What “surprises” awaited you after moving in?

[BlessedKingfisher]

Feeling a bit down atm so just wanted to see if anyone else had a stressful time after moving in to their new place?

We are FTBs, because of many different reasons (the market earlier this year, pregnancy, low salaries etc) we didn’t really have a lot of choice and kept getting outbid on properties in our price range. We finally settled on a flat and moved in recently - we knew that some decorating needed to be done (painting, new carpets) but since then found out that the boiler needs servicing, we probably have a small leak in the pipes (but not sure where..), the electrics need testing and now it looks like we also have a silverfish infestation!! thank goodness we have money left over but it’s not going to last long at this rate…

So if you have a story to share about the weird/expensive/nasty surprises that you had after moving in, please do so - misery loves company

We bought a project so expected some work it's only a 1998 build so didn't expect

*holes in the wall behind the kitchen where it hasn't been replaced properly

• plumbing for the dishwasher pulled out but a dishwasher in it place 🤔 when we viewed
• disabled equipment removed and live wires pushed into the walls *neighbours had stolen 2m off the back of the garden. But couldn't be seen for the trees, they then kicked off when we moved the fence back where it belongs and put a patio in so they can't move it back 🤣🤣🤣 *rubbish dumped in said bushes *Gas pipe left behind behind the electric fire with a rubber cap on *clothes left in the dressing room *loft full of empty tins of paint *sale took 4 months to complete as they moved the date three times but I don't think they cleaned from the day we made the offer 🤢

I moved last week and the nastiest surprise that awaited me is covid. Tested positive 2 days after moving in so I haven't even been able to unpack properly. We were meant to be getting the house rewired this week but that's now gone down the toilet until the house is covid free and there are barely any sockets around.

We moved in somewhere with

A dead mouse
Live mice
Silverfish ( get protector C spray it's brill)
Moths
Leak from washing machine
Leak from the bath

Your conveyancer should have requested boiler servicing documentation and electrical servicing - general best practices

We are moving again soon and already aware there has been mice and a gutter leak .. I've been more thorough this time

We also checked the loft at viewings , took photos and demanded it was emptied ...

I took a lot of steps not to get burnt this time but I am sure horrors await us

A cat; the light fittings they'd said they were taking just cut off with no replacements (December); lead water pipes; Rayburn flues never swept and clogged with ash; bailiffs.

Some DIY electrics done to an unsafe standard.

Everything going fine until the day of completion. Signing the contract about 50 times at the notaire, in France. The mairie put a clause in the contract saying the house was uninhabitable......the previous owners had never bothered connecting the house to the main sewers. Also, we found when rewiring that there were wood eating beetles in the roof timbers. All the work cost in excess of 100,000€ and when we split up 10 years later we sold for about 5000€ less than we paid for it.

Black mould,
boiler didn’t work,
the whole house needs replastering,
bay window is coming away from the wall,
silverfish oh an mice!

yes we had surveys done,
no we didn’t want a doer upper.

A hole rusted through a radiator.
The vendor knew, because it had been covered with a small piece of white paper taped on, and the heating system had been drained. We were FTB buying off an older couple who were downsizing/retiring so I assumed them mentioning draining the system in the summer was just an old fashioned thing.
Luckily we weren’t moving in immediately and I discovered the hole when I leant on the radiator while we were measuring up.

Needs repointing as well,
we looked into suing the surveyor!

Bailiffs

One house we moved in to - the owners had taken the toilet seat - toilet was a strange shape, so we couldn't get a good replacement. The fence had blown over, and hadn't been fixed. They took the fireplace. And it was FILTHY.

Another time, it was clear that the male owner had stopped cleaning as soon as he had the offer from us. Place was filthy, sweet wrappers all over the house, chinese takeout in the sink etc.

My friends nought a house and found that furniture had been painted around, so when the previous owners left there was outlines on all the walls of what furniture had been there. Also, on the first night they tried to close the curtains, only to find that there was no curtain track, they were nailed to the wall. The kitchen roller blind only had about 2 inches of fabric, so could not be lowered. I mean, why?

My friends nought a house and found that furniture had been painted around, so when the previous owners left there was outlines on all the walls of what furniture had been there. Also, on the first night they tried to close the curtains, only to find that there was no curtain track, they were nailed to the wall. The kitchen roller blind only had about 2 inches of fabric, so could not be lowered. I mean, why? This is because the house has been presented for sale rather than decorated to be lived in I think?

We had silverfish. We just put a few traps down and they were gone within days. They came back once a couple of years later and we just did the same again.

No awful surprises for us. The porch roof was leaking and ruined the plastering inside but we knew that from the survey so had planned for it. There was also an issue with the down pipe on our guttering sitting too high so the water was overflowing to each side instead of going down the pipe. It was a cheap-ish fix to install a new pipe that was level with the rest of the guttering.

It shouldn't have been a surprise as it was in the fixtures and fittings form but they took the curtain poles and re plastered over where the brackets had been screwed into the wall. They left blinds so it wasn't awful but we're not DIY savvy and really wished they had at least left the brackets holes for us to use. They repainted so we couldn't see where they had been.

First Hhouse we bought - half the kitchen units were gone, we had no idea that they weren't fitted and would be taken.
And every light bulb too.
Present house - a socket in the kitchen wired up to the lighting circuit, the wall was warm where the wire ran down it.
A huge pile of branches that hid bags and bags of rotten, stinking rubbish.

• sale took 6 months and I think they stopped cleaning the day of accepting our offer. It was horrific
• some windows you couldn't see out if they were that bad
• totally blocked gutters
• electrics in one bedroom are dodgy
• mice in the kitchen
• downstairs radiators don't work so downstairs is freezing
• washing machine not connected properly and there was a leak
• leak in the living room window when it rains
• bathroom window is broken

Quite depressing really..

Oh and integrated cooker, only 2 of the 8 units work... the fan extractor is broken.. if I could pen a harshly written letter to the previous vendors, I would! They absolutely failed to maintain or clean anything. Really feeling Crap about out recent move. However hopefully we will get things done slowly in time.

The house was 20 years old so we assumed mostly everything would be in good condition. However on moving in realised soon enough that the previous owner hadn't done anything to the property in the 20 years they owned it. All the taps leaked in the house, the two showers, 3 sink taps. Gradually we replaced them all. Also all the toilets had very old flushes that didn't really work anymore. So replaced all 3 toilets. Apart from that the house was generally quite good and nothing major wrong. The kitchen and bathrooms are 20 years old, but now that we have change the toilets and taps, we should be good for a bit until ready to get them done.

This thread is making me feel better!

we had

• kitchen cabinet doors and backs falling off
• kitchen cabinet base deteriorated due to mould and had collapsed
• mould in the kitchen
• leaks from roof, windows, outside tap, plumbing for washing machine and dishwasher point (The plumbing had been DIY and hacked to bits when they left.), under the floor (so boiler didn’t work), through the walls (looks like the pointing), at the radiators
• massive clump of bamboo behind tree which was behind another shed.
• Shed falling to pieces
• dodgy and unsafe DIY electrics everywhere
• rubbish left in the loft, shed and garden.
• three of the 7 internal doors doing close properly
• holes in the kitchen cabinet and floor which look like someone’s knocked a hammer through it (really sharp/ jagged edges) for their DIY electrics.
• skirting board where the furniture used to be looked really mangled.
• wall behind their beds and wardrobes not painted

Also FTB. we looked at suing the surveyor but they said the risk of us losing and getting stung with high legal costs was high and we can’t afford to take the risk

To make you feel better…

My DH is from a country renowned for haggling. He sees it as a matter of national pride. He beat our vendors - divorcing after wife’s affair - down on price mercilessly. I was mortified and kept out of it.

on moving in day we found:

• at least a week’s worth of shit in all 5 toilets
• a flaming pyre of furniture (that we’d declined to purchase) in the garden, including molten and shattered glass
• all the lightbulbs smashed in situ. I had to remove them with half a potato and managed to electrocute myself in the process.
• Prawns taped to the underside of cupboards.

In future we will be paying the asking price.

3rd house here just moved last year but 2 leaking toilets, shelves not screwed in the kitchen cupboards, electrics held together with tape, boiler condemned, guinea pig skeletons buried around garden, leaking bath.

A Well, literally under my front door! it was massive.

I sold my flat last month and know the seller would have had a few surprises

• damp in the front room (from a flood that happened years ago and the room wasn't dried out correctly before re-plastering) i covered the many damp patches with a stain blocker which will be showing now
• 3 double glazed windows need replacing as they did not open, well 1 opened but it wouldn't lock, was told the whole unit needs replacing
• boiler was on it's last legs
• blocked or slow draining water in the bathroom and kitchen
• doggy electrics done by the past owner (was told it needed a rewire)
• no toilet seat for odd shaped toilet
• JKW (although they knew bout this)
• Issue with blocked drain on the neighbours side that meant every time it rains the back garden would be flooded and this was causing damp in the bedroom.

I am now in the process of buying and am checking EVERYTING in the places i am looking at. tbh i wouldn't trust a seller as far as i could throw them. i am overall a good person but the flat had to be sold and i was willing to do anything to ensure this happened

That is really not the actions of a 'good person' imo.

My surprise is quite tame compared to some of these. My Mum came to help me strip the wallpaper from the small bedroom in preparation for it to become my sons nursery. She said ‘Aww this must have been a kids room before. There’s a rocket painted on the wall.’

Wish I’d taken a picture of her face when she stepped back to admire her handiwork work and slowly realised the ‘rocket’ was actually a massive cock painted on the wall by a previous owner. 🤦🏼‍♀️