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Original poster

Petty things to do when you sell your house to annoying buyers

73 replies

Ohrobin · 08/02/2019 14:48

I won't do this but am giggling at ideas.

Backstory. Our buyers have been absolutely pain the arse with this sale, yet been nagging and pestering us to complete by Feb yet they took 1 month to actually send correct paperwork off, another month to actually instruct their solicitor and now we are the point ready to exchange and waiting on them to actually transfer deposit to their solicitor 🙄 all this time nagging us to move by Feb which we said we will happily do if we can. They delayed it.

Anyways I had little giggling thoughts about being petty like taking the trays out the oven (we never specified the oven came with trays) or the cutlery holder out the dishwasher.

Any other petty things that people have done or come across when buying new houses.

I won't actually do anything as I'm too nice to do it but it is giving me amusement thinking about it.

OP posts:
Kennehora · 08/02/2019 16:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsPussinBoots · 08/02/2019 16:57

Take the bathroom suite with you. I remember a thread where someone moved in and the bathroom was gone. Nightmare!

Original poster
Ohrobin · 08/02/2019 17:00

@kennnorha yes that is true. I will soon forget all this frustration once we are in our hopefully nice new house! Hopefully our sellers haven't got frustrated in the delays causes by our buyers! That's what's so annoying. We are caught in the middle!

As I've said repeatedly though I won't be doing anything and will probably be extra nice as I'll be looking forward to my next home.

It is shocking though what some people have actually done in real life!

OP posts:
Original poster
Ohrobin · 08/02/2019 17:01

@mrspuss Shock that is awful! They can't have got away with that surely as it's part of fittings and fixtures!

OP posts:
1400spincycle · 08/02/2019 17:03

Find someone who keeps a pet mouse or rat. Get some of their cage leavings and sprinkle in corners. They will have to spend time and effort dealing with an infestation...

Mildura · 08/02/2019 17:09

@UnderMajorDomoMinor
Oh you’re actually specifically not allowed to do no lightbulbs now

Almost certain there's nothing to stipulate that. You are not allowed to leave light fittings with bare wires, but no legal reason why you cannot remove all lightbulbs.

WellTidy · 08/02/2019 17:14

The people we bought our last house from took the rotary washing line and all the bins - big outdoor green bin, outdoor food recycling bin, green and black crates for recycling. What a pain. The bins, i thought, belonged to the council. The council replaced them all within a fortnight but it was really inconvenient.

They also took curtain tracks from every window, not nice poles, but curtain track. It meaning hat we struggled to hang anything on the windows when we moved in and woke up at 5am.

PenguinPandas · 08/02/2019 17:28

I got 13% off the reduced asking price a week after it had gone back on the market - something like 36% off original asking price - most was before survey but £10k after it. The EA told me it was very amusing as the seller is a big tough businessman who he said I had beaten in negotiations but had been on market a year before an offer than fell through after exchange then we bid and it was cash only.

I did have a then 2 and 3 year old moving in so not too impressed but thankfully got it checked first thing.

brizzledrizzle · 08/02/2019 17:33

If you haven't yet filled in the fixtures and fittings form take everything you can.

Paint one wall neon orange and lime green strips, the next lime green with orange spots, another orange and lime green checkered pattern and diamonds in orange and lime green on the final wall. A tarantula mural on the bedroom wall and a shark one in the bathroom should finish the job.

Bluntness100 · 08/02/2019 17:38

I had someone take all the light bulbs. They also snibbed the front door from the inside so we couldn't get in,

We got the keys on a dark Nov night, with our three year old daughter, and then couldn't get in, then we had to work our way round to thr back in pitch darkness to try to get in. We then got in and none of the lights worked and we thought there was a power issue, before realising they had taken all the bulbs. They had even taken the last of the toilet roll.

So we had to go to the supermarket and then come back.

We hadn't pissed them off, in fact we had only met them once, gave them the asking price, and made no demands. They were divorcing and skint and one of the parties did not wish the house to be sold. The husband, he was devastated. And I suspect it was him who did it.

Compare that to the sellers of this house. Who kept emailing us and asking if we wanted different bits and pieces, like the wine racks. No charge. And when we moved in, they had left us a bottle of champagne and a welcome to your new home card.

MikeUniformMike · 08/02/2019 17:49

Leave your cats in the garden but take the litter trays with you.

Original poster
Ohrobin · 08/02/2019 18:38

@penguin sounds like you got a bargain and glad it all worked out on the end!

@welltidy and bluntness that's so frustrating! When we brought our house it was from a couple who were divorcing and that's why they left all the rubbish and then said it was each other's Hmm like we care it's not ours!

