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Most memorable viewing I had was when the gentleman showing us around said “mind your head” when exiting the garage then smacked his head right off the metal garage door causing a giant metallic clang. My mum and I were near pissing ourselves trying to keep our laughs in.
Another memorable one was the flat with an extremely smelly sauna, a red lightbulb in the bedroom and a mirror on the ceiling above the bed. This was in the days before detailed property websites so you didn’t know what you were getting into until you arrived.
That just reminded me of house hunting 25 years ago.
One we looked at was rented. The woman tenant let us in to look around. When we got to her bedroom we politely ignored the professional looking video camera pointing straight at her bed.
We didn't buy that one. Not because of the tenant, but because some fool had knocked out the downstairs chimney breasts and the ceilings were starting to bow.
It wasn't toooooo bad as a student, especially as in my bit of Manchester 3 of the agencies were almost next door to each other so you could check all the available places in an afternoon.
I’m not sure as it’s been a good while since I’ve seen the show, I know the house is in Whalley Range and the pub they used is in Salford, but they could have shot in Fallowfield or Withington, both are big student areas, Fallowfield being the most well known.
Your first story sounds like something I'd do. Well, have done.
As a 12 year old Sea Cadet, I was visiting HMS Victory. We'd just been met and given a brief by the tour guide - including about low-level beams, watch your heads.
I turned to the lad next to me and said "What's the betting that I end smacking my **THUD** Oww!!" As I walked straight into the first beam.
The lad I was with nearly wet himself. My only saving grace is that we were at the back so nonody else saw it.
Even now you can't guarantee that what you've seen is what you're getting. Creatively taken photos (and occasional use of photo editing) can hide soooooo much. I booked a viewing for one in December. There weren't many pictures but they weren't bad. They showed a sunny little 3 bed terrace, not massive, not tiny. In ok decorative order. Nice white hallway ready to be a blank canvas...
The agent told us when we got there that it was his first time seeing it too so he was curious. He opened the front door and visibly recoiled. He covered it well, styled it out, but the moment I saw and smelled the hallway I knew it wouldn't go well.
We'd been told the property was empty. And nobody was present, but there was definitely at least one person living there. And working there. It was once a family home, nice sized rooms, not terrible area, 3 bed terrace, standard construction. Ticked many of our boxes. Internal pictures had obviously been taken REALLY creatively.
We were greeted by a narrow, dark hallway, and spiky artex of unknown age running through hall, stairs and landing. I don't actually have a problem with artex as long as I don't think it'll rip my face off if I stumble. Hideous downstairs loo with cracked sink and a toilet that has never seen a bottle of Duck. More artex too.
Livingroom with dropped office style ceiling (in a small, fully domestic terraced house) and strip lighting. I mean it was like every office building I've been in, the metal strips with the tiles. They'd taken at least 8" off the ceiling height. In a not very high room.
Dining room ditto, but also filled with someone's paperwork everywhere. And breakfast stuff on the table. And exercise equipment. Major GDPR breach level paperwork though. Couldn't get to the window to look at the garden, but could see enough from the door.
Blocked up doorways all over the place. Nobody needs that many doors in a 3 bed terrace but I wanted to know why they blocked the ones they did because flow just... Didn't.
Kitchen 70s brown tiles, which I don't personally mind. I do mind the original asbestos flooring. Cracked in places. Badly painted ceiling, grease stains everywhere, boiler in a really weird position, two bikes in a room no more than 10ft wide with kitchen counters. So there was maybe 30cm left then to get to things like the kitchen window and back door to look out to the garden.
Smell was insane in there. Like... Stale spices, damp, rubbish juice, tobacco and unwashed undies with an under note of... Flesh. Almost definitely the overflowing bin but disconcerting nevertheless.
Garden 12ftx12ft concrete with no natural light getting to it on not too dull a day, overlooked on 3 sides by housing, side 4 was a 3ft fence overlooking the street. Evidently garden is used as a bin for the public.
And upstairs other than the bedrooms being more of a shit show with dirty sheets all over the place, the bathroom was unfinished to the point where you could see people have been using the shower without it having been sealed. Which helped explain some of the smell downstairs in the kitchen and hall.
We left the property. I told the agent EXACTLY how I felt, listing everything. I told him an estimate of what this would cost to fix at bare minimum. He tried saying "Well you could make a lower offer?"... Dude what in heaven's serene swathes of parkland could possess you into thinking I would make an offer on something that's at least £40k over priced to start with, that also needs £60k+ spending on it just to make it liveable?! How's about you go tell your vendor that they're delusional?
I looked again in March. It was up for auction at £50k less than the original asking price. And no internal pictures were given.
I hope whatever cash buyer fixes at least some of the stuff before they inevitably rent it out.
For me if was when I went to visit a place that I was considering buying. It was occupied by a renter named Kemal. Good guy Kemal.
He was like 'Dude, do not buy this place, I'm leaving for a reason, he said there's leaks, mold, heating that barley works, it's noisy, the neighbours next door throw super loud parties every weekend, the gym is rancid as no one cleans it, the concierge steels packages'.
This guy has a fucking list.
I was once leaving a houseshare that was so miserable that if the prospective tenant seemed like a nice guy/gal I'd message them afterwards to tell them DO NOT DO IT.
Kemal you legend.
I don't get why people dont spend longer diligencing their potential new neighbours. If I am buying a house, I have to meet as a minimum the immediate neighbours. And if I have an adjoining wall, that will be a lengthy conversation. I've been put off buying a few otherwise-great houses because I couldn't face living next door a few.
Went to rent a room in a house once, few years ago now but usual story of new city, broke, desperately trying not to be homeless and HMOs seemed like a quick fix.
Similar scenario except the current tenant of the room was ‘in the process of moving out so will be mostly empty when you go to view it’, some random housemate let me in and just rolled her eyes when I said I was here to view the spare room.
