AIBU to actually want to physically murder the previous owners of my house?

[lacroixsweetie]

So my DH, DD (1.5 yrs) and I moved into our new home two weeks before Christmas (2.2 family with two cats moved out)
They left us with:

• a broken boiler - it thankfully was repairable but coincided nicely with a cold snap
• utterly (squalidly) filthy house - weeks of scrubbing required.
• a flea infestation

The two cats went with them but the fleas are still here and 5 weeks of sprays, hoovering, carpet and clothing washing, and bombing is making little difference. I am being eaten alive and our toddler has a nasty selection of bites and is developing a keen interest in any black speck she sees. I can't invite anyone to the house, especially anyone with a child in tow. I have their address, they live about 6 miles away and I could cheerfully murder them (or kidnap their cats so they can appreciate the full effect of a cat less, flea full house). Suggestions that will a) cheer me up and b) won't put me in trouble with the law gratefully accepted.

DEAD DOG!

Definitely check the contracts and keep haassling the solicitor/agent.
The past few properties we have bought I am sure had a clause in that it had to be left to a certain standard of cleanliness...
Will have a look.
We did have a lady seller that had a fall the week before she moved out and, bless her, left us a cheque for 100 quid to cover us getting rid of some stuff she had left.

OP, YANBU

But surely some of the problems on this thread should have been spotted when the house was visited or in the survey? Surely what is taken or left is agreed in the sales contract? When we sold a house in the UK, the solicitor made us list every single fixture/fitting that we were leaving and taking (curtain poles, toilet roll holders etc). We didn't have to list the light bulbs, they probably should start including those nowadays seeing the price of the low energy bulbs.

And I thought bleach is not supposed to cut through grease but to kill germs?

When we moved into our house, we knew it was a state (a "project"), but hadn't bargained for all that we got! The previous owner hadn't cared for the house in 20yrs, it was a right state, needed new electrics and plumbing, smashed windows etc. But when we actually exchanged contracts and started work, we found a few surprises!

When we removed the stinking carpets, we got scabies from them! There were piles of smashed glass in the kitchen, the bathroom suite (which we removed immediately) was putrid, we filled two skips with rubbish!

He'd left almost everything except the one piece of furniture we wanted to keep, which had been smashed up and burnt in the garden.

To top it off, he'd "helpfully" tried to redecorate before moving out, painting random patches of lurid colours in some rooms. Took so many coats of paint to cover that!

Oh and we got the visits from bailiffs as he hadn't changed his address. Yay...

YANBU OP, let's go a-killing :)

I am reading this with a face like . I thought our predecessors were bad but that was a walk in the park compared to these stories. I just cannot comprehend how anyone could leave a house like that.

Ok, I am feeling much better now that I am clearly not the only one out there who has been subjected to the horrors of the squalid fetid homeowner variety. I forgot to mention that there were three separate leaks under the sink. We came back after 5 days away over Christmas to a stink of putrid water under the floorboards that you wouldn't believe, and the house was alive with fleas.

Lesson one - I will never, ever move into a house on the day of completion again. I didn't even know it was an option to stick your stuff in a lorry and have it stay overnight at a nice warm depot somewhere so you can get in and clean and fumigate if necessary.
House was cleanish when we viewed. Tons of clutter and crap everywhere but then I throw everything out especially when the husband isn't looking.
We left our place flipping immaculate. They paid for a two hour clean by a "professional" cleaning co. who informed me that they couldn't use bleach due to health and safety, did a bit of hoovering and sprayed some polish in the air and then took themselves off. They stood in the door and told me they were leaving for about 5 mins. I was damned if I was going to tip them - they didn't shift an ounce of grime. My cleaner was in the next morning and spent three hours in the bathroom alone. She clearly thinks we have lost our minds moving into this [shthole] fixer-upper.
Carpets have been steam cleaned and upstairs is now fairly free of the little buggers. Downstairs is all stripped floorboards though and they must just have eggs under the boards..... We'll be getting the builders in asap anyway but it's doing my head in with al the hoovering and spraying. I keep dreaming about stuff crawling all over me. Bstards!!

