What did the vendor of your house NOT tell you (that they should have) when you came viewing?

That they had lined some of the walls with hardboard so that the damp meter didn’t register the damp, despite a full survey. I had to have a full dpc, which is an awful, dirty and expensive process.

I'd never even heard of that particular little trick Flippinheck! Yep....that was distinctly naughty - to say the least...

That the light bulb and the light switch in the garage were not wired up.

That they had emptied the contents of their freezer at the bottom of the garden. We were inundated with rats. Also that they would keep coming back and dumping unwanted stuff in what was now OUR garage.

The vendor stood in the kitchen and explained to me how the central heating clock worked. It didn't. The next door neighbour told us afterwards that the heating hadn't worked for years and his wife was always complaining that he wouldn't get it fixed. It cost us hundreds to put right.

That instead of packing the night before moving day, they were going to get drunk, and leave the wine bottles and most of their belongings all over the house.

Not me but my daughter found on moving day that the boiler wasn't working. Apparently it had been regularly serviced it hadn't and was only 8 years old it wasn't.

The garden was full of rubbish and they said a gardener had been he hadn't .

It reiterated my view that sometimes people just don't care.

The vendors had a long-standing feud with the neighbour on one side. The roots from their bedraggled but extremely tall pine tree which was right against the boundary fence had lifted the bricks on his drive. They kept saying they would repair his driveway and never did. We later found out that when he had been on a month's holiday the vendors had faithfully promised to relay his drive when in reality they were moving out and we were moving in. We sorted it amicably by paying £1000 to remove the tree and roots and he agreed to foot the bill for his drive. The vendors did not mention this on the paperwork which asks if there are any disputes with the neighbours. Very annoying!

On my son’s recent purchase, he was informed that all the neighbours were lovely. The next door neighbours smoke cannabis in their back garden and didn’t understand the need to fence off their garden which contained ponds. They then complained about the new fence which in fact reclaimed some back garden which they had appropriated. They also complained that my son wasn’t giving them the nice side of the new fence…. Etc etc. Everyone else is quite normal!

We view during a lovely hot summer and it was only a month or so after we had moved in during October that we found out all the sealed units double glazed windows were running in water. The window cleaner informed us they had been like it for years and the units had failed a long time ago. The owner was a mad D.I.Y freak bit not very good so although everything looked nice on the surface and sailed through the survey. The most frightening thing of all though was a couple of months after moving in we had a log burner fitted. The gas engineer who removed the previous gas fire was horrified to discover Mr.D.I.Y had fitted it himself despite not being qualified and that carbon monoxide was present. I still shudder to think what might have happened if we hadn't decided to get the log burner.

I must remember to preview before I post I am ashamed of the typos and annoying autocorrect.

He would fence and gate the garden (new build) and finish the road and then the council would adopt it - neither happened.
When we installed a new cooker a few years later the fitter found a pipe cutter on the gas pipe - luckily it never got knocked.

Never seen him since he told us we would have to stay in his holiday rental for 5 weeks as the house wasn't ready - he lied to the solicitor. He sent a message via the painter that our house was ready and the holiday home was booked from that day - I didn't bother doing the housework.

Oh yes - the lies some of them tell one way or another.

Any variations on "I should have interpreted the phrase they used as meaning "Warning - trouble ahead with the neighbours" "?

I knew the house was A Dump (big-time) when I bought it. So far = so expected...that "If there was a cheapie bodge way of doing things - that is what they had done". Pretty much nothing at all was normal quality or done to normal standard.

What I didn't realise was "We let next door park in our front garden" had been taken by Her Next Door to mean "....and I will expect to continue doing so regardless" and then arguing the toss when she wasnt allowed to any longer.

"That side wall there between this house and next door was put there by last owner of this house you're viewing" turned out to mean "...and next door is still trying to make out some of your side garden is really hers all these years later".

"The original owners of this little group of houses were all friends" turned out to mean "This is the only one of these houses that has a modern-day title plan so far - and the neighbours will trespass and argue and trespass and argue some more - and it will take £2,000 on security cameras and £1,000 on a gate to keep them out of your garden". I was okay with the wandering cats - even those that were making a huge bid to move in with me instead - but wandering neighbours from 3 (!) different houses was pushing it and never knowing when I'd have to head out and chuck them out...

The look on a couple of neighbours faces was priceless when they went to trespass again and spotted my new cameras pointing right at them....

Can you explain why your neighbours felt the need to access your back garden? CariadAgain sounds really strange… was it a shortcut to town?

My back garden is one bit of my garden they basically didn't trespass in - and I havent mentioned my back garden???

. I caught one of them trespassing in one of my side gardens twice and frequently mucking around in it (ie moving my garden furniture). I frequently caught them trespassing in my front garden. There is no route to town or anywhere else in any of my garden. It's all very clearly mine/just mine - and I have all the legal paperwork since Year Dot to prove it. It's now even more clearly all mine since I've emphasised the fact it's mine (with very very obvious boundary features/my cameras/my gate). One bit of my garden was stolen off me by a neighbour (it's on my title plan! but they asked the Land Registry to have it taken off there and put on theirs instead....but they didn't expect the rejoinder they got for that - eg a very large bill attached to that bit of my land is no longer mine to pay.....they got the bill too...as well as that bit of my land).

So - yep....the vendor carefully didn't let on that two of the neighbouring houses were Trouble and there was a risk a third house would decide to become Trouble as well once it got sold onto someone else...

The log burner was illegally installed and had never been swept. Our Heating engineer refused to touch it! We replaced it immediately. The teenage son’s room had a wall of blown plaster hidden by a huge poster.

Bukkie

We view during a lovely hot summer and it was only a month or so after we had moved in during October that we found out all the sealed units double glazed windows were running in water. The window cleaner informed us they had been like it for years and the units had failed a long time ago. The owner was a mad D.I.Y freak bit not very good so although everything looked nice on the surface and sailed through the survey. The most frightening thing of all though was a couple of months after moving in we had a log burner fitted. The gas engineer who removed the previous gas fire was horrified to discover Mr.D.I.Y had fitted it himself despite not being qualified and that carbon monoxide was present. I still shudder to think what might have happened if we hadn't decided to get the log burner.

Whew! re that unsafe gas fire!!!

There's no way he could have been getting that serviced yearly I would think.

I do remember in my last house that there was a gas fire in the sitting room (very effective it was too...) and I made sure I had it serviced every year. But there came a point where the gas guy said "You should have a ventilation grille for this - you havent". That was news to me - but one duly got fitted in the floor. Though nothing was said about having a carbon monoxide detector.

In my current house they didnt ask me - but just put one up on the most obvious sitting room wall - and I had to ask them to take it back off again (as I could see it clearly visible in my line of sight - ie looking ugly). So it's now on a sitting room windowcill instead.

In France it is now illegal not to disclose faults or omissions, with consequences if these emerge at a later stage. Pity the {out of date} law doesn't exist in the same what here. Surveys are sometimes [often?] a waste of money IMHO

When we last moved I left my old house absolutely pristine - you could have eaten your dinner off the floor! Arrived at the new place to wait for the removal can. Mum was with me (OH was in Nigeria on business). The new house was filthy. Mum was cleaning out all the cupboards before we could put anything away. The vendors had taken away all the curtain rails so I couldn’t hang the curtains. No light bulbs. And the garden - they had two dobermans. They had cleaned up some of the dog poo, but not all. They had also taken up most of the carpets and left thin old carpets with no underlay. Phew. We are still here and it is transformed.

A long time ago now -but the vendor neglected to tell me that the immediate neighbour went into his garden without permission and when he rowed with him -he smashed his face breaking his nose .
It went to court .
The neighbour was sued for assault.
After I moved in people warned me about him .
He was described as an absolute lunatic.
He'd also lost his job for similar reasons.
My other neighbour was a barrister and represented the vendor in court .

There is a strange concrete box in the wall of my garage .still don’t know what it is….

Ladyleftfield - so much for any idea of "Let's have a celebratory meal at home tonight for moving in". More like = "Agh! It's so filthy it might make us ill - where's the nearest restaurant?"

Iur house had been repossessed and was boarded up when we viewed it but we would have liked to know the haphazard way the wiring had been done.

J52

The log burner was illegally installed and had never been swept. Our Heating engineer refused to touch it! We replaced it immediately. The teenage son’s room had a wall of blown plaster hidden by a huge poster.

My first thought was that scene in the Shawshank Redemption .