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.

While there’s some absolute horror stories on here, for the most part I’ve accepted that furnishings / decor is superficial & there’s going to be something lurking somewhere.

I’d have expected a surveyor to pick up something major, but these posts have made me think again!

@CalmConfident I’m about to put my house on the market & I know it’s going to do it again The boiler itself passes every service, they just can’t work out why it’s happening. I don’t think I’d go for WB again.

Some of these stories are awful. The person who deliberately stuffed fish in gaps- how do you sleep at night?

Last time we moved. I emptied all of the rooms 1 by one a few weeks before we moved. Shampooed the carpets, in a couple of rooms I retouched the gloss work which was looking shabby when the furniture was out. Cleaned behind the radiators and washed the curtains and blinds we had agreed to leave. Made sure there was no marks on walls or floors that had been lurking behind furniture. Paid for the oven to be professionally cleaned. Paid the window cleaner to come the day before exchange. Left a list of bin days and stuff. Got the boiler serviced.

On the way to the removal van the movers managed to drop a wardrobe which knocked down the plaster wall between the living room and the porch. Complete accident.
I immediately cleaned it all up. Went and borrowed the neighbours dust pan and brush and hoover. Called the buyers solicitor to make them aware. Told them the movers were fully insured and we would pay for it to be rebuilt and decorated. Contacted the buyer the next day to ask if they wanted us to arrange repairs or if they wanted to arrange and Bill the movers. They could not have been lovelier about it and advised they planned to remove that wall anyway as the porch was a tight space and not to worry about it.

We sold a property in a village without pointing out to the new owners that the tiny local shop was about to close for good, the Council never gritted the area in bad weather, there were only two buses that ran per week into the nearest town, and only on a certain day, the nearest Doctors surgery only opened on Monday and Friday afternoons, and you either had to drive there, or risked your life walking along a very busy main road without any pavements or alternative paths, there were no delivery services for Supermarkets or Takeaways that covered the area, No Care Agencies for the disabled or Elderly either, paid for or not, and the nearest neighbour was one hell of a miserable moaning stuck up old Sod!

The best bit though was the fact that the Waterboard were planning to do major works to install a new Mains pipe that would Close the Access to the Place for several weeks to all traffic! The purchasers were a good match for their neighbour, and it was not our job to ‘Tell it as it is’ regarding living there, we left it to the Estate Agent to do his Job, we just wanted rid of the place, it was not my choice of a dream property at all!

The only thing that was hidden when we sold was a bloody great crack in the wall behind the wardrobe which we forgot about until we moved it.
The house was shit and falling apart but that was easy to see.
Also the attic ran the whole length of the terrace.

Where we moved into was like a list of botched DIY.
The first morning the shower head holder fell off the wall. The living room carpet had moths. The kitchen drain was blocked. The washing machine connected to the toilet to drain in some strange way. (We’ve since had it fixed and it does it in a less strange way now). A fireplace blocked with sheets of polystyrene and then papered over.

We had friends in common with the people we bought from and have stayed in touch. We actually went to see them at their new house, it needed a lot of work doing!

trying to work out which one of PP's houses we bought , always leave a house in a better state - this one
moved/added sockets by wiring behind the skirting board/under the bedroom carpet/hidden by wallpaper
skirting boards/architrave/door handles all different
bouncy laminate floor in very cold hallway- lifted to find no floorboards , rotten joists and ground.
empty alcohol cans/bottles hidden behind plinths, kitchen coving, bath panel.
loft access hidden with wallpaper- loft full of vintage crap and woodworm.

@Jemma2907

We left a leaky shower. It would start to show on the ceiling downstairs if 2 people showered every day for a week or so. We'd started having baths every few days and that seemed to stop it showing. We tried everything to fix it before we left including having the shower retiled and having the shower tray replaced. We just couldn't work out what was causing it before we moved out.

I think I moved into your house... the shower leaked hugely into the kitchen on the first morning and I couldn't believe the previous owners had not known about it.

Did you also leave a broken freezer in the cellar that we had to cut in half to get out?

