Moved in yday, filthy house, took everything, raging!

[Mimmi78]

Don't post a lot, but am awake on a mattress on the floor of my new family home at 5 am, just raging/worries & generally cluttered mind! Completed yesterday
It's taken a year, mostly due to the sellers, they were slow, didn't produce paperwork and refused to have direct contact with their own agent! Then insisted dates etc were all convenient for them & no one else in the chain (4 property)
AIBU, when I walked through the door, I felt a surge of foreboding followed by disappointment. It's filthy. Not just a dust & vacuum required, I mean, never cleaned the shower, windows, vacuumed since showing the property! We asked to view again prior to exchange, they let us eventually, but insisted on not being there and I thought then, this needs cleaning. I asked solicitor to ensure it stated this, he said it always does. There was rabbit pop in the kitchen sink, their bodge a job removers had trailed the whole outside inside (& were there 2hrs after completion as was the owner, who refused to acknowledge us!) they had taken every single lightbulb and ceiling rose (this is a breach of our sale contract!), every pole, not even a big roll, just filth, piles of it, everywhere!! I'm furious, my sold property was left immaculate, little notebook with useful info and a welcome basket. The sellers have only moved a couple of streets away, wibu to trash & discuss their filth with new neighbours, who will no doubt know them and if I see them, call them filthy animals???? Make me feel better so I can get on and make this house a home for DD1 (7) & DS1 (5) who arrive today. Thank you

That's reminds me, the previous owners did no gardening once we'd made our offer either and were not welcoming when we asked to come back to measure for curtains aka look again to make sure we still liked the house.

Our house cost us £700 in professional cleaning bills. We'd booked a husband and wife team for the day to deep clean and wash the carpets. Once previous owners left and we were in we looked around with the panicked cleaners and then they got on the phone.... another 3 women arrived 30 mins later and the 5 of them plus us and my parents cleaned for about 8 hours.

Got it just about liveable..... 😟😷
My Dad was the lucky one who got to miss cleaning to go and buy replacement lightbulbs, loo roll, light switches, loo seats and window fasteners. Seriously, some people are just scummy.

Who are the people who think this is ok?

Are you in GB?

I’ve bought 9 houses / flats over the last 20 years and never have they been clean on completion (or upto my standard). Never heard of a clause that a property has to be cleaned on completion.

Get a company in for a deep clean. In London it’s circa £125 for a 1 bed flat (as a guide).

WRT fixtures and fittings - the seller should not have removed anything that is basically screwed down. I would list out what they have taken and and your solicitor to contact them (bear in mind that this will cost you, so it’s worth weighing up if it’s worth it).

This thread is giving me The Fear! We're in the process of selling our lovely recently renovated house to move to a bigger but quite run down one. It's going to be filthy isn't it?
Before we leave I will be cleaning the house I'm leaving to within an inch of its life. It's a pride thing and I want the new owners to love it as much as we did.

I wonder if the state a place is left in has anything to do with how the vendors feel about the move? Some lovely friends of ours moved into a house that was being sold due to a divorce. It was left filthy and full of their crap. It was apparently a very bitter and acrimonious split and perhaps this showed in the way they left it.

Personally i’m the same as the poster above, I could never leave a home dirty for someone to move into. Not only is it a pride thing, I think it’s a nice thing to do as moving is so stressful and knackering - I would hate to think the poor people have to spend time cleaning it before they can move in. Sadly, not everyone thinks like this. I would say the majority of places i’ve bought need a deep clean.

People move for all sorts of reasons, they hate the house or area, cannot cope living there, family breakdown, health problems. They may have a grudge about selling and feel they owe the vendors nothing particularly if they accepted a low offer. Often it will be a massive trauma/achievement getting packed and moved at all. It is hard to move into a dirty house or with bits missing but not every one is house proud.

PP if a house looked dirty or run down when you viewed I would prepare yourself for the worst.

There's a house at the back of mine which was sold last year. I could see that they left the entire back yard 5ft deep in rubbish bags, old carpets, broken furniture, there was just a solid square of junk that filled the entire yard! I felt so sorry for the poor people who moved in for having to deal with that. It appeared as though the sellers had a house full of jnk and filth - they just chucked everything they didn't want to take out the back door and thought that the fairies would magically take it away!

