To be pissed off with the ex owners of my house?

[Sixthnight]

We moved house recently, dream home that needed a bit of work to modernise.

The couple who we bought it from move in similar social circles t my mom and dad. It appears they've been telling all and sundry what a great house we've had from them and what fantastic condition they left it in for us. DM has heard this from quite a few now.

Well it is considerably NOT in fantastic condition. They knew it wasn't clean when they left as the wide apologised several times that they didn't have time. It was filthy, tbh, loos not cleaned, worksurface not even wiped, no hoovering, nothing. We've had to do tip trips to get rid of stuff of theirs that they didn't take.

I've moved on from the uncleanliness now. And they've apologised.

But, the house is not in fantastic condition, the shower heads were full of limescale, and has now had the be replaced as the pump failed. DH has just spent 3 days repairing the heat and hot water system. There's 3 dead wasps nests in storage areas. One of the windows is totally rotted through meaning it needs replacing but as it's conservation area we need planning permission before we can, and the recent rain has damaged the dormer and room below, we've done a quick fix to see us dry until planning permission. There was gripper rods left exposed under furniture that they removed. One of the showers has leaked into the laundry. Cupboard doors are hanging off.

There's no way in effing hell that this is a fantastic condition house and them bigging it up is really pissing me off. I know I should be unaffected by this misrepresentation, but AIBU?

I feel you pain OP. The previous owners to our house left it filthy. They took the trouble to sweep up in the dining room, but then left it so we had a small mound of dirt in the middle of the room

Everybody hates the person they bought their house off. It's just how things go.

Ugh, so true. I see the previous owner of our previous house at work - she's nice but her husband was a dick. Took a load of stuff they shouldn't (towel tails, loo roll holders) and wanted to take th (crappy) conservatory laminate with him but was told he couldn't.

This house - the owner we saw (her, like a shadow, every time we visited, never saw him at all) told us they'd never got round to fitting a log burner, thought about it, but it's such a warm house ... it's the second coldest place I've ever lived in (not as cold as the flat where I could see my breath in front of me, it's true). Why say that? Blatant and pointless fucking lie.

I also hate the people who bought my parents previous house. They tried to sell it a couple of years after buying it off my parents. The advert stated 'extensively renovated by the previous owners'. They'd put some laminate and an IKEA unit in the dining room. My parents, over 20 years, had taken it from a 3-bed with a tiny kitchen, bath in the pantry, loo in a lean-to, two a 4-bed 2-bath with huge lovely kitchen, study, utility, conservatory, double garage ... mostly DIY. My dad really didn't care but it made me feel extremely stabby!

I agree with what ecuse said; if they hear of these people telling their lies get your parents to reel off a list of all the work you've had to have done. It will soon become apparent in their social circle that these people are complete twurps.

We should be moving soon too in to a house that I keep referring to as our dream house and I just know every time I say it that I'm probably tempting fate! I must admit though (no doubt I'm going to get slated for this) that to a certain degree aren't most of us guilty when we move out of perhaps not leaving our house in the best state of repair? One of the taps in our kitchen is a bit iffy and I do keep thinking to myself that I must somehow sort it (dp completely useless at diy) but then sort of think well, maybe I'll just leave it?! I would definitely leave the place spotlessly clean and wouldn't ever leave rubbish. But to spend time and money on something just before you are going to move out?

The person who lived here before us just went over any flaws with paint so it looked great on viewings but wasn't until very close inspection after we had moved in that we noticed it really wasn't all perfect! So to those saying didn't you notice on viewing to the op, it can be very easily overlooked as you are just looking at the general picture and as long as nothing jumps out you probably won't notice any flaws.

I feel for you OP, you genuinely can't see a lot of little things in a survey that can become quite costly as people are cunning at hiding them. I don't think I'd say anything to them unless they said they'd left it in a lovely condition to my face.
Next time someone mentions it just say, 'no they didn't' - no sarcasm, no passive aggressive, no ticking off lists, just fact 'No, they didn't' and move on.

