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Would you buy a smelly house? Anyone had experience of buying a pungent property?

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Long story short, I've had an offer accepted on a house that smells bad. It's a bit of a fixer upper, and I disregarded the not nice smell at first thinking, "I can get rid of that". I am wondering if I have made a rash decision; this is despite the fact there is virtually nothing in my town that I can afford. At least this house comes in at my price point.

I have looked up on various websites trying to find the cause of the smell (a strong sickly sweet smell) but have drawn a blank. 
I am also wondering if it is worth lowering my offer to take the smell into account.

Please let me know your smelly house stories.
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Comments

  • ProDave
    ProDave Posts: 3,785 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Is it empty or furnished?

    A lot of bad smells can just be in the carpets curtains and furniture.  If it's a damp smell that is probably in the building fabric.
  • TripleH
    TripleH Posts: 3,188 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    My father once owned a HMO, when he bought it the tenant in 1 room had vanished. The room stank to high heaven of tobacco.
    I was at university in the same town so helped him with decorating at the weekends. At the start we rock paper scissored and the looser had to go in and open the window to air it.
    I would leave orange peel in when we left each time. After a clean and a redecoration, the smell went, it might be that is what your house needs, but might be worth a detailed survey in case it's something else.
    May you find your sister soon Helli.
    Sleep well.
  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Get all the soft materials out ASAP. ALL of them.
    Air it well.

    Depending on what the source of the odours is, you may need to do some serious woodwork scrubbing - if it's, umm, "biological origin", then there may well be specific locations. Some floorboards may even need replacing if the, umm, "origin" has been a long-standing problem and rotted them out.

    You can try to mask odours with other odours, but that doesn't make the cause go away.
  • tooldle
    tooldle Posts: 1,602 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Our current house smelt dreadful when we bought it. We washed everything, curtains, carpets, paintwork etc, yet the smell persisted. Eventually tracked it to a layer of cooking oil / fat, coating the kitchen cupboard tops and the top edge of internal doors. 


  • Paint the wall. The smell will go completely¬
  • Your own surveyor, could be money well spent with this house.
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Our current property was smelly. Foolishly, we hired a carpet cleaner, which made things worse.
    After  using the carpets to clear garden ground and re-painting, the smells vanished. With the colour scheme we inherited, we knew we'd be splashing the magnolia as a first step anyway, so it was just a good incentive to get that done ...fast.
    Luckily, the floors were concrete. I think the human occupants had been reasonably continent, but I certainly couldn't vouch for the pets.
  • My friend bought a smelly house.  The elderly former owner was apparently incontinent.


    Once he'd replaced the carpets and aired it a bit the smell had gone.
  • The smell will go, but mention it to your surveyor to see if they have any ideas what it might be.

    I had some smelly rooms - as others have said, dust, dirt, old cooking oil, old grubby/soft furnishings, black mould and teenage boy were the culprits.

    A thorough scrubbing, de-moulding, opening the windows, repainting, washing/replacing soft furnishings and for the last, painting the room with Zinser blocking paint before fresh paint has resolved it.
  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper

    I had some smelly rooms - as others have said, dust, dirt, old cooking oil, old grubby/soft furnishings, black mould and teenage boy were the culprits.

    A thorough scrubbing, de-moulding, opening the windows, repainting, washing/replacing soft furnishings and for the last, painting the room with Zinser blocking paint before fresh paint has resolved it.
    I think I hope you mean the penultimate cause...
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