Nightmare!!!!!!

Wee_Willy_Harris

Hi all,

The recent thread about the grass damage set me thinking. As many who view these boards are first time buyers/renters, I think it would be helpful to give some context to some of the issues faced. I'm not condoning or excusing the actions of others, but I thought sharing might help.

So, nightmare moving stories please?

(Stands aside for the rush!!!!!)

motherofstudents

yes, had to chuckle at the grass story:rotfl:We've had some nightmares over the years but it's all relative and always seems worse at the time, maybe with hindsight they were only bad dreams....
When we were first time buyers we were so naiive, we went on honeymoon to Portugal and left the builders to go in and do the repairs. When we got back we were horrified to find all the ground floor carpets in a heap in the middle of the rooms full of plaster. We had to throw them all away.
Other things that have gone wrong
when leaving that first house the people we were buying from had some kind of dispute with the estate agent and wouldn't give them the keys so we had a removal van full of furniture and no way to get in. I thought I was going to faint but after a few hours of negotiation we managed to get a back door key.
The next house the people left all sorts of rubbish in the garden including two tractor tyres and when we did a bit of gardening we managed to dig up a bathroom suite that they had buried.
When we sold that one we had the conveyancers from hell and on the day of completion there were three in the chain and we all had to unpack the removal vans until the following week as they messed up so badly.
I'm sure that there will be much worse examples of buying/selling/moving nightmares and I usually think we got off quite lightly, especially as no grass was harmed in any of our moves:j

Doozergirl

Oooh, I win, I win, I win!

Look what I bought...
http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo?album_id=312363863&photo_id=657278721

And no, it wasn't supposed to look like that. I paid Stamp Duty after the holiday finished so that they could 'clear it'

We sued. Got back about half what it cost us to clear the place, not including the stamp duty; maintaining a sensible solicitor's bill.

BabyBoots

Doozergirl wrote: »

Oooh, I win, I win, I win!

Look what I bought...
http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo?album_id=312363863&photo_id=657278721

And no, it wasn't supposed to look like that. I paid Stamp Duty after the holiday finished so that they could 'clear it'

We sued. Got back about half what it cost us to clear the place, not including the stamp duty; maintaining a sensible solicitor's bill.

That is really unbelievable! I assume all that stuff wasn't there when you viewed it - where on earth did it all come from?

Doozergirl

I admit it was there when we viewed. And I sort of expected we might have to clear it and budgeted for it. But when they said they would clear it we were more than happy...

Until we payed £1600 in stamp duty and delayed a month for them to simply throw some stuff from one room into the front garden!

The litigator from our solicitor said he has never seen anything like it in 25 years. Interestingly there is no actual definition of what defines 'Vacant Possession'!

When we finish I shall maybe show the 'after' pics as well

InaPickle

Doozergirl wrote: »

Oooh, I win, I win, I win!

Look what I bought...
http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo?album_id=312363863&photo_id=657278721

And no, it wasn't supposed to look like that. I paid Stamp Duty after the holiday finished so that they could 'clear it'

We sued. Got back about half what it cost us to clear the place, not including the stamp duty; maintaining a sensible solicitor's bill.

Cor! Kim and Aggie would have a field day in that! :eek:

When you say you paid stamp duty so they could clear it, do you mean they neaded the cash upfront to be able to get people in/a skip? And did you have to pay the costs of the legal action as well?

Hope you are happy there now.

Doozergirl

InaPickle wrote: »

Cor! Kim and Aggie would have a field day in that! :eek:

When you say you paid stamp duty so they could clear it, do you mean they neaded the cash upfront to be able to get people in/a skip? And did you have to pay the costs of the legal action as well?

Hope you are happy there now.

Bless you. We missed the stamp duty holiday below £175k on the extended completion date.

