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.

We were shown round a house by a woman who sobbed the whole way through, but wouldn’t let us leave...

We went to view a property that was frankly a piss take.. the pictures looked amazing but the actual house was shite. It was on a road with no parking (double yellows), no garden(the 'garden advertised was actually the neighbours right of access and not ours at all). The living room looked amazing on the photos but the estate agent had obviously been standing on the part of the floor that had buckled when the roof leaked.. we opened the door of the wood burning stove and it was full of water...

Walked upstairs holding on to the rope that was the banister.. and then into the master room that was entirely black with mould on one wall (due to said roof leaking) and then another room where you could see the sky.. ffs!

I cannot believe that they thought someone would pay £307k for this heap of shit and I was so fucked off I drove all the way across the UK to see this shit hole !

It's next door neighbour has been immaculately redone and had parking and it was 250...

Years ago a flat in London and the bath and toilet were full of actual shit. The estate agent stayed at the front door the whole time. It was like a bad dream. No one believes me! Flats in that area are worth an eye watering amount now. I wish I'd bought it and paid industrial cleaners to de-shittify it!

Forgot about the house we seriously considered but then rejected in favour of the one we eventually bought. It was sold to a man who was then murdered on the doorstep a few months later. It was a targeted hit but still gives me the shivers as I pass the house regularly on trips back to the UK. It was a nice house but took a long time to sell when the family put it back on the market.

I believe the bath of shit. While i was little my parents were landlords to a life-long-term tenant (complicated situation) who used to keep the flat in appalling squalor. For about 15 years or so every couple of years my parents would clear the place out themselves, charge him a couple of hundred for their work and allow him back in to trash the place again. I never went into the flat when i was v.young but was vaguely aware of what went on.

Usually the whole flat was a foot deep in filthy newspaper, the kitchen an inch deep in grease, the bathroom filthy and stinking. Windows filthy and never opened. Dirty washing and underwear everywhere. He would never wash his clothes. Just bought new ones when the old ones were too stiff with dirt to wear and he'd throw the old ones in a corner.

The time i was old enough to go with them for the very first time to check the flat (i was 10 or 11 and curious) was the time which happened to be the end of the road for my parent's patience. It was the bath of shit occasion All these years later i've never ever forget the sight or smell of that flat.

On that occasion my parents paid for a professional clean team recommended by the council and (somehow) got him legally out of the property forever.

Can i just add that the guy who decided to live with a bath of his own shit was a highly intelligent man who was high up in the computer development department for the 1970's Royal Navy's nuclear sub project ...

I went to view a lovely Victorian terrace and eas shown round by the owner a single man. He'd split up from his wife. The house reeked of smoke and somehow i ended up there for an hour sat on his sofa whilst he told me the whole sorry tale of their break up!

Then i finally made my excuses to leave and he insisted on driving me home!

Honestly im a murderers dream, far too polite for my own good! just felt rude saying no!

At the time was viewing with my Best mate and her little one as my DF at the time was busy in work and couldn't make weekend viewings so came along with me anyhow this one particular property was horrendous wasn't how it was shown in photos kitchen was beyond a mess looked like it hadn't been cleaned in months front door all kicked in with holes and wood trying to patch it up I walked upstairs and seen the bathroom covered in mould ran back downstairs I'd seen enough and told the estate agent to not bother wasting her time calling me for a chase up wasn't interested and was shocked they'd allowed someone to view a property in that state it was clear the tenants at the time didn't give a shit it was one of those properties where you wipe your feet leaving it not on your way in 🤢 grim

Wow! Thank you so much for your replies. I'm now really grateful that I only viewed a dirty flat as opposed to finding dead bodies, scary dogs, embittered tenants, rotten floors, wall mounted dildos, indoor ponds and clown dolls!

I also feel for the estate agents who've walked into nightmare valuation/ viewings and had to deal with people who aren't moving willingly or want ££££ for a damp shack full of mould and actual shit. My EA said they'd had to talk the owner down from asking 275, it was on for 250 and unless I also offered, they were hoping she'd accept an offer of 233 as it was the only one she'd had and even he thought it was generous!

My worst rental viewings were still quite tame. Had one as a student where we found the tenants all still in bed & the EA hit the roof when she found more people lived there than technically should have, on mattresses on a messy floor, and they were keeping guinea pigs. She stayed to bollock them after we left!

The other was when I last looked for a rental. The remaining tenant wanted me for the house share, had to call the LLs who lived in Dubai so they could "interview" me. They'd obviously done their home up & moved abroad for work, it was gorgeous and they quite rightly wanted people who'd look after it. The problem was that they wanted to know where my friends & family lived and their jobs etc. They were paranoid that we might have someone round for so much as a cup of tea. When they found out my family lived near by (as in 20 min away), LLs wanted to check that they wouldn't want to stay over... on her floor . The sitting tenant also reminded me not to tell them I have a (long term, respectably employed) bf. Luckily they didn't ask but I was uncomfortable about lying. I was also uncomfortable about her parents coming to "look round" occasionally. My rental EA does this, it's fine but in this instance it felt really creepy, like they were spies. I was excited about the place having a drive as I'd been mislead about parking in my previous rental and was desperate to get my car back- they rented out the drive space, I'd have had to pay them extra. Sitting tenant had no idea as she didn't drive. I walk past the place a lot and I've never seen more than 1 car belonging to the neighbours on the huge shared drive! I was looking to move because my first attempt to buy had fallen through last minute and I'd given my lease up. Didn't say that but mentioned I'd like this to be my last rental. Got a lecture on how I should still be living at home then, really! Final straw was when she asked what I do. I was fed up this point. I work for the MoD & decided to mess with her. When she asked my role at work I told her that she couldn't have access to that information!

