To ask for your worst experiences viewing houses?

[DSHathawayGivesMeFannyGallops]

Please cheer me up! I had the viewing from hell last night; the place was filthy and you could tell the Estate Agent was mortified. Due to other issues, I declined to put in an offer and have other viewings lined up, but I've started to exhaust my area for now and I'm feeling a little jaded.

Please tell me I'm not alone in backing away in horror and tell me all about the worst viewings you've had!

Oh- and I'm not a journo. The Daily Mail can piss off and write their own shitty copy.

No me, but my mum went to look at a house that was occupied by tenants. The estate agent showed her into one of the bedrooms which was occupied by a woman with a days-old newborn, in bed, attempting to establish breastfeeding. My mum was mortified, she felt so bad for the poor couple who were presumably about to lose their home and were constantly having their privacy invaded by viewings, she barely looked at the house. She left as quickly as she could.

We viewed a 1 bedroom flat many years ago. The owners were very polite but spoke little English, they sort of conveyed that we couldn't go into the bedroom but if they opened the door a bit we could peep in. We duly peeped in, and in the gloom we could just make out a very old, tiny, naked man with a huge grin and no teeth, sitting in the bed waving at us.

We still smile years later just thinking about it, so it wasn't awful, just memorable.

Oh, this has brought back a time I was looking for a little flat to move into when I was 21 first place away from home. I turned up in the pissing rain to wait outside for 30 minutes as the fecker had changed the time and not told me to accommodate another person who was looking. He opened the door to an almighty stench of damp. It was the depths of winter and the place was empty so no heating on, and the condensation and mould was all you could smell. We couldn’t actually SEE anything as the electric had been cut and it was about 5pm so pretty much pitch black. Just the light from his phone. I poked my head in the living room and he muttered something about the good sized rooms. The other chap was straight in to have a look / feel in the dark. There was no flooring down either just bare concrete. I just said it’s not for me if the landlord can’t even organise a safe viewing and left, wet, cold and smelling of mould. Never appreciated my parents clean, dry, warm house more after haha!

Also viewed a house as a student when the current student tenants had left a massive bottle of lube and a pile of tissues on his desk < not envy

The people we bought our house from had an entire room full of snakes. Not great if you have to ask people about their phobias when doing a house tour!

We were after a 4 bed family home and the EA showed us around a lovely house but just a little too big and realistically the council tax would make it too costly per month.

He then offered to show us another house that needed work. The complete opposite of what we were after. Tiny, dirty and the walls were yellow from the previous owners smoking. I was 6 months pregnant at the time and couldn't get out of there fast enough. We needed a shower after to get rid of the smoke smell! I don't know what he was thinking and felt a little insulted to be honest.

This one isn't terrible but really pissed me off. We arranged to view house on a Saturday around lunchtime. The vendor was to do the viewing as they were home. All fine.

We arrived and the poor woman was clearly trying to prepare for her child's birthday party later that afternoon. I felt bad and said that she should have just told us to arrange for another day but she said her husband had agreed to it; told her it was happening and then fucked off to the pub to the watch the football

I ended up helping her make sandwiches and DP helped with the bunting and balloons. Poor woman - last thing she needed was to show her house to strangers!

Viewed a house where the owner insisted on showing us round which was awkward beyond belief. He was a prison officer and had installed CCTV in every single room of the house which was kinda creepy...

Also viewed a house where the current tenant was sitting in the living room in his boxer shorts . Think he was making a point about not really wanting to leave the house or something so we wouldn’t buy it, I have no idea. He hadn’t even attempted to clean the place up either. Estate agent was desperately trying to sell it to us but it was a no as soon as we walked through the front door.

That was kind of you @YogaDrone

When I was about 9, my parents decided they wanted to move from the town we were living in, and started looking at places in the country. I have a very vivid memory of one place we viewed - called, if I recall correctly, Doughbank Cottage (that may not be the right spelling).

The cottage was in a valley with a river running through it, and was unbelievably damp. The front door was so swollen with the damp that we couldn't open it at all, and had to go in through the back door (which fell off its hinges when Dad opened it). I remember walking through room after room downstairs, all reeking of damp. Dad decided that he would go upstairs first, to check it was safe, before Mum, dsis and I went up - and it is as well he did. When he stepped off the top step, his foot went right through a floorboard because it was so damp it was basically like wet cardboard!

He retreated downstairs sharpish, and we didn't buy the house!

Dh once viewed a flat - it was perfectly pleasant, very neutral decor, nothing to object to - until you got to the bathroom, which had deep purple shagpile carpet on the floor, up the side of the bath, up the walls and across the ceiling!! He didn't buy it!

@Justaboy no it wasn't that one, but a very similar water tower and imagine it being closer and not concealed by a row of houses!

Another one was when I went to look at a "detached Victorian villa". the photos looked lovely and the area was perfect. I did wonder why it was detached given that the rest of the street were semi-detacheds but whatever. Turned up and realised why it was detached - the other half of the semi had been knocked down to create a slip road for the M25!

Obviously ruled it out on that basis but we were there by now so rude to just leave without viewing so knocked and discovered that the place was rented and no-one had told the [student] tenants we were coming. Still they were really nice and let us in and told us to "ignore Ben, he's asleep". Not a problem - crept round bedroom 2 avoiding Ben. What was harder to ignore were the students complaints about the damp, mould, cracks in the wall which should have been the partition between the two houses but was now the exterior wall and horrendous road noise. When giving feedback to the EA I mentioned how open and friendly the tenants were and the EA didn't even know it was tenanted! FFS they'd clearly not been there at all.

