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.

@Ddot

I hate those horrible buyers who knock thousands off just before sale goes through. I heard about a bloke who worked for estate agents, the day before he was due to get keys, he dropped ten grand off his offer, TAKE IT OR I WALK! huge chain all waiting. Nasty piece of work.

@Ddot

But he would have already paid thousands for exchange, which he would lose if it was the day before completion!

When I was an estate agent a couple of buyers would agree to short term "rent" the house they were buying from the owners before it exchanged and completed (if it was empty) to help break the chain where necessary to keep sales together.

I think it happened 3 times in my 6ish years in agency and 2 of them fell through because the buyer pulled out having experienced living there and finding something they couldn't live with or which hadn't been disclosed. The other one renegotiated the price quite a bit after finding various problems!

I bought a place, all stripped doors and Laura Ashley wallpaper, that had been bodged by someone who worked in the building trade (I found “Colin the bodger’s” day release notes in the loft). The walls under the wall paper were bumpy. Started stripping wallpaper to find terrible plastering over layers of wallpaper!

Colin must have been left handed as all the taps were on the wrong side and the kitchen cabinets opened the wrong way. He’d cemented in light fittings and wires so that you couldn’t replace a blown bulb, the whole fitting had to be removed and a new one put in. He obviously didn’t do electrics at college as you couldn’t turn off switch for the light above the stairs upstairs so you had to walk up the stairs in the dark at night or leave it on all night (it actually had the right type of switch but he hadn’t wired it properly). A wire connected to a 240 v switch poked out of the back wall of the house with nothing on the end.

Loads of post still arrived for him, I opened one which was a big house-building company offered him a job, I was tempted to write back and say he was shite!

His partner “Claire” was an active campaigner for a catholic anti-abortion organisation, and lots of post arrived for her and even a priest leaving messages asking for her.

My tip for first time buyers is on your second viewing, take you time and check everything yourselves, and don’t be deceived by the look of a place.

floss tiles
Freudian slip in the bathroom?

We had to have the whole place gutted and required (nothing had been done since the 50s).

Our bloody builder was either cross eyed or had no spirit level as every single socket and lightswitch is wonky.

And yes. I do have ocd (actually) and it drives me bananas.

I once turned down a job in an agency because the whole revelation hallway and area has picture frames all over the walls and nothing lined up. It would have taken me hours to get to my desk... a later job had a row of frames (only about 6) along a staircase and I blu-tacked them all down.

@BluTangClan this is a very daily mail-able thread though.

@poundoflard I agree, if you buy an old house you shouldn’t expect it to be in a totally refurbished state as standard. Some people don’t do maintenance or update anything if it still works, it’s normal.

Twenty years of owning Labradors. I love cleaning though and hoovered A LOT, had wood floors downstairs and they rarely came upstairs. But I'm pretty sure they found dog hair in places you never thought possible.

When I bought the house the owner kept birds in 3 sheds converted into averies. I never dismantled them, they became derelict, instead I built a fence to hide them. The garden was 120ft long so they just got 'forgotten' about. My buyers knew they were there though.

Artificial lawn - urgh. Huge mistake...don't know what I was thinking.

The whole house was crooked, due to historic subsidence. They knew about the subsidence but probably not about that nothing would ever be straight or level.

Non-removable Venetian blinds. I HATED them, bastard to clean.

Ive sold one house and brought two. When we sold our old house, we even replaced the bathroom before selling as it was starting to leak. We cleaned our way out on moving day too. The worst we left was footprints in the hallway, as it was raining, it was a wooden floor and my husband had remembered a bag he'd put down in the kitchen.

Buying house 1, I was left with all the stuff they just didn't want to move. Kids toys in the attic, a double bed, a dining table, random glass wear and crockery in the kitchen and all sorts. Plus after they accepted my offer, they clearly stopped mowing the lawn.
Buying house 2, we knew that it had been neglected for 30 years and needed a lot of work, but we were planning on taking it back to the brickwork anyway. What we didn't expect was to move in and find he'd taken the kitchen units too. It was the one room we hadn't planned or budgeted to renovate.

Lassy1845
He knew seller would drop or lose their new house it's a dirty trick.

