Completed But House a Tip

kerri_gt

Doozergirl wrote: »

Your dad didn't try and arrange an electrician to come after exchange, did he?

I thought the same thing :rotfl::rotfl:

OP unless there was something in writing about the house being cleaned before moving in, then you don't have any complaint, and tbh if you did I'd question the worth of following up. I suggest either a deep scrub by yourself or get a professional company in. You're lucky you have time before you physically have to move in.
Surely if there looks to be several years of dirt to clean you noticed this when you viewed before making an offer? What was discussed about cleaning before exchange?

hazyjo

I've bought some shockers. My last house was gross. She was still there scrubbing at the shower tray when we turned up at 3 or 4 ish. Was absolutely minging. I don't think some cupboards had been cleaned in the 9 years it had been lived in (they bought new).

Jx

csgohan4

Get professional cleaners if you can't do it. We did that before we moved in the day before.


There are also professional oven cleaners out there too.

Fosterdog

ViolaLass wrote: »

How did it look when you viewed?

When I viewed I didn't know the cooker was staying so didn't pay much attention, I noticed a few grease marks and food stains not cleaned up but they stored empty pots on the job so couldn't see how bad it was at all at the time. The shower was dirty which we noticed and do plan to replace along with the whole bathroom quite soon.

There were tenants in there rather than the vendor when we viewed so we never expected them to give it a good quality clean there was a lot of mess left behind that had been hidden by furniture when we viewed.

daveyjp

Some friends bought last year. When they viewed the property was immaculate. The sellers stalled and it took 20 weeks to complete.

When friends opened the front door it was obvious the previous owners had had no interest in the property for the previous 20 weeks. It appeared not one room had been cleaned in all that time.

They ended up paying a cleaning company to clear the place and do a deep clean.

ViolaLass

So you knew the bathroom was disgusting and you've got a free cooker.

Not so bad.

(We had to hire a skip to clear rubble and other junk from the back garden when we bought.)

anotheruser

Well, here some examples:

• There was dog food biscuits in the living room.
• 90% empty cat litter bag.
• A 2p sized hole in the wall, which wasn't there when we viewed.
• The carpet upstairs has various stains (perhaps dog wee?), of which the seller did say it would be properly cleaned after they moved out.
• Rubbish piled up by the bin, with the bin overflowing.
• Cat flap was actually missing - again, not like this when we viewed. The hole has been blocked by a simple piece of wood leaning against the door. Seriously, if you knocked it down and reached up, you could have unlocked the door as the old owner left the key in it!
• Dog mess in the garden. While this doesn't form part of the contract that we're aware of, we did specifically ask our solicitor to note we would like an attempt to clean it up prior to vacating.
• Dirty bath, where a wet dog had clearly stepped.
• A secretion of old paint, oil, other DIY and motoring liquids in the shed.
• An old strimmer plus another electrical item in the garden. No idea if they work.
• Fire alarm hanging off wall (I don't think it was like that when viewing).
• Decomposing bird on patio.

Those are the main ones.

There is a general grubbiness about the place, but I am happy to expect that, but much of the above was a bit unexpected. However, to be fair, the oven was much cleaner than I expected.

The only bit of paperwork we have about it (unless it's in the contract specifically) is in the "Property Information" form. It says "[will the seller ensure that] all rubbish is removed from the property (including loft, garden, outbuildings, garages and sheds) and that the property will be left in a clean and tidy condition?". The seller ticked YES. Surely this form forms parts of the contract?

glasgowdan

Sleepless nights over oily secretions in the garage...buggger!

LittleMax

anotheruser wrote: »

The only bit of paperwork we have about it (unless it's in the contract specifically) is in the "Property Information" form. It says "[will the seller ensure that] all rubbish is removed from the property (including loft, garden, outbuildings, garages and sheds) and that the property will be left in a clean and tidy condition?". The seller ticked YES. Surely this form forms parts of the contract?

But 'clean and tidy' is not defined, previous owners will say it is clean and tidy - it's all subjective. From the way you describe it now, I presume it wasn't the cleanest of houses when you viewed it. Even if people intended to clean it when they moved their furniture out, they may well have run out of time.

Overflowing bins is par for the course, and sounds like they left a lot of the packing and sorting until the last minute.

Cat flap can be easily replaced, though if you can reach in and unlock the door, you will probably be as well to relocate it any way.

It really doesn't sound that bad, annoying but just need to roll your sleeves up and get on with it - or pay to have it done if you really can't face it.

phoebe1989seb

We've also purchased a few corkers in respect of the condition discovered on completion day, but we expected an element of mess as we were buying fixer uppers

I've told this story many times, but one such had poo smeared around one of the baths as well as fifty seven items of grotty furniture left about the house. There was also polystyrene taped over door and windows in the breakfast room (had been used as a dark room), plus various various guitars and tennis rackets hanging from the walls. One of the carpets was stained with what we believe was urine. Nice when moving in with a young child! Even the garden didn't escape as there was furniture literally buried in the shoulder-height brambles.

Nowadays I'd be straight on the phone to our conveyancing solicitor to see if we could get the vendor to contribute towards costs of skips, but back then we just sucked it up......