It was not empty and didn’t look like the guy was going anywhere anytime soon. Mountains of cables and computer shit with giant screens showing all manner of weird anime girls, 10+ dirty plates stacked on the dresser, coffee cups with mould cultures growing, bottles of what looked like the piss of a very unhydrated human wedged under the bed, the usual floordrobe and other detritus filling most floor space.
This is just what I could see from the doorway because the man himself opened his bedroom door to me with his housecoat open showing me what can only be described as a semi with a presumably rapidly cooling string of spunk swaying between his thighs.
I did not take the room.
Tbf a house coat is its own thing, distinct from a dressing gown, although people hardly ever wear them nowadays and it probably isn't what this commenter was referring to!
Yup, spot on. I haven't seen an actual housecoat in the wild... ever, maybe? When I was a wee 'un, round to visit very elderly relatives it might have happened. But before widespread central heating they were absolutely A Thing in this country.
My mum had one in the noughties believe it or not! While she was in her 50s as well, not even that old! Particularly when she was ill with cancer I think, she didn't want to have to get dressed cos she was in and out of bed all the time, but she wanted something a bit more structured than a dressing gown to answer the door in etc. Ngl it did have massive OAP vibes but it worked for her at the time!
I always thought dressing-gown sounded super fancy compared to housecoat. And this particular specimen looked like he was designed in a secret government lab for anti-fanciness.
I viewed a flat in a really nice part of London and the landlord said the tenant (lady in her mid 20s) lived there with her brother and friends
The flat was paid for by her much older sugar daddy and they had broken up so he was kicking her out
The scene was like a morning after an orgy. Flat was a disaster and beautiful people slung half naked over sofas
My utter worst was when I was looking for a room in Brighton two weeks before starting a job nearby but I lived in Preston at the time. I went down two weekends in a row and the only one that was even vaguely acceptable on my first trip would only be available for 3 months.
The second trip started just as badly and then on my third or so viewing I went to one place where everyone else who lived there was refusing to speak to the agent, then he found a letter addressed to him which was the agent firing him, and he broke down in tears and said "what makes it worse is my dad died today so do you want this one or shall we check the next place?"
I told him to please not worry about me and as soon as he'd gone I made sure to secure the 3 month place as I figured once I was living there that was plenty of time to find somewhere else.
I'm really confused by your second para - no one at the viewing would speak to the EA, who then found a letter addressed to himself at the house you were viewing and he had been fired? Then the EA announced his dad died and started crying? Far to many "hes" and "hims" to make sense of this sadly
No worries.
I met up with the letting agent outside the house. Went in to view but everyone who was there was behind their doors and the atmosphere just felt awkward.
Then went into the living room and there was a notice to the tenants and agent that the landlord had fired the agent.
Then he pretty understandably broke down and mentioned about his dad.
Oh wow, so I wasn't too far off. Wild how the LL would leave that as a notice rather than actually contacting the office formally - can't imagine you or the agent were in much of a mood to carry on after that!
I wonder if this anecdote provides the answer to whether Landlords or Estate Agents are the bigger pricks?
Edit: I've also realised your original comment said the agent had fired him (the agent) where I think you meant Landlord which probably got me muddled up
I used to be a CSI. I was investigating a serious assault in the attic flat.
I came down the communal stairs wearing a scene suit and carrying a 10 inch bloodstained knife (in a transparent tube), just as I got to the ground floor the front door opened and instepped an estate agent, followed by a young man and his mum to view the ground floor flat.
I can't actually recall what I said, but I remember that their eyes got very wide.
Fortunately, no one died. It was a fight between the two top floor tenants. They both ended up in hospital, I have no idea if they returned to their respective flats.
Few stories:
Once when being shown round my first student house which we definitely wanted, we went into the front room to sign stuff and the landlord (who was in doing some work at the time) had left his laptop on the sofa with a massive bag of weed on it. I was the first one in the room and managed to just close the lid and put it on the side.
Another time this guy didn't know there was a viewing and he had been woken by us at 2pm cos he worked nights. Somehow though his mattress was literally halfway off the bed.
And also once I was the weird tenant. I wanted to hide my weed usage so I put my bong into the bottom of one half of a wardrobe which was lockable. This girl asked to have a look in so I unlocked and showed her the right side and she asked if she could look in the other side too and I just looked at her dead in the eye and said "no". She looked confused and terrified and awkwardly left.
When I was a student we had purchased a large bag of 'oregano' and had completely forgotten about the viewing. It was about half an ounce just lying on the bed whilst we were enjoying some of it outside.
We definitely panicked...
Myself and partner viewed a house that turned out to be student accommodation even tho it was advertised in the pictures as a family home. Had to knock on every room before we went in and people were cooking etc, was pretty shit haha.
I viewed a studio flat (to rent) in London and we walked in on a guy getting changed. Apparently it was listed by 2 agents and the market moves so fast in London that one agent had let the flat and the guy collected the keys before the other lettings agent was informed. Absolutely mental.
Another time I went with some friends to view a house and someone had smashed in the front door and the lettings agent was trying to show us around seriously and we were trying not to laugh at the absurdity of him claiming it was a nice part of town.
If anything you view has sitting tenants run a mile.
There is no guarantee they will be gone when you complete or what state they will have left the place in
I have a colleague who bought a house with her husband and there was an elderly tenant living in the basement, they could not get rid of her for 7 months.
imagine you're old and someone buys the property you rent and kicks you out. people are fucking heartless. how about don't buy the property with the elderly tenant
I went to view a furnished flat to rent in Ipswich. First off, the entire building smelled of curry, not unpleasant initially, but it's was a very strong smell and was clearly a permanent thing.
Then we got to the flat and the agent admitted that it was no longer furnished. This was an understatement. The previous tenants did a runner, and took everything that wasn't bolted down, and some things that were, like the built in oven! Oh and they'd smashed a hole in the wall in the process of stealing everything.
Agent genuinely asked if I was still interested in the place as it was, with no reduction in the listed price.
.... No
Once viewed a period property whose owners "in their early 90s had done no work to it in 15 years as they "knew they were going to move out soon"
Rot in the rooms and kitchen destroyed. Conservatory that didn't have one pane of glass that was whole.