Someone had exterminated the many woodlice, themselves symptomatic of a serious damp problem, but hadn't bothered cleaning them up. There were big lines of dead ones all round the edges of the downstairs rooms.

You are not alone. Two interesting viewings stick in my mind:

1. (West London flat) Insanely smiley agent showed me down some rotten wooden stairs into a grimy courtyard. Filthy front door. Pitch black hallway, I nearly did a comedy pratfall over the big V in the laminate floor which had obviously got wet at some point. Found light switch. One by one went through the filthy, black-mould encrusted rooms, all in the dark with blackout curtains drawn. It smelt like something had died. Couldn't get back door open, too swollen with damp. Saving the best for last, in the final pitch black bedroom someone with a mass of comedy bed hair was asleep in bed - they didn't even stir (were they dead?!). "How did you like that one?" asked the agent, cheerfully, as we left...

2. (East London house) Bondage den. Hilarious to the point I couldn't look at my partner beside me. On entering, greeted by an array of kinky boots and pictures on the walls of women in bondage gear. Artex effect spiky walls (think 3-4 inch spikes, how did they do it??) painted lurid pink. More dodgy pictures up the stairs. Multiple rings in the wall above the sofa and beds. Ropes coiled on the floor of the bedroom. And one very depressed man who said he was selling cos his girlfriend was bored with him and had left him.

A whole bedroom dedicated to chinchillas. About 20 of them - food and chinchilla shit EVERYWHERE.

A friend of mine went to visit a house a couple of years ago to rent and one of the tenants didn't even bother to get out of bed. Or tidy his pants away off the bedroom floor. Depressing.

I quite enjoyed it AudacityOfHope I'm a demon with a butter knife

went to view a house to rent it stank of dog pee,leaking radiators,broken electrics and o yeah a hole in the wall just lovely lol

This thread reminds me of this:

Waited for an EA who was running late. Massive - muptiple buyers- drug deal happened right in front of the house while we were stood there...
Next one had crack you could put your hand into in bearing wall and what I guess was an ORIGINAL fusebox. It was not a recent built....
Last was inhabitable. Like I mean legally or whatnot inhabitable. No way I could get mortgage for it.

Pretty much along the same lines as others with a room dedicated as a cattery. Floor to ceiling cages, the smell just nasty.

We were also, although slightly off topic, had a bad experience from the other side. We were tenants, the place went for sale. A really obnoxious agent just bowled up without notice with a photographer to take the promotion photos. We were clean and tidy but unprepared so she proceeded to grab and move all of our stuff so she could take "bare" photos, remade our bed and complained that the mirrors in the bathroom weren't clean enough. She asked for window cleaner, i only had vinegar, and she wasn't happy about that . I couldn't believe it when she did the bed without asking.

Speaking of EA's who don't seem to do much during a viewing, round here it's often not the EA at all ... they hire "guides" (?) to show houses who are temps earning a bit of pin money and know no more about the houses than what the sale details say

Does anyone else's area have that?

Cats, omg the house stunk like a load had died. The air was just fur, we didn't make it past the front door, it was disgusting. No idea how many they had, but the stench of urine was eye watering, even at the door.

Years ago we went to an unaccompanied viewing which had been arranged by the EA earlier the same day. We were greeted at the house by a charming middle aged chap who showed us the lounge then into the kitchen where the lady of the house proudly pointed out the three built in deep fat fryers whilst deftly stirring a massive bubbling pot of curry ( which did smell bloody delicious). He then lead us upstairs, chatting about nice neighbours, the new fitted wardrobes and that the boiler had recently been serviced as we look at bedrooms 1 and 2.. At no point did he mention a recent death in the family so it was quite a surprise when he opened the door to bedroom 3 to reveal a dead body laid out with an elderly lady sat beside it chanting gently and rocking to and fro. We made a hasty retreat apologising profusely for disturbing them at such a difficult time. Goodness knows why they agreed to the viewing that day, and to be fair, the EA was pretty shocked too because he hadn't been told either.

Another house we looked at around that time was a Victorian terraced. We were shown round by the EA but closely followed by a very old, grumpy woman and a noisy gaggle of four or five small children. There was a rabbit hutch in the breakfast room which she whacked as we passed muttering that we should watch out because "the 'effing thing bites". Oddly, most of the rooms had a huge boxing punchbag hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room.

Oh so many! (We are looking for a very long time!)

The one where the estate agent had forgotten a key so smashed a window to get in. After the
shock had worn off I emailed head office in case he tried to blame someone else.

The one where the pictures showed a bright airy house but it was a hoarders house, they'd used pictures from the sale 6 years previously! When I suggested that may be seen as misrepresentation they blocked me.

The one where the couple were getting divorced and the woman didn't want to sell and so stood in the middle of every room we were in staring at us.

The one where the estate agent had forgotten to actually arrange the viewing with the owners and we disturbed a poor woman who has a few hours previously bought her newborn home from the hospital. We were very apologetic but they insisted we still view it! We hated the house and didn't offer and I still feel guilty about it...

The one where the house was so close to a train track the house shook when trains went past. We got as far as the first room and said no. The estate agent was incredulous informing us that all trains were becoming electric anyway and we wouldn't hear them....

Viewed a house that was tenanted. The first thing we noticed was that the door had been broken down. We were told this was to remove one of the tenants who wasn't paying.
The house stunk and was in an awful state. There were several men living in really bad conditions. One had a dog that was aggressive so we couldn't look at his room. Another just lay on his bed as we looked around (he had a picture of a little girl by the bedside, which was the only clean thing in the room).
The garden was full of dog shit and stank.
It was a no from us. I was surprised the agent didn't even bother to warn us about the state of the place.