Buying a house that's in a disgusting state

Patchwork_Girl

I have just bought a house that was in a really disgusting state. Mostly cosmetic (rubbish, spilled paint, rubbish/food scattered all over, stained carpets with rotting underlay, etc) We got it cleared out in two days and, a week later, the smell has cleared, more or less. Luckily we have a time before moving in and some of the floors are tiled and will come up ok with a good scrub. It could have been worse - the floorboards all seem solid and the basics are good - but it was a pretty stinky couple of days!

One thing I didn't expect was that the local authority searches brought up a health order from earlier this year where the property had been treated as 'filthy or verminous' (I forget the exact wording). There was an outstanding debt for the work which had been done and this needed clearing on completion (by the vendors).

We just tried to see past the yukkiness - the house seemed solid enough and our surveys were ok - the rest is just luck I suppose. A clean owner would be as likely to hide problems to get a sale as a dirty one.

Good luck!

phoebe1989seb

Back in 1997 we bought a house that was in a disgusting state - or at least parts of it were Decades previously the Victorian property had been divided into four flats and of these when we moved in only the upper two floors (there were three floors plus mezzanine and cellar) were habitable.

The previous owner was a terrible landlord that had not maintained the property well and two of his tenants were living in squalor. When we purchased and moved in - along with our eight year old - we camped out on the upper floors till we had made the lower areas liveable. It wasn't merely a case of cleaning as it was sooooo filthy everything just had to be ripped out - for example the once yellow bath was actually more brown than yellow (nice!) and when we removed the revoltingly dirty carpets there were what appeared to be urine stains on the floorboards :eek:

The PO had left over fifty items of furniture behind - all cheap tat - and we just skipped everything. The garden was inaccessible unless you had a machete handy as the brambles were up to shoulder height and when we cleared it we actually found garden furniture buried beneath the weeds. Fortunately we had three other kitchenettes to use whilst we fitted a new kitchen downstairs, but most of our friends thought we were crazy to move into such a dump before doing the work

We did get the house for a reasonably good price. It was a private sale as I knew the PO's DIL. There were only three houses (inc ours) in the road that were of a similar design and one had sold a couple of years previously for £136k - we viewed that too and hoped to buy but didn't sell ours in time - that was in a cleaner state (and not flats) but still in need of renovation. We paid £117,500......having negotiated down from £130,000 after a building survey. Didn't get a reduction 'cos of the general state/dirt though

ariba10

Our son when looking for a house looked at one that had been on the market for some time.

The thing that was putting buyers of was the smell.

After a good look around it was found that the water had evaporated from the toilet pan trap.

Bought it at a good price and have had no further problems.

ian103

We have just brought a bungalow like you describe, it was on for too much money for the condition , it put a lot of people off, the tennant was being difficult, the garden was a jungle and the property was a complete dump, dirt, grime, maggots under the kitchen units. smell of dogs etc. It took 2.5 months before we could move in - new kitchen, bathroom, complete redec, floors, flooring, electrical work, doors etc.

Was it worth it - definitely - we have a property done to our taste on a street that property rarely comes up for sale - we knocked the estimated cost off the realistic price for a 'mint' condition property.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'd echo the thought re getting in a professional cleaning team in advance if you decide to buy the place.

I would say the advantage of that is they wont have any emotions tied up in doing the cleaning (or, if they do, it will be of the "Good to make a bit more money" kind, rather than the "This is my HOME we are talking about here:(" kind).

firsttimebuyer2013

Thanks for everyone's advice.

The plan is to completely remove anything that might need cleaning, solving that problem. lol

As an update, I've had an offer accepted on the house.

John_Ma

thats great. Buying a house in that state can sound like a right bother but im sure once you put the work in it'l make it even more worth while.

googler

ariba10 wrote: »

The thing that was putting buyers of was the smell.

After a good look around it was found that the water had evaporated from the toilet pan trap.

... and it's perhaps worth noting that evaporation from any sink, bath or basin can produce the same symptoms

tiggerkid

If most of the work is purely cosmetic (no suspected structural issues), I'd get quotes from various people you feel you'll need to engage to undertake the work, add them up and make an offer taking into account total cost of work you will need to do to get the house into the right state. Consider things like replacing double glazing, boilers if old etc. Most of these quotes, if not all, should be free and if the owners want to sell the property, they shouldn't be objecting to you wanting to do this before making an offer. If you suspect structural issues, that would cost few hundred quid to investigate and could uncover some issues that will also need fixing. At the end of the day, I'd say it depends on whether or not you love the property that much as to be willing to do all this. Also worth bearing in mind that the property could have already been discounted to get its state into consideration. Look around the area and see what similar properties in a good condition are worth as well. It will also give you an indication as to whether ultimately it's worth undertaking the work because there is usually a limit as to the amount of value you can add to the property in any area. Beyond that, you can have golden taps in every bathroom and it still won't make any difference to the upper price you can sell it for. Good luck.