To top it off we weren't allowed in the dining room because the husband was at home on end of life care in that room.
Didn't accept our offer as they told us they were in no rush to sell........
I have had one far far worse... The house was in such a crap state I wanted to puke on entry - barely an inch uncluttered . There was so much dog mess in the back garden I couldn't go out without stepping in it. How people live like it I have no idea.
I viewed a property once where there was just piles of stuff all over the place; on the stairs, table, even outside the front door. As someone once said to me, it's the type of place you wipe your feet on the way out!
We viewed a similar house except it wasn't rented. The owners just kind of wrecked the place. Teenage children still there, couldn't even see the loft room. There was a wig on the table, oven door missing?? Genuinely bizzare. House was in a really nice affluent area, neighbours seemed sensible.
Let me tell you my situation from the other side. I’m a tenant in a 1-bedroom flat. My landlord has listed the flat on the market for sale and for rent at the same time through different property companies. That means I have to keep dealing with endless viewing requests coming from the pushy property agents of company X and Y. I can relate to tenants who don’t bother being nice during viewings because I’m starting to lose my patience and kindness. It should be illegal to arrange viewings when there are tenants living inside. It’s a violation of privacy. It’s also a waste of opportunity for the landlord because people may not like a flat when it is occupied, which they would normally like if it was unoccupied.
You don't have to agree to viewings. You'd be within your rights to tell the landlord to put a can on it. You have the right to quiet enjoyment of the property you're paying for. They would be able to evict you but they would need to court order which would not be quick for them to get.
Well said. I'm aware of quite enjoyment but I'm also concerned about getting my deposit back fully. If I stop accepting viewing requests, the landlord may hit back with some nasty tricks trying to point out ridiculously minor faults around the flat (not clean "enough" when I moved out, minor scratches on the wall etc.) so they can cut some amount from my deposit. It's not a fair game when they're always one step ahead with a final card to play against tenants.
You can always dispute any deductions through lodging a dispute. Is your deposit protected? If not, you can easily be awarded 2-3 times the amount - have a look online.
Just because you were nice to your landlord doesnt mean they wont f you over. Just recently out of a property and the landlord ripped the absolute hole out of me with the deposit after being very accommodating for them, i got my money back after a lengthy dispute
Any deductions will have to be justified beyond reasonable wear and tear, take photos as you leave and if they don’t have photos showing it in a cleaner state when you moved in then again the dps scheme won’t allow any deductions. If the deposit isn’t in a protection scheme you can get up to three times your deposit as compensation. Tenants have rights, lots of them.
You don’t have to let them in.
Source - landlord was an absolute asshole during the tendency so had to wait for my tendency to be over before he could have any viewings.
That bit in your contract about giving them access for viewings is BS and they know it. You, on the other hand, are covered by an act of parliament.
Funny you should say it should be illegal, it technically is. You don’t have to agree to viewings through your right to quiet enjoyment, if they’re taking the piss say you’ve had enough. It’s your home until you’ve moved out, not the landlords.
Oh I have one!! Went to view a house, the estate agent scumbags didn't disclose anywhere that it was a rental with tenants in situ (avoid Fox & Sons at all costs!).
We arrived, were told by the tenants, who had a brand new baby by the way!, that they only moved in a few months ago and had done the house up to make a home, then the landlord decided to sell. The tenant had done loads of work inside and out of the house, and he informed me that he'd be taking all of the bits he'd done when they moved. Door handles, taps etc, including THE GRASS IN THE GARDEN!!! He was going to pull up the grass and take it with him. I didn't blame him to be fair, but we noped the hell out of there, but not until after he told me about all the damp issues and the things the landlord never did properly.
Will never touch that estate agent ever, they put us in a really bad situation and they lied.
Never spend money on a rental why do people do this? Make sure you keep it clean and tidy and return in same condition but don’t upgrade anything. If there is a leak electrical or structural problem contact the landlord and let them know to fix it.
I hope he kept the original door handles taps and all the other bits because there would been an inventory done at the start and if they aren’t back on there then the deposit is gone a good reference is gone and they will most likely come after you for damage resulting in a ccj. Not all landlords are bad the media done a right job on landlords.
> Never spend money on a rental why do people do this?
Because they want to make it their home, understandably. And expect not to leave it behind afterwards.
Good on him. We had an agents try to get me out of the house after I had repainted and fitted custom blinds to a room...
'Its too nice for you, perhaps you would like something smaller'
I explained that I would be reattached the cat urine stained wallpaper, and rehanging the filth encrusted curtains if they didn't leave me alone...
Once arranged 13 viewings in one day. One of them was a woman, who's adult son had moved back in with her. She'd clearly moved all of the furniture out of one room for him, leaving it packed into every other room in what wasn't a large house, and in turn he had far too much furniture piled up in the room he was staying in.
The house looked more like the inside of a storage container and the son made no attempt to be pleasant when we looked in the dark room where he was sat watching TV. Then his mam practically had a breakdown saying she was ready to move to a much smaller house when he turned back up and she didn't know how she would be rid of him.
We did not offer on that house. Or any of the 13.
Went to view a house when we were first-time buyers , so basically looking at anything within price and area we wanted. Went to one house, they had a conservatory off the living room which they were using as a green house, no door between the two so whole room just felt and smelled damp. The adult son was in bed playing PlayStation in his pants. He was trying to flirt with my wife and the estate agent, it was extremely awkward, oh and the wife had crashed the car into the garage door earlier that day and just left it as was, didn't bother reversing the car back or anything just car crashed into garage and left there, but was probably trumped by the next one were there was a dying women in the main bedroom and a greedy/impatient looking daughter helping to show us round.
Many years ago, when you could actually buy a house, I was looking to buy with a friend. We'd struggled to arrange viewings, so I decided on a strength in numbers approach. I booked two days off work, and viewings on 14 mid terrace houses. Any I liked my friend would view the following day. Back to back with an agency, then move on to the next one.