Reading all these horror stories makes me wonder if some people just do nasty things out of spite because they want to be horrible/didn't want to leave their home/generally hate other people. The guy smashing up the only piece of nice furniture sounds just spiteful. Why are people so unpleasantly unpleasant?

OP how horrible! some people have no shame, some of these stories are really shocking i thought our previous owners were bad, taking every little thing like the doorbell and didnt properly clean the place but it wasnt on the level of properly filthy just the level of a lazy person who doesnt clean properly. These stories about rats and fleas and leaks everywhere is making me think that actually ours was not too bad at all!

OP you could be me, posting from the past this time 2011.

We moved house before Christmas and found the previous owners had left us with a flooded kitchen and a flea infestation. They had unplumbed their washing machine without turning off the water or capping the pipes. They had also apparently forgotten a rug in one of the bedrooms, which on being moved revealed a massive hole in the "nearly new" carpet and a big stain which was obviously cat pee. Horrible.

I had to call the council to deal with the fleas. It was a one of payment of £45 (free if you claim certain benefits or credits etc) and they came twice. I think once would have been good enough but twice made absolutely certain the fleas were gone. Work is guaranteed for a month, and after they have sprayed you cannot hoover up for at least two weeks, but it's well worth it.

And I know this sounds extreme, but if we ever move house again I will be asking the agent if the owners have cats and if they do it will have to be a pretty special house to convince me to view/buy.

And if we get to the buying stage, I will be doing the same as you and not moving in until the place has been cleaned and sprayed for fleas.

How awful! I hope the fleas curl up and die. Thought I'd add my own horror story for fun though.

Many years ago, before I was born, my parents emigrated. They had sold the house (in excellent condition) but they hadn't completed before they flew out of Britain. As all the paperwork was signed, my parents asked my dad's parents if they would just keep an eye on the house and hand in the keys on completion day. All went well, sale went through, everyone's happy.

My parents decided not to stay overseas and came home, returning to their local area and dad ran into a friend several years later. Friend was telling my dad about his brother and wife who had bought a house several years before. It turned out that the brother and his wife had bought my parents house. This friend went crazy at my dad, asking him how he could live with himself, what was wrong with him etc.

When he calmed down, dad managed to establish that in the couple of weeks when my grandmother had been 'looking after' the house before completion, she had virtually stripped the place bare. She'd taken every fixture and fitting she could, left holes in the walls where she'd ripped things out and even pulled up the rise bushes in her garden. Mum and dad had no idea about any of this and were mortified. Relations between parents and grandparents soured!

OP can you speak to your solicitor about the boiler?

They can perhaps try to get half the repair/replacement costs back for you.

And another thing I did to kill fleas was to plug the iron into an extension cable and crawl around the floor steaming the entire carpet. Looks and sounds mental but the man who came out to spray said he thought it had helped to kill off some of the fleas. Hoover up first (try putting a flea collar in your hoover if it's one of those with a cylinder and empty the hoover after cleaning each room). Try to get into corners and edges as much as possible with both hoover and iron.

OP, wrt fleas, my cat got them pretty badly last year and the vet sold me this spray... I can't remember what it was called, bit worked really well. It must be pretty toxic because you have to remove all pets from the room and not let them in again for six hours, but I used to spray in the morning before I went to work. All soft furnishings apart from mattresses, and do it really slowly all over the carpets/wooden floor so it covers every inch. Could you go to the vets and ask if they ahev something similar?

We came to replace the central heating and discovered the previous owners had DIY'd the system using industrial steel. We had to hire specialist machinery to cut through it.
They had tiled over tiles.
We gained three inches of ceiling height when we finally got out the last layer of carpet, with interesting finds between each layer, think pass the parcel for adults
Much as I get fed up with this house I intend to leave feet first. Never again.

The spray is called Virbac, big white can with blue writting

Chances are the ex owners are liable for the repair costs of the broken boiler, as they left it broken!

