Good or bad....what surprises awaited in your new home?

clark24

We moved into our current rental 5 weeks ago, and dear god it's been an experience I never wish to repeat! And this is just the very potted version!

Firstly we were messed about for a month beforehand by the letting agency, I have never encountered such useless and dishonest people in my life!

The day before we were due to move in (we had been told to sign and pick up keys at 10am), by which point we had packed everything, notified all utility providers and all that stuff and were sitting on the floor eating takeaway pizza, well they rang at 5.26pm to say 'by the way the current tenants have decided they are not moving after all, well not til they are dragged out by police and bailiffs (they hadn't paid rent at this point for 6 months but the LL still expected them to just move out when they were supposed to, so hadn't bothered with a 'get the !!!! outta my property' legal thingy.)

But we are determined folk and were not going to just accept that so got in the car and drove round and explained politely that they WOULD be leaving and we would even help them pack if necessary. They sheepishly agreed and said they had only told the LA that to wind them up. Cue the morning and our removals guys turned up and packed the van, we drove on ahead and the twits hadn't yet started packing, or indeed got out of bed and had a teeny tiny van to move a 3 bed house worth of stuff. My husband stayed at this house 'encouraging' them to get a move on, I stayed at old house to sort that stuff out and we rang each other to bicker and shout at each other (very stressed). Our movers put all our stuff into the large outbuilding in the process (could not get into house.)

At 5pm the LA said they wouldn't let us sign the TA til the next day (I swear they laughed) but as all our stuff was in the outbuilding we wanted to know it was at least OUR outbuilding (or insurance invalid) and so we got in the car, drove to their office and demanded they let us sign it, at this point the police had turned up at the new house to arrest the other tenants for a string of offences (one was driving stolen vehicle to move their stuff lol) and it had started to rain heavily.

At 9pm we finally got the keys off tenants and entered house. They had trashed it, utterly trashed it. The boiler was broken (condemned) all doors (which were original 200 year old ones) kicked in, their dog had scratched and chewed and peed on everything it could, garden full of broken glass and 2 large skips full of rubbish (some hazardous chemicals), vile stench from blocked pipes, they had stolen the fire surround, wrecked the carpets, cooker was just a big square lump of burnt on debris and god knows what, you name it and it was trashed. We locked up, got in the car and left (as we had 1 more legal night in old house) so we went to asda, got emergency bedding and supplies and spent night on floor, crying (our kids were exhausted and very fed up).

We have now spent the last 5 weeks trying to encourage the LL to get us a new boiler (no hot water or central heating with young kids is not fun) get skips ordered, joiners hired, new carpets, locks changed, plumbers................ we are living in a freezing dump while the LL scrapes enough money together (no she didn't have insurance and them not paying rent skinted her completely). Oh and she has had a major falling out with LA and has sacked them as they treated her like crap too. It's like being stuck in the middle of 2 divorcing parents.

In our defence if the LA had even hinted at the trouble we would have never considered this place but it was too late by the time we found out, our old LL was a <person of less than pleasant nature with no regard for law> so overstaying our welcome there would have been just as bad, basically we were between rock and hard place.

My marriage is on very shaky ground now, my kids are stressed and I am cold and desperately want to have a bath.

I will look back and laugh about it one day, I will need to be heavily medicated and possibly lobotomized but I will...............

clark24

oh and hilariously 3 weeks after we moved in the previous tenant turned up one evening asking if she could have her deep fat fryer that she had left (the cupboards had been full of rotting food and stuff, I had binned the lot, not kept it 'just incase') and her post...................

It took every fibre of my being to punch her in the face!!

hlw1810

We moved into a house years ago and discovered a full size 1 bedroom static caravan hidden behind the bottom garden fence! The fence, trees and bushes completely hid it. We were gobsmacked. We'd viewed the house in the dark and not noticed the garden was a bit shorter than the neighbours! Nobody mentioned it and surveys didn't pick it up either.

I redecorated it and we used it for guests!

Davesnave

clark24 wrote: »

We moved into our current rental 5 weeks ago, and dear god it's been an experience I never wish to repeat!......
.......My marriage is on very shaky ground now, my kids are stressed and I am cold and desperately want to have a bath.

If you'd come to MSE and told us this, we'd have said get the local authority in to condemn the place and then have your landlady find you alternative accommodation till it's fixed.

It isn't your responsibility that she's ill-equipped to be a landlord and has no insurance/emergency fund..

Who do you care most about, your landlady or your kids?

Hezzawithkids

Oh this thread has brought back some memories!

Turned up on moving day (having discovered through several phone calls that the previous owners had left the keys with a neighbour instead of handing them in at the EA) to find the house hadn't been cleaned since we agreed the sale 3 months beforehand. This included a layer of dust and grime on every surface, dried on catfood on the kitchen floor, carpets thick with grit, matted hair clogging up the sink holes, even the brick-built BBQ in the garden had dried on food remains on the grill - you get the picture. Decided not to move any of our stuff in until we'd cleaned so, as we needed to get the hired van back that night, decided to put all our gear in the garage. Opened the garage door to find the all the previous owners furniture - it was packed to the roof with their gear. As we stood on the driveway gobsmacked they pulled up and - without a word to us - proceeded to load it all onto their van. Once they were done they just drove off - again without saying a word to us. The state they left their house in was all the more galling since I'd spent the previous week scrubbing our old house from top to bottom to make sure it was in a good condition for the new owners.

People's seflishness never ceases to amaze me. It cast a pall over the whole thing for me. I was never happy in that house and we moved again 18 months later.

clark24

Davesnave wrote: »

If you'd come to MSE and told us this, we'd have said get the local authority in to condemn the place and then have your landlady find you alternative accommodation till it's fixed.

It isn't your responsibility that she's ill-equipped to be a landlord and has no insurance/emergency fund..

Who do you care most about, your landlady or your kids?

Thing is we love the house, I used to drive past this place and yearn wistfully for the day I *might* live in it so when it came up for rent at the time we were handing in our notice on old place it seemed like fate (but then I should know by now that fate is a female dog with a twisted sense of humour!!)

The landlady is actually lovely, and the situation had made her so ill we (being nice) just decided to man up and roll with it. New boiler is being fitted this week, I cleaned place and fixed stuff and prettified garden etc, cleared rubbish (yes yes, not my responsibility but hey, all good karma points for the fact we want to get a cat lol) and it is our perfect house, it just needs exorcising of the previous tenants, which will happen over time. Plus side is we are allowed to decorate how we like, really make it our home, we get a new boiler, can choose the carpets, and I have lots of sexy builder types round the house with rather lovely bottoms to look at lol

It's been hell but you have to focus on the positives and plough through it all for the sake of your sanity, I've been through worse and am not going to let this finish me off. (and environmental health, the council etc are useless and were not interested and we had 2 dogs so no viable alternative accommodation possible alas)

Davesnave

clark24 wrote: »

It's been hell but you have to focus on the positives and plough through it all for the sake of your sanity, I've been through worse and am not going to let this finish me off.

I understand, if it looks like being a good, long-term rental.

Of course, people put themselves through all kinds of deprivation for properties they buy. My parents did, but they didn't consult me.

Kids are very resilient. I think I was.....;)

clark24

Davesnave wrote: »

I understand, if it looks like being a good, long-term rental.

Of course, people put themselves through all kinds of deprivation for properties they buy. My parents did, but they didn't consult me.

Kids are very resilient. I think I was.....;)

Right now I think the LL would have us sainted if she could, and she certainly doesn't want us to go for a very long time (which suits us as we are never moving again! lol)

We have firmly asserted our rights but are nice people. She agreed to a rent reduction due to the issues and we chat on the phone or text every day about the issues, and how we all want to restore the 200 year old gorgeous farm cottage back to its former glory, and will be doing this over time and to mutual benefit.

Ultimately she wants tenants who love the house, look after it like their own and give her no unnecessary grief or stress. We want a LL who leaves us alone and just does their job of gas safety stuff etc but otherwise is not peering over our shoulder all the time, and sees it as our home. So far, once the work needed is done, it seems we will both get what we want.

hazyjo

Found more than three boxes of porno mags (beat the other poster lol) in the loft. Mel & Kim were on the front of one (not that I looked through all of 'em - ahem!), so probably all 80s too.

Last house was filthy. Spent hours cleaning the kitchen. The bathrooms were filthy too, and when you lifted one of the loo seats, it had all this 'stuffing' coming out where it had got so soaked in... yeah, that.

Been quite lucky considering... just a few bits of junk left behind usually.

Jx

Mylo_The_Moggy

hellzbellz wrote: »

Barrats left champagne and chocolates and a card which was nice on top of wrapping our front door in big green bow and three toilets.

They wrapped your door with a bow & 3 toilets?!!!