Current house had/had a lovely mix of joy from the builders and the previous owners.
House built in 2008, only one owner before us and we moved in 2014.
The electrics in the kitchen are dodge, mostly the lighting. We’ve had to replace some of it and light bulbs still just don’t last anywhere near as long as they should. In the hall, the light switches make no sense and there’s similar in the kitchen. The en-suite shower was fine but after about a year and a half in the house we noticed the bottom tile under the shower fittings was loose. We were going to just remove the tile, dry it out and re grout it. But it turns out there had been a slow leak from the back of the shower for years that had been spoiling loads of tiles and it was really mouldy. We got it re tiled and the tilers told us the builders had used the wrong plaster board and also they’d installed the shower doors completely wrong and in fact tiled in a way that made no sense. All the bathrooms are just so wonky. Like the tiles, lighting and fixtures have been installed completely independently. Nothing is square at all. Downstairs bathroom is particularly bad.
NDN’s have the same house as us and their main family bathroom was being re done and the bath fell through the ceiling into the living room - apparently that had been leaking into the joists for years. Thank F no one was hurt.
The previous owners had paid for really gorgeous bamboo flooring that we genuinely liked. But it wasn’t until we moved in we realised I had been laid really badly, we think by them to save cash. They’d put down thick underlay, flooring on top and done a pretty terrible job or beading as it wouldn’t fit under the skirting and was just so bodged. There were stiletto pock marks all around the fridge and the front door. We got it ripped up and replaced with LVT and then realised all the doors had been planed significantly to fit the bamboo. They’re not the best quality doors but they will need to be replaced at some point as they now look terrible, 2 inch gap under all the internal downstairs doors. The beading, and as it turns out so much other stuff, had been stuck onto the skirtings with brown resin 😱😱 it’s just so random. It’s still not completely off the skirtings and such a pain to scrape off or paint over.
There were multiple rooms that had the paint “touched up” with magnolia on magnolia. Once you’ve seen it you can’t un see it. We reckon in 6 years they never did a scrap of decorating.
Also, strangely there’s sellotape marks all over the house. I’m still finding them now and we’ve been in 7 years. On the backs of doors, around the hearth, on walls and even under sinks in bathrooms? I don’t understand at all 😂
Hall and stair carpets were gross from their dog. They had these odd stair protectors too that were just covered in dog hair.
They also didn’t leave a forwarding address and effectively did a bunk leaving tens of thousands of debt behind them. After 6 months of returning to sender multiple times a week, it was clear they hadn’t redirected a single thing so I started opening their mail. I know it’s “illegal” but I don’t think it’s fair to potentially have bailiffs at the door. So I just called every company looking for money and told them to check the land registry and I’m sorry I can’t be more help. Occasionally we still get mail looking for them when debts get sold on.
I know it could be a lot worse but it makes you realise what you need to looks for!!
What an essay, sorry!!