Dirty house

[famofsix]

Okay we are so thankful to be in our new house but at the walk-thru I noticed the house was pretty dirty. The floor was basically clean so I guess it could be considered "broom swept condition" as per the contract but I think since we looked at the house and contracted it they decided to forgo cleaning it since it took almost four months to close!

EWWW...shower and tub was nasty....they even took the showerhead attachment!

refrigerator YUCKO

Oven...cleaned it by putting aluminum foil at the bottom

No working batteries in the smoke detector....lightbulbs not usable in many fixtures.

Laundry tub is so gross I have to replace it.

window treatments missing including some rods and the moldings are missing in some of the rooms. Outside landscaping is also a bit sparcer. There is a broken window in the basement too.

I KNOW I could have made a stink at closing but I knew they would do a crappy job so I let it go because I love the house

SOOO tell me your stories and make me feel better. I know it is not that big of a deal but the house was empty for a few days before we closed. I just don't get why a family would not clean their leftover dirt

 

[java]

. I just don't get why a family would not clean their leftover dirt

Because when you closed on the house it became your dirt.
Good luck with the new house. And a little grime removal and it will be all yours in it's true glory!

 

[famofsix]

Let me tell you I am loving the Magic eraser!

It kinda skeeves me out cleaning someone elses hair in the shower

 

[Mono~rail]

I know exactly what you are talking about. There isn't a whole lot you can do about it either when it is a house you really want.

When we were buying our second house, the woman who lived there bought a puppy in between the time we put the house in escrow and closing. I don't have anything against pets in the house, but I do have a problem with pets who use the bathroom all over the carpet. But what did she care, she was leaving. We had to spend a couple of hundred bucks getting the carpet cleaned because it was that disgusting.

We could have made a big stink, but it would have slowed down closing. Our old house was already under contract and the closing on it was scheduled for the next week. We were really stuck, and we just had to deal with it. It really burned my cookies though because one of the twins had just started trying to crawl. There was no way we could let them down on puppy soiled carpet to play.

The owner knew we had two babies so it made it all the more bizarre that she did that. I think she did it on purpose to be a bad word because it was a divorce situation, and she didn't want to sell the house. She wanted her soon-to-be-ex-dh to continue paying for the house so she was angry that he wouldn't. She was the one who wanted the divorce. These people talked alot and we knew way more of their business than we wanted to.

 

[momrek06]

Ahh...OP, that is so wrong for them to leave it like they did...

I built a new home in 2005 and upon selling my home (which we had lived in for 15 years) I hired a cleaning company to clean up my debris..like washing all the floors, vacuuming all the carpets, clean the bathrooms and the kitchen. I wanted my "old" home to look awesome for the new buyers...afterall I got exactly what I wanted for a price from them and I just wanted the new owners happy.

BTW: While the cleaning co was there working the FD showed up to do their smoke detector inspection and saw that the batteries in ONE detector were out and the FD told my cleaning personnel to get ahold of me immediately as they (FD) were NOT going to allow us to close THAT day!!!!

Well my broker got the news before I did and ran over and replace them in seconds and we were then all good.

 

[shirleyb]

Don't feel bad, I would do the same thing.

When my parents bought their house when I was little, it took 49 buckets of water to clean the kitchen floor. Does that make you feel better?

 

[famofsix]

Oh man Mono~rail that would burn my cookies too especially with the babies!

We were stuck too because we actually closed on our house 2 weeks before and we needed to get in the house. We did not want to delay closing either. Plus my attorney was going on vacation the next day

Shirleyb that does make me feel better because the floor was squeeky clean here

 

[famofsix]

Don't feel bad, I would do the same thing.

When my parents bought their house when I was little, it took 49 buckets of water to clean the kitchen floor. Does that make you feel better?

Too bad they did not have Sorcerer Mickey mops

 

[ajk912]

Yeah, I hate that stupid broom swept clause. I know when we bought our second house it was broom swept..everything broom swept into a pile but the pile was never removed from the house!

