To want to cry re new house?

[meow1989]

Or more like, wibu to expect seller to be a decent human being?

Completed on our dream forever home end of August. We left our house spotless, left flowers and advice re local area plus my number in case new people needed anything. Our seller however left us with the following issues:

• tonnes of rubbish including a double garage door, building materials and granite slabs behind outbuilding. His response was (not true) that most of it had been there when he moved in so it wasn't his problem to sort.
• missing plants dug up and taken
• rubbish in house - so far I'm up to 7 different types of tiles in boxes plus skirting boards, flooring, insulation etc
• Windows that don't lock from the outside and don't close properly (costing 4k to replace, we did know they were misted and would need doing equally but not straight away)
• bodge job building bits (he is a builder!) Like fist sized holes where blinds had been installed, a broken TV bracket installed into the wall rather than on to, paint on floor and windows
• broken blinds, broken bathroom cabinets
• a boiler that I've just found out has been leaking for quite some time (noted by plumber who is fixing leak in ceiling which also seems to have been bodged and covered up from previous leaks)

Aibu or is this par for the course? We hadn't budgeted for a fixer Upper!

Don’t let the rubbish being left behind go .. push your solicitor , be firm . It could cost lots of money . Take photos as well as getting quotes

[quote meow1989]@isaoddontlickthebin (excellent username) the property info form states service done on boiler in 2021[/quote]
I'd be pissed off too then OP. Did they provide a copy of the service paperwork?

Our recent house purchase has an ageing oil boiler that was last serviced in late 2019 and according to the paperwork passed to our solicitor it only scraped a pass with some hefty advisory warnings. We asked the vendor to get it serviced again before exchange and he basically told us to get stuffed.

Everyone on here and everyone I know leaves their STBX houses clean and welcoming. Who are all these filth merchants who can't be bothered to clean up? Perhaps estate agents could start doing a thorough clean between occupiers?

Have had similar and after a few months the frustration fades.

In our case, the elderly vendors included contents, which we, the estate agents and solicitors all agreed meant furniture and white goods. However, it turned out they just locked up and handed over the keys. Soap and flannel still in the shower, pj's still under the pillow on the bed. Thankfully someone had emptied the fridge/freezer, but still found a pan with an inch of rancid oil in one of the cupboards. . Two derelict garden sheds full of crap. It all took a lot of sorting - and a large skip and lots of trips to the dump and local charity shops.

The one aspect that still rankles is that they declared that all the utilities etc were paid and up to date, only we found there was nearly £70 debt on the pre-paid electricity meter that we had to pay off. Our solicitor did a metaphorical shrug too on that one - we could have pursued the vendor for it but the cost of getting the solicitor involved would have been more than the debt.

When we moved in with a five month old we found bags and bags of rubbish plus large items of crap that were too big for the outside bin. They took things they said they would leave and left things they were supposed to take. There wasn't a lot we could do so we waited a week or so then binned everything and spent the DIY shop vouchers that kept arriving.

In your case you really need to get the solicitor and surveyor involved.

Feel for you, it's so upsetting. I had this with my current flat as a first time buyer - it was tenanted and the previous owners/landlords hadn't bothered to clean it and the tenants didn't clean for the years they were there, so there was literally layers of grime and filth everywhere. Inside of the toilet was black. Nearly vomited when I touched the slime on the taps. Rubbish left everywhere. Hugely expensive things like boiler and leaks covered up. They had so many items that hardly anything was visible on the viewing...

Cried my eyes out for being so naive, but there was nothing to do but take a deep breath and start scrubbing. We're still making it into a nice place but now it's our home and those memories are not so present...

Good luck with sorting it.xx

Homebuyers surveys aren't worth the bother. I would never buy a house without getting a full survey.

He's a builder? Review him with photos on TrustPilot or wherever

[quote meow1989]@isaoddontlickthebin (excellent username) the property info form states service done on boiler in 2021[/quote]
Did your solicitor get a copy of this? They should have done.

This happened to us to OP and it was devastating.

For us it was left rubbish, broken items, disgustingly dirty (I can not describe how bad), kitchen cupboards left full, dishwasher left full, garage full.

And then bizzare botch jobs the surveyor couldn't possibly have found.

It was awful and we had to extend our rental by a month just to make it habitable.

We tried to contact the solicitors multiple times but never got a response. We could try small claims court but we were only asking for £800 to cover skip and house clearance and its just not worth the hassle.

