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Original poster

Shocked and furious after seeing my new home after completion!!

107 replies

aecorner12 · 25/08/2019 21:55

Wednesday was my completion day and I am now still really angry and glum.
I was told by my solicitor in the morning that the seller would move out 3pm that day , skip and a freezer would be collected the following day.
I collected keys from agent 5pm that afternoon, and took my kids to show them their future house. But the sellers were still there and the house was completely a mess! We were reasonable and kind so just told them please make sure they move out tonight.
The next day I went back only to find my house is in complete mess! It is smelly, dirty and disgusting. Broken glass, rubbish on the floor, webs everywhere. Garden is a jungle with hundreds of flies and a fox!
Today I went there again and there are still a fridge freezer and a chest freezer uncollected from council!

Thank god we are not moving in immediately and will do some building works！My son groaned that our future house is not as nice as our current one and I'm really furious that the seller is not being decent! Such a shame!
Is there anything I can do about it or I have to live with it and clean up by myself?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
HennyPennyHorror · 26/08/2019 04:34

If my children groaned about having a nice new house to move into, they'd be told off sharply and given a warning about how lucky they are.

mathanxiety · 26/08/2019 05:03

None of that is unreasonably dirty.

Gardens grow in summer. The plastic pots can easily be picked up and disposed of. The bathroom and carpet can be cleaned - call a cleaning company. The bags from the side can be thrown out. The plants in the garden can be trimmed back.

I found raccoons in the attic and dog biscuits under the shag carpet in the basement when I moved into my house. When it rained, the house was filled with the smell of wet dog.

Try to lead your children by your example of good humour about this. It will lift their spirits if they see you are not fazed by this.

AsTheWorldTurns · 26/08/2019 05:27

It doesn't seem that bad to me, I wouldn't expect anything other than a new house to be clean.

Candymay · 26/08/2019 06:02

It will be lovely when you move in. You’re doing building work first so that will be messy.

On another note- I’m really surprised that people keep carpet left from another family. I would not be able to do that but I can see many people do. I like everything fresh but I know I make more work for myself.

Your children will love it when you are ready to move in I’m sure!

MarriageOfPigaro · 26/08/2019 06:26

It's fine OP, you're being a drama queen. My garden has gone nuts I'm this weather too.

Give it a clean.
Rugdoxtor for carpets. Sorted.

flumpybear · 26/08/2019 06:28

We recently emptied our house for a renovation and although on the face of it things looked clean and tidy (we have cleaners come weekly too) once everything was moved out it was a total state! Sounds like they left late in the day too so no time to clean I'd guess and probably packed the hoover

I'd get s cleaning company in and get a gardening team in to clear it, get quotes first - house won't cost much

Saying that, if you're having building work, do nothing til that's done as it causes a massive mess (I'm living the dream there lol!) and the garden grows very quickly this time of year - what building work are you having done?

Ligresa · 26/08/2019 06:35

The garden is fine and looks nice. It's neglected but a few weekends will sort it.

The grey carpet is minging because its grey. I'd replace the carpet anyway.

Bezalelle · 26/08/2019 06:37

It's really not that bad! Count your blessings.

pictish · 26/08/2019 06:42

Then your children need to know what hardship is, don’t they?

There are flies and a fox in the garden are there? Yeah...mine too. It’s outside you see.

Get on with cleaning your house fgs. What a lot of fuss over nothing.

RushianDisney · 26/08/2019 06:42

You should have seen the state of the house we moved into two days after DD was born, utterly grim, mouse droppings everywhere. It hadn't been lived in for a while and hasn't been cleaned in a lot longer. You can complain about the broken window but the rest will be sorted with a few trips to the tip and a message to the solicitors

NotSureAtAllReally · 26/08/2019 06:44

When we brought a house once- they hadn’t cleared all the furniture as agreed and it was filthy. I managed to arrange through solicitor getting the money back for the price of a skip and a clean but it wasn’t immediate took a few months to get that money back.

BarbaraofSeville · 26/08/2019 07:02

April is the end of winter and gardens will be the least 'weedy'. We have a big problem with weeds that take a lot more work to control than we'd like and I'm sure it was deliberate that our house was put on the market over winter, so the amount of work required in the garden wouldn't be so obvious. Maybe get a gardener to do a tidy up - that can often be surprisingly reasonably priced.

If you're not moving in straight away, and having building work done, I'd pay for a deep clean after the builders have finished as it's likely they're going to be making mess and dust anyway.

As you have discovered, buying a new house or flat is a very different proposition to buying what looks like an established house.

Do you know why the sellers were selling - obviously moving house is expensive and stressful and is not always by choice - if they had separated or were moving due to job loss/repossession or similar, leaving you a show home will have been way down their list of priorities.

daisypond · 26/08/2019 07:12

You are being ridiculous. From the photos you’ve posted, it’s fine. A few cobwebs on a window. Nothing wrong with the garden.