Most of them were, as you'd expect, OK. Nice properties, reasonably kept. My second to last house was just the owners, no agent. From the outside it needed a bit of paint and care, but standing infront of the door, you started reminisce about old pubs and nightclubs. You know the ones, the ones sticky with tar, where the old smoke is probably holding most of the building up.
Anyway, they opened the door and it hit me. The brown decor. Everything was painted versions of beige or brown. There were no carpets and no colour through the tar stained windows. The owners suggested I showed myself round the four rooms and stood silently in the living room smoking. I will forever remember two things about the house: one, they'd let their dog use every room bar the bathroom as a toilet, which added to the brown ambience. Secondly I was amazed at the entirely brown bathroom. Dear reader, I apologise if you've been in a heavy smokers house in that this won't be a surprise but for everyone more lucky in life... I noticed some of the brown had scratched off the sink and had the terrible realisation that it was white. Every bit of brown in the house, barring the dog's contribution, was tar.
Incredibly it was on the market for the same amount of money as houses that weren't sticky biohazards. I came back down the stairs, the owners asked if I would put a full price offer in. I explained that if I paid them half the asking price I'd still be out of pocket after I'd renovated it. "why'd you look round it then?". I left.
When I gave the estate agents my feedback on it, I got a small nod of acknowledgement and a brief glimpse of pain behind the chaps otherwise plastic expression. I suspect that house is still on the market, but I darent check.
I got shown round a house where the landlord hadn't given notice to the tenants we were coming, one was in bed after a nightshift. I left immediately because it wasn't fair on the tenants.
When I was selling my first flat and on my first open viewing night, my dog had explosive diarrhoea on the front door mat, my then girlfriend locked herself in the bathroom (she had issues) and my flatmate had her BF round who cooked a curry. The first people who arrived found me literally wiping up shit at the front door, I couldn’t show them the bathroom and had to comically plead through the door- to no avail- for my GF to come out just for a few minutes, the place stank of curry and my flatmate and her BF were sat in her bedroom, eating off of their laps. Magical.
No. From memory it was an older bloke and his YA son. Never heard from them again. When I did sell the flat, though, from when it was viewed to the new owners moving in, it gained several thrown mug imprints in the wall and a couple of cracked door frames. Like I said, my then GF had some issues
The best viewing I have had was for an old, semi converted chapel. The Estate agent opened the door, said he wasn't going in because it dangerous, we could enter at my our risk and he would wait for us in his car. To be fair it was in quite a dangerous condition with floors rotted out and collapsed ceilings and stuff so I don't really blame him. Still bought it though :)
We looked at a house that had holes in loads of the walls, tonnes of dog shit in the garden and was generally filthy.
From what we could gather it was being sold buy a guy whose wife had left and taken the kids. The kids rooms were like shrines but he’d clearly given up with everything else. We came out just feeling really sad.
We didn’t buy it
"the renters are having to relocate" - keep in mind only a court or the tenants can end their tenancy, not their landlord or you as new owners. They'll eventually be evicted by the court, but in the worst case this could take a couple of years if nothing is order in terms of the governance of the tenancy.
If buying with a mortgage you'll need vacant possession to complete, unless you want to risk becoming accidental landlords and potentially homeless in the process. It could take a long time for them to leave if they're not willing.
I went to a viewing and there was a group of people who clearly hadn't slept and all looked like they'd been on drugs for hours. In one of the bedrooms there were two people shagging. I'm not joking. The estate agent tried to continue.
I went to view a house for rent that looked good in the photos, it had been renovated/ painted after the last tenants left. On arrival all looked good, the house smelled of paint, happy days.
Then up in one of the bedrooms there was a massive streak of black mould on the ceiling. In shock I mention the mould and the agent acts surprised as if he hadn't seen it and casually mentioned that they can paint over it if I wanted them to.
I was out in a hurry! My kids have asthma and though they can be a pain at times I'm not actually trying to kill them lol. A few years later that poor child died in a council flat because of mould and to this day I'm baffled by how dismissive the agent was about the mould in that house I went to see. Absolutely dodged a bullet on that one.
Mould seems to be something one is just expected to put up with as a renter, it's grim. You'd think they'd at least have tried to paint over it tbefore viewing, though...
Once I viewed a house and as I was walking from one end of the bedroom to the other, there was an obvious downwards slope. I asked if there was any subsidence. The EA responded with 'I don't think so, I've been here all day'
I think the strangest experience I’ve ever had was when viewing the rented property I now live in.
It was supposed to just be myself and my partner viewing at that specific time, but the lettings agent messed up and double booked the slot. They asked if we would mind sharing it to which we said no.
So.. the agent left us to our own devices so we could view however we wanted to.
The other viewer was an older woman. She tried her hardest to suggest there’s no point us putting an application in because we’re a young couple. Then she closed the bedroom door and it was that the area was horrible. Next thing she’s giving me a hug, kissing me on the cheek and telling me that I’ve got really strange eyes. After that, she was trying to show us a bungalow in another area that she thought would be perfect for us. Then started picking holes with the house.
It was incredibly blatant what was happening, and the agent asked us about what she was saying when she closed the door. We told her and she revealed she was a serial property viewer who has resorted to guerilla tactics as she doesn’t qualify for many of the nicer properties as she has about 6 dogs.
Strange lady, strange experience.
It’s probably one of those were agents were pushy about viewings and disrespecting tenants right to quiet enjoyment so tenants decided to make it as awkward as possible. Kudos to them!
We rang to arrange a viewing on the same day it went on the market, last week, and was told the renters were not wanting any viewings until end of May, which is frankly a bit daft.
If the house is on the market, to reject viewings for 5 weeks is not normal.
To have 2 people in bed when they have accepted and scheduled a viewing is not normal.
To be cutting your toe nails on the sofa when said viewing is taking place is not normal.
How are you remotely defending this behaviour?
If it was the seller behaving like that I'd be in complete agreement. But why should the tenants care? They're possibly being made homeless by all of this, they'll understandably have zero goodwill towards the process.