;-}

This is a very disheartening thread. Many people buying houses would have been put to the pin of their collar to sort out some of these problems after purchasing their new HOME.
It seems a bit twisted to turn what should be an exciting time into a nightmare.
We have been VERY lucky I realize now, and have dealt with good, decent people.

We're selling this year (we thought about renting it actually, but not sure) and the flat is in pristine condition, we made a lot of improvements even recently knowing that we will move soon, but we have one hell of a neighbour, she's a lunatic. Never gonna mention her, ofc!

I used to show properties as a job. I don't think it's easy to tell some of these things from viewing- you can hardly start to peel back wallpaper to check the state of the walls. But so many people coo or complain over minor decorative things rather than looking at the condition of things like windows, carpets, appliances etc.

We sold a house that needed a lot of work, and were very honest about it. I did pritt stick down a bit of wallpaper but they were knocking down the walls anyway.

Buyers left Dog piss soaked carpet tiles in the kitchen. Dog piss soaked carpets everywhere. It wasn’t like that when we viewed. It’s like after they sold they just stopped taking the dogs out.

Our house was rented out when we bought it so had been neglected for years and empty for about a year. We knew it was shit but the only surprise was why someone had put woodchip wallpaper over every.single.wall and ceiling. After spending an entire summer getting the damn stuff off, we found why it had been done. The plaster was pretty much falling off the walls.

Some of the stories are really depressing but… what do you do?
If you buy somewhere and the neighbours are horrendous, or the shower leaks and there are umpteen other things wrong with the house, would you honestly fess up to all those things to your buyers when you came to sell?? It may not be the morally winning thing to do, but I’m pretty sure you don’t have to sacrifice your own happiness just because you’ve been stung in a dog eat dog process.

Deliberately leaving fish etc or an unflushed turd is just odd

Wasp nests. Leaking windows, leaking roof, leaking toilet, dodgy wiring, dodgy plumbing and a Ford transit axle buried in the back garden.
Some picked up in survey. Some picked up by the builder we took round. The builder picked up the dodgy walls and sagging ceilings. Not the surveyor.
21 years later we are still going room by room as having to take walls and ceilings down completely.

This thread tells you everything you need to know about human nature sadly.

@CatAndHisKit alas no, and yes we kick ourselves for that too 😏 the surveyor said the Homebuyer one would be more than adequate given the ‘well kept nature of the property’. You live and learn! Though I genuinely do question the value of the HB survey, as it seemed to only list the obvious, and gives no comeback on these major issues.

This thread has been really useful. I'm a FTB (hopefully) and it's given me a good idea of things to look out for/be mindful of.

As an HA tenant, I always left HA properties in pristine condition. The last time I moved, it was a home swap. The lady I swapped with assured me that the garden would be cleared (she had loads of stuff lying about in garden), and that she'd have the house cleaned (it was dirty). I left our place spotless. I also left: tins of paint so that she could do touch ups, spare lightbulbs, extra toilet roll, small box of tea/coffee/cookies, list of useful numbers for GP/local takeaways etc.

In the days/weeks before the hopeful move day (we planned to move on the day her/my kids went back to school after October half term), and before we signed all the paperwork, she kept on and on about how we needed to make sure we'd be able to move quickly as she had everything set to move straight away. I'd saved for packers/removals (I work FT and had two young kids and a disabled then DH) and arranged a week annual leave from work to get everything sorted. We then signed the paperwork. I kept asking her to agree/confirm date for moving. She went quiet. It then transpired that she actually DIDN'T have anyone to help her move, she couldn't afford to pay for a man with van etc, and hadn't done any packing. I only had that week, so hired a van (instead of just packers/removal company for me) and then spent the day moving her stuff one way, and my stuff the other way in order to get the move done. I could have cried.

We also had viewed her house/measured up when weather was better and doors/windows were open. When we moved in (November), I noticed (and couldn't get rid of) the strong smell of animal piss (it had soaked the lino in kitchen/hallway/bathroom). The house hadn't been cleaned and it was bloody filthy (and she left LOADS of her crap, plus additional piles of rubbish in the garden that she'd set fire to). She also failed to mention the huge flea infestation. Had I known about these things (particularly the flea infestation), I would have arranged for our stuff to go into storage, and us to go into a hotel, to have the bloody house deep cleaned and flea bombed, the garden cleared and then to give me the chance to rip out the piss soaked flooring. It was vile!

