AIBU - house bought with stuff?!

[Vixii]

Hi,

We bought a house a month or so ago and we've since found out various things that we will have to fix (eg broken lights (leaving sharp broken glass edges), broken dishwasher, plumbing system is a disaster, as are the electrics) etc etc. I know that to a point you expect some additional costs in a new house. There's also some strange things like paint jobs which literally seem to finish mid brush stroke, half way down a wall.

Anyway, the point is this - we've resigned ourselves to bearing the cost of most of this but one thing that has really irked is that our sellers left some stuff behind - furniture and rubbish. I think they should pay for a skip to get rid of it (why should I pay to dispose of the rubbish they couldn't be bothered to?). I thought this was fair enough but a friend has just accused me of being "grabby" and small minded, and they I should just suck it up, basically.

Is it unreasonable to pursue the seller for the costs of any of this?

I'm pretty sure contractually I could get more than just the cost of the skip, but am trying to pick my battles!!

Thanks (and sorry for long-windednesa)!

You can't sue over condition of house, that's what survey's are for. But you can get your solicitors to pursue them for not leaving the property empty.

Well I don't think you can pursue them for money for crap decorating etc but they should absolutely be paying to remove their furniture from your house. And for the repair of the dishwasher if you've bought it in good faith and it's broken. You bought the house, not crap that they don't want.

You can pursue, but you have no power to oblige them to get a skip. Remove it yourself. You're not being grabby, I'd be thoroughly pissed off and was when I took possession of a house with crap left for me to bin. Bloody inconsiderate wankers.

Give the estate agent a bell to pass on a strong message if you like.

We discovered on moving in that the electrics were fucked and the windows all needed to be replaced, and the seller had left loads of his crap in the house. All costs recovered from seller. About £15k all in.

Speak to your solicitor - they will.proably advise you that while you are well within your rights to pursue the vendors to pay for clearing the stuff they've behind, it isn't worth the energy or cost of doing so.

You bought it with vacant possession, so go after them for crap removal costs.

The rest, I'm afraid, is caveat emptor and should have been spotted at survey. Trying to sue surveyors is a waste of effort, they close ranks. Don't bother unless really big stuff.

Notreallyarsed I'm amazed you got the money back for electrics and windows - shouldn't your surveyor have mentioned anything like that?

You can't do anything about the paintwork etc, but the costs incurred by the crap left behind can be reclaimed through a solicitor. When we bought our house, the previous owners decided to leave the shed full of crap, left furniture in the garden, half a motorbike in the shed and the world's biggest pot plant was dragged through the house leaving soil embedded in the carpet. We got straight onto our solicitor and the agent and told them that if they didn't come and sort it all, they would be liable for all costs incurred. I got a couple of quotes for skips and carpet cleaning whilst the solicitors spoke with them. They came very quickly once I handed the quotes over!

Yanbu with regards to the rubbish. Your vendor will have signed something along the lines off 'The property will be left clean and tidy' and any items to be left must have been made clear to you. Although, you should have notified your EA and solicitor of this as soon as you moved in, ideally with dated photos.

No idea how, it was the solicitor who pursued it. I was pretty amazed too tbh. The surveyor was shit, really shit.

Speak to your Solicitor regarding the terms of the sale, it sounds like they breached them, things like broken dishwasher etc might also be covered?

Speak to your solicitor. We're in Scotland an our buyers only had a fixed period to be able to claim on anything e.g. White goods not working etc. but I'm sure it was only 5 working days or something. It may be different elsewhere.

Oh aye I’m in Scotland too, don’t know if that changes anything? I know property laws are different.

Thank you!
We could claim for the dishwasher as it was stated that there wasn't one (removal coat all of about £15 so definitely not worth the effort)! Could also claim for the broken lights I think as broken glass isn't "clean and and tidy" in my book, but there's probably a row to be had there and I'm not sure I have the energy.
We tried to be nice and discuss it through the estate agent which got us absolutely nowhere.... so to the lawyers we go!

Just wanted to check I wasn't being a royal bitch in doing so!

For what it's worth, I'm 90% sure property laws in Scotland are totally different to England. They seem much more sensible!

Yanbu

Too late for you now, but thing to do is to insist on the house being cleared before completion.
I once suspected that a vendor was going to leave a pile of his old crap and junk behind - I didn't see why I should have to pay someone else to take it away- and I was right, he did try to, loads of it, including a manky old sofa. Completion was delayed for a day until he got rid of it. He was mightily pissed off but tough - I'd made it crystal clear that I wasn't having it.

I'm constantly amazed by how little time we spend checking out the houses we buy fir hundreds of thousands of pounds. A couple of cursory glances around usuallY. We should be given hours to explore every nook and cranny.

Your legal costs wouldn't justify it. Just suck it up.

A friend moved in and found 2 dobermans in the house.

I didn't realise my loft was full of the previous owners stuff. I'd never been up there. My buyers solicitors came down hard on me to remove it. Wish I'd checked better when I moved in!

I believe you can speak to your solicitor to get them to cover the costs of the skip etc for the crap the previous owners have left behind. But, there's a good chance the cost of the solicitors service will mean you might not get much financial benefit out of it. As for the crappy condition of the house, my understanding is that you wouldn't have much chance reclaiming any costs for this, as normally that's why you would pay to house surveyed before purchasing. If you did have the house surveyed and the surveyors missed important problems with the house, then your solicitor would need to raise this with the surveyor I believe.

Worth asking your solicitor to send a strongly worded letter about the rubbish.

Our seller luckily cane back the day after completion to pick up something he really wanted. I met him at the door with a massive box of crap.

@illustratednews - what did they do?!!! That's hilarious/awful!

Thanks guys - have solicitors on the case :) even if we don't get much financially it's the principle!