Moving In - State of House

Pidge107

Hi Guys,

So have just moved into a new place and everything is meant to be good, new exciting start and all that jazz, but the list of faults with the house is growing and growing.

When the previous owners left what are they legally meant to do?

For example from what I am think of off the top of my head right now;
-Kitchen sink is leaking into the cupboard below
-Loads of holes in the walls, were they meant to fill these in?
-Oven, Hob and Sonks have rust
-Extractor fan lights above the hob have had the wrong bulbs fitted so have broken or melted the plastic covers
-Broken shelves and light inside fridge
-Child lock on the window in bedroom 2 and the key has been lost, so the window can’t be opened properly or I’ll have to drill out the child lock...
-No boards in attic when it was supposed to
-Not been cleaned
-Child pen marks on multiple walls

The house was built in 2014 so I’m surprised there are so many faults! The house we have moved out of was built in 2011 and is in a much better state.
Just getting us a bit down really as this place is almost double the value of our old house so was hoping it was better!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Wicked_Lady

Have you bought this property you mention or are you renting?

davidmcn

Assuming you've bought the house:
Which country is it in?
What does your contract say about the condition the house is meant to be in?
Are any of these problems different from the state of the house when you viewed it?

Pidge107

Brought the house

In England

The problems are different from what we were lead to believe. We viewed the house 3 months ago, should we have viewed it again and how thorough should we have been, should we have checked behind every draw and every nook and cranny to see what problems there were?

pinkshoes

Pidge107 wrote: »

should we have viewed it again and how thorough should we have been, should we have checked behind every draw and every nook and cranny to see what problems there were?

Yes! Or at the very least put your queries in writing and got written answers back.

This is something costing you £1000s so you need to examine the goods carefully!

LandyAndy

Pidge107 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

So have just moved into a new place and everything is meant to be good, new exciting start and all that jazz, but the list of faults with the house is growing and growing.

When the previous owners left what are they legally meant to do?

For example from what I am think of off the top of my head right now;
-Kitchen sink is leaking into the cupboard below pipe needs tightening or some sealant needed
-Loads of holes in the walls, were they meant to fill these in?fill them in, not exactly a long job
-Oven, Hob and Sonks have rustHow bad? clean them
-Extractor fan lights above the hob have had the wrong bulbs fitted so have broken or melted the plastic coversobtain and fit new covers and bulbs, not expensive
-Broken shelves and light inside fridgeobtain replacements, again cheap
-Child lock on the window in bedroom 2 and the key has been lost, so the window can’t be opened properly or I’ll have to drill out the child lock...Annoying but these things happen
-No boards in attic when it was supposed toboards are cheap
-Not been cleanedvery annoying but not the end of the world
-Child pen marks on multiple wallsLike the holes in the walls these will magically disappear as you decorate, meanwhile clean them off as best you can

The house was built in 2014 so I’m surprised there are so many faults! The house we have moved out of was built in 2011 and is in a much better state.
Just getting us a bit down really as this place is almost double the value of our old house so was hoping it was better!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Almost all of this falls into the frustrating but easily remedied category.

Much of this ought to have been apparent when you viewed.

Rosemary7391

Most of those things are liveable / DIY able (although I'd love to know what they did to make the hob etc rust in 4 years!), so I don't think it would be worth pursuing even if you had recourse, which in England you don't unless they lied on the formal paperwork. Hob etc maybe, depends if it's unusable or just unsightly.

warby68

Loads of niggles but nothing major enough to get excited about so far in your list for a second hand house.

A lot are in the grey area between wear and tear and damage to be fixed.

Some might even have genuinely been forgotten about by vendors the way you do when you live with something for a while , lock keys, broken bulbs etc.

Best to just muck in and not dwell.

In an ideal world houses would be perfect and any flaws pointed out but it simply doesn't and has never worked like that.

-taff

That's all easily remedied. You should have gone back to look at it before you bought it. Its mostly decorative stuff and that will always happen.

PasturesNew

They're not supposed to do anything. It's how it was when you saw it. Yes, they were supposed to fill in the holes, but they didn't and it's more expensive to try to force them to pay for that than to hire a handyman to do it (or do it yourself).

We all find these niggles when we move in places... I had nearly 30 holes in the wall that I just stared at, annoyed, for years... only just got them filled in (handyman!) now I'm trying to sell... I'd have tried myself if it were just hole filling, but it was also lots of buried anchors/fixings for plasterboard walls ... and I didn't want to completely destroy the walls and have a 1' wide dent

Kids/crayons, always an annoyance if you buy a house occupied by these mythical wonderful "family" types I had that too. I got colour charts and exact-matched in the colour they'd used and gave it a coat over (exact match = don't have to actually paint the WHOLE wall)...

For the key, you might be able to get one on ebay if you can get a number or something (is there another identical?)... if so, £3-5. Just bl00dy annoying.

TheGardener

I couldn't work out why there as water pouring all over the cupboard under my sink once - until I realised its was where the previous owners dishwasher connection had been - it just needed a small cap that cost me about £1.50.

If its wax crayon then spray furniture polish on it - loads, till it foams up a bit - then wipe off after a few mins, works a treat. Anything else - paint over it but use a bit of high pigment paint (stain block) first.
Polly filler for the holes - cheap as chips - 20 min job including sanding down.

there is nothing you have mentioned that I wouldn't expect in a property that isn't brand new - in fact I've had much worse.