@Mike I feel sorry for your cats

OP posts:
CatCoriander · 08/02/2019 18:48

Three years ago this month our buyers were the ultimate pain - decided to get a mortgage two weeks before completion, tried to get us to leave loads of furniture - it was a nightmare and we almost lost the house we live in now. Looking back on my FB memories it would seem that I evilly made marmalade in the "soon to be theirs kitchen". Grin

Dothehappydance · 08/02/2019 19:09

Our buyers were fine but I accidentally left a toilet brush. I know that is up there with some of the fish suggestions.

GummyGoddess · 08/02/2019 19:20

The only petty thing I can think of is to take all the doors off of their hinges and leave them there. It would annoy me greatly to have to rehang every single door. Even more annoying to put the screws in one big bag with lots of other screws.

OnTheHop · 08/02/2019 19:24

Awww, we know the OP isn’t really going to do these things.

Sometimes fantasy revenge helps get you through.

The crocus trick is genius Grin

OnTheHop · 08/02/2019 19:25

What does making marmalade do? Shock

CatCoriander · 08/02/2019 19:29

I had already deep cleaned the kitchen, and making marmalade threatens stickiness! Told you I was evil. Wink

ShannonRockallMalin · 08/02/2019 19:35

When we moved into our current house, there was a full plastic compost bin in the corner of the garden. Thought it was a bit odd as the previous owners clearly did no gardening and had just used the lawn as a dog run. However I had big plans for the garden so was quite pleased to have some compost ready.

Went to start using the compost a few weeks later, only to realise that it was in fact full of compacted dog poo. They’d obviously been using the composter for years to dispose of their dogs’ mess and had thoughtfully left it behind for us. It took ages to dig the revolting stuff out.

zebakrheum · 08/02/2019 19:35

Somebody I know bought a jar of fish paste, and smeared the tiniest amount around each light fitting. Not enough to be visible, but enough to produce an aroma when the lights were switched on.

katseyes7 · 08/02/2019 19:50

When my ex husband and l sold our first house, the buyers were a nightmare. They were (allegedly) 'living with friends' and we had no idea where they were. lt took forever for solicitors and the estate agents to get hold of them. They wouldn't return phone calls from anyone. We didn't even get confirmation that we were completing until 4.30pm the day before.
We couldn't get in contact with them, and nor could their solicitor or the estate agent. We had arranged our moving company for 'second pick up' in the morning as we were buying a new build and couldn't get the keys until 1pm.
After weeks of no contact at all, the woman turned up at our house at 10 in the morning, with a friend, and three cats in baskets, demanding to be let in. She demanded to know where she could put the cats. My husband was furious and told her to "put them out in the yard, it'll give the dogs something to do". Which of course he didn't mean, but he was so livid at the way they'd behaved. She also announced that they were taking over our phone number (!) which was news to us, as we'd already arranged to take it with us.

We were still bringing boxes to the downstairs rooms, to save time for the removal company, so we said she could go in the small bedroom. She vanished up there with the cats, and her friend left.
When the removal van was loaded, off they went to our new place. My husband said to me "get the dogs in the car", (We still hadn't had sight of her since she went upstairs ).
He deadlocked all the exterior doors to the house, locking her in. The phone was cut off by then. When we went to the estate agent's to drop the keys off, they told us that she'd been in there at 9.30am, demanding the keys! Apparently her partner and his friend were bringing all their stuff in a van. l don't know how long she was there, but l hope he collected the keys before the estate agent closed....
When we got to our new house, the first thing l did was plug the phone in. lt rang after about 10 minutes. lt was a woman asking to speak to "Sharon, she's just moved in there today". l don't think l was very polite.

Decormad38 · 08/02/2019 19:53

We left a dead bird under the floorboards. They seriously pissed us off though big style!

MikeUniformMike · 08/02/2019 20:01

They weren't my cats. They were the previous occupants'. No forwarding address. No litter tray meant the place stank.
Not only that, I had to find new homes for them.

MikeUniformMike · 08/02/2019 20:06

Previous occupants had left the cat flap open. I think they couldn't take the cats with them.

Sharon sounds a dream. Hope she enjoyed her lock-in.

anniehm · 08/02/2019 20:14

When we arrived to move into our house they were still there, and three hours later! When they finally left there was an inch of grease on the bottom of the stove and greasy film all over the house not to mention carpet sodden with dog urine. Lovely mum & dad came up the following day with his van and helped us strip out the carpets and mum deep cleaned the kitchen, apart from the oven, it was past the point of no return - after they left I went into the room they slept in and there was an envelope and a cheque for a range cooker that I was dreaming of. Please don't play dirty tricks, I was in tears on moving day because of the crazy previous owners