Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Bathroom comes with the house??!!

607 replies

greencygnets · 29/07/2018 12:10

So DH and I have just bought a new house (not brand new but new to us :)) and it cost us a lot of money (far more than a care to admit! :))
We moved in yesterday, the house is perfect except for one thing...

They've taken the bloody bathroom with them!!!!

One of the two main bathrooms upstairs is literally empty, like I don't mean just the furniture which you obviously take with you. But they've taken the bath, sink and shower!!!!

The room is tiled but theres random pipes sticking out of walls where these things should be!! The only thing left is the toilet. I honestly don't know what to do... We were going to redo the bathroom anyway at some point but never told this to anybody and weren't planning to do so until at least November/December time but now we don't have a choice!!

The kids come home from the holiday with my in-laws on Tuesday and we've got no bathroom for them!!!!

AIBU to think that the bathroom comes with the house, or is it totally reasonable to take the bathroom with you to your new house??!!

OP posts:
LighthouseSouth · 29/07/2018 18:01

@Hygge

did this occur between exchange and completion?

Grimbles · 29/07/2018 18:06

5.30 is the cut off time for CHAPS to be sent

Apogies, it is now. It was 3.30 last time I moved in 2015 (although exact times may differ depending on the bank?) Smile

pigsDOfly · 29/07/2018 18:10

Not sure how the OP managed to get to the point of getting a mortgage and buying a house as she sounds as if she doesn't have the first idea what's she's doing.

She also seems to have the most inept solicitor ever, either that or the solicitor is being paid by the other side to screw her over.

Onecutefox · 29/07/2018 18:10

I hope the Saturday move agreed between you and seller is in a written form as they may say we did move out on time but someone else might have broke in and had taken the bathroom.

pigsDOfly · 29/07/2018 18:12

Ah just seen the OP's DH did most of the 'legal' stuff.

Sounds like he's as clueless as she is then.

BewareOfDragons · 29/07/2018 18:12

Dick move on the part of the Sellers. Utter dick move.

Agree you need to get your solicitors on it asap. Money back...?

SheCameFromGreeceSheHadaThirst · 29/07/2018 18:14

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

LongSummerDays · 29/07/2018 18:17

Still, if what we're being told here is what genuinely did happen, it appears that her DH doesn't 'get it' either. Or her solicitor, for that matter.

The only people that "got it" was the supposed vendors who legged it with the bathrooom suite! Grin

LongSummerDays · 29/07/2018 18:18

*were Blush

Bluelady · 29/07/2018 18:19

Oh give over you lot. Some people are clueless. We weren't all born knowing how to buy a house. I was utterly clueless the first time.

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 29/07/2018 18:19

Indeed. The only dick move was on op’s part.

LoveManyTrustfew · 29/07/2018 18:20

You couldn't make it up.

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 29/07/2018 18:21

That’s why you pay a solicitor, Bluelady. There’s no way op was advised to do what she did by anyone with any legal knowledge whatsoever.

Cheby · 29/07/2018 18:25

If your solicitor suggested you let them stay in the house after completion then I’d be making a complaint I think. That’s dreadful advice.

I hope you get it sorted tomorrow OP!

LighthouseSouth · 29/07/2018 18:26

Bluelady "We weren't all born knowing how to buy a house."

no, but you get informed before doing it. Even if OP solicitor was crap - which I doubt tbh as all we have here is OP understanding when she says herself she didn't deal with the solicitor - if you learn the basics yourself, you know you are responsible for the place as soon as completion occurs.

as a first time buyer I spent the first night on the floor in a sleeping bag for exactly that reason! I was sitting outside with a bag of stuff for the completion moment!

anyway, I don't think anyone is waving a banner saying "you've been silly" - some of us are saying OP might get a shock tomorrow morning is all.

SheCameFromGreeceSheHadaThirst · 29/07/2018 18:26

We weren't all born knowing how to buy a house

No one was born knowing how to buy a house. Not a single soul, living or deceased, was born with this innate knowledge.

Most make it their business to find out when they enter into a transaction involving hundreds of thousands of pounds of their money, though. Only a fool would skip through the process without bothering to learn anything about it.