If it makes you feel any better, you can buy brand new and still be in the same position. We got a new build apartment whose builders promptly went bust so no-one to do all the snagging issues and just passed between insurers. I don't have a single fecking window that opens or closes properly or an internal door that fits right

YANBU and I wouldn't keep schtum either,they're more than happy to lie to everyone and make it sound like they did you a favour.I'm afraid I am one person who wouldn't be able to keep quiet.

I completely sympathise with other posters on this thread ...we bought the easy option house -just needed a bit of redecorating, new kitchen and boiler in the longer term...we were first time buyers and we never got to see the house without the owner being present
There was some problem with the deeds so it took just over 3 months for the sale to go through...during which time the owners 21 yo son was living there -on his own.... with a dog.
I was 8 month pregnant when I got the keys- I popped in on my own all excited ....and I cried.
It stank of dog and was absolutely filthy -matted dog hairs on the stairs, skids in the loo - living room carpet was filthy (I gave up trying and had it professionally cleaned and the guy said two light patches were from pet urine being left on it for a long time.) On the living room walls were funny sploshes that I eventually worked out were from someone throwing teabags at it....the owner said she was sorry the removal men had made a bit of a mess ...
And there were lots of 'problems' that we had missed (owner was very good at selling/distracting from bad things )- minor eg some of the floor tiles were missing from the front of the kitchen sink - covered with a mat -the whole time we were in the kitchen she was stood on that mat...bigger ones - there was no heating (at all) upstairs ...and double glazing that was so badly fitted I could fit my finger in the gap between the frame -in fact the whole door/window unit at the back would move in the wind etc, etc, etc.
Worse they'd owned it for 2 years - soon realised why they wanted shut of it. Previous owner was a DIYer - I call them Mr Bodge-it. He'd done the bathroom - looked lovely, big, separate shower - a selling point - except it had been extended into the eaves - with no insulation and was full of dodgy plumbing. Eg had moved the toilet cistern - made it concealed - it originally had an external overflow... he hadn't bothered fitting a new one ...so when it started overflowing it did it on the ceiling downstairs - the ceiling collapsed...(insurance sorted it out but that room has water marks all over the ceiling as other bits developed leaks..the drains also blocked really badly as there isn't enough fall on the 10m long waste pipe...) - transfer that to every room in the house -eg light switches dangerously wired (metal one not earthed, one switched neutral not live), a socket that is on the lighting circuit (plug in a hoover and it blows the fuse) ...kitchen was as bad for plumbing - the washing machine drain pipe ran through the back of a cupboard and kept falling off ...draining into the cupboard except if you had water running in the sink when the washing machine emptied it poured out onto the floor behind the machine instead...even silly things like a patch of carpet in a doorway held down with carpet tacks - about 12 tacks per sq foot ...huge post but I really could go on and on and on ....
But the absolute worse was what she told me was about the neighbours - she told me what a lovely area it was - how nice the the doctor and the old couple on one side were ....but didn't mention the neighbour directly next door had a reputation in the area as being a complete nightmare - and not just becasue of the drunken arguments he and his alcoholic wife regularly had in the street. So bad that the neighbours on the other side said they were glad we acted as a buffer ... I had 10yrs of hell from him - police involved etc -I was frightened to even hang my washing out at times ...
I bought a new house in an area I don't really want to live in to just to get well away. It needed renovating but I absolutely stripped it out - to avoid nasty surprises - 3 months into it my neighbour from hell died unexpectedly and I no longer want to move - I know all the failings of this house and the neighbours....

When painting a wall and coming to an area that doesn't want painting (eg window sill, glass, light switch, skirting board) do you:-

(a) Put masking tape on all the non paint areas
(b) Paint very very carefully to keep to the right areas
(C) hand brush to nearest five y.o. And tell them to have fun!

The really annoying thing is that my previous owners didn't even have a 5yo - they must have borrowed one specially!

I really feel for you. It is very stressful to keep on finding more and more things that need repairing, and the thought of all the £££ gives you the heebeejeebies.

The previous owners of my old house also had dogs, and when it rained the place smelled of old, wet dogs. There were dog biscuits under every single appliance. The owner was an architect and had done all his own wiring and a good deal of the plumbing was his work too. They had carefully hidden evidence of a leaky roof by painting a ceiling. We had to put down buckets the first time it rained, and water poured through the ceiling light fixture. The house had no gutters because apparently that style of house didn't need them. The role of gutters in bringing rainwater away from the foundation was lost on the architect... Best of all was the animal poo we found in a built in drawer, and the realisation that the biggest raccoon troop of the neighbourhood had made the attic their winter home and spring nursery for many, many years (perhaps explaining the poo in the built in drawer).