We didn't land anyone with anything. We inherited (bought) from a builder, who should have been drowned at birth. This was our first house. It was always going to be a Do-er Upper. Even though we paid (£400 at the time) for a full survey, It showed everything. We needed to replace all the lathe and plaster ceilings. Walls needed to be either replaced, or strengthened. The roof appeared to be of "sturdy" construction. Until it rained. I ran out of receptacles!!
The rain was running down the walls, literally, into any and all of our electric sockets. Massive power cut, and because of the gale, there was no tarpaulin on the roof.
I'm stopping, right there, because otherwise I'll just sound bitchy, angry, resentful, killer, murderous, and you have 2 children and you're in the pub and expect me to get on the fucking roof?
I am not angry, resentful, killer, murderous at all. Not since he fell backwards into an empty swimming pool. At the deep end. Sadly, he fell into he empty swimming pool several years later. When it finally stopped raining, and after I finally got off the bloody roof, we discovered wet rot, dry rot and woodworm. We got the survey fees back, and then it really started. Where do we start? Where do we stop? He, who must be obeyed, with a tin foil hat. I kid you not. Me, with a two year old, project managing. LOL!!
I learned so much! I learned nothing. I made new friends, most of them builder people. Associated trades. We had no kitchen, for 3 months. We had no bathroom, for 2 months. Did you know, you can boil an egg in a kettle? It will never be a dippy egg, but it can be done, if you keep your finger on the boil button!
Because I was a SAHM with a 4 year old, a 2 year old and pregnant I was expected to be in charge! LOL!!!
It was all going really well, which should have alerted me. I remember that I had to go out, and when I came back, there was a different atmosphere. To cut a short story long, the carpenter person had gone AWOL, no one could find him. Then, the foreman bloke went upstairs, and found him, in our bedroom, rummaging through my underwear drawer. He was sacked, instantly. I was lucky, the foreman bloke was my brother in law. I cannot even describe how sick I felt. Even now. I threw all of the underwear away, and had to replace it, little by little. It sounds silly, but I felt so grubby. Does that make sense? Probably not! LOL! Just me, being silly.

I'm a welfare officer for a cat charity. It's sadly not very unusual to get a call from people saying that they discovered their neighbours moved out and left their animals outside or even worse left them trapped inside the locked house. I hate that people can be so heartless to their pets, unfortunately I could write a list longer than my arm on that topic.

I took one abandoned cat to the vet, got a number from her chip and called, and the woman sounded astonished to hear from me. She said she thought it would be cruel to move the cat from her home! Hadn't thought to mention this to the buyers. Luckily for the cat they were animal lovers and decided to keep her.

Surveying companies should be liable for crap job. I did hear about a bloke who stepped into his walk in wardrobe and went through the floor. He had paid for the top survey the most expensive and thorough one. Missed terrible woodworm, he did make a claim and won but if like most of us, only get a bog standard survey your basically paying for him to see if your paying over the odds and maybe what ever hits him in the face

@Ddot

Lassy1845 He knew seller would drop or lose their new house it's a dirty trick.

But they would have gained a very significant amount of Money by him withdrawing day before completion (the money he had already paid for exchange to take place, normally at least 10%)

This thread makes compulsive reading!

I’m amazed how many people would rather sell their home than buy a new boiler (judging by how many people here have had one fail on them days after moving in). Our buyers should be pleased to discover that their new boiler is still under warranty.

When we bought this place, three internal doors were unhung, despite promises they would be up before moving day. When we arrived with our van, they were still packing and we had to help them get out. They dropped their full weed grinder on the kitchen floor just as they were going so we spend the first week finding cannabis seeds in all the cracks.

The worst thing was that for the first few months after moving we had literally millions of woodlice everywhere, inside and out. Drifts of carcasses at the side of the house each morning, hundreds in all the downstairs rooms every day, mostly dead. We were totally freaked out and thought there must be some disgusting problem with the house, but the neighbour had the same issue and after that first summer, the problem never returned so I guess it was some kind of natural phenomenon. The damned bodies are still behind the skirting and in the roof insulation though!

I'm a bit baffled by some of these things but I say this from a position of privilege I suppose in that I've never HAD to move, for various reasons. Each of our transactions - so far- we could have walked away from, in principle. So, maybe I'm prepared to be bolshier on that basis.

