Ok, own up! What did you lumber your buyer with?

[BluTangClan]

Much like an old car, it's got to the stage with our house where we think "do we spend loads of money fixing it all, or bodge it all and try to sell it?".

So here's the opportunity to own up to; the mould you painted over, the crack in the wall that you moved the bookcase in front of, the hob that doesn't work when the oven's on, and the iron mark on the carpet that you put the rug on top of.

We will forgive you your sins without judgement.

My buyer rang me up to whine about the cobwebs and the oven she couldn’t use because it was clear that it had been used to cook meat at some point and she was a vegetarian.

I was torn between irritation at her horrible whiny voice and shame at being a slatternly carnivore. I had planned to do a deep clean before completion but went down with flu beforehand - on the day it was as much as I could do to supervise the removal men and stagger out before midday, achy and shivering.

I offered her £200 for her cleaning bill, she demanded £400, so I decided she could get stuffed. Cobwebs aren’t that bad.

I've bought and sold lots of houses. The most common issue is showers that are just dribbles.
I renovated a house with a flat roof extension. I had a roofer look at it and he said he could fix it fine, and that it didn't need replacing, so that's what I had him do. So I sold and exchanged and four days before completion, on a bank holiday, I was showing it to a friend and discovered a huge leak from the flat roof - plaster ruined, floor sopping wet. Though it was technically now insured by the buyers I pulled in some favours and had roof fixed, plasterboard replaced and redecorated within three days. No way could I leave it like that.
As well as the dangerous boiler I mentioned in earlier post, I once bought a flat and when collecting the keys the agents made a big song and dance about the fact the sellers had left me a box of cleaning materials. I though, ok, not that cleaning stuff is that expensive...
It was a big sticky box full of half used bottles of things that had dribbled down the sides. Maybe they though I'd need it to clean the disgusting mess they left - cigarette butts in the toilet, food remains in the cupboards, no lights. It was gross. The surveyor (homebuyers report) also missed the fact the wood French doors leading to roof terrace were completely rotten.
My current house im selling is 150 years old. I have done a lot of renovations and repairs and it is in good shape. Two blinds are broken but I declared this. I had the boiler serviced. But I'm sure the surveyor may find a few issues - bound to in such an old house. It's up to the buyer to decide if they accept it.

@MeadowHay

As a prospective FTB this thread is so upsetting and shocking. We have a toddler and another on the way, and virtually no disposable cash for remedial works to a house so we are only considering things we can pretty much move straight into to be our family home. I would be absolutely devestated and totally financially ruined if we faced some of the worst issues mentioned here. I can't believe people would be so deceitful when they're almost certainly making tens of thousands of pounds worth of profit

you need to be quite ruthless when looking. If you lkike somewhere, go back for a second look without kids, and with someone practical.

• look past the decoration. Look at the walls, especially in corners and under windows. Any signs of damp/mould condenstation
• look round windows, any signs that there is damp/condensation mould round the windows
• smell. Take someone with you with really good sense of smell be dubious of any cover up smells, coffee, baking bread, air fresheners.
• look behind things, behind doors, round bath, behind the loo.
• turn on taps upstairs and in kitchen to check water pressure.
• open and close kitchen cabinets and drawers, to see how solid they are. Same goes for any built in cupboards.
• remember all their furniture is going. Look at sizes of rooms, doorways and furniture. Can you fit a normal sofa? get it up the stairs? Is there room for a wardrobe?
• certificates for boilers etc are essential, sign forms to say everything must work for 7 days after purchase

These stories are nasty, but actually if you are a sensible buyer, thiese are not common

Some of these are shitty.

...But some are people feeling guilty for selling a house "as is" when it's an old house needing remedial work like most old houses. You should only feel bad if you covered something up to deceive your buyers.

I left - house had been gutted to a high standard but I had 2 cars wrote off while parked outside and the neighbours were crazy noisy.. baby crying 24/7

I bought - A stunning house for a good price but sooo much was bad DIY and broken appliances. The microwave, fridge and dishwasher didn’t work or leaked. 😂 None of the doors would close and had to be cut down

I moved 38+ weeks pregnant.
The buyers had been total * and at the last minute before exchange dropped offer by 10k, they knew I was desperate to move before due date and I could not pull out.