 

[famofsix]

Ahh...OP, that is so wrong for them to leave it like they did...

I built a new home in 2005 and upon selling my home (which we had lived in for 15 years) I hired a cleaning company to clean up my debris..like washing all the floors, vacuuming all the carpets, clean the bathrooms and the kitchen. I wanted my "old" home to look awesome for the new buyers...afterall I got exactly what I wanted for a price from them and I just wanted the new owners happy.

BTW: While the cleaning co was there working the FD showed up to do their smoke detector inspection and saw that the batteries in ONE detector were out and the FD told my cleaning personnel to get ahold of me immediately as they (FD) were NOT going to allow us to close THAT day!!!!

Well my broker got the news before I did and ran over and replace them in seconds and we were then all good.

silly me I did not think to check the smoke detector and we slept in the house 3 nights before I realized they were both dead.


You did well by your people!

I do love the house and I am grateful to be here it is just I cleaned my house with our four kids and expected the same to be done here.

That broom swepted clause is silly.

 

[CheshireVal]

We were very lucky with ours. We just moved into our first house a little over a month ago, and the former owners left the place SPOTLESS. It was immaculate!

I swear it looked better then than it does now that we're living in it.

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

Ahh...OP, that is so wrong for them to leave it like they did...

I built a new home in 2005 and upon selling my home (which we had lived in for 15 years) I hired a cleaning company to clean up my debris..like washing all the floors, vacuuming all the carpets, clean the bathrooms and the kitchen. I wanted my "old" home to look awesome for the new buyers...afterall I got exactly what I wanted for a price from them and I just wanted the new owners happy.

I did this when we sold and built a house as well. And when I did not think the cleaning company I hired did a good job in one of the rooms, you better believe I called and had them back out there before teh new owner moved in!

 

[mickeylove2]

When we bought our house the owners said "this house is perfect, nothing wrong with it" the house was 1 year old and they were the original owners, they take us for a tour and we love it, ask about everything....I hold my Real Estate license so from classes I know what questions to ask...anyway I ask about the basement, nothing perfect, no problems whatsoever, among other things we got the same response, I was wondering why they were selling! Well every time it rained the basement got wet, we found out that there is no french drain cut out in part of the foundation, we also vaccummed up dog hair for months. The ceiling fan in the kitchen isn't attached properly so it wobbles so badly that I'm afraid it's going to go flying! The exhaust fan in the bathroom doesn't work. It's not the end of the world I know, but I know how much you want to be dealing with these kinds of things right after you move in. BTW my DH makes excuses like, maybe it didn't train the whole time they lived here, or they were gone so much that the basement dried before they came home Well I found out from the neighbor that that was the previous homeowners biggest complaint abouthte house!! What do you do?!?

 

[jmb72]

We bought a house from the estate of a lady who lived in the house 60 years. It was a small town and things weren't as formal as we were accustomed to, so we closed on the house while it was full of her personal property - with the verbal agreement that the son would get it all out before we moved. He didn't. We had to move TONS of stuff out, including love letters from between the late couple. Really sad, and quite annoying.

 

[MareQ]

I wouldn't have tolerated it. When we did the walk through on our first house I made it very clear that it wasn't clean and they either needed to send in a cleaning crew OR go back and clean it themselves.

They sent in a cleaning crew and DAMN was it clean when they were done. They did a fantastic job.

NOW - as for a horror story - When DH's Aunt and her new husband bought a house- they did the walk through 8 am the day before and the people still lived there. Hadn't packed a thing - they asked about it and they said the movers were packing everything when they got there at 2pm. They closed the next day at 1pm - drove right to the new house - along the way they were wondering why the sellers were following them. Turns out - THEY HADN'T MOVED!! When they said 2pm they clearly meant the next day! (In NJ you take posession immediately after the signing of the papers - sellers have to be out by that time unless they made prior arrangements - these people didn't do that)

Imagine the horror when they realized that they couldn't move in! They were combining both of their households into this new house - so they had to send BOTH movers away and ask them to store their items overnight. The sellers were pissy that DH's Aunt was mad too @@. They finally were done at 9PM - DH's Aunt went inside and it was FILTHY AND they discovered that when they had refinished the hardwoods - they did it AROUND the pool table - so they had 4 big round areas on the floor that were a completely different color.

They ended up getting back $5,000 from the sellers - but it was such a nightmare for them.

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

When we bought our current home, the previous owners didn't start packing up until the morning of the closing! It's a 4000 square foot house! We were so po'd--GET OUT OF OUR HOUSE! They finally vacated 3 days later and left a ton of crap behind--by then, they were mad because we were ready to change the locks. Well, geez, the offer was made 2 months before--you had some clue we were coming!

The joke was on them, though, they ended up leaving a bunch of stuff behind. Too bad, so sad.

When we moved into our first house, the previous owners cleaned up too well--not only did they take window treatments, they even took the toilet paper holders! Good thing we noticed that before we sat down!

 

[safetymom]

When I sold my house it was broom clean. I also was smart enough to take pictures of the rooms from several angles. I put the time and date stamp option on when I took the pictures.

After we were living here the lady that bought my house complained. She wanted money for a dumpster she said she had to rent. She had no pictures to back up her claim. She started remodeling the same day as closing.

She tried to pull a fast one and get extra money but it didn't work.

 

[crcormier]

Sorry they left a mess for you. We got a sparkling house, but then again, we bought it from an 80 year old woman who's husband ran a cleaning company. Of course, since then we started taking down wallpaper and stripping paint, so it's pretty messy now!

On the bright side, even though they left it dirty, at least it can be cleaned, which is better than if they left it with some serious defect you didn't see.

 

[disneymom3]

When I sold my house it was broom clean. I also was smart enough to take pictures of the rooms from several angles. I put the time and date stamp option on when I took the pictures.

After we were living here the lady that bought my house complained. She wanted money for a dumpster she said she had to rent. She had no pictures to back up her claim. She started remodeling the same day as closing.

She tried to pull a fast one and get extra money but it didn't work.

You are very smart. If you had a good agent, they would have told you to do the same thing. I always did a walk through with my clients and took pics on my digital that I brought along to closing just in case. I also once paid for an inspector to come back and check to see that the work we wanted done on the furnace had been done properly because I knew the buyer and I would not have a clue. It hadn't been done and you bet your behind that we sat in closing while they made a local call to the gas company, set up the appointment AND put money in escrow so my clients wouldn't be stuck with the bill.

The missing window coverings are technically stolen from you. Anything ATTACHED to the house, is part of the house. Same for that shower head. As for the folks with the leaky basement--did you not get a seller's disclosure? If they lied about the basement, they are liable to fix the problem. The ruined carpet is another one--these issues shouldn't delay a closing, but they sure shouldn't be ignored either. Sitting at the closing table is a perfect opportunity--they don't have their money yet and are just as anxious as you to get it DONE!

I am worried about the agents involved in these transactions. What the heck are they doing to earn their money????

 

[Mkrop]

When we bought our townhouse, our walk through was that morning and settlement was about 1pm. We walked through and all the windows were open which we thought was odd but it was a beautiful Sept day. So we check all around everything looks ok and DH says I am going to close these windows. So we made settlement went and got some lunch and got back to the house around 3:30. Well we open the door and got overwhelmed by the smell of dog urine. We couldnt figure it out and first and went back outside and one of our new neighbors(the busybody) came over to greet us and check us out and told us the owner had left her dogs there all week bc the new place she was going to did not allow pets but that the owner hadnt been around all week and the poor dogs were crying and obviously peeing all over.

We called the realtor but said there wasnt much we could do bc we signed off on the walkthrough (I think she just didnt want to be bothered ) so we went out and rented a carpet cleaner and went to the pet store and bought the Urine Be Gone stuff. We had to added it to the carpet cleaner and we had to pour it concentrated on the kitchen floor and even in the gargae on the concrete. It took weeks to get the smell out of the gargage.