To be raging

[MaMaD1990]

Partner and I moved house not long ago and we noticed the upstairs toilet was blocked. A day or so later we found a printed note hidden in the bathroom cupboard saying 'toilet blocked, can be used for solid waste, everything else use other toilet please, thank you'. There were a few of these notes left around the house for various things (extra lightbulbs etc) so we think the movers may have put the note away by accident or something instead of leaving it out. Anyway, I phone to tell the solicitor because if the seller had the time to type and print a note, she could have picked up the phone and either A. Got a plumber over to fix it and/or B. Picked up the phone to let us know (the last thing you need is having to fix a toilet when your moving home!). I get a plumber out (he says we need a new toilet because its full of limescale - gross) and i send his £60 bill to the solicitor to pass on to the previous owners solicitor to see if she'll pay. We get a response back today saying she won't pay and insists it wasn't blocked when she moved!!!! Luckily, cynical old me kept the note so I've taken a photo of it and asked my solicitor to forward it on in the hopes of it jogging the previous sellers memory and she can pay up.

My solicitor said if I want to take it further I can but the cost of getting her to pay up will far outweigh what we want her to pay. I obviously am not going down this route but God if I had money to burn I bloody would just to teach her a lesson 😂

AIBU to be so annoyed at this??

Yanbu to be annoyed. However you can only get the sellers back involved for matters of heating and that's only for 5 days. That's the case in scotland anyway. Otherwise it's your problem now unfortunately.

@KitKat1985

Houses are sold as seen, and all houses tend to have jobs that need doing (unless they are brand new). To be honest unless it was something major (like the ceiling had caved in) I'm not sure I'd bother to pay out money to fix things for a new purchaser either.

We once moved into a house where the previous owner was so tight that they had taken all the lightbulbs out to take with them.

This. ^

@MaMaD1990 Yep it's very annoying I have to say, but par for the course, when it comes to housebuying/homeowning. People generally don't do their house up, and make everything good, and fix every fault, and then MOVE. Most people leave their house, and move, when it's started to cost them a lot of money.

The fact that they know there's a chance that the house they're moving to will need money spending on it, means most people won't spend loads on the house they're leaving.

Same with a new car. Most people will only get rid when it's starting to cost loads of money, and/or is starting to clap out.

You really need a good 7 to 10 grand in the bank when you move house, because there will almost always be lots of repairs and maintenance needing doing.

Every one of the (5) homes me and DH have purchased over the many years we have been together, has needed between 5 and 10 grand spending on it, to bring it up to spec/up to a good standard.

As I say, it's par for the course, and you really need to account for maintenance and repairs issues/costs when you buy a home. I have never known anyone buy a home and not have to spend quite a lot of money on either a new boiler, a new garage roof, a new central heating system, new windows, a new bath/loo/sink/taps, a new roof, damp issues etc etc etc. Sometimes most of those things I mentioned! (New builds less than 7-8 years old not so much...)

@katy1213

Caveat emptor.

Exactly.

We moved into a house where the sellers left their unwanted pets for us to deal with. Lucky we are animal lovers, isn't it? We just budged up and made room for them. I would be raging too, OP, but half the time it costs more to chase for the money. Congrats on your new home!

I’m surprised that your solicitor is telling you there is recourse for this, I never would have thought that was the case. Like others I thought caveat emptor applied.

@wildraisins I did put in my post i wasn't going to go further so I'm not sure what you mean by me kicking up a fuss. You must've misread.

When we moved into our house we discovered the shower had been leaking for ages and the floorboards had rotted, had to have a new floor, the oven door fell off, new oven, the dishwasher had food in it and the lampshades had almost every species of dead insects. Some people just don't care.

Our toilets were blocked where the previous occupants flushed nappies and such..... We used rods to clear the build up in the waste pipes outside and then used this amazing stuff called 'one shot', to clear the system. It's only avail at certain trade stores but if you have rentokil in the local area, they may be able to help?

Like a chemical mentioned by previous poster, it's pretty dangerous and you need to read the warnings-Does the job though!

Citric acid will also get rid of limescale - if you look on the packet of limescale remover you’ll see it is the main ingredient. You can get it from Amazon or pharmacies in small quantities

@LisaLee333 I couldn't agree more with you. I didn't expect everything to be perfect and we have a rainy day fund for more serious problems if/when they come up. I suppose I wouldn't be so annoyed if they hadn't left a note because we would just think "oh well, one of those things". Its not the broken toilet but the fact they knew, left a note and then lied about knowing it was broken. To me that's just wrong and I would've handled it differently (and I did actually fix a lot of things in the property I sold).

I'd have been annoyed too, it was a mean thing for them to do as they must have been aware of it and not nice for you to discover in the middle of moving in day which is stressful enough. I'd write it off now but not feel obliged to be helpful if any of her post turns up in future.

I will second the use of spirit of salt. It is pure hydrochloric acid.

I used this once to clean the toilet in a property we rented out. The flush had failed three weeks before but the tenant was a bit wishy washy, hadn't bothered to let us know there was a problem and indeed didn't even seem to regard it as a problem! You can imagine the colour that toilet had gone, as it is in a very hard water area too.

Spirit of salt got rid of it all and brought the toilet up like new. I was relieved and pleased, as I had really feared that we would have to get a new one with all of the associated plumbing bills and other costs.

It is probably worth a try, but you cannot allow it to mix with any other toilet cleaners. Give a few good flushes first to stop that happening. Have as much ventilation as possible too while you leave it to work (if there is a bathroom window leave it open) as it does give off fumes at first.

I'd check the exterior drains as someone else said. We regularly have this problem because neighbours flush "hand" wipes.
The Water Board clear the drains for free.

When we bought a flat the owner had obviously just chased the tenants out a few days previously ...they left two fridges full of rotting food as the power had been turned off, the kitchen was like the Marie Celeste as they had gone midway through cooking a meal and three double beds (in a small 2 bed). I can’t begin to describe the bathroom!

[quote MaMaD1990]@wildraisins I did put in my post i wasn't going to go further so I'm not sure what you mean by me kicking up a fuss. You must've misread.[/quote]
I'd call contacting your solicitor at least twice over this 'kicking up a fuss'.

You own a house. This sort of thing happens. Solicitors advice was good advice ie leave it move on.

Honestly it'll be less stressful just to get it fixed yourself, it's pretty hard to prove anything once you've moved in and legal stuff is tedious and pricey in itself.

[quote MaMaD1990]@LisaLee333 I couldn't agree more with you. I didn't expect everything to be perfect and we have a rainy day fund for more serious problems if/when they come up. I suppose I wouldn't be so annoyed if they hadn't left a note because we would just think "oh well, one of those things". Its not the broken toilet but the fact they knew, left a note and then lied about knowing it was broken. To me that's just wrong and I would've handled it differently (and I did actually fix a lot of things in the property I sold). [/quote]
Fair comment. Hope you'll be happy in your new home anyway.

When we moved we found a tin of beans holding up an entire section of pipe work under the bathroom floor. Hadn’t even been joined together. Our plumber was amazed we hadn’t had a flood.

It’s annoying but unless you check absolutely everything before you move you don’t have much of a claim.