We shoved tinned fish down a gap by the skirting boards in the front room.

Just deserts for the 10k bonus.

I've never left anything deliberately that I knew was wrong.

But, we had a FTB who was arguing over every last penny and took great pleasure in doing via the solicitors they worked for (so were getting services from them on a discount whereas every reply was costing us money).

We contacted the electricity and gas suppliers before we moved to tell them we were moving out and gave the names of the new owners. But the dozy buyers didn't tell them they were moving in to confirm it. So, on moving day, we pulled out all the wardrobes, kingsize bed etc that doesn't get hoovered under that often (or doesn't when I'm around...), I started hoovering and a man arrived from the electricity board to break the connection to the house! So no hoovering, no electricity and a three day weekend before they could even get in touch to organise someone to come and reconnect them.

I did leave a note explaining that they are supposed to contact the suppliers when they move and added 'I would have thought your solicitors would have told you that being as they're also your employer. Good luck!' Still makes me feel a bit like karma struck those two.

I'm a FTB looking and this thread has me inclined to take every trades person I can find on viewings

Nothing , ever lol
The last house a was doing last minute touch up on the paint work - where pictures had left a line , or we'd bumped as we'd moved out.
The new owners were extremely grateful saying we'd left the house immaculate.
I also left them a bottle of wine and welcome to your new home card.

The pipe from the downstairs loo to the sewage kept blocking with just a bit of loo roll and we think it had collapsed inside.

Pipe runs under the extension. Whoops.

Buyer was a total arse so I have no guilt whatsoever.

We accepted an offer on ours and the next day there was torrential rain and our conservatory started leaking for the first time ever. My dh fixed it and I had a hairdryer on the wall before the buyers were coming for another viewing.

The day we moved out we found a damp patch on the wall behind a bookcase, I still feel bad about that but we had no idea until moving day.

Strange light switch situation in the kitchen from slightly dodgy wiring and an old outside light switch. There were 3 switches that had to be in the right combination to turn the light on. We got so used to it that it didn't occur to me until a couple of months after we had moved!

The house was spotless when we moved out, which is more than I can say about when we bought it. The hob was an inch thick in cat hair 🤮🤮

I did read (probably on MN!) that apparently boilers often break soon after someone new moves in. I think it is because the new owners will have it on a different schedule and boilers don't like change. The electrics in our new house we knew were dodgy, but we didn't know how dodgy until we had it rewired. Fortunately we hadn't moved in.

So see above vendors left us with a gas leak - when we had exchanged on our house to our buyers a dresser , we noticed ( and had forgotten ) behold which a dreadfully replaced plug socket ) We fessed up and got it sorted out before completion.

DFILs house had more than we could sort out so just pointed out what needed doing as far as we knew. Buyers family had a builder in the family so I think we were honest and he knew what he was getting. ( The house was much less expensive than in tip top condition. )

I think I can honestly say I have always left a house in the best condition I can . I cannot say that of people who we have bought from . One house they had clearly given all their dogs a bath in the bathroom & taken all light bulbs and door knobs. Even sawn off the end of the bannisters .

I can't be bothered to worry about it now.

Absolutely nothing. I did my last house up to showhouse standard. Spent an absolute fortune and sold it for £10,000 less than I paid for it BUT there was a problem with anti-social behaviour in the adjacent park and by the shops. Nothing I could do about that though.

My sellers though - I could murder them. Wouldnt negotiate in price at all but after I moved in I found:

A wasps nest in the loft
A bodged ceiling light
A bodged hall light
A bodged smoke alarm
A broken oven
A knackered boiler
A window that didn't open
piss stained floorboards, carpeted over. the first hot day was a treat!
A hole under the bath
The bath drain running the wrong way
All the taps plumbed in back to front (hot to cold, cold to hot
A rotten shed, painted over - put my foot through the floor first time i went in.

I could go on but you get the picture. Just a complete bodge job with awful DIY

The kitchen was made up of several units that weren’t from the same range

No!

How did you survive such horror? And it an ex-rental as well, you'd imagine all landlords would make sure to put in matching units for their tenants, the caring and altruistic souls they are.