But for example if a seller wouldn't let me do a boiler service I'd assume that something was wrong and consider knocking the price down on the basis they knew there was a (likely) problem they didn't want uncovered. Likewise the cosmetic stuff and things like old carpets and smells - unless they've been changed since the sale - presumably you offered the price you were prepared to pay for the place bearing in mind the cosmetics?

Our current house was swap. Our place was left immaculate, this one absolutely disgusting. Some things we were prepared for, others (front garden full of rubbish including food like half eaten quiches) we weren't. They came and cleaned up to be fair. But it was gross and we had a newborn.

I am not aware that we left a problem behind in our previous place but I have seen estimates that 'responsible' homeowners budget between 1-5% of the value of their property for repairs/upkeep EACH YEAR. Lol. We most certainly aren't spending that. So if you're a buyer with those sorts of expectations you would probably come into our place and go: "They've not done this, and this, and this" to which I'd say "meh." Caveat Emptor (sp?)

I'd never lie on a form though. Neighbour disputes are so tricky. I am sure some people are desperate and I'd not be inclined to judge.

@Eileen101

Ive sold one house and brought two. When we sold our old house, we even replaced the bathroom before selling as it was starting to leak. We cleaned our way out on moving day too. The worst we left was footprints in the hallway, as it was raining, it was a wooden floor and my husband had remembered a bag he'd put down in the kitchen.

Buying house 1, I was left with all the stuff they just didn't want to move. Kids toys in the attic, a double bed, a dining table, random glass wear and crockery in the kitchen and all sorts. Plus after they accepted my offer, they clearly stopped mowing the lawn.
Buying house 2, we knew that it had been neglected for 30 years and needed a lot of work, but we were planning on taking it back to the brickwork anyway. What we didn't expect was to move in and find he'd taken the kitchen units too. It was the one room we hadn't planned or budgeted to renovate.

This is the stuff that as crazy, taking kitchen units. I grew up in the US and while I have never lived there as an adult this is just the sort of thing - taking up carpets, taking light bulbs, curtains etc - that I will never get over happens here. I'm not even sure if you'd be sued in the US, people would probably assume you were unwell, if you did this. Our solicitor told us that one transaction she worked on the sellers took the staircase. It was returned later that day but TOOK THE FUCKING STAIRCASE?? How was it even detachable.

Don't really care if all of this ends up in the Fail either - it's been a great distraction!

Well this has been great from my anxiety about buying our first house

Lassy1945
In uk we dont do that, well not on a cheapish house. I bought a flat and sellercwabted a deposit but only because I had stipulated he put heating in. My next house I paid for as I moved in, no deposit.

Seller stipulated

So did you all lie on the solicitors forms you signed??

Everytime we've bought a house in England, Scotland and Wales we have had to sign papers saying we are not aware of any faults and all appliances we were leaving were in full working order.

There is a section on the form to explain in any detail regarding any defects.

We've received similar paperwork too about the property were buying.

The one time the sellers bullshitted us our solicitor made them buy a replacement oven, as the one they'd left was was dead as a doornail, despite them claiming it was in full working order and signing paperwork to say so.

Well the person who sold us the last flat walls not only a loathesomeone creature (we used to get some of his mail - he was a nazi) but also must’ve done the wiring himself. A friends boyfriend was an electrician and he came to check out our fuse box (fuses kept tripping) and told us that it was a miracle the whole place hasn’t gone up in flames.

@CherryJane

So did you all lie on the solicitors forms you signed??

Everytime we've bought a house in England, Scotland and Wales we have had to sign papers saying we are not aware of any faults and all appliances we were leaving were in full working order.

There is a section on the form to explain in any detail regarding any defects.

We've received similar paperwork too about the property were buying.

The one time the sellers bullshitted us our solicitor made them buy a replacement oven, as the one they'd left was was dead as a doornail, despite them claiming it was in full working order and signing paperwork to say so.

I feel like people have different interpretations of 'working well.'

Take for example the range stove we inherited when be bought this house. I guess the burners they used regularly 'worked well.' The others - not so much. The ovens? One worked - maybe they rarely used the other and 'didn't notice.'

My central heating was really noisy. No matter what we did it would make a clanking sound soon as the pipes got hot. We didnt turn it on for house viewings.