Moving out of my last place, the incoming tenant also made a couple of attempts to keep my furniture!

Thank Christ I've never had an experience like any of these but reading this thread has made me feel ill!

I've been hugely entertained by these stories, I think this should go into classics :)

@MitziK were none of those issues visible on the sale photos? You almost always see a photo of the front of the house so I'm surprised that you were surprised by steps and the like.

DSHathaway there are an awful lot of absolute nutter landlords. So many of them don’t seem to even have the slightest grasp of what is acceptable or legal. One chap seemed to think it would be acceptable for the incoming tenants to look after his cat, which they insanely kindly agreed to. He was then most insistent that I let them know he would need to sleep in the spare room occasionally and couldn’t really give more than an hour’s warning when this might be happening . He was quite surprised to be told in no uncertain terms that this was totally and utterly illegal and unacceptable and that he absolutely must not let himself in. The tenants, for some mad reason, didn’t run for the hills but I did very strongly recommend they changed the lock barrels.

I also had a weeks-long running argument with a LL about inserting insane unenforceable terms into his tenancy agreement. No, I will not put anything in about them not being allowed to play “pop” music (apparently Radio 4 was acceptable on a low volume but not after 7pm when he expected total silence ). I also feel there should be no need to specify that tenants should not discharge a firearm in the house, as surely that is just to expected??

I’m not going to tell tenants when they can and can’t use their washing machine and I won’t ring them up for the third time that week because you’ve driven past the house and found they’ve not drawn the curtains. And no, for the eleventy billionth time, you can’t just let yourself in unannounced and uninvited. There are a lot of very strange people in the world.

I once viewed a flat (unaccompanied by agent, just the owner). When I arrived the owner's dog peed on my shoes, the flat was filthy with boxes of medication lying around everywhere. Owner told me about violent incidents with the neighbours then as I was leaving a neighbour passed and the owner started a shouting match with him in the street , all the while the dog barking and growling. I ran off as quickly as I could and phoned estate agent next day to complain that it wasn't safe to send people alone.

@SecretEstateAgent I don't think these guys used an EA. I found it on Spare Room but I've always chatted to the other tenant(s) and then been directed to an EA. This was so intense- I thought it would be a brief intro chat and then I'd talk to an EA as previous professional LLs have always laid down a few t&cs via contract about damages/not using it as a work place etc, but have otherwise treated it as my home to use as I please, with minimal levels of direct contact. I've repaid that by being careful and only inviting people I trust round and not having big parties!

@Adobe- there is a flat on near me where the exterior shot of the building is a zoom in just on the building doorway. Flat is lush but the cropped pic made me suspicious. A quick Google mapped walk down the high street later showed me it was over the rowdy local chicken shop and the rowdy local Maccy Ds!

The dirtier the better, as this means no other offers and you can get the place cheaper and spend the savings on doing it up as you like it.

As long as the structure is sound and solid that's fine. We can easily clean and decorate.

Viewing a large Edwardian house in a lovely road; very excited as it was just what we wanted and we managed to get the first viewing before details went on the net.
Almost prepared to shout 'We'll take it' when we saw the outside - luckily we didn't as once inside it was quite clearly being used as a brothel and would have taken a small fortune to make it habitable for a family. BIG disappointment.

it was quite clearly being used as a brothel I have to ask...

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD

I’m presuming a queue of customers and some red lights have it away 😁

GAVE it away, not have it away 😂

The house I live in was horrible when we viewed it. Cupboards were broken, carpets had holes in, the bath was covered in rust stains, the walls were decorated with different pieces of unpainted anaglypta and the wood work was painted pink and burgundy. Oh, and the shower upstairs leaked. The estate agent was mortified but very confused when we put an offer in. Don't be put off by it being dirty or poorly decorated if the basics are there.

Perhaps there was a price list on the wall?

A shop near us which was a brothel (right in the town centre, everyone knew what it was) was recently refitted.
They took the walls back to the brick......

Letting - the tenant didn't know they were being kicked out and had a freddy fit at me and the agent.

Buying - one house in South Norwood that had a mound of dirt in the hallway, and went down hill from there. Another where the vendor was too nervous to let anyone actually view the property a d the estate agent suggested we 'put an offer in anyway'...

I have posted before and wondered whether to post this or not but because it was a long time ago decided it was ok.

I went to value a house and the womanwho lived in the house showed me in. Her mother (whom I already knew) was also there. The woman seemed very withdrawn and would hardly answer any of my questions. The mother did all the talking. Anyway, to cut a long story short house went on the market with us and we started viewings. After a few weeks I was showing a couple round and we went in the garage and the woman who owned the house was in there. She had hanged herself.

It was a totally tragic situation. She didn't want to move but her husband insisted. The worst thing for me was she had teenage children and had cooked and frozen all the meals for them for the next month.

Went to view a maisonette (private rented) I got to the property 5 mins early and the woman from estate agent was outside on phone so I waited for her to finish Congo before approaching her. She said I could come in but the cleaner is in just cleaning the kitchen so I wouldn't be able to properly look around that room. No big deal I thought.
1st bed decent size, clean.
2nd bed again clean and decent except built in wardrobe had a door missing.
Sitting room spacious small amount of mould I noticed above window thought no big deal.
Bathroom absolutely covered in mould - walls, tiles, window, pipes, taps and shower curtain pole!
She then opened the airing cupboard outside bathroon to say it was good storage and promptly shut it because the shelves were black with I assume was also mould. The cleaner in the kitchen had on her white suit & face mask scrubbing every inch.

I mean, if the property you are letting out needs a deep clean, don't book any viewings until after this is done!