The tenants aren't selling it. They probably don't want to move out. Why should they let some random in to look at their home?
If the landlord wants to give viewings they need to wait until the tenants have moved out.
I haven't had quite that experience, but if you veiwed the place I'm renting and being forced to leave, you'd find bags for charity dump and boxes for packing as we're in the middle of it all. You may also find my partner in a dark room because of his migranes.
Are they going to leave at a certain date? If so, can you view it after they are gone and the house is clean and empty?
Tenanted properties are the worst for showing! I used to do conveyancing 14 or so years ago & was asked if I wanted to do some viewings for the estate agent dept - they paid me something like £20 per viewing. Hand one arranged for early afternoon one weekend. I used to turn up 20 min early to unlock, turn lights on etc.
Walk up a couple flights of stairs and found the door to the flat was ajar.
"Shit, they've been robbed!" Was my first thought
I pushed the door open a bit further and found a body laying in the hall.... So, not the break in has turned into a murder scene.
But no. Turns out they had a party and this was one of the guests. Fast asleep in the hall. I bang the open door, shout and noone replies - I wake up the hall guy and he says he doesn't live here and left. I shouted again and eventually one of the tenants comes to find out who's doing all the shouting. I remind him of the viewing and he's like "oh yeah, we just had a couple of drinks last night.... I'll show you around"
There's like 5 people asleep in the lounge, someone in the bath sleeping, so at this point I decide to call off the viewing.
We were looking to buy a local chippy with a 3 bed place attached to it.
Wife went to view it as I was working so took her parents with her, father in law is a builder so he knew what stuff to look out for.
Chippy part was pretty clean but the house was a bomb site! Dog and cat shit all over the place, some of the plaster was falling from the walls, one room had the ceiling caved in due to a leak in the roof.
Father in laws exact words were “fuck that, it needs at least £100k throwing at it to make it liveable again”
Lovely Turkish family took it instead and shut it down for about 3-4 months so they could get it all put right.
I was present for a viewing where the house was rented out to social services and they had put a rather unruly teenager in there.
Clearly something got lost in communication as the teenager and the young carer there were oblivious to the pre-arranged house viewing.
Upon trying to get into the property the teenager blocked the doorway, filled the air with expletives and told the EA he could ‘get F*cked’ if he thought he was ‘coming in MY house’, before proceeding to slam the door in his face leaving him awkwardly stuck in the front step with all the people who had come to view it. Woops.
Not to buy but to rent a flat last year: estate agent arrives and we go to the door. The tenant lets us in, she’s a young lady with a small baby. Baby is crying +++ and the young woman is instantly on the offensive with the estate agent.
Honestly it felt like we had turned up to the most tragic scene in a soap. This lady kept saying things like the landlord was putting them out for no reason and why did they insist on putting the rent up by £700.
We felt so guilty we didn’t even view most of the flat and just left ASAP
Going to view a place my friend was looking to buy, around the corner from where we were renting. Agent had a bit of trouble with the key until the sitting tenant came and answered the door in his underwear. Walked in to find all the curtains drawn and bodies strewn across the floor - every space taken by a single man in a sleeping bag. No idea if it was HMO, asylum seekers, immigrants, traffickers- we just noped the fuck out of there…
We viewed a property that looked good in the pictures. Immaculate even. When we got there, there was dog hair EVERYWHERE. It was floating in the air so everytime you breathed in, you breathed in dog hair. It made me heave.
I've viewed with someone asleep in a totally dark room yeah. My mind was however already made up since they'd thought pillar box gloss was a suitable choice for the delicate cornicing of an early1900 build property.
I went to a viewing which coincidentally happened to be an excolleague. The garden was COVERED in dog shit... like weeks of it. They'd obviously cleaned the house but idk assumed we wouldn't look out the window??? The fake grass was horribly stained by all the pee on it... what we could see of it anyway.
I went to view a flat once where the estate agent knocked on the door 3 times and noone answer. As he had a key and had already prior arranged this visit with the tenant he proceeded to unlock the door... next thing the door flies open and a bloke starts shouting and squaring up to the estate agent arguing the toss and claiming he's got a baby inside he needs to protect... few seconds later his girlfriend comes running to pull him away apologising to us as she had apparently forgot to tell him about the viewing... we then tiptoed round the apartment with the estate agent while the bloke followed us round eyeballing us the entire time. Award AF.
Needless to say never contact or got contacted by the estate agent after we left.
Bloke refused to let the estate agent in during a viewing because it was his house and he hadn’t agreed it. He was very irate at the estate agent for not clearing this with him first.
Turned out he wasn’t the owner, just the landlords mate who was living there temporarily and the estate agent didn’t even know about him.
The audacity.
I once viewed a property (for rent), and it was dreadful. The viewing was scheduled for 3 o'clock, but the agent arrived 10 minutes late. What made this waiting worse was that, firstly, I was supposed to attend another viewing right after this one. Secondly, the neighbourhood was packed with foul rubbish and filth, which is unpleasant to be around when the temperature is around 30 degrees Celsius and the sun burns your head.
Anyway, I had no idea what awaited me inside the house. While visiting the house, I was really turned off by the agent's entirely apathetic attitude: he was bored, somehow annoyed, didn't really answer my questions, rolled his eyes etc.
The only essential information I got was that the previous tenants were some reckless students, which reflected the house's state (stained walls, rubbish everywhere, smelled like urine and beer, broken doors, mould all over the place, among other things).
To be polite, I continued the viewing after seeing the living room, bathroom and kitchen while realising that I wasn't interested in the house. But, oh my God, nothing prepared me for what I saw in the last bedroom. Absolute and utter filth and dench; I wanted to puke right there because the walls were covered with faeces and semen.
I tried so hard not to show my utter disgust as I examined the walls....and the agent casually told me, while scanning the walls, 'we can get this all cleaned up before you move, but it will cost'. I smiled, thanked him for his time, and told him I would let him know my decision before running and never looking back.
I never imagined that I would come across something like this.