To anyone who does get flea/pest infestations....please just let new tenants/buyers know. If nothing else but to give them the damned chance to get a place treated before they move themselves and ALL their stuff in!!! It took me weeks to get everything sorted, and cost me a fortune.

Honestly when I come to sell our house there won’t be anything, apart from a few things that are perfectly visible when looking round. Our kitchen is very obviously quite old for example (though perfectly functioning and usable!)

Since moving into our house 10 years ago we have sorted out a lot and have done it properly - I love the house and don’t like to cut corners.

We had a lime rendered wall and when it rains heavily it produced salt flakes and ruined the paint work so whilst we lived there we constantly sanded it down and repainted. The building is listed and built direct on earth with limited foundations etc. The lime does help it to breath, and we both specialist paint but still couldn't get it to fully dry out. We didn't let the new buyers know but we did leave the paint behind...
Boiler was also very old but we had it serviced for the buyers and they were aware from viewings.

The house we moved into we new needed updating but we didn't realise quite how bodged all the electrics were and the fact that the previous owners had routed the electric shower to bypass the meter Thankfully my DH is a qualified electrician so could sort bits out without too much hassle butnitbwas a rush to sort the shower and meter out once we realised because we had the electric company coming round to fit a smart meter and we didn't want to have to deal with them accusing us of the bypass etc.

*knew

The process of extending the lease. Buyer knew and had knocked us down on price but still felt like a lucky escape for us!

Some cosmetic problems are to be expected. The pp complaining about non-matching door handles - surely you can see that before buying and it’s an easy fix? And I can’t believe someone would turn down their dream property because of the door handles!

I sold the pil’s house - which was awfully shabby - as is. Cleaned it within an inch of its life, but it was for the surveyor to identify any problems. Hiding things is deceitful, but if the wallpaper’s peeling and faded and the furniture’s been painted around, well, that’s really no big deal.

Some people are looking for a pristine property in which case they should buy a new-build or already-refurbished house. If you buy an older home that has been well lived-in of course there will be the odd problem - which might not have struck he owners was a problem!

I’m really not shocked at this thread as I’ve experienced some of the things people have left for new owners. How could you do that to people ?

Current house the owners knew we had young children. They must have not cleaned anything after accepting our offer. Took us days to clean, piss covered carpets, enough animal hair down radiators to make a carpet, shit in and ON toilet seat, hole in bath covered by a mat.
They had painted round the furniture.

The kitchen was about 4 years old and above the cupboards were half empty fillers used when it was put in, owners never cleaned the tops. Mil refused to let me in the kitchen, she spent a whole day in there cleaning, including a black mould filled integrated fridge.
I actually cried that first day. Taken us years to get rid of all their dodgy diy and questionable electric work too.
The previous people also owed money and we had letters threatening debt collectors, he was actually a financial advisor with his own company !
While trying to find him I found our address was still listed as his company address but he had sold the website address to a porn company !

If you buy somewhere and the neighbours are horrendous, or the shower leaks and there are umpteen other things wrong with the house, would you honestly fess up to all those things to your buyers when you came to sell?? It may not be the morally winning thing to do, but I’m pretty sure you don’t have to sacrifice your own happiness just because you’ve been stung in a dog eat dog process.
There's a difference between being neutral about the neighbours and outright lying because everyone has their own idea of nightmare neighbours. On my street there's one family with children who are out in the garden most days. I think that's reasonable, but MN threads inform me that there's a number of people who think it's ghastly and antisocial for people to use their gardens before 11am on a Saturday.
Cosmetic stuff i take your point, and same for a drippy tap, or a shower where the pressure drops sometimes. That's just life.

But, deliberately trying to conceal bigger problems or choosing to vacate the property unclean and covered in mould is wrong.

When we moved into one of our houses, the previous owner had left food in the fridge and the appliances clearly hadn't been cleaned in months. It was disgusting.