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

System

this thread has put me off moving away from my parents into my own place

MAYTOJULY

greenbee wrote: »

I was a FTB and didn't realise the rules around vacant possession, ..

Would you mind expanding, I'm selling at the moment and don't know the rules thanks

securityman

MAYTOJULY wrote: »

Would you mind expanding, I'm selling at the moment and don't know the rules thanks

The only rules are, there is no rules. Its all down to the sort of person you are.
Some leave !!!!!!, some leave a bottle of Champagne.

angeltreats

We didn't realise until we completed and got the keys that all the windows in the house opened inwards instead of outwards. Like these. You can't have your windows open and your curtains drawn at the same time, and there are also no windowsills and no recess. Apparently all the houses in the development were built like that (although a few people have now changed them for normal, outward-opening ones), and I can't imagine who ever thought this was a good idea given that we live in two storey houses, not high rise blocks of flats. It is a constant source of annoyance. We can't afford to replace them for a few years and if we'd realised I'd probably not have bought the house.

FloppyDisk

berbastrike wrote: »

this thread has put me off moving away from my parents into my own place

I hope it doesn't! It is a very daunting prospect but you cope! I've always been a fan of the C4 property programs like Sarah Beeney and grand designs so although every blip was a backward step it was a opportunity to make my own stamp on the place and learn how to do this properly.

I ended up buying a flat with a broken boiler, broken shower, out of date electrics, leaking roof and damp patch and only after a year found out from the neighbours that their ceiling had fallen in after the bathroom had leaked while it was on the market!

Thankfully I had a contingency fund despite moving into a place that seemed to be ready to go but it really saved my bum more times that I care to remember!

Mylo_The_Moggy

angeltreats wrote: »

We didn't realise until we completed and got the keys that all the windows in the house opened inwards instead of outwards. Like these. You can't have your windows open and your curtains drawn at the same time, and there are also no windowsills and no recess. Apparently all the houses in the development were built like that (although a few people have now changed them for normal, outward-opening ones), and I can't imagine who ever thought this was a good idea given that we live in two storey houses, not high rise blocks of flats. It is a constant source of annoyance. We can't afford to replace them for a few years and if we'd realised I'd probably not have bought the house.

Ours have windows that open inwards too! Rather awkward to open fully when the vertical blind rail is in the way.............Not very practical!


Ours are the ones in diagram 2 of your link, tilt & turn, so which ever way we have them open is still a problem due to the blinds. But we like our privacy & it stops the nosy parker over the road from gawping in all the bloody time!!!!!!!!! :mad:

yorkshire_terrier_owner

angeltreats wrote: »

We didn't realise until we completed and got the keys that all the windows in the house opened inwards instead of outwards. Like these. You can't have your windows open and your curtains drawn at the same time, and there are also no windowsills and no recess. Apparently all the houses in the development were built like that (although a few people have now changed them for normal, outward-opening ones), and I can't imagine who ever thought this was a good idea given that we live in two storey houses, not high rise blocks of flats. It is a constant source of annoyance. We can't afford to replace them for a few years and if we'd realised I'd probably not have bought the house.

I have these in the house I recently bought (mine are the tilt and turn ones). Personally, I like them. Cleaning upstairs windows is easy and stops my cats performing suicide missions like they used to at my old house. I have window sills and have found I can put stuff on there and it's not a problem on the tilt opening. If I want to open them fully then I have to move stuff but I only do that to clean them. Creates a really good flow of breeze on a hot day as well.

Good things I found after I moved into my house:
Really good quality cast iron fire (obviously knew it was there just didn't know what good quality it was)
Gutter guards had been put up to stop gutters blocking (genius!). No mention of this until weeks after I moved in and the neighbour told me. Was wondering why moss was dropping off the roof onto the patio!
Massive plastic wallet full of every conceivable instruction manual and handwritten instructions.
House was so clean that my OCD cleaning friend only had to do a quick whip round with the Hoover.

Bad things I found:
Vendors still there for hours after completion - they were completely disorganised. In the end I just started moving in. However, it was only when my mum turned up with my dogs that they actually started to get a move on!
Some very dodgy wiring for external lights - electrician coming this week to sort.
Their dog had completed chewed the architrave in second bedroom - got chippie coming to replace next week.
Some other dodgy DIY jobs but nothing that's unsafe (dodgy plastering and decorating). Will sort in time.

Ivana_Tinkle

Too much to list in our current place - a serious (now-dwindling!) amount of Japanese knotweed being the most annoying.

We once sold a place that was absolutely immaculate - fully redecorated throughout, and I spent hours scrubbing it thoroughly before we left. A couple of weeks after the move, my OH bumped into our buyer (a FTB) in the street. She gave him a filthy look and refused even to say hello. To this day, we have absolutely no idea what was wrong! We suspect something must have broken soon after she moved in and she blamed us...

phoebe1989seb

Ivana_Tinkle wrote: »

Too much to list in our current place - a serious (now-dwindling!) amount of Japanese knotweed being the most annoying.

We once sold a place that was absolutely immaculate - fully redecorated throughout, and I spent hours scrubbing it thoroughly before we left. A couple of weeks after the move, my OH bumped into our buyer (a FTB) in the street. She gave him a filthy look and refused even to say hello. To this day, we have absolutely no idea what was wrong! We suspect something must have broken soon after she moved in and she blamed us...

The last house we sold (2011) had a glass-roofed conservatory that was installed by a previous owner about twenty years ago. There were a couple of small cracks in the glass roof that had been there when we purchased in 2007. This was about the only job we hadn't tackled during our three years of ownership - we'd spent in excess of £40k on restoring the house and would have done this job next had we not had to relocate due to our parents' ill-health.

We explained about the roof to our EA and agreed that the asking price reflected the situation - despite our expenditure on the house, we priced £10k lower than we'd paid in 2007 as the market there had fallen somewhat - so we felt that potential buyers were getting good value for money.......especially when the couple that offered (£10k below AP) explained that they intended to replace the conservatory with an extension anyway.

Suffice to say DH was mortified and felt terribly guilty when a week after completion he had to return to the house to collect a large potted plant we'd been unable to fit in the removal lorry. The new owner explained that a couple of days after moving in there had been a torrential downpour and the roof had leaked literally bucket-loads all over their furniture :eek:

Although we consider ourselves nice people and certainly wouldn't wish anything bad to befall anyone, we did think this was karma - as they had totally stitched us up over an expensive range cooker.........

Ryiah

When we moved in to our house there was black mould over the walls and in the cupboards, which we didn't see during the viewing as they were covered with shelves/books! We still have the problem 6 years on despite adequate ventiliation!

They left the garage full of their stuff - old doors, paint, carpets, furniture etc it took ages to gut out.

In one of the teenagers bedrroms, there was dried up bogies all along the doorframe - makes me gag remembering about it!

Also the heating didn't work and the double glazing was all misted between the panes - which we didn't notice during the viewing.

Really annoyed the 'survey' didn't pick up on any of it.