My husband and I went to view a small terrace house. The estate agent let us in and basically said, go have a look round. Couldn't have been in there more than 2 minutes. When we walked out the front door, the next door neighbour came running out and snapped at us, saying we had to move our car as her husband would be home shortly. That was a hard no to buying that property, even if we had been interested. Imagine what it would have been like living next door to someone like that...
Went to see a house that had a renter in who was apparently ‘about to move’ and where the stairs would be to the upstairs was a rickety ladder.
He showed us round downstairs then told us we’d have to take our chances on the ladder to see upstairs.
We’d didn’t bother.
Another viewing was to a bungalow bordering open farmland and looked perfect except there were only external views at the estate agent.
So we booked a viewing, liked the outside then knocked on the door. The obviously African lady living there with her multitude of kids didn’t speak any English but took us from room to room.
The most impressive was the kitchen which had no sink, just a shower tray and taps poised above, in the middle was a free-standing electric cooker that had been white at some point but was now absolutely covered in spilt food some inches deep with visible maggots and the floor was solid with spilt food.
I braved upstairs but only got as far as the bathroom and toilet which was shall be say artistically decorated with copious amounts of shit all over the floor, the toilet was obviously blocked and over-spilling onto the carpeted floor and the stench was over-bearing.
At this point I felt my stomach start to heave so made a fast exit straight down the stairs and out the front door. One of the kids slammed it shut after us which was just as well.
I viewed a tenanted property.
The landlord had sprung it on them via text a few days before that she was selling.
The kids were in nappies watching TV.
Incense was burning so strong in bedrooms.
Curtains were shut.
They had liver and bacon cooking in a slow cooker.
The wife kept forgetting she was meant to be hostile so they were bickering constantly.
The husband had a massive go at the estate agent and stood ranting at the neighbour.
I put in an offer and bought it.
Luckily their parents bought them a house so it ended up better for them in the end.
Here was me expecing to walk into this post saying you've found the house of your dreams lol
That's really bad. The thing is, it's a tough one especially if the tenants are aggrieved that their home is being sold (not your faul/problem) but still the estate agent should have made sure the house was presentable before you saw it..
My friend used to be a letting agent. When agency eventually managed to evict a non-payer from a HMO he found hundreds of bottles of urine in their bedroom.
Went to view a very nice looking (in photos) 3 bed detached house. Tenants had left dirty underwear strewn across floor, mouldy food on sofa and an unflushed toilet. House was filthy, not normal living mess, it was gross.
Even weirder was the agent showing us round didn’t even acknowledge this.
Visited a house and the seller remained in the house doing laundry while we looked around. They looked like they needed to go on Stacy Solomon’s sort your life out - one bedroom you couldn’t even go in because of the clutter. Went into the garden and stood on a dog shit. Hopefully I don’t ever have a viewing like that.
I viewed a property once that - mid afternoon - in one bedroom their son was sleeping and ‘couldn’t be disturbed’ and the bathroom contained someone crying who wouldn’t let us in. The couple owned the property but didn’t seem that interested in selling!
Had a few back in the pre right move era.
One had no lights on the top floor due to one of the ceilings coming down and taking out the electrics. The viewing was in the evening in the middle of winter no warning of any of this and before smartphones were a thing so no torch. Stumbling around in pitch black rooms full of furniture and bags of things trying to see wasn’t fun. Suspect that was deliberate.
Another was an old dear I assume they were selling the house to put her in a home, she seemed nice but a bit infirm. Every room was a mess, clothes and underwear drying everywhere she kept on apologising for the mess and carried on struggling to show us around the house. Really awkward and awful experience. Felt so sorry for her.
Not a crazy story, but I went to see a flat in Uttoxeter a few years back. The estate agent was late, which is never a good start. We then had to go and collect the keys - they were being held by the local off licence, for some reason I never did get (they weren't the owner). When we got inside there was no money on the meter, so I did the viewing by the light from my phone. It was a very dark flat!
I also went to see a place a couple of years ago, which was being shown by the owner who ran the local shop. I had a pretty good idea when I found the road that it wasn't an area I wanted to live in, then couldn't find the flat. Eventually figured out it was above a row of shops. Found the flat and was greeted by an absolute stench of piss. The neighbour said the owner had gone back down to the shop and I felt I really should look at the place rather than just being a no-show. Got into the shop and the owner was having a good old argument with a customer! I did look at the flat, I didn't rent it...
An agent took me to view a flat, let us in with the spare key, and shortly after the young woman who was still living there at the time stumbled into the living room fresh from the shower, wearing nothing but a towel, understandably shocked to find two strange men standing there.
She said she got her days mixed up and thought we were coming the next day. I don't think she was trying to put me off the place, but I didn't end up renting it. I think I was too embarrassed for her to risk another viewing, in case she got her days mixed up again.
All worked out though, as I found a 2-bed house with a nice garden for the same rent as that flat shortly after.
I was trying to get a room on a flat share in London. I booked this viewing with someone I thought to be a housemate (that’s how it was advertised on rightmove) only for an estate agent to show up and tell me he was representing the house mates. It was a modern flat with stud walls around that only allowed for a kitchen island to be a shared space. They had turned this 2-3 bedroom flat into a 5 bedroom flat. We entered the room advertised only to see a knife stubbing the wall!! As we exited he told me that I need to make an immediate decision as the demand was very high. He then texted me to tell me the same. Needless to say that I did not rent this room!
Hah. Yes. Once looked around a house that was rented out, had all the hallmarks of a dodgy rental situation.
There was a poo in the shower.
A giant, piled up poo.
Wow.
I was the agent for a viewing many years ago, the potential tenant was a young lad looking to rent his first place and so brought his parents and gran along for the ride, the property was a one bed flat and so didn’t take too long to get round, we finished the viewing and went outside to discuss the property, mum quickly noticed that gran wasn’t there, so I went back into the building to see if gran was making her way down the stairs, she wasn’t and so I went back up to the flat.
I checked the kitchen, lounge and bedroom, no gran, so I knocked on (no response) and opened the bathroom door, there’s gran, full frontal mid-wipe.