When we bought our house we knew we would be stripping it out but we still had a clause in, we asked for it, that all rubbish, equipment and belongings would be cleared out before conpletion date. I had to phone my soliciter just before exchange to say i was happy or he wasn't going to release the money.
My parents bought an old small holding when i was a kid. The house was a disgusting mess but ee expected it as on a second visit there was a mouse happily eating on the table. They hadn't bothered to muck out the byre though so it was 4ft deep in manure and the stock proof fence, for keeping horses in and cows and sheep out was made of twigs with 3 bits of wire 😂😂 in the summer his heard of cattle woyld come down to get water and see the neighbours buĺl. They just walked straight through the fence without looking.
They were filthy though and moved to the end of the road and had free running sewage onto the main road between us 🤢
Op speak to your soliciter but claim if you can only way these idiots will stop. I hope you get settled and fall in love with your home.

toolazytothinkofausername

Where I am (admittedly US) the disposition of the white goods is always included in the contract. The vast majority of the time they are included in the house sale with the house but this is always clarified in the contract. Also mentioned in the contract is stuff like curtain rods. It is generally assumed that things like doorknobs are considered 'fixed' items so not to be taken with the sellers. But anything that could be taken away ('non-fixed' even if heavy and plugged in or attached to gas pipes) is dealt with in the contract. Ceiling roses would be considered fixed, and very poor form it taken, especially as there is a good deal of vintage plasterwork in my neck of the woods. Sellers even offer white goods insurance money as a deal sweetener if those goods are old. Insurance generally runs to about $400 and can cover replacement if the items turn out to be lemons.

Toolazytothinkofausernane I didn't expect that! I have purchased the property! I expected it to be clear clean and ready to move in! I have had all new appliances delivered today (any Mumsnet plumbers comments welcome for duel connect drain advice on dishwasher and washer, skilled amateur but failing a bit today!)

Two cats 335, saw filth on exchange view and got solicitor to pop clauses in contract. They will pay one way or another!

Catching up on your feedback, advice and feeling much less distraught.I will pursue them, solicitor is motivated as he does lots of other work for us/family and I work in Insurance/finance so am a geek for a contract and clauses. They are CFers but if we all let the CFers off easy, they will start a new world order and we will have to order a blimp to fly over their CF leader (who will defo be from a CF parking thread!!!)

Exactly, OP. Don't let the twats get away with it.

Comments re "all houses are filthy when you move in", no, not unless you live in a filthy house! Pop smeared in toilets, kids rooms reeking if dog, hairs everywhere, carpets stained, poles and roses gone where contracted to stay. Never cleaned airing cupboard (it was thick with spiders & webs!). This wasn't a bit of fluff after moving furniture, this was dirty!

Also sellers not elderly. Young (well like us 35-40 yrs) fit, able two kids similar age to mine.

Yes in GB, moved London to Sussex Taken ten years of bloody hard work and graft!

It's a pride thing and I want the new owners to love it as much as we did.
I wonder if the state a place is left in has anything to do with how the vendors feel about the move? Some lovely friends of ours moved into a house that was being sold due to a divorce. It was left filthy and full of their crap. It was apparently a very bitter and acrimonious split and perhaps this showed in the way they left it.

I had to sell after divorce, and I left my house spotless. It's not necessarily how people feel about the move but about self respect and consideration for others.

The people we had bought the house from (described upthread; infested with raccoons, etc) were very up themselves and moving into a beautiful Victorian house in a very swanky part of town that was costing them about five times the price we were paying for their tip. I think they felt they were too special to clean. And they were lazy. Bone lazy.

any Mumsnet plumbers comments welcome for duel connect drain advice on dishwasher and washer, skilled amateur but failing a bit today!

You need to summon @PigletJohn.

Why are posters telling the OP don't bother with trying to get remuneration?

A contract is a contract, which the sellers agreed too and they broke it. So they need to pay for breaking it.

An idea for you to chew over:-...I own a non listed old building late 14th - 17th C. and I want (or have) to sell. So we agree, sign contracts et cetera. But then I decide to gut the place and just leave an empty shell.

Would you still be telling people like the OP don't bother trying to get the the vendor (that's me btw ) to replace everything at my own cost?.

So sorry OP. You should absolutely chase the vendors but first check your fixtures and fittings document. If the ceiling roses etc are on there then chase them. I had a slightly similar thing. Vendor promised house would be spotless. It was far from it. Took us ages to clean. Also we completed at 10am and were supposed to get the keys at 10am. Finally got in the house at 7.30pm. I don't think they really wanted to go but they certainly weren't forced to move.

Hug sympathy, mine was exactly the same, clearly hadn't cleaned in the 6 months since I'd viewed the place. Luckily I was renting so able to have a week just to clean - it took me and my DM a week of solid cleaning to get it habitable.

Anything legal might be worth talking to your solicitor about but of course that'll cost money so it's worth weighing up the pros if you do actually win.

Well cleaning is one thing but curtain poles, light fittings and bulbs etc can be taken if it is agreed in the content agreement. I have certain plants I would want to take with me if I could.

Also cleaning a house (really properly when large furniture is gone,) while movers are working is quite hard to do and people can run out of time if everyone is moving at the same time so places are not always immaculate.

Some of these stories however are awful. In my experience some houses are cleaner than others and people often leave stuff behund but I have not had the filth, and CFery talked about here thankfully.

Our vendors apparently cleaned ..... they didn't. I threw up when cleaning out old food mixed with dog hair from the kitchen

My house I left was immaculate. I spent days cleaning it

Gutted

I've bought too many houses with cat wee and dog poo left in carpets on completion days. Nowadays, if I'm looking to move I wouldn't even view a property if there was evidence of pets on the rightmove photos.