OH this thread! We have just signed to put our house for sale. I'm not sure I want to buy a new one now
I swear on my bottle of wine I will leave my house clean for the new owner (providing someone buys it!)

OMG it wasn't as bad as dead dog but our first house was horrific!

On moving day we were kept waiting for 7 hours to get the keys, when we did finally get them and got to the house, they had left a lovely clapped out rusting car on the front garden that categorically (sp) was not there when we viewed.

I could have whistled and the carpets would have walked out. The boiler was broken, the fire leaked carbon monoxide, the bathroom leaked, and hob didn't work.

You could jump in the middle of the living room like a trampoline on the very badly fitted laminate. The back bedroom had carpet upon carpet upon carpet in it and the furniture that she had so kindly donated to us was what can only be described as squalid.

She left
Childrens clothers dirty and worn, some stuffed under the carpets stained with faeces
A washing machine full of dirty clothes
childrens racing bed
A double bed masking a patch of missing carpet
Adult toys
Drug paraphinalia
Stubbed out cigarettes
Broken wardrobes
and a flea infestation.

The garden sewer drain had been blocked for some months meaning their toilet was blocked and so they emptied buckets of excrement in the back garden.

Silver fish had infested the kitchen and the house smelt like something had died in it.

We had baliffs round as she didn't change her address and if I ever see her again I don't think I could be held accountable for my actions.

It took, 5 skips industrial strength cleaner and lots of £££'s to put it right.

When we moved the second time, the lady had scrubbed the house from top to bottom and left us a bottle of wine. If I ever see her again I would kiss her

When we moved 5 years ago, we left the house clean and tidy, and in fact the hoover was the last thing packed as I ran it round just to be sure the carpets were clean.

We were packed and waiting to move in at 12 noon. We finally got the keys at 3:30pm, and they were still packing their stuff. They'd decided they wouldn't hire a removal company but use a friend's transit to move in several journeys, and even left some stuff in the garage to collect the next day. They were moving from one side of town to the other, and of course, this was at half term, when a fair was on in town, meaning that roads were very busy, and so causing the delay.

The carpets were filthy and I wouldn't let the kids run around in bare feet until some new carpets were in and the remainder cleaned.

In the house we left, the previous owner had been a DIY bodger, leaving live wires plastered in, etc, and the owrst thing we had to deal with was the kitchen ceiling. The kitchen had been extended into what had been the old outdoor toilet, and the chap had not realised it was a load bearing wall.... It was held up by 2 bits of 2x4 badly nailed in and to cap it all our furniture had been moved into the bedroom above. How the ceiling never came down is a mystery. Dad took one horrified look and installed some jacks asap (he was a builder) until he could do a proper job to support the ceiling.

Feminine, did you not get a full survey?!

As a wannabe first time buyer, this thread is most illuminating

My cousin once bought a house that had cheap lino superglued onto the marble floor in the hall.

So you don't get the keys when you sign the sales contract? That's the way it works here. Keys handed over in front of the estate agent and solicitor. Then the agent accompanies the two parties to the property to read the meters.

Sommewhereelse - where do you live?

In England you get the keys on the day of completion once the money has changed hands. The sellers solicitors, on receipt of money, phone the estate agents to release the keys to the buyer.

France. Both parties turn up to sign the sales documents at the same time (or send a proxy). The bank has to give the solicitor the funds in advance of the signing session. When we sold, we didn't get our money until about 3 days later but we knew the solicitor had it and that the bank transfer was arranged.

We have been bought and sold and both times the vendors gave the purchasers a guided tour to explain the appliances etc. I don't know if this is always the custom, but it would certainly encourage people to leave their properties in a more presentable state.

coral yes as far as we could, in the middle of December with the roof covered in snow! The sellers had the weather on their side.

The house had a full inspection. Unfortunately as far as the previous owners were concerned they had fixed it. The law works like that here.

At some points during the last 6 years, we have had various roofing experts take a look at it. It was done completely wrong, using wrong materials etc...

That, coupled with the crippling economy, made it impossible to rectify.

It was sold to us as a complete re-model ...we were fools to believe them.

Well, at least I get to come home :)