Moved into our house in the middle of winter and found the seller had faked the boiler documents after we turned on the boiler and had issues. Boiler man came and shut it right down and the oven too as apparently very dangerous (we had a tiny baby at the time too.) We found none of the 3 toilets worked properly and neither did the shower or bath.
There was nothing we could do apart from pay legal people and were advised it wouldn’t be worth the time and money.
Hated the house for a while it was a miserable place, but I found that getting rid of absolutely everything they owned, carpets etc has made me feel a lot better and our house looks a lot better for it.

Some people are just shitheads, OP. I moved into a house where the previous owners left the garden knee deep in broken windows and other rubble, and the whole house looked as though someone had spun round each room with a deep fat fryer spraying in all directions, then applied dog hairs to the sticky oil surface. The cupboards were full of all kinds of shit, including a pair of false teeth!

Look on the bright side: the fuckers have moved out. It's your house now and you can make it lovely.

Before we moved into our present home small town everyone was saying how clean Ann kept it.
She was a stalwart of the church. Boiler was a danger.
The day we moved in we were scraping the muck out of the cupboards.
Bathroom was disgusting. The front door wouldn't lock.
Two months later we were still finding garden broken garden ornaments in between bushes.
And yes it's her real name.

This happened to us twice. Technically the solicitor should help, however, in practice it seems to be very difficult to get them to do anything. Some people are just awful and tell lies, cover up problems. It is so upsetting moving into a house in the middle of winter to find the heating doesn't work, the toilet leaks and the drains are blocked. Especially with a 4 year old and a 2 year old, as happened to us.

Did you get a Survey? If so you may have recourse there. Although it depends if you went for the cheaper survey that you get just for mortgages or the more expensive one that looks for defects and problems etc. I believe that Plants in flower beds are fixtures and belong to the property whereas in pots they are fittings and can be removed. Look at your purchase contract and see if any extra clause had been added saying that he would be removing those plants? Re the rubbish I think you could pay for it to be removed and then bill him but what is the likelihood of you getting that money off him? Re the tiles are any of them useful - spares for tiles in the bathroom etc. If they are just random tiles (perhaps left over from his building jobs) he should remove them.

When you looked round did you notice the windows? I'm afraid caveat emptor (buyer beware) applies - again your only recourse might be the surveyor depending on type of survey. A good surveyor would have noticed them and recommended that you get a price reduction.

If the holes in the walls happened after a sale was agreed you might have recourse to get him to rectify them but again that's going to be difficult to do...

@Navian

He's allowed to dig up his own plants and take them.

No, he isn’t actually. Not without specifying this in the relevant paperwork.

@IactuallyHateMN

You can take garden plants with you when you move.

Only if it’s in a pot.

You can take them if they're not listed

It sucks; see what your solicitor thinks you can pursue re the rubbish, and damage and dug up plants.

I have always heard that 'builders' own homes tend to have the most unfunished/poorly finished jobs and damage. Has certainly been true in personal experience, too.

@IactuallyHateMN

You can take garden plants with you when you move.

You do have to declare it though.

I didn't think you could take plants. When we moved ages ago I had to tell the buyers that I was taking a specific rose bush (that my grandmother had given me).

Surveyors don’t open boilers to check them, and they don’t move curtains and things like that to see if there are holes unless they have suspicions. They’re literally there to check for your lender that the property is mortgageable and (just about) liveable.

That’s not to say it’s your fault @meow1989 it’s naive for anyone to think the surveyor is working on your behalf unless you’ve instructed someone completely independently of your lender.

My parents have completed today which I've found more stressful than if I was moving myself! My lovely mum has health issues and I just couldn't leave my Dad to do it all. So I've been cleaning and packing for weeks! It was stipulated in the contract that it was to be in good order on completion, It was spotless to be fair! I'm so sorry that you are having all these problems.

@Johnnypiratesfriend

Yes this happened to us too. We left them with a clean house I even replaced some floor tiles that were cracked as I found spare when I was packing up. We moved with 3 children under the age of 5. We moved in one day. I packed everything downstairs and the kids slept on mattresses on the floor so I could properly clean. We move in house was fithy, chewing gum under window ledges, used tampons on top of radiator, to name a few plus lots of repairs to be done, garage door didn't open or lock, shower leaked, bath plug not connected to drain. Then there were doggy diy like plug sockets in sink, I kid you not, (strangely it was not something I thought of checking when we looked round). I can remember thinking why don't I open my purse and just pour it out the window. I spoke to previous owners who said they'd done nothing maintanance wize for 8 years and stopped cleaning in lock down. However, I scrubbed the house clean, I made a list headed dangerous, ASAP and would be nice. Then worked through the list. I've been here a year and we are getting there. I've started to enjoy it now and some how this work made me feel like the house was more mine less theirs.

I love the idea of doggy diy!

The rubbish can be challenged. Also digging up plants is usually not allowed.