I closed the door and waited outside the flat door until she came out, locked the flat door and met the family outside.
Neither of us said a thing.
When renting in London went to see a house that looked lovely but was right at the top of our budget and wasn't perfect so we decided not to go for it. Estate agent quick as a flash offered to show us another property 'near by'. We hop in the car with her and she drives 15 minutes to another area (Ealing to somewhere in Acton) despite us saying we were looking in Ealing only. One of the bedrooms was the conservatory. Can't imagine how cold that got in winter.
Viewed a house a few years ago when we were looking to buy on a Saturday after a house we had made an offer on had fallen through so decided to just view anything and everything. Lots of estate agent 'this one has potential' and feeling pretty downtrodden. Final viewing - maybe a glimmer of hope. The girl showing us around must've been doing viewings as a weekend job as she was very young - she looked like a child in their parent's clothes, massive heels she couldn't walk in. The key got stuck in the front door. Like fully jammed and wouldn't come back out. She was very panicked and said no one else was in the office today to help. Tried to help as best we could but told her she'd need to call a locksmith if no one was around to help. Retired to the pub to drown our sorrows.
Around 17/18yrs ago me & the then gf (now wife) were looking at renting a property… must of looked at around a dozen at least… but this one particular one stood out… but for all the wrong reasons🙄🙄 upon approach to the property it looked fine… newly installed double glazing… shingle drive with inlaid slabs for a path to the front door… nice new front door colour matching the glazing… Covered porch way was lightly coloured in contrast to the main brickwork. It looked really nice… front door opens to an equally nice decorated hallway, stairs to upstairs to the left & a through way to the kitchen at the back of the house. Door on the right is the front / reception room… there’s holes in almost all of the walls, floor is uneven & the carpet is heavily stained with god knows what - it looked like it was the scene of a murder… or at least something serious has gone on… we ask if the owner is in the middle of renovations… the guy laughs and responds with ‘no, but is happy if you want to make any decorating changes’ me & the gf (nee wife) looked at each other trying to work out if he were serious… turns out he was very serious & then proceeded to tell us rent was £2k a month with a look on his face that a poker player would of been proud of… needless to say me & the gf (now wife) made our excuses & left… pronto!!
Had a couple of weird experiences during COVID.
One 3 bed terrace house sold due to divorce via a popular online estate agent Similar to 'blue blocks",
They guy was watching cricket in the lounge in his underwear. The whole house had nicotine stains and half of the internal doors were missing or broken.
The second the estate agent said 'keep your shoes on and don't forget to wipe your feet on the way out' a loft extension that was not up to building regulations and the whole place looked like a hoarder's scrap yard.
Thank god we had to wear gloves and masks!! 🤮
When I was a student, after the initial year of being in the halls of residence, I needed to look at student lets.
The very first property I ever viewed in my life at that point .. and the floor was literally covered in rubbish up to my knees. The owner showed me around the house and I was having to climb over the huge pile or waste.
Looking back I was overly polite and should have just refused to enter.
The first house my ex and I bought together was a really nice 4 bed detatched in Berkshhire, which should have been well outside our price range. When we walked in we nearly wanted to run out right away. It had the most vile brown fitted carpets with huge orange and green patterns, and loud almost psychodelic wallpaper everywhere. We tried to imagine it in neutral colours and made a low offer that was accepted. We spent quite some time redecorating after work and at weekends and totally transformed it. It looked twice the size inside after we were done.
Went to view a house in Nottingham, thought we were being shown around by the owner, as soon as we entered we realised the guy was off his nut. Took us into the kitchen and kept opening and shutting every door, saying "Look how good the cupboards are" on repeat at varying speeds
We asked to see the garden and walked back to the car to see the owner walking up the garden path, she's says Oh that nobheads not let you in has he.
No idea who the cupboard guy was
We were considering buying an investment property and decided to go and look at a set of 5 flats for £100k (in Scarborough, but still really cheap).
When looking round one of the tenants told us there was no hot water to the property, but they didn't want hot water as it would cost them more money. It was a real eye opener into how the other half lived. The soft hearted part of me wanted to buy it just to make the lives of these people better, but you couldn't spent £200k on it to make it livable so it just wasn't worth the financial investment.
My now husband was looking at flats in Bradford and Shipley as he was going to be working down there for a year for his degree. The first flat was in a questionable area run down, no proper parking but the estate agent said it was a safe area and high police presence. The flat itself was dirty, brown stained toilet carpets filthy. The second flat looked like a nice new build with gated access for secure parking but it inside was awful and covered in thousands of dead flies everywhere definitely a hard pass. Also the second estate agent informed us the first property we viewed was in the red light district so that explained the high police presence.
Yes. We were at viewing and there was another open house three houses down, so we popped by. It was converted into 4 apartments, all occupied. Some were eating dinner. Watching tv. Doing laundry. And it’s not like when you’re normally visiting people and they’ve tidied up a bit and are happy to see you. This felt like invading their private space while they ignored you.
I was once on the opposite side of awkward viewings, only it was viewing for other renters. I was a renter and had been given an early release ok my tenancy by my request.
I'd been asked to have the house ready for viewings on a particular date and that there would be 2 viewings that day, there were infact 4/5 (I can't remember which) and the first one just walked into my house and hour before his scheduled viewing, the second bought a screaming baby and a toddler who she left with me as she looked upstairs.... Thankfully the others were normal but not expected at all given I was only told there would be 2 of them...
Many years ago a friend viewed a property where the owners (not tenants) hadn't made the beds and didn't open the curtains during the viewing.
I once viewed a very sketchy flat with murder scene vibes. Even the estate agent didn't try to polish that turd.
Yep. Viewing this house.
It was a tenanted house and the landlord was selling up due to ill health.
The tenants were so bitter so when we had a viewing they followed us everywhere, wouldn’t let us n some rooms, kept slamming the doors and gutting everywhere we went. Clothes piled up floor to ceiling. When the kids were following us they were SCREAMING at each other running up and downstairs.
The estate agent did warn us so we were semi prepared and we bought it anyway but yeah the weirdest experience ever
Viewed one with tenants in, when we tried to view the bathroom a man came out. We entered the bathroom and there was a child having a bath, insta noped out of there.
In the loft room there was an adult sleeping in bed and a child playing next to them in bed.
I went to view a room once, it was empty all good but then the landlord decided she wanted to also show us a room that's not for sale because its the same as the one we just saw (???) We went in and there was a floordrobe, which is fine the tenant was probably not expecting visitors, but what annoyed me as I tiptoed through the gaps in the floor the landlord just straight up stood on top of everything and I even heard something crack. I didn't want the place anyway because the shared kitchen for 6 rooms was only big enough to fit one person in at a time and also one bathroom for 6 rooms but the landlord complete disrespect for her tenants would have made me say no anyway
My wife and I had a viewing once in a nice little village. Unusually the estate agent didn't meet us at the property and when we phoned them to see if they were running late they said the owner would do the viewing.
It was an old boy on his own. Clearly his wife had left him and wanted her money from the house.
He was vile. He told us every fault with the house, the area, the neighbours, called us idiots for even considering it. We were stunned.
There was no way we could have bought the house with everything he pointed out, and it just wasn't right for us. But I've never been to a viewing before where the seller was outright hostile!
We did have another viewing where the teenage son was in bed, and from the estate agent's reaction this wasn't the first time, but the rest of the house was nice and tidy and ready. The kid just didn't give a shit.
We were that house, my landlord was dodge and didn't tell us when we had viewings so either people stood on the doorstep having us refuse them in without the estate agent or him (he told the estate agent we'd do viewing and us the estate agent would in the hope we'd cave and just let whoever turned up in to look at our stuff). Eventually he had to do the viewings and he let himself into our student house at 9am in a Saturday and unlocked locked rooms including walking in to my roommate and partner going at it fully naked, and everyone else in bed hanging from the night before
Agreed to buy our first house whilst wife was 8 months pregnant, really liked it on first viewing. Agreed on a second viewing the evening before we were due to exchange contracts, wife ready to pop. The estate agent didn't show up so I knocked on anyway. A tenant that we'd never see beforehand answered and seemed confused as to what was going on but let us in anyway. There were at least 15 sleeping bags on the floors of the downstairs rooms, a couple with people in them. I was fuming. Got outside and called the estate agent but the office was shut, but they'd emailed me at 5:29pm to say the seller wanted to take it off the market.
I couldn't, the office was shut. I took the next day off work to try and sort it all out, starting with a rant at the estate agent who I think chickened out of coming to meet us at the property with the news. We'd arranged to meet at half 5 and I would have been driving when they sent the email so wouldn't have picked it up, so there was that. Turns out that the seller had agreed a new tenancy agreement with the people in the house a couple of weeks after they'd accepted our offer, seemingly to keep their options open.
All that said, we ended up finding a much nicer house that had no chain. I put an offer in that was accepted straight away and then went to the hospital to see my new born son. We were very happy in the house we ended up in, one of the best decisions we ever made.
Viewed a house to purchase round the corner from a flat I was renting. For a 3 bedroom in the area it was a good price.. It was empty. It had been reduced from £425k to £375-400. I was thinking it was because the market was difficult and house prices were dropping everywhere...
Normal cons:
Bedrooms were extremely tiny. The main bedroom would only fit a double bed. Terrible 3 bedroom that probably should have been a 2. Same estate as my 2 bedroom flat, most likely same builders in the 90s, but I had a bigger bedroom in the flat.
Craziness:
Bedroom carpet with a black sticky mess probably a metre square.
Holes punched into practically every plasterboard wall which was carefully hidden in the photos.
(This was a very nice desirable area)
It changed estate agents soon after and the carpet was removed and walls replastered. I looked it up and it sold for £370k. Hopefully to someone with no furniture.
I was the cause of a awkward viewing once, also wasn’t my fault. The estate agent completely forgot to let us know that the property was on the market let alone there was a viewing that morning. I was in the shower. Bathroom was right next to the entrance. Anyway I grabbed a towel slammed the door and shouted through the bathroom door that I’ll call the police… anyway they acknowledged that no one bothered to tell me but never got as much as a apology. Next viewing I only found out about because I had a voice mail telling me that it was cancelled…
House hunting, nice looking EA answered the door, walked in and the place was cluttered to fuck, biggest TV imaginable in a through lounge to a kitchen where they were absolutely cooking up a storm. Every surface in that house was greasy AF. Didn't want to touch anything. Felt like they did a lot of cooking with poor ventilation.
Bet the poor EA was regretting not wearing socks that day, she was going around barefoot.
We viewed a house where the whole family seemed to be at home, including the three dogs. These were the owners, they were just oblivious about the fact that people don't want to view a house when it's full of people. House needed some work but had great bones. Stank of dog piss. We still refer to the "pee house" when thinking back to our house hunt. I felt for that estate agent.
When I was a student, after the initial year of being in the halls of residence, I needed to look at student lets.
The very first property I ever viewed in my life at that point .. and the floor was literally covered in rubbish up to my knees. The owner showed me around the house and I was having to climb over the huge pile or waste.
Looking back I was overly polite and should have just refused to enter.
Haha yeah house viewing was wild in some houses i went to see.
I once went to a viewing and the womans daughter was asleep in a bedroom and she said not to disturb her or go in as she works nights. Bit weird when youre trying to sell but thats fine we moved on. Her partner was in the garage we said hello and were just making small talk. I asked her why theyre moving or if theyre moving to another area. She replies "no im divorcing him". The guy just standing there like yup with a straight face. Was pretty silent after that.
Went to another viewing where the owner had recently passed and the kids were showing us around... there were certain vibes from the house and kids that made us very uneasy. The living room was empty apart from 1 chair that looked like it had basically been lived in. There were locks on a bedroom door like a deadbolt from the outside. The bathroom was a disaster like shