Homeowners: did any of you discover your new place had a surprise feature AFTER moving in?

SallyDucati

I sometimes wonder what the people who bought the house next door to the house I grew up in thought when they dug up the hump going across the middle of the garden.  The owner had 'disposed' of an old bath by just putting it in the middle of the garden and covering it with soil & grass.  Think there was other things under it as well.

Nikki-Jane

A room.
When we looked at our current, rented, flat, the EA showed us what looked like a cupboard with shelves in and an open top. She vaguely waved upwards and said 'there's all the storage space you'll need up there'. Once we moved in and had a proper look, there was an entire attic room! It is better insulated than the rest of the house (ie it has some), and is just about tall enough for me to stand up in. Looking at old photos of the house it did once used to have a window! Shame about the lack of window and the steep steps, or it would be a great bedroom.

Tiger_Tony

When we moved in we found many items were missing. In the legal documents the previous owner had not shown any fixtures that he would be taking. In fact, he took all the fitted shelves from the pantry, the loft ladder, padlocks from the garage and shed, toilet roll holders, towel rails and much more. Our solicitor said that despite this being a breach of contract, there was nothing we could do about it as, in his experience over 30 years, he had never known any claims to succeed.

jimbog

In our first house we negotiated for their pine double bed frame into the purchase price. When putting our mattress on top we found a pile of toenail clippings tucked into the corner

Jlister11

Shortly after we moved in 4 years ago we found an old washing machine in the loft. It’s so unbelievable I have pictures on my phone, just to prove I’m not making it up.
Absolutely no idea why it is up there (or how they even got it through the loft hatch). I keep meaning to try and get rid of it, but other things keep getting in the way

RoseGold2021

Underfloor heating! Discovered by the gas man I had too urgently call because the previous owner decided to leave the GAS on on the cooker. So a slow GAS leak was going on! . . . .

arthurdick

We moved into our house 21 years ago, over the first week I went up to check what junk was left in the attic, loads of crap and 2 boxes of magazines. I didn’t think about it until a year later as I had the works van and thought that I would just pop home for a cuppa and clear the junk out.  I got a lot of the crap on the van then thought, sod it, time for my cuppa and a have a look through the old magazines before I finish my cuppa and go back to work.  It turned out that there were over 200 old TV Times and Radio Times from the 60’s and 70’s, so I was looking through them enjoying the memories of watching those old tv shows, then I thought to myself, if I am enjoying these, maybe other people would and I remembered about this Internet site I read about, it was called Ebay and we had only just got the internet a few months before so it was still all new to me, it turned out that they were very collectable and sold well, I sold them 1 by 1 over the next few months and got over £1400 for them, ha, if it wasn’t for me having that cuppa they would have hit the skips.

NaomiDePlume

After six months of waiting and far too many phone calls and emails to the solicitor I finally moved into my house. 

Very excitedly, I went from the estate agent’s office to my new house. 

I put the key in the door walked in, all good until I noticed that the radiators had been removed!

The previous owners had taken the heating with them. Granted, they were electric radiators, rather than ones containing hot water. 

To say that I was shocked doesn’t begin to cover it. We’ve heard of vendors taking all the light bulbs, but to take the heating was not one I’d heard of before. 

I phoned the estate agent. “What now?”, was his greeting. I explained the lack of heating in the house, then sent him before and after photos in an email with a subject line of spot the difference! One image with large, black glass fronted radiators in place and the other with bare walls!

Yes, they were listed as to be included in the sale. 

When contacted, the vendors were surprised that I wanted them. I was repeatedly asked if I was sure that I wanted them. Apparently they were just cheap ones when they weee bought 6 years ago. 

Yes, I confirmed that I wanted to buy a house with heating, with radiators that I had paid for!

Anyway, I am fortunate to have very kind friends who loaned me portable heaters until mine were eventually returned. Better late than never. 

All’s well that ends well. I now have a lovely warm house that feels more like a home every day. 

Slinky

My friend moved into a room in a rented HMO that had been vacated by friends of hers. She wasn't thrilled to find their dirty knickers and p)rn under the bed, and never spoke to them again.

Sandtree

In our last rental we were late getting there and so the check in agent did his thing without us and we got the keys from the development's concierge. One thing not on his report was the giant poo in the toilet that wouldnt flush and given how clean the place was I suspect it was his.

The other thing was we were told it was in floor storage heating but found out that the lounge and two bedrooms had a boost function in the ceiling... very odd sensation of hot head and cold feet. Wouldnt have it again!


Years ago my mother fell out with her buyer, offered the normal appliances etc which she didnt want as she was moving in with relatives initially and was told that the buyer "didnt want any of her old tat". She decided to leave them all anyway but sabotaged them notably. Small holes in the washing machine waste pipe, industrial foaming cleaner in the dishwasher, adjustment to oven temp dial so its 20C higher than the dial indicates, whole chicken forced between built in wardrobe and it's 2nd fit innards, various whole fish concealed in as many hard to get to places as possible... thankfully never heard anything of it but then looking at the property 10 years later as a random trip down memory lane the place looked dilapidated