Surprise problems in your new home?

olgadapolga

Where to start?
House full of stuff including furniture and filthy (despite being told it would be cleared and cleaned)

A very damp wall that took a year to dry out (missed on survey)

Mouse infestation (also missed on survey)

Wooden flooring throughout ground floor that was laid on filthy, stained, smelly carpet in which numerous insects had mad their home - we only became aware of this when stripping wallpaper, the skirting board fell off with the paper and a load of insects went scuttling away. All the flooring had to be removed.

Toilet cistern barely hanging on - only the very loose handle stopped it from tipping over as the handle went through a wall (formerly the outer wall of the building). Thankfully we discovered this before anyone attempted to use the toilet.

No keys to the garage.

Garden full of buried rubbish (including bags for life but luckily no dogs). Rubbish included a lawn mower, fire pit, duvets, raw meat wrappings, etc , etc.

Shed full of rubbish.

Two years later it's looking a lot better, especially as we've just replaced the manky green and black kitchen. The units had all been handpainted with a brush and looked awful. We also found what my husband calls "Darwin Award-winning electrics.

We have the bathroom to do, which is completely tiled in avocado green, apart from the floor and side panel of the bath which are tiled in massive black floor tiles. These are so badly laid that you can stub your toes on them if you're not careful. Also hall, stairs and landing to do so may find some more horrors.

Fun times..

livetoclimb

When I moved into my previous house, the vendors were still moving out. No problem - these things happen... but they were still there trying to repair the significant flood caused when they used brute force to remove their washing machine. All was well that ended well and as frustrating as it was at the time it’s a distant memory now! 

Skiddaw1

Slithery said:

Moved in on Xmas Eve only to have both the boiler and cooker condemned by the gas man that we'd booked in to do a service.

We were cooking dinner for a load of extended family the next day, luckily the local white goods retailer managed to deliver us a new cooker that evening.

Reminds me of the time my best friend and her (then) husband were hosting Christmas dinner for extended family, only for the oven door to fall off when they tried to cram the oversized turkey into the oven. They had to prop the door shut with a kitchen chair. Turkey did eventually cook but it took hours longer than planned. 

Mickygg

For me in our last house:
Filthy house, broken oven and hob, leaking roof, damaged carpet and flooring hidden by strategically placed things. But the thing that annoyed me the most was the backs most of the doors were not painted or were different colours.  Basically all imperfections were hidden on purpose.

They fled to Australia and left me to pick up the pieces of loads of outstanding debts. 

flashg67

I paid for some appliances to be left in our 'new' house. 3am on night three in the house, the fridge freezer set on fire, destroyed the kitchen and damaged most of the soft furnishings. This was in Feb - been in temp housing since. New kitchen is just going back in this week. So still waiting to discover what other horrors there might be, but hopefully everything else will feel like a walk in the park.  The boiler in the house I sold started leaking the day before completion, so maybe it was Karma, but a bit extreme if so!

youth_leader

@flashg67, how terrifying - I keep meaning to leave the front door key near it in case of fire, I'm going to do that now!  My vendor left me all her white goods, and they are really, really old.  I had to replace the smoke alarm battery as soon as I moved in, at least I know it's working.
The only thing that disappointed me here was the vendor left some really heavy old Ikea furniture that must have been here when she purchased in 2012.   A ten drawer MDF monster of a chest of drawers that I know I'll never ever be able to lift on my own, and a tall glass fronted bookcase.  She did leave me a nice note saying she thought they'd be 'useful' with a cheap bottle of fizz. 

lookstraightahead

I've actually turned off my fridge freezer tonight 🥴. There's no food in it yet, so nothing ruined. 

hippocrates1

youth_leader said:

@flashg67, how terrifying - I keep meaning to leave the front door key near it in case of fire, I'm going to do that now!  My vendor left me all her white goods, and they are really, really old.  I had to replace the smoke alarm battery as soon as I moved in, at least I know it's working.
The only thing that disappointed me here was the vendor left some really heavy old Ikea furniture that must have been here when she purchased in 2012.   A ten drawer MDF monster of a chest of drawers that I know I'll never ever be able to lift on my own, and a tall glass fronted bookcase.  She did leave me a nice note saying she thought they'd be 'useful' with a cheap bottle of fizz. 

Smash it to pieces  and carry it in bits 😂

Louise.H

Scared now as our vendors are leaving the old appliances, the house is otherwise empty so come exchange day I think I'll get them moved into garage if I can. 

Our first house had everything could leak do so, it was held together with gaffer tape we found out. They had left all sorts of odd things in a cupboard, including some underwear. The demands for money kept coming and the agents did not have a forwarding address for them so I had to keep calling companies saying it was nothing to do with me.

Current house has been better but we did find a load of food and cleaning products fallen down the back of the kitchen units, multiple bin bags were required and there were some particularly mouldy teacakes which I'm surprised we hadn't smelt, mind you the musty smell in the kitchen did go not long after... Removed the bathroom carpet to find toilet roll underneath it, luckily it appeared unused but???

New house - who knows. Hopefully nothing. 

Murphybear

And here’s me thinking, based on many reports on here, that it’s only tenants that leave properties in a poor state.  

Im not going to make make anyone envious so won’t mention that the only problem I’ve ever had when buying a property was a clock in the shape of a teapot that didn’t work.