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Original poster

Weirdest thing a house seller has got upset about you changing?

144 replies

CruCru · 14/06/2022 13:17

I’ve just been doing some gardening and was thinking about a woman who dropped by our house a few years ago. We were on our way out so didn’t ask her in. She told us some of the history of the house (interesting) but got quite upset when she mentioned some tiles she’d put in and we had no idea what she was talking about. Presumably the people before us had ripped them out.

We didn’t like to mention all the stuff we did to fix the dodgy electrics.

Another friend had some people get very cross when she changed some things in the garden (not concreting it or putting in that plastic grass). Just putting in some different plants.

What about you?

OP posts:
IglesiasPiggl · 14/06/2022 13:21

People like that are better off not coming to visit! It will never be as they left it
Fortunately I have lost all contact with previous owners of the properties I have bought.

BadAtMaths2 · 14/06/2022 13:22

I got very cross when I walked past the house we used to live in and they'd 'pruned' i.e. butchered a beautiful rowan tree I'd put in and that the birds loved. There was no reason to do that - it didn't cast any shade or drop berries or anything.

I'd have probably said something if the buyer had been around!

CoastalWave · 14/06/2022 13:24

I got cross when our buyers ripped out beautiful gardens (mature) and put in crap astro turf!!!

Original poster
CruCru · 14/06/2022 13:30

I can imagine being sad about a lovely tree being butchered or astroturf being put in. However, would you really say something to the seller? Once you’ve sold it, the house and garden aren’t yours any more.

OP posts:
Bloodyhelldog · 14/06/2022 13:34

A toilet seat. She asked if we weren't keeping it, could she have it back 🤨

Rodneytrotterslovechild · 14/06/2022 13:34

Not a house but when I was training to be a hairdresser,I had to do 40 hours in a salon-so 80 hours over two years

2nd year,I did my placement in a lovely salon and left,finished my course and moved on

got a job in another salon and it turned out this lady had sold her salon to my placement lady

im not joking when I was quizzed for hours over what placement lady had done to salon lady’s ‘business’

salon lady was pissed off that placement lady had kept the stickers (that named the salon) up in the window as ‘I put them there!she’s got no right keeping them!’ And again that placement lady had changed the wallpaper (lovely paper) ,had ripped out a locker,and got new wheelie bins,bought new chairs and mirrors (very tasteful mirrors),moved the cash till,made the spare back room into a beauty salon and was pissed off that placement lady had laid new flooring-she kept screaming at me that placement lady had ‘no right’ do do anything to ‘her salon’ even though placement lady had bought it

i lasted a week at salon ladies place-she was bloody mental

Littlebirdyouaresosweet · 14/06/2022 13:37

When my dgm died her beautiful old house was sold. They put upvc windows in it!

NannyGythaOgg · 14/06/2022 13:38

I built a new house in the garden of my house that I had lived in for 20 years and was originally built for my grandparents. I am 66 and wanted to downsize, partly because I was finding it difficult to cope with the large garden.

The people that have bought my house and made loads of changes probably around £30,000 worth. They are not the changes I would have made but I would say that overall they have increased the value of the house. It's their house now and it's up to them.

What I do find slightly upsetting is the garden. They have been left with a small, manageable space. There are so many weeds growing in the gravelled drive, allowed to grow up to a meter tall, thistles, ash saplings etc. They also have a small lawn, that was beautiful. They rarely bother to cut it and it now looks very unkempt - not evenly long just messy. It takes 5 minutes to run the lawn mower over it and they only do it once a month or so, and then they scalp it.

But, it's tough, that's life. They have different priorities to me and that is ok and their right. (I don't have to like it though)

JohnWaynesNotDeadHesFrozen · 14/06/2022 13:38

I go past our old house every couple of weeks. The lovely front garden with a mature cherry tree in the middle has been badly tarmacced and there are bins and a couple of decaying old motorbikes there now.

It was a lovely shady spot and I have fond memories of sitting under the tree with my babies. This was 25+ years ago now!

BEAM123 · 14/06/2022 13:43

It's not just previous owners.....my neighbours had a beautiful garden with a lovely tree that partly hung over my fence. They sold up and a few weeks later I came home one day and the next people had ripped up everything and were putting in hardcore and astroturf.

Then a year later they sold up and moved.
#NeighboursHaveFeelingsToo.

palygold · 14/06/2022 13:48

The beautiful garden my grandfather devoted most of his retirement to was paved over entirely and a small tree removed. That was the front, I wonder what they did with the back garden.

A seller many years ago left behind some fixed wall mounted, ceramic pots filled with artificial flowers. She was put out that we hadn't kept them.

AffIt · 14/06/2022 13:57

I happened to be driving past my childhood home a few years ago and was mildly annoyed to see the 'new' owners (I lived there 20+ years ago!) had cut down the beautiful cherry blossom tree from the front lawn.

I would never have thought to say anything, though.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 14/06/2022 14:29

A toilet seat. She asked if we weren't keeping it, could she have it back 🤨

Minging!! Envy

We're the opposite: we're in the process of selling a family member's home that was neglected for decades - they had the money but also MH issues and the general ennui that lots of people have when you just get used to things and don't see the need. It's structurally fine, but just looks very unloved.

The person who is buying it has great plans and I'm really looking forward to driving by when she's finished it to see how she's made it into the lovely place it could have been all of those years ago.

MaisyMary77 · 14/06/2022 14:31

I get very upset when I see my childhood home. The main part was a big Victorian house which had been added onto a much older house-wonderful place to grow up. Very higgledy piggledy! It’s now been chopped up and turned into flats.

