I know you all love a Rightmove thread!

[Alittlebitweird]

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/165149588#/?channel=RES_BUY I wonder how they'll conduct viewings? Skip picture 10 if you're easily grossed out! 😂

Your comment about family not bothering to care couldn’t be further from the truth. Hoarding is a serious mental health condition. One of my family members is a hoarder & despite trying to support it is nearly impossible. You can’t just go in with some bin bags and say let’s get this place cleaned up and all your stuff to the charity shop. I’ve offered to hire a van to help move things to the tip / charity, I’ve suggested a temporary storage facility so we can move everything out, start afresh and then decide what they want back. I’ve offered to help go through things. It’s like having a drug or alcohol addiction… people cannot just change because someone else wants them to. The need counselling and support and to overcome the issues that are making them feel safety when they hold on to all their belongings.
My family members home is nowhere near as bad as the ones in this photo in terms of hygiene (toilet etc) but the thought that they are now getting older and could have a medical emergency or pass away suddenly literally terrifies me, because as well as all my grief / stress about looking after or loosing a parent I’d also have the huge mental and physical load of having to clear that whole house by myself with in a week or so as the council will want it back.

I hope that makes you think differently about the situation. Yes it’s incredibly sad that someone lives like that. But often there’s an incredibly sad, stressed and worried family who really do care about that person and yet feel utterly helpless.

i am sure you can pay someone to clear out

Dick move by the Estate Agent, they should have paid to of had it cleared and a basic clean before taking the photos.

a house where i used to care for an older lady was put up for sale with dreadful photos, she wasnt a horder but her bed was in the sitting room, lazy estate agent.
i think it went immediately regardless

The only thing to do with that bathroom is to get a builder in a hazmat suit to rip the whole thing out.

I think the photos are there because, structurally, it looks sound. The market will comprise professional bidders.

Yeah, the PP has totally misunderstood the problem. People aren’t living like this because they have no help. It’s like saying that alcoholics drink because they don’t have family to help them to stop. Someone has got to want to change before they can be helped.

You don’t know that they didn’t.

Clearly they can’t produce a floor plan as it’s not possible to get the laser that’s used to create them in there, let alone run a tape measure across the old-fashioned way.

That's crazy. No way would an EA do that, and rightly so. Who would foot the bill? There's no guarantee it will sell so the EA may well not get any income from this one.

In fact it went to auction a week ago and hasn't been marked as sold so it may well not sell.

I’m not sure you’d clean it , just rip the bathroom out and replace . Same for everything else .

There’s some beautiful furniture in there - the cupboard(?) in photo 6 is wow and the shelving unit with ornaments at the back in photo 9. It looks like it was well loved before someone became overwhelmed with it.

I agree with @RubyFlax . I know someone who lives like this. Believe it or not they also hold down a really successful career, working fully from home. Their family only discovered it after a health crisis as all socialising had been done away from the home. The family have been trying for several years now to help their loved one get back to a healthier way of living but all attempts are being very successfully blocked. It is a great source of distress and I'd hate to think of the family being judged.

It makes me think there is no close relative to get it cleared before the sale. Feeling sorry for the person that lived there. Also wondering how the estate agent got in each room!

Oh I’m so sorry I gave the impression that I was referring to the people with families who do help.
I have a friend who has a problem with hoarding and I understand exactly how impossible it is to help no matter how hard you try, it is a difficult misunderstood condition and part of her OCD that’s taken over her life. She’s had help multiple times emptying the house but it always ends up in the previous state or worse.

I work in a profession caring for people with severe mental health issues and also know that it can make it difficult for people who care to help someone in the grip of depression.

My friend does usually deal with families who want a quick sale and are happy to bin anything and not even consider something might have had sentimental value. He said he’s found some real treasures in these houses but the families assume it’s all junk. I think it’s terribly sad in both cases but it’s especially sad when there are people trying to help but aren’t able to.

I’m sorry you have to deal with this, my friend is like my sister and I have no family so I know what it’s like to stand on the sidelines and worry, you have my solidarity x