It's being fixed. There's no roof on it at the moment! We had to pay the solicitor from the proceeds - he was super actually - we had to balance full legal action and the associated bills with a few threatening letters from him and some research on my part. Proper legal costs would have wiped out more from the cost of winning the full amount back; because we couldn't reasonably charge for our own personal labour(!) it would have been small claims track where you don't win costs.

The genuine reason why solicitors don't do anything when someones left some random furniture and a few boxes behind is that there isn't a proper law to protect you... it costs more to fight than you have to gain.

It won't be ours to live in but hopefully we'll make someone a happy home

azkaban420

OMG Doozergirl, I've just picked my jaw back off the floor, what a nightmare!! Can't wait to see the after-pics, bet you'll have transformed it

Az

Wee_Willy_Harris

I suppose I should contribute, really, having started all this.

A friend was moving into her new home some years ago. A very exciting time. Hired a huge Luton van and, with a group of friends (myself included) spent most of the day prior to the move cramming it and a couple of cars full to the rafters. (We may have "wasted" a little time by drinking and having fun, but it was mostly packing). So, on the day of the move, up at the crack of dawn, breakfast fry-up and the last few essentials packed, a quick clean around and away on the 2 hour drive to the new house. Arrived early afternoon,opened the front door and looked around, all seemed OK but, as my friend wandered round her new home, she was slightly peterbed that ALL the carpets had gone (the former householders were downsizing, so she expected SOME carpets to be left at least, if not all as they were near the end of their life when she viewed). Then it was noticed that ALL the window coverings (including rails/tracks) had gone too. Then we all had a real close look around. Just about everything that wasn't screwed down had been taken. Light bulbs, coat hooks, loo roll holder... even the little plastic things that some people fit behind the light smitches, so there was a huge square clean patch round every switch (they cost pennies new). The final straw was when she burst into tears on the front step as she'd noticed that they'd even taken the house numbers off the front door. We ended up having an impromptu party in the bathroom when it was noted that the plugs for both sink and bath were still in place! In spite of the above, it was a very enjoyable weekend and, as she got to know the neighbours, the more she heared about the former residents, the more surprised she was that they's left the bathroom plugs. We still have a laugh about it now.

PottyHouse_2

Wee_Willy_Harris wrote: »

I suppose I should contribute, really, having started all this.

A friend was moving into her new home some years ago. A very exciting time. Hired a huge Luton van and, with a group of friends (myself included) spent most of the day prior to the move cramming it and a couple of cars full to the rafters. (We may have "wasted" a little time by drinking and having fun, but it was mostly packing). So, on the day of the move, up at the crack of dawn, breakfast fry-up and the last few essentials packed, a quick clean around and away on the 2 hour drive to the new house. Arrived early afternoon,opened the front door and looked around, all seemed OK but, as my friend wandered round her new home, she was slightly peterbed that ALL the carpets had gone (the former householders were downsizing, so she expected SOME carpets to be left at least, if not all as they were near the end of their life when she viewed). Then it was noticed that ALL the window coverings (including rails/tracks) had gone too. Then we all had a real close look around. Just about everything that wasn't screwed down had been taken. Light bulbs, coat hooks, loo roll holder... even the little plastic things that some people fit behind the light smitches, so there was a huge square clean patch round every switch (they cost pennies new). The final straw was when she burst into tears on the front step as she'd noticed that they'd even taken the house numbers off the front door. We ended up having an impromptu party in the bathroom when it was noted that the plugs for both sink and bath were still in place! In spite of the above, it was a very enjoyable weekend and, as she got to know the neighbours, the more she heared about the former residents, the more surprised she was that they's left the bathroom plugs. We still have a laugh about it now.

Its hard to imagine there are sellers like that out there - can't imagine to think what is going through their minds as they are taking those things down and away - just the word "spite" comes to mind !!

pamperedprincess

The previous owners of our house took lightbulbs, picture hooks, washing line and worst of all - took the cat flap out of the back door and nailed a piece of plywood over it!!!