And conveyancing solicitors are very definitely required to have a thorough working knowledge of the processes and obligations of it all. Apart from this one, who has inexplicably doled out all sorts of incorrect information and bizarre caveats Confused

Hygge · 29/07/2018 18:40

@Lighthouse, it started well before exchange and went on right up to the day we completed and moved.

As we were bringing our things in through one door, they were still taking their things out though the other, and still complaining that we were unreasonable to expect them to do it all in one day because, you know, they had lots of things! And a cat!

notapizzaeater · 29/07/2018 18:42

We looked round a repossession once - they'd took everything leaving a standpipe in the kitchen, cracked the bath and kicked a hole in every door,

Imchlibob · 29/07/2018 18:46

I rather think that they have successfully done a massive number on you and you will not get a penny out of them as they have left the country.

This whole completing late on a Friday was quite deliberate so that you couldn't do anything about it till they were long gone. You won't be able to even trace them, let alone sue them.

If your solicitor was any good they would have known this kind of thing can and does happen and would have arranged to retain 10% of the purchase price until nasty surprises like this have been ruled out. Not sure if you would have a case against your solicitor for failing to do this.

ElementalHalfLife · 29/07/2018 18:48

Make it your business to find out...only a fool...solicitors are infallible

The bloody snotty, superior attitudes here. Did any of you ever, when buying a house, think to ask if the bathroom fixture were included? Anyone? I sincerely doubt it, never been a question I've asked, and I'd give even my solicitor a very slight pass (I'd still sue him because even in exceptional circumstances he's still responsible) if he were to miss such an exclusion in the mass of standard paperwork that goes with house conveyancy because such an exclusion is so fucking rare as to be almost non-existent.

The OP depended on her paid professional to do his job, and if it turns out he missed something or gave her poor advice re allowing the vendors an extra hour's leeway, he is liable to compensate her. Quit with the victim blaming.

LongSummerDays · 29/07/2018 18:54

Oh fgs it's covered on the TA10 form. Simple tick boxes "included" "excluded" "none".

Any solicitor worth his salt would query any "excluded" or "none".

But as this is academic anyway, it barely matters. Grin

BoneyBackJefferson · 29/07/2018 18:54

Grimbles
This is getting more and more implausible with each update... hmm

Not really, a friend of mine bought his first house and was due to move in at 2pm, we got there to find the previous owners still moving out. it was 5pm before we started to move him in.

At my first house the previous owners solicitors hung on till late Friday, the EA couldn't release the keys till they had the go ahead from the solicitors confirming the go ahead.

We very nearly had to collect the keys on the Saturday.

SheCameFromGreeceSheHadaThirst · 29/07/2018 18:55

If your solicitor was any good they would have known this kind of thing can and does happen and would have arranged to retain 10% of the purchase price until nasty surprises like this have been ruled out

Really? Can you substantiate that? I've never heard of such a thing. My understanding was that the whole of the purchase price has to be with the vendor at the point of completion in order for the keys to be released. I've never heard of withholding a portion of the funds 'just in case'.

It seems like a guaranteed way to open up a whole world of stress if a buyer thinks they've got access to a loophole that allows them to claw back a portion of the funds after they own the property, and by which point the vendor no longer has access to the property in order verify any alleged claim.

LighthouseSouth · 29/07/2018 18:57

@Hygge

I'm amazed you didn't pull out of the sale - if it started before exchange, I'd be unable to deal with someone like that.

or I'd have demanded to keep the cat Wink

SheCameFromGreeceSheHadaThirst · 29/07/2018 19:00

Did any of you ever, when buying a house, think to ask if the bathroom fixture were included? Anyone?

I bought a house recently. I went through the property information pack with a fine-toothed comb. Had any of the standard fixtures and fittings not been included I'd have raised it with my solicitor. Why on earth wouldn't you? What is remotely 'superior' or 'snobby' about making sure you understand the terms of a contract you're signing, or what exactly is covered under the massive amount of money you're handing over for what is likely the biggest financial decision of your life?