We left:

A patch of green paint where our TV had been mounted on the wall and I had just painted around it.

No skirting board where our wardrobes were because we removed them to squeeze in the wardrobes into a recess.

A chimney that let rain water into the living room.

Mice in the shed.

Also when it rained really heavily (think biblical events) and the wind was a north easterly, rain water would come in through the boiler flue and pool under the boiler. We'd had two different gas engineers look at it and neither could come up with a solution.

We inherited much worse though:

Massive hole in the roof, on a part of the house that could not be seen from the ground so not picked up on the survey.
Cracked toilet unit that was leaking.
Leaking bath waste pipe.
Bathroom tiles not actually attached to the wall, but held in place by sealant around the edges so could have fallen off at any time.
Blown double glazing on four windows.
Really dodgy wiring.

@thebusonthewheels

NC for this, as mine is awful.

A rat infestation.

oh no, how could you thebus? Don;t you have to declare this on legal forms? Or otherwise, why didn't you get pest control before selling - was it rented out / empty? This would be my biggest nnightmare - though surely ther must be signs during viewings - I'd like to know how to tell, I'm in the process of a house search ad this thread is an eye-opener!

Whichever issues I'm leaving in my house are all visible on viewings and I HOPE one of the issues isn't worse than I think, buyer mentoned specialist survey on that.

Next time I move I’m going to be forensic in checking things over. Clearly surveyors are being paid for very little real work.

We left everything clean and working with details of window cleaners, doctors etc.

We have gained, over the years, a house full of the previous owners possessions down to clothes in the wardrobe and food in the fridge. A house with anti social behaviour (sorted out before we sold due to a crackdown), a house with pee soaked furniture (we knew that needed renovation) and a house with a faulty oven that blew the electrics when it had been on for a minute, a faulty boiler and a fridge and freezer that were absolutely disgusting.

We shoved tinned fish down a gap by the skirting boards in the front room

That’s appalling, the reduced offer was awful but you could have refused.

Was discussing this with DH tonight, as I’ve reluctantly reached the conclusion that our sellers weren’t as nice as I thought

Bought an Edwardian house as FTBs, nothing picked up on the survey report other than a couple of wishy washy ‘probably need to replace roof in next ten years’ type stuff.

Move in December; in January, the cornicing around the bedroom window suddenly cracks and loses the nice white fresh paint coat they’d carefully put over it. Turns out the bay window was rotten from water damage, which had seeped into the window below - both need replacing at an estimated cost of £25k (need to be timber). Still haven’t managed to get the money together for them both. Feel so stupid in hindsight, but there was literally nothing to see without climbing up and scrutinising the new plaster and paint.

On related note - what on earth is the point of the survey?!

OnASwanky did you have a full structiural survey? if you only had a mortgage valuation survey, they aer known to be superficial. The ful lone costs a lot but really worth it with older properties.
If you did, then possibly you could get some compensation.

I'm trying to think what horrors we will leave when we move, but not coming up with much as we've been really good about maintenance. Maybe a bit of slapdash touching up of paintwork here and there, and a slightly aging (but functioning and well cared for) boiler.

When we bought we were left with multiple blown double glazing units, but as we'd negotiated about 7.5% off the asking price I figured it was fair enough. They'd also had all the valves on the radiators installed backwards, so whenever the heating came on there was the most unearthly din. We had them all replaced by a very confused plumber who, like us, couldn't believe the previous owners had lived with it like that for 14 years since new! Oh, there were also broken tiles and cracked grout in the kitchen, which we will pass on to the new owners as fixing the floor would basically require replacing it which would then require a full kitchen refurbishment. Ultimately I feel we were overall very lucky and would like to pass the good karma down the chain. FTBs please don't despair, there are great houses out there!

On related note - what on earth is the point of the survey?!

Because how else would you know that the knackered roof is knackered, the scruffy paintwork needs refreshing and the cracked kitchen floor tiles are cracked? (brief summary of our survey for this house. We'd already had a detailed roofing survey done because it was in an obvious state and there were stains on ceilings upstairs and blown plaster around a chimney breast!)