My dh and I viewed a property, 2 cottages that were being sold as one unit, on a large plot of land. On paper it seemed ideal. We knew it was going to be run down as nothing had been done to it for a number of years, however the estate agent really sold it to us down the phone and told us it just needed a little "updating".
We arrived at this property and the first thing we saw were 50+ scrapped cars dumped on every inch of the land surrounding the cottages. There was a man who looked like he belonged in the film 'The Hills have Eyes' standing by one of the cars holding mallet and glaring at us. There was litter and bags of rubbish dumped everywhere. At the front door there were 5 or 6 rickety looking hutches stacked on top of each other, each containing ferrets.
The inside of the house was horrific- every surface of the kitchen piled high with dirty dishes and cups, the floor had some sticky substance on it, there were sheets of newspapers stuck to the floor, a number of litter trays over flowing with animal poo, boxes stacked high against every wall, filth on every surface, mud (?) smears up most of the walls, the place smelt horrendous, holes in the carpets. There was a woman slumped on the sofa in the living room who completely ignored us and a filthy toddler and baby crawling around on the sticky floor. The bedrooms were just as bad- boxes stacked up high against every wall and a big pile in the centre of every bedroom- it was like a maze weaving through the boxes and the beds were all surrounded by boxes. My description doesn't even come close to describing how vile this house was.
The estate agent apologised to us when we got upstairs and away from the woman and he said he hadn't realised how awful it was and complained about the filth. At that point a child of about 8 stuck her head up from behind a box and glared at us which caused the estate agent to get all flustered. The other cottage was fine, just old and dusty, but as we left that cottage the estate agent told us not to go near the grass on that side of the property as their had been some issue with the septic tank and the grass area was now boggy with sewage.
Viewing the property was literally the most revolting experience of my life, not to mention fairly scary as the cottage, the conditions and the tenants were like something out of a horror movie. We didn't buy the property, not because it was horrifically filthy, but because there were some question marks about a paddock that had just been sold next to the house and the estate agent was cagey about what this land was going to be used for (a housing estate). The cottages did sell a few months later and have now been converted into a lovely house. The estate agent later told us that all the cars, plus all the contents of the house were left behind when the tenants moved out and the new owner had to pay a fortune to get rid of it all.