We looked into suing the surveyor because most of what he found was stupid details and most of what he missed was really major items. The oven had to be replaced within a few weeks as there was a gap of an inch when the door 'shut'. Nothing cooked, and it turned out they had hooked up the gas themselves.. We had to get the place reroofed and new gutters within two years. The attic took major cleaning and fumigating. The wiring was fixed to a certain extent but redoing it all properly would have meant gutting the house. The plumbing held up but we had to get a new water heater when the old one rusted through. They had installed the AC motor upside down so all the lubricating oil eventually oozed out into the basement, and the motor screeched like a banshee when we turned it on on a day with 35C temps.

So stressful, with three small children, the youngest a 6 month old.

Talk to your solicitor and the people who did your survey.
Then sue the vendors! Dirty bastards!

And it was filthy when we moved in. The kitchen floor turned out to be off white, not mid grey. There was food caked all over the kitchen cupboards and under the cabinets on the wainscoting, and in the fridge and freezer, and dog hair everywhere. There was filthy purple shag carpeting that they were supposed to have ripped up from the basement and the basement stairs, left for us presumably because it was under a labyrinth of home made 'bookshelves' (aka chipboard fire trap) down there into which the basement wiring had been tacked. So we had to turn off the electricity and dismantle the bookshelves with no light, and tackle the wiring in the semi darkness too before we could take up the carpet. It made me wheeze, and under the carpet we found dog biscuits and lots of scurrying insects. So we had to get the place sprayed.

A small example of the things we found when we moved in:

• massive gouge (about 18x18 inches) out of the plaster in one of the bedrooms
• the "cooker on/off" switch was all smashed, and basically a lethal hole in the wall.
• the "telephone" sockets in just about every room were not connected to anything - just screwed to the wall (who does that??).

I went back to the estate agents pictures, because I couldn't believe I'd missed them. The plaster hole was hidden by a chest and pillow, and the cooker switch by a giant saucepan.

We had far worse problems too, including the house having a distinct whiff od sewage about it, which did have me worried. But a thorough clean and bleach of the bathrooms/toilets seemed to sort that out

The thing is, we had left our old house pristine. I had spents hours cleaning it, simply because I couldn't stand the new people thinking 'ew mingers'.

A small example of the things we found when we moved in:

• massive gouge (about 18x18 inches) out of the plaster in one of the bedrooms
• the "cooker on/off" switch was all smashed, and basically a lethal hole in the wall.
• the "telephone" sockets in just about every room were not connected to anything - just screwed to the wall (who does that??).

I went back to the estate agents pictures, because I couldn't believe I'd missed them. The plaster hole was hidden by a chest and pillow, and the cooker switch by a giant saucepan.

We had far worse problems too, including the house having a distinct whiff od sewage about it, which did have me worried. But a thorough clean and bleach of the bathrooms/toilets seemed to sort that out

The thing is, we had left our old house pristine. I had spents hours cleaning it, simply because I couldn't stand the new people thinking 'ew mingers'.

stupid double post.

Are you in the uk?

Pps are correct about planning permission. I have a house in a conservation area and you definitely do not need planning permission, retrospective or otherwise, to change your windows like for like.

If you're in the south east I have an excellent recommendation for double glazed wooden Windows. PM me if you'd like it.

I've PM'd you Mrs M!

Mrs M - we had to get permission to completely replace things like windows even like for like -unless they went down as a repair.
Eg a business premises we had a wooden fire escape - needed replacing - caused a huge fight between 2 depts - we should replace with metal but they wouldn't let us etc - in the end it was nearly falling off the wall and no resolution so we replaced it all in wood except a few bottom steps which then classed as a repair rather than replacement....(and cost considerably less than a metal one)...

Ahhh sorry scrap that - just remembered that was because it was a listed building ...not just in a conservation area.

Pmed you back pip

Yes it's different for listed buildings I'm afraid!