoed and sent messages to the estate agent and said it wasn’t sold empty of possessions. The sellers paid for a removal company to come and clear it. Was super annoying and
irritating though and marred my ftb experience.

Sue for non-vacant possession. You can't leave furniture etc without prior agreement. And you can try and recoup the cost of cleantg that way.

I feel ao sorry for the woman living like that! But yeah it's unacceptable to be left like that.