The lady who we bought this house from still tends the flower beds under my front bay windows. I don’t think she knows I know. She made the garden here beautiful so I do my best to keep it nice. I’m happy for her to keep doing it-actually, probably more bemused! Am wondering when she’ll stop-we’ve been here almost 10 years.

Galliano · 14/06/2022 14:36

My old house was turned into a hinch style palace with grey velour soft furnishings and many mirrored pieces. They totally cracked a new layout for the bathroom, loo and en-suite though that I’m still astounded we didn’t think of in ten years and never had anyone suggest to us.

ChickenGotLegs · 14/06/2022 14:38

This thread reminds me of a post a couple of years ago now, a couple had bought a house and the old couple neighbours next door were friends with the previous couple, they were constantly questioning everything they were doing in the house and giving them into trouble for changing the decoration, carpets, garden etc. Then the neighbours family got involved too, I can't remember the finer details but it was pretty insane what these buyers had to put up with.

Does anyone remember this? the thread got deleted by the OP I think..the family might have found out about the thread or something I can't quite remember! 🤔

JauntyJinty · 14/06/2022 15:07

I'm sure the previous occupires of my house would be devistated if they saw the back garden now! It was all planted down both side, I wouldn't like to try to guess the types of plants, but several were taller than me! We got rid of the lot in favor of a patio backing onto the house and the rest just lawn - but we'd never kept on top of it all as it was, it would just be an overgrown mess by now and no good for the kids

Wexone · 14/06/2022 15:09

It kills me to see the people who bought my house smoking in it, the thoughts of my lovely house stinking of fags is just gross. We sold another house and moved next door, killed my partner to see them let the garden go wild. It was an amazing garden and would often be used for wedding phots etc. Now current owners never answer their door, curtains always closed and garden like a wilderness

Wheresmywoolyjumpers · 14/06/2022 15:17

I had fabulous wallpaper in my front room on one wall, everyone commented on it and it made me happy whenever I looked at it. Buyers said they loved it. then painted the room a really boring soft grey colour.

Cranefliesthinkthecarroofiswater · 14/06/2022 15:22

In my old garden there was a mature Bramley apple tree that always fruited well. We had loads ourselves, gave some away and the birds, butterflies, wasps and so on had the rest. It gave very good shade, which we appreciated. The new people cut it down because it had 'too much fruit'. I was very sad about that.

Pollydonia · 14/06/2022 15:34

No, but I had the owner of my childhood home tell me off for writing my on the wall.
We moved out when I was about 7, went back 20 years later to visit the old neighbours with Dmum , old neighbour introduces us ( house had gone through 2 owners between Dparents and present owners) and new owner starts properly shouting that she had stripped the frame of one of the bedroom doors and had found my name and various lines etched into the wood and what was I going to do about it ???
Dmum was very 🙄, I was just bemused.
Dmum explained that SHE had put my name and height on the frame when she measured me as a child, was sorry if she was heavy handed but had painted over it before thay sold the house.
New owner marched off muttering, silly cow.

elp30 · 14/06/2022 15:40

My cousin purchased my childhood home from me and my sister after my parents died.

My father had been a widower and a bachelor for 30 years before his death so he kind of let a lot of things slide in the upkeep of the house so we expected our cousin to renovate.

My sister still had some mail delivered during renovations so she went to the house to collect it. My cousin had the house bare down to the frame. The house was a shell. Plus, she pulled up all the rose bushes and the fruit trees (peaches, plums, apricot, pomegranates and figs) our mother planted in 1978 when we moved in. She died in 1981 and our father kept up her gardening. She made the entire backyard a run for her dogs. My heart broke when my sister told me.

She was so proud of her home when it was completed and invited us to see it. I live 750 miles away and my sister declined the offer. My best friend, whose parents still live on our street, went on my behalf. She knew our house better than most and she is an interior designer. She said that the house was modern and tasteful but even she shed a tear over the garden and it was not the "warm inviting home" she visited daily as a child.

PicaK · 14/06/2022 15:43

People who bought my old house spent lots of money gutting it and revamping it. They are lovely (we stayed in touch) and the house is stunning. She has amazing taste and a vision I just don't have. I've been beyond impressed with what they've done. But I would never have wanted to live with the months and months of mess and aggro.

ARabbitisaBunny · 14/06/2022 15:47

My grandparents had a house built for themselves in the 1950's. By the time I was born, the huge back garden had matured and was beautiful and full of character. I still have happy dreams about it and have modelled my own (albeit, much smaller) garden on it. It has changed hands a couple of times in the intervening years and last time it came up for sale, I thought I'd have a nose and found it on the estate agents website. I actually cried when I saw what had been done. Every single tree, shrub and the beautiful Dutch wall had gone, and the entire garden was grassed over. No plants at all. A massive home office (I assume) fills the full width of the land at the bottom of the garden where my grandad grew his veg and flowers. It almost felt like the place had been vandalised! I don't have the same warm feelings for the house itself, but it too has been stripped of any vestige character.

ExtremelyDedicated · 14/06/2022 16:08

@ARabbitisaBunny similar here. My grandparents bought their house new in the late 1920s, it was gorgeous and they kept it immaculately, with all the period features (fireplaces, original windows with solid oak frames, doors with the high-up bakelite handles, original tiles in the bathroom and kitchen, toilet with pull-chain, walk-in pantry etc). Also the garden was full of beautiful rosebeds and borders. It was sold after they both died about 20 years ago and I made the mistake of looking on rightmove recently. Two big extensions, the insides completely gutted and given very bland makeovers, completely unrecognisable, walls knocked through, not a single period feature remaining. What was left of the garden is now astro-turf and a hot tub. I know it's none of my business but it does make me feel very sad.