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Original poster

Has anyone else had a horrible experience moving into new house?

57 replies

Coneheadmum · 22/06/2017 21:30

Moved in yesterday. House not cleaned (not filthy, but not vacuumed, drawers not wiped out etc), bins full of rubbish, a few bits taken that were supposed to be left, but what really miffed me was they didn't even leave a note to say "Hello, the bin day is Friday, welcome to your new home" etc. I left flowers, champagne, card, and a list of all sorts of stuff for the people who bought our house (there was another thread on this). I just feel it's so rude. You're selling your house! You should clean your house and leave a note/your forwarding address, shouldn't you? I feel like writing to them and saying "where are your manners?" Paid just under asking, and smooth process of buying. What is wrong with some people? I feel as though I get much more information when I get a holiday let - these sellers haven't even told us about where the stopcock is. UGH!!! Anyone else? Tell me your horror stories?

OP posts:
EpoxyResin · 22/06/2017 21:37

When my parents moved into their first house the sellers had taken all the curtain rails with them and taken all the bulbs out of the bare light fittings!

OhGoodnessSake · 22/06/2017 21:48

Epoxy it's not unusual to take curtain rails! I'm taking ours and it's stated in fixtures and contents forms.

I will leave our house clean, although I doubt it will be immaculate due to only being able to get to certain places on move day. I will however endeavour to do my best. I have already cleaned the oven and dishwasher in anticipation.

Now as for our buyers they have really mucked us about- expecting us to fund their surveys and more! I'm in no mood to 'welcome' them to their new home Angry

EssentialHummus · 22/06/2017 21:51

Similar to you OP - we bought a lovely new place, but after completion the vendor a) didn't leave us the bloody keys and b) left a half eaten pizza and all sorts of random crap in the place. It's taken a while to get over.

Plus side - when he contacted us via the agent a week later to ask after meter readings I suggested he find the nearest cliff and jump off it. That felt lovely.

Somerville · 22/06/2017 21:58

A horrible experience goes hand in hand with moving into a new house, I reckon. The absolute worst time was when we arrived, full lorry of our stuff, to find the vendors hadn't even finished packing yet. Shock (Its funny now. Well, kind of.)

Congratulations on your new home and I hope you settle in really quickly. Smile

LarrytheCucumber · 22/06/2017 22:00

At our last house they'd taken all the light bulbs. Annoying, as it was November, but I have heard of people taking loo seats, which is worse.
Our oven was disgusting and full of dog hair. I refused to use it and got in a professional oven cleaning firm.
The downstairs loo carpet smelt of cat wee, but we were having the bathrooms and loo done anyway.
The garage was the worst. There were loads of horrible dirty cupboards and it has taken us 3 months to get rid of them all (and all the other junk).

TalkinPeece · 22/06/2017 22:04

Blood on the walls
knife marks through the doors
bottles of piss in a cupboard
human turds on the carpet
rotting food in the cupboards
bins stuffed full on the day after bin day

it was cheap though Grin

pitterpatterrain · 22/06/2017 22:05

When we moved in the room we planned for DD in had a gas leak (piping under the floorboards) that was only noticeable when you put the heating on.

It was winter so first thing we did was put the heating on. Gas emergency engineer came around and it was switched off at the meter as dangerous - what joy that was!

Also we didn't know the alarm code. Which was fine until my DH tripped the panic alarm one night ...

Congratulations on the new home! Smile

Spudlet · 22/06/2017 22:06

Our house was revolting. The bins had been left so stuffed full of dog shit, the bin men refused to take it away, there was a rotten sausage at the back of the oven, and the underlay in the living room and main bedroom was soaked in dog piss, we had to rip the floor out to get rid of the smell.

But! We overcame all of it, and we're gradually making into a truly lovely little home.

I could have cheerfully murdered our vendor though, as I scrubbed and scrubbed the place (while pregnant, mind you!).

tietie · 22/06/2017 22:08

You're expecting way too much. A bottle of champagne?!?!

