Oh how I wished I'd discovered Martin Lewis before I bought my house!

Jessikita1983

I bought a 3 bed ex council house in an area of Leicester in Jan 2008 (off a private vendor, not the council direct), I put my offer in Nov 2007.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing! How I'd wished I had read the guide for viewing properties before I made an offer.

I could kick myself because the house was vacant and the EA showed us around, so I could have got away with checking all the windows and doors etc without causing much offence!

Nearly all the windows have some sort of fault!

Small bedroom - 3 layers of wallpaper = plaster ruined

sod it! I'm not going to list - every single wall was covered in wall paper =whole house re-plastered

one of the water pipe to the small bathroom was a random size, had to order it in from specialist plumber merchants

When the wall paper was removed, holes in the plasterboards everywhere, vendor must have been obsessed with pictures and the like!

To many faults to carry on listing, but all I can say is, when I purchase my next house I am going to a super toxic annoying person who checks EVERYTHING on the list!

Course I was just swept away with the excitement of buying my first house!

How I will learn for next time...

motherofstudents

Oh, we all live and learn. Put it down to experience and as you say you will know next time. It doesn't sound too bad, just put things right and get it how you want it.

Jessikita1983

Hello motherofstudents,

I was just having a moment of self pity! I am more fortunate than others so I should be grateful!

I have nearly finished gutting the whole house, just one bedroom and the hall, stairs and landing to finish (the bedroom should be done by now, but the plasterer has let me down now twice!) so nearly there fixing everything!

Could be worse, that's the way I should look at it. No signs of structural issues or the like!

Soot2006

tbh I lot of those things you wouldn't have found out even with obsessive checking - they fall under what I'd say is normal moving in maintenance! .... We found wallpaper from the 70s under several layers ! Love it ... totally epic wallpaper!!!

Jessikita1983

The plastering and the decorating and even the pipe I can live with - along with the holes in the walls. I just wished I'd checked how crap the windows are as I probably could have put in a lower offer with stating it was due to that they needed replacing or repair work.

I'm not very good at describing but I'll try! They are those kind where the whole window opens, and you turn the handle across to open it about 45 degrees or all the way round to open the whole window. The ones where it only opens the whole way are a nightmare to then shut, you have to lean your whole body weight against it to lift it slightly. Nearly every single on the black plastic seal has come off, they will either only open all the way round or only 45 degrees, the locks don't work properly. I keep meaning to ring up a window doctor and get a quote!

I think I will prioritise this next!

ash28

Jessikita1983 wrote: »

The plastering and the decorating and even the pipe I can live with - along with the holes in the walls. I just wished I'd checked how crap the windows are as I probably could have put in a lower offer with stating it was due to that they needed replacing or repair work.

I'm not very good at describing but I'll try! They are those kind where the whole window opens, and you turn the handle across to open it about 45 degrees or all the way round to open the whole window. The ones where it only opens the whole way are a nightmare to then shut, you have to lean your whole body weight against it to lift it slightly. Nearly every single on the black plastic seal has come off, they will either only open all the way round or only 45 degrees, the locks don't work properly. I keep meaning to ring up a window doctor and get a quote!

I think I will prioritise this next!

Could it be that the window locking system has slipped a bit - we had an issue with the paito doors it was really hard to lock them over time it became impossible - the locking plate had slipped a little and the bolts weren't able fit into the locating holes - it did only take a few minutes to sort out.

We also have windows on our landing and small bedroom where the whole window opens inwards - fantastic for cleaning or the whole window opens at the top - I love them - we used to have our "escape route" planned using those windows.

Our house was an absolute mess - we found a stud wall had been built on top of a carpet in the study - we found out when we tried to lift the carpet to decorate before a new carpet was fitted. Happy Days.......

G_M

You didn't remove the wall paper to find a message written in blood on the plaster behind: "I WILL KILL AGAIN!" did you?

LandyAndy

ash28 wrote: »

Could it be that the window locking system has slipped a bit - we had an issue with the paito doors it was really hard to lock them over time it became impossible - the locking plate had slipped a little and the bolts weren't able fit into the locating holes - it did only take a few minutes to sort out.

We also have windows on our landing and small bedroom where the whole window opens inwards - fantastic for cleaning or the whole window opens at the top - I love them - we used to have our "escape route" planned using those windows.

Our house was an absolute mess - we found a stud wall had been built on top of a carpet in the study - we found out when we tried to lift the carpet to decorate before a new carpet was fitted. Happy Days.......

:rotfl: Brilliant.

Jessikita1983

G_M wrote: »

You didn't remove the wall paper to find a message written in blood on the plaster behind: "I WILL KILL AGAIN!" did you?

Had me chuckling for ages!:rotfl:

brit1234

It could be worse. I know some one who bought an ex council flat at the peak of bubble with 100% mortgage. Little did he know the estate was very bad and all the blocks were in a bad state of repair. Due to the complaints from council tenants the blocks are to be condemned. As a private owner he is being offered market value plus 10% putting him in negative equity and unable to get a new home.

Jessikita1983

Sorry to hear of anyone's unfortunate circumstances. x