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

Unicornucopia

Not quite a discovery after moving in but one property we viewed (a repossession) had been badly smashed up. We decided not to buy the place and subsequently learnt that the estate agent investigated the loft and found dozens of live snakes and reptiles up there. He was off work for a week from shock!

gemmamolloy

Was cleaning my mums new bungalow (after it had been cleaned by the landlords) and I found a load of human hair behind the radiator in the bedroom n all trapped in the window too. 

Was not a nice find at all!
my theory is the last lady who lived there used to pull her hair out in bed n shove it down the back of the radiator or out the window. Maybe she had cancer? 

Wasn’t something I expected to find 

Ditzy_Mitzy

gemmamolloy said:

Was cleaning my mums new bungalow (after it had been cleaned by the landlords) and I found a load of human hair behind the radiator in the bedroom n all trapped in the window too. 

Was not a nice find at all!
my theory is the last lady who lived there used to pull her hair out in bed n shove it down the back of the radiator or out the window. Maybe she had cancer? 

Wasn’t something I expected to find 

You can't trust anyone else to clean anything, in general, especially not 'professional' cleaners!  

TripleH

On hair, we moved into our last rental property and the previous occupants had a dog. Hair got everywhere, which became apparent when the heating clicked on during the night.

I woke up to what smelt like smoked fish  followed momenta later by the smoke alarms going off 20 seconds later (it was 2am).

happyandcontented

This is such a great thread.

RS2OOO

Not really a surprise feature but....

Received a box through the post in 2018. The covering letter was from a Solicitor and said due to new GDPR laws she can no longer keep the contents of the box and cannot bring herself to dispose of them.

Inside the box was a huge array of paperwork, drawings and plans to mine and surrounding streets including my house, dated early 1920's. A real treasure chest of information and local knowledge. All the developers signatures throughout the pack were the same surnames as all the local street names. I learned that my house was an orchard prior to the development (might explain why anything I plant in the garden grows like crazy). I also learned that next door was built for the developers to live in whilst the rest of the area was built, and this probably explains why next door's garden is 4x bigger than any other garden in the area (you could fit 3 extra houses in next doors garden).

The thing that really got me was the fact this was all sent to me, all original documents, no other neighbours received anything to my knowledge and if they did they'd have most likely binned it as most people round here don't care much for the history.

Currently selling the house and the buyer is an investor with zero interest in the actual house or area, I am wondering whether I should leave the box behind or keep it and return it when the house is next privately owned by someone who might care.

TripleH

Keep it, or if you're moving out then area, contact a local historical society to see if they're interested.

Snookie12cat

[Deleted User] said:

Thrugelmir said:

[Deleted User] said:

What the hell would disguise a swimming pool that well ?

Aren't swimmimg pools kept covered when not in use. Sounds as if the purchasers never looked around the garden. 

Agree with you  @Thrugelmir
Covered, yes, unrecognisable though - come on, anyone can identify a swimming pool with its cover on, especially as it was a 'giant' one. 
I wonder if the OP omitted a relevant piece of information though, maybe they meant it had actually been filled in 🙄 

Take it from someone who fell in a pond, its very easy to disguise them. Lots of fallen leaves and moss etc, undisturbed and it looks just like the rest of the ground. 

FreeBear

RS2OOO said: Currently selling the house and the buyer is an investor with zero interest in the actual house or area, I am wondering whether I should leave the box behind or keep it and return it when the house is next privately owned by someone who might care.

My local regional council have a records office that collects documents from a wide range of sources (old businesses, etc). Part of the museum service I think.. See if you have a similar department and contact them. Certainly wouldn't trust the documents to some (uninterested) investor.

newsgroupmonkey_

Not so much moving in, but after they'd had their offer accepted for the land outside some houses they owned (so it couldn't be used as a ransom strip), it turned out that they'd inadvertently bought a flat and a shop!