Unicorn81 · 22/06/2017 22:10

House was dirty, had to clean top to bottom and smell from the carpets was disgusting, made me realise why they just sprayed air freshener as we turned up to view. Cat piss soaked through carpet so had to lift straight away. Parts of skirting boards missing where furntiture was! They had an indian takeaway the night before and spilled sauce all over light coloured worktops which stained, debt letters kept coming for them but no forwarding address

DrablittleCrab · 22/06/2017 22:10

Picked up the keys to our first home, turned up to start cleaning/unpacking and they'd not bloody finished moving out!

We were met by one of their mums hoovering upstairs, had to give them another 4 hours to finish and they still left crap behind.

RandomlyGenerated · 22/06/2017 22:13

How can you get dog hair in the oven?

DH's first house had to have all the carpets ripped out and the floorboards scrubbed with Jeyes Fluid to get rid of the soaked in piss (yes, that's why the windows were always open during viewings). Still, it was only £18k.

DancingLedge · 22/06/2017 22:16

After horrendously hard work moving day, single parent 4DC, was walking up garden path with yet another heavy box, when neighbour popped round. To welcome me to neighbourhood? No, to tell me that the TV aerial on my new house was too shiny, and would be distracting, if they built a conservatory where they were thinking they might do, so would I please do something about it, as a matter of urgency?
"WTAF?" I thought.
"Um, we'll have to see", I said.

bumblebee61 · 22/06/2017 22:16

This is truly frightening. I have not had bad experiences before but about to move house, so now dreading it.

Original poster
Coneheadmum · 22/06/2017 22:22

Bless you all. What with the stories about the sausage in the oven and the cat wee, I now feel as though we did alright! I probably went overboard with ours (had cleaning crew in there). Thank you for making me feel better!

OP posts:
eurochick · 22/06/2017 22:24

On our latest move, our vendors had only just started moving out when we got there (a couple of hours after completion time). They were trying to move themselves in a couple of transits. We ended up paying our movers a shedload of overtime to help them pack up and then unpack our stuff late into the evening. Fuckers. The husband also came into the empty room I had found to express in for my baby to shout at me for upsetting his wife.

I think you might be expecting too much OP.

EpoxyResin · 22/06/2017 22:26

Is it standard practice to take curtain rails?? Gosh, our vendors were angels then; they even left the curtains AND the custom blinds for all the bay windows.

They didn't leave champagne though, but the agents did. And they had flowers and a card delivered on our moving in day. I assumed it was a fairly standard agenty thing to do, but it was my first house so wouldn't have known!

RandomlyGenerated · 22/06/2017 22:26

Rental house in US had backed up sewers (which overflowed with previous tenants shite into the garden on day 2), a real nest of vipers in the garden (cable guy fortunately dealt with those) and questionable spiders in the garage, plus a heating system on the verge of collapse - heating engineer warned that it was about to start spewing carbon monoxide but the landlady refused to fix it. Piss soaked floorboards seemed quite mild in comparison.

Haggisfish · 22/06/2017 22:27

I feel your pain. Opaque shower screen, we thought. Nope. Just utterly minging and caked in shit.

tietie · 22/06/2017 22:27

It's normal to take curtain poles in my experience.

tessiebear4 · 22/06/2017 22:29

One word. Mice.

Southeastlondonmum · 22/06/2017 22:31

This is going to put me but....
A dead rat under the floorboards
Approximately 200 flies
And I was 38 weeks pregnant with my second child, having a home birth.
Oh and Rentakill contract Grin

newtlover · 22/06/2017 22:31

we moved in the depths of winter and the house had not only been unheated but the doors had been left open as the previous owners emptied it 'by hand'. The heating system was very inefficient (a whole other story) and my children cried with cold. It took us about a week to get it warm enough even by my very spartan standards.
However, all is now well, the children grew up unscathed and the house is lovely.

Southeastlondonmum · 22/06/2017 22:31

OUT ME

RockyBird · 22/06/2017 22:32

A dog turd covered in dust balls on the livingroom floor.

The house was filthy in general, something I hadn't noticed during viewings.