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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
Shouldbedoing · 26/08/2019 07:47

I grew up in military quarters and the 'March out' inspection was terrifying for parents - a man in white gloves came and checked for cleanliness and damage. Families would stay with neighbours the night before march out having put their furniture removal vans into overnight storage. Then go back in and clean. You paid fines for commercial cleaners if it wasn't up to scratch.
When you're in a chain though, even the nicest house looks grim when you move out the furniture and there isn't always time to clean behind you. And yes, gardens sprout madly in this season and won't be top priority if you're moving.

R44Me · 26/08/2019 07:47

Take note of the way the garden faces before pulling trees/ plants out. Established trees can make a garden complete. It is one seasons growth so won't be too bad to sort, and any weed will still be there next year if you don't get much done this summer!

EmeraldIsle81 · 26/08/2019 07:52

Broken window you should report to solicitor as damage not agreed to at point of sale. Send pics/ walkthrough video ASAP as you only have a limited time to report defects such as this, confirm hearing working etc for the seller to still be responsible.
Good luck OP!

Accountant222 · 26/08/2019 08:08

When you've got it sorted it will be fabulous, it looks like a very nice house

Serin · 26/08/2019 08:13

Re the fox, do you mean it's a dead fox covered in flies? (grim) Or just a fox that passes through? (Delightful).

SheSellSeaShells · 26/08/2019 08:17

Deep breath - be glad you don't need to move in right away. Mine was a tip when we moved in, they'd even buried rubbish in the garden and left half there furniture, I was 7.5 months pregnant too. I'd totally blitzed our flat we'd sold, and even left a welcome to your home card and a bottle of fizz for the girl that had bought it on the kitchen side!!!

Get onto a cleaners and cook them in to do to a full blitz of the place and a gardener to tidy the garden/weed for you before you get in. You'll feel much better walking it to a sparkling house, grub and mess aside the photos you posted, it does look like it might be a lovely building.

wibbletooth · 26/08/2019 08:32

The people that you might have a claim against are the estate agent and the solicitor. I was under the impression that they shouldn’t transfer money and action the sale until the vendors are out of the house. (Hopefully someone who knows the technicalities of this can confirm if this is true!).

This is because if they don’t then a situation could arise whereby they have your money and they also have possession of the house. Sounds like yours went after a few hours and a broken window was the worst of the damage - but what would the solicitor and EA have done if they were still there the next day? Or week? Or year? If all the money has been paid then they have no leverage whereas if their sale might fall through because they are not out of their old house then that’s a strong incentive to get out.

Then there’s insurance - if they damage anything would the insurers cover it? Or if they moved out in the evening and you got there to discover they had left the taps on so the place completely flooded would they still pay out?

When we’ve moved house we’ve always had it stressed to us how important it is that the money isn’t handed over until the place is empty and you get vacant possession. By not ensuring that was the case you could have had really major problems as a result of their consequences!

wibbletooth · 26/08/2019 08:33

Doh. Severe consequences as a result of their actions!

wowfudge · 26/08/2019 08:48

It's not a broken window, it's a cobweb between the glass and the blind.

These days buyers are advised to check the condition is as they expect it before exchange. We don't know what the gap was between exchange and completion, but it looks as though the OP didn't check.

It's immaterial to the OP, but we've moved into much worse and our solicitor advised the cost of pursuing the vendor would be more than hiring a skip and getting on with things. We had a garden and cellar full of crap. Carpets were taken, light fittings taken leaving bare wires and an absolutely filthy kitchen and bathroom. We knew it was dirty when we viewed so we'd booked cleaners anyway.

Fresta · 26/08/2019 08:51

That garden didn't get like that between June and August- Clearly they haven't been people that bother with it- the plants would have been a bit smaller in June- yes, because plants grow to their full size by this time of year, but it can hardly have been immaculate in June. As for the rest- looks a bit uncared for but nothing a good clean won't sort!

99problemsandjust1appt · 26/08/2019 08:59

It’s really not that bad, it’s an inconvenience that is definite and will need cleaning etc but it’s not disgusting. Can you get a cleaner and gardener or do you have anyone who could help if cleaner etc not possible ?
I hope you get it sorted

MouthyHarpy · 26/08/2019 09:00

This is why I always insist on a pre-completion inspection. Do it 24 hours before completion, and if it's not cleared and there's damage not listed on the Fittings & Fixtures list which forms part of the contract at exchange, delay completion, or invoke your contractual penalty clauses. Or negotiate a couple of hundred pounds reduction in price to cover costs of clearing other people's rubbish.

But to be honest, apart from the broken window, I think you're overreacting a bit. It's your responsibility as a purchaser to lift/move furniture if you're concerned about the state of the carpet, and so on ...

Hello1290 · 26/08/2019 09:38

The sink is absolutely disgusting - can't believe people are saying it's not that bad! Looks like it hasn't been cleaned for weeks. If the whole house is like that then I think you are justified in being annoyed. People can be like that though once they get a sale they don't bother with the upkeep of their house anymore. Total slobs.

ThirstyGhost · 26/08/2019 09:39

I think you're overreacting. I've unfortunately moved a lot in the UK due to divorce and other things and moving day is utterly chaotic for a lot of people. I expect places to need a deep clean when I move in. The only exception would be new builds. It looks like you've got a beautiful old house there by the way. It'll look amazing when you've cleaned it up. The overgrown garden just needs a bit of a clear and tidy but mature gardens are fantastic. If it helps at all I was admiring it from your pics rather than anything else!

Hoodiesallsummer · 26/08/2019 09:41

It’s not that bad. It looks like they moved out in a rush and didn’t have a final clean around (which is exactly what happened.)

Drabarni · 26/08/2019 09:43

You think that's bad. We got married moved into a new home that we had to spend the first week cleaning. That was our honeymoon, and the mess really was unbelievable.
That is absolutely nothing that a quick clean and tidy won't fix.

MaverickSnoopy · 26/08/2019 09:50

I would just pay a cleaner. It's what we did when we moved house. In fact i organised it before we moved because I wanted it all nice and fresh. You've got 2 weeks so would be the easiest option for you.

NorfolkNGood1 · 26/08/2019 11:07

It's really not that bad at all. We moved in July & by God it was horrible.

So far I've found 3 piles of broken greenhouse glass hidden in the garden.
Broken mirrors in plastic crates filled with rain water.
Whole house was disgusting tbh
Kitchen has cig burns on worktop, sticky yellow goo from smoking & cooking oil, looks like kitchen hasn't been cleaned since install.
Bedroom walls were drawn on with perm marker pen which even showed thru 5 layers of stain block paint.
Garden has 10 years of grass cuttings spread over the back of it with huge amount of stinging nettles in it, bushes massively overgrown
Washing machine Ieft in garden
Paints left in shed
Smashed garden furniture

We've had to literally live in a caravan, decorate every room before we could move in it took nearly 4 weeks & it's still not finished.

We've done about 6 dump runs (not moved washer yet) & filled our garden brown bin 3 times over.

I think you've got cause to complain about the window if it's broken, but everything else? It really isn't that bad.

Oh & most councils do take fridges & freezers free of charge at their dumps because of the hazardous nature so if you can get it there should be FOC to drop off.

DippyAvocado · 26/08/2019 11:40

Out house was similar when we moved in. A huge pile of rubbish was left on the driveway. Our solicitor managed to get a couple of hundred pounds from the sellers to pay for the rubbish to be collected but we just had to sort the rest of the mess ourselves. I sympathise as it's all you need when you've just moved in. To top it off we moved in January and then discovered the boiler didn't work either!

GooodMythicalMorning · 26/08/2019 11:51

When we moved into our old house the garden was absolutely covered in dog poo, piles and piles of it. The Dw was really ill so know stuff got neglected but it was bad.
There was bits of boat in the front garden, parts of it buried. There was white dog hair covering everything but apparently the white dog had died 3 years previously and there was old drinks bottles on every side. dusty and dirty ones. We had to wash the walls with sugarsoap as they were all stained and greasy with nicotine.

I dont think yours is that bad, a bit of pruning and a clean and it'll be beautiful!

SweatyYeti · 26/08/2019 11:59

Check with your solicitor as in the contract there's sometimes something about leaving a place in reasonable condition

mathanxiety · 26/08/2019 21:56

Norfolk I believe you can get permanent marker off with acetone nail polish remover.

whotheeff · 28/08/2019 12:42

Its such a shame. In the USA we always had a final walk through on the day of completion/closing to avoid situations like this. It's pure laziness and disrespect from the previous owners.

UnfamousPoster · 28/08/2019 16:26

Our garden was full of dog shit on the day we moved in and the decking that looked nice turned out to be rotten in places (which had been hidden on viewing) and was slippery as fuck with even the slightest bit of moisture in the air.

But man, the oven... even the professional oven cleaner we got in said he'd never seen one so disgusting! Thankfully it broke not long after it was cleaned (probably in shock!) so we replaced it.

The house was also pretty filthy so that was two houses I cleaned that day. The one I moved out of and the one I moved in to. I'd been so nice to my buyers. I bought them champagne and a card, cleaned everything from top to bottom, including inside the cupboards and built in oven, fridge and freezer. They sent me a lovely note thanking me but I felt it was the right thing to do. This was their new (first) home and I wanted it to be nice for them. If only my buyers were so nice... style over substance they were. So many things looked nice but were fitted terribly!

We had a little rant at the estate agent when he called to check we'd got in OK (mostly about the dog shit) and he brought us round a bottle of wine to apologise on behalf of the vendor.

In reality it was poor form on behalf of our vendors, who'd been a pain in the arse most of the way through the sale, but we know there wasn't anything we could do really. Our only revenge was telling the Estate Agent (and our new neighbours Blush how minging they were!!).

In your case @aecorner12 I would definitely seek some recourse for the broken window, but everything else is, unfortunately, just going to have to be sorted over time.

Mildura · 28/08/2019 16:44

@wibbletooth
The people that you might have a claim against are the estate agent and the solicitor. I was under the impression that they shouldn’t transfer money and action the sale until the vendors are out of the house. (Hopefully someone who knows the technicalities of this can confirm if this is true!)

It's not true!

Neither is there a claim against the EA and/or solicitor. Hardly their fault the vendor left the property in a less than ideal state.

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