OtraCosaMariposa · 26/08/2019 07:14

I don't get why the garden is such an issue - it didn't suddenly get overgrown between you offering and completing.

Yes to getting the solicitor to get them to remove the skip and fridge asap.

But if you're having the builders in it's going to be an even bigger mess before you move in.

Plsnomorepeppapig · 26/08/2019 07:21

Same thing happened to us, but we were meant to be moving in on the same same day as completion. It was awful. They were still asking to come and collect stuff months after the move. I was stuck between wanting them to come and take their damn stuff and not wanting them back on the property. We were also left with a major flea infestation which was nice of them. It took me a good month to deal with that too. This was meant to be our dream home and 2 years down the line I still have negative feelings towards the house. We had 2 young children at the time and I’d managed to vacate our original house and leave it spotless for the our new buyers yet our seller couldn’t do the same for us despite her kids being teenagers.

MrsPellegrinoPetrichor · 26/08/2019 07:24

Looks better than any house we've ever moved into.

Refer smashed window to the solicitor with photos.

You're not even moving in as getting the builders in so I don't know what the issue is?

Oblomov19 · 26/08/2019 07:26

I'm afraid I don't really understand. Yes it's a mess, but nothing that a good clean won't fix. Or hire an agency to do a end if tenancy clean.

And 3 good weekends of cleaning garden, running it to the dump.

But what I seriously don't get it your surprise. When did you last visit? And how many times did you visit altogether?

How did you not know it was like this. This is all long term dirt. The ivy and the overgrown garden would've taken years to get like this. So how could you not have known?

ArchMemory · 26/08/2019 07:31

I understand how you feel. When we moved in to our house it was filthy, all the bins were full - including the recycling bin filled with non-recyclables so we had to pay the council to take it away, the pipe under the kitchen sink was disconnected so the water spilled into the cupboard the first time we used it, and one electrical socket tripped the whole house (when we told the sellers after we’d had to get an electrician out they said ‘oh yeah, that’s never worked’ - well thanks for letting us know). The garden was a mess too (again, lovely when we viewed - with lawn stripes) but not as bad as yours, probably would have been with similar delays.

We rolled up our sleeves to clean, realised it was beyond us and got a cleaning company out.

It still grates now to be honest (we left our house clean and with notes explaining how things worked etc). And it made me feel like we’d made a mistake buying the house - took the shine off, if you see what I mean. But there’s no point pursuing costs when they’re minor.

Take a deep breath, and do what you need to get it sorted. But you do have my sympathy when you’ve been excited about moving in and then it all deflates.

Good luck.

Palaver1 · 26/08/2019 07:32

On to your solicitor it’s not acceptable that they left the freezer and fridge those are the two items that will be removed.
You’ll get over this .
Spend your energy thinking of what’s to be as you’ve said you’ll be having builders in.

NormHonal · 26/08/2019 07:33

In OP’s defence re the garden, we were 4-5 months from offer to completion on our house. The house was empty and the garden wasn’t touched in that entire time, over the spring/early summer period when everything grows like stink. We had to get a professional gardener in to sort it out. A load of plants had died and had to be yanked out, and it took years and a lot of money to fill in the gaps.

I sympathise with the state of the house. That’s rubbish but nothing you can really do. My parents had this when we moved into one of our childhood homes. They had managed to drive down the price on the place, so the owner took her revenge by removing all the carpets and curtains, and we had to live with it like that until we could afford new ones. And there was an infestation of bugs under the carpets. The place was disgusting. It came good though.

Disfordarkchocolate · 26/08/2019 07:37

Inside is not ideal but it's not the worst I have seen. Definitely not as clean as I would have left a house so I would be annoyed.

Outside, looks like a long-term issue, surely you weren't expecting them to improve the garden before they left.

I can understand how you feel though, houses always look worse than you remember from viewing when you move in and it makes me feel very low. I'm sure you can make it look lovely.

BuildBuildings · 26/08/2019 07:38

You need to speak to your solicitor ASAP. It's bit terrible but lazy and would piss me off. Ask them to pay for a deep clean.

Wildorchidz · 26/08/2019 07:38

But if you are not intending to move in until you have completed building work I really wouldn’t be concerned about any of that.
I agree re the children and showing them that life is not always perfect.

LizziesTwin · 26/08/2019 07:41

If you are moving in before renovations get a cleaning company in, they’ll be able to send a team and sort it out in a day. The garden will be completely trashed by building work unless you fence it off as the builders won’t be able to resist putting materials in it. Make a plan and carry it out.

SlowDown76mph · 26/08/2019 07:43

Change the locks.