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

moreofthegoodstuff

A leaking toilet and a dodgy boiler (glad I knocked them down for the boiler!) no wonder they completely blanked us after walking into the same cafe on completion day after we had just got keys at the estate agent! Awkward!

moonwitch

Just thought I'd add my experience!!
When we moved in to our house it was a dump, however we got it at a bargain price so makes up for it a bit!!
The previous owner had painted the walls and the ceiling red but no ordinary red it was a very dark red the words 'lady of the night' might spring to mind when you walked in to the room and the paint he used was actually masonary paint!!
He had kept animals in one of the bedrooms so it stunk and we had to keep the door shut and window open for about 3 weeks before we could even tackle anything in there!!
The best bit was the weekend after we moved in we were clearing a mountain of rubbish he had left by the back door next to the back door steps I lifted a couple of bags of rubbish and some pieces of wood to find a world war 2 hand grenade sitting there!!!
As we had only just moved in I panicked as you do then rang the police but as I was ringing from a mobile I don't think they were taking me seriously but they came out and then had to phone for the bomb squad to come, all the neighbours were asked to vacate their houses or not go to the back of their houses and we had to wait 2 hours for the bomb squad to come.
Thankfully it was not live and the bomb squad took it away in what looked like a metal lunchbox and that was it!!
Talk about how to make an impression with the new neighbours!!

Moonwitch x

abankerbutnotafatcat

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

I've just thought of another one......bit silly really, but here goes -

The buyer of our last-but-one house was someone infamous - google *girl murdered tent peg* and you'll see who I mean

It wasn't that gorgeous house with the impressive hallway you put a link up to a few weeks ago was it?


The house we bought was filthy dirty, the white door and door frames were black with grime around the handle area and the 'walnut/mahogany' handrails on the stairs turned out to be light pine once washed.

One of the UPVC windows didn't close - that had to be fixed before winter.

The boiler went to lockout every third time or so it fired up (still putting up with that one two years later).

And the lights went out three weeks after moving in and required a full rewire!!

phoebe1989seb

abankerbutnotafatcat wrote: »

It wasn't that gorgeous house with the impressive hallway you put a link up to a few weeks ago was it?
!

Yes......that's the one We sold to him in 2007 - I nearly had a fit when I found out who it was......the EA did the viewing and I was called back to answer some questions afterwards and there he was standing in my kitchen :eek:

highguyuk

Love this thread, keep them coming!

bowtiesarecool

Loved reading some of these! I had to join just so I could share the 'experiences' we've had with our current place.

The first day we moved in we found the shower would only get hot if it was put down at waist level. Spent months having to take showers sitting down in the bath! Fine for me, not so much for my 6ft 2 husband!

The previous owners had agreed to leave the washing machine, fridge, dishwasher and cooker, as this was our first non rental place and we had none of these. The first night I go to try and use the oven, to find it covered in inch thick black grease and burnt on food. I couldn't even bear to touch it and ordered a new cooker the next day! Oh, and the dishwasher had a spray arm missing so was basically useless.
A few days later, we tried to use the garbage disposal to find it was full of black foul smelling sludge. They must have been trying to put solid lumps of food down it and just left it when it got blocked. I don't know how it did make the whole kitchen stink! That got ripped out and went straight in the bin!

We then discovered little caterpillars on the ceiling of the bedroom. Turns out all the carpets in the flat were infested with moths! I could bear the thought of being in the same room with the little blighters so the carpets got ripped up rather swiftly!

We've had our place for 10 months now and thankfully, after a lot of time and money, all the problems are fixed, we've made the place our own and we love the place. I'd still give the previous owner a piece of mind if I ran into them in the street though!:mad:

yorkshire_terrier_owner

yorkshire_terrier_owner wrote: »

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.

Just thought I'd update on what I posted a few days ago - electrician arrived today to sort out external lights - goes into loft to find bees. Had to find a pest controller pretty quickly to come and sort it out! Apparently they can burrow into mortar and insulation and cause all sorts of damage.

xylophone

The dining room windows painted shut.....

TBagpuss

1st house I bought - my parents came round to help me move my stuff in bringing their brand new Dyson vacuum so we could clean up.

We found that that living room carpet was actually cream with green patterns on, not brown with darker brown patterns. We had to empty the vacuum cleaner 5 times...

Current property - got the keys, went in to find:
- vendors had removed every single lightbulb
- had dumped their old fridge (half full of food) in the back garden
- had not finished sanding and sealing the bedroom floors as agreed in the contract
- left the oven filthy - I don't think it had ever been cleaned- there was a heap of burnt stuff about 6 inches high in the bottom of the oven.
- left vast numbers of garden ornaments (many broken) in the back garden

Mercifully my parents were living nearby and I had arranged to stay with them for a few weeks after I bought, so I could get some rewiring down, and redecorate, before I moved all my stuff in, but had I been planning to move straight in the state of the bedrooms would have been a major issue.

The vendors were furious when they found that I actually intended to hold them to the contract, and they received a bill for finishing the floors and disposing of the junk in the garden.

They hadn't told anyone they were moving, and I continued to get their post for months.

When I was a child, my parents moved house one freezing cold February - my mum was 8 months pregnant. The movers turned up at the new house and announced they were about to go on strike, so they just unloaded everything and dumped it in the garage and living room, regardless of where it was supposed to go. My parents reckoned they only unloaded it at all because they could drive the vans to the picket line more quickly if they were empty..

When i was a student we rented a house - the neighbours came round to tell us how glad they were the property was being occupied by students as it would be such an improvement on the owners! (We got bailiffs turning up looking for the owners, for months!)

lelasuzi

25 million woodlice, 3 layers of carpet. Attic bedroom ceiling had collapsed. Baby grand piano (that we had to buy for £1000) wouldn't fit in their nice new bungalow. All furniture and bed in back bedroom. Mattress was infested from their poorly old cat. Moved in with me mam till it was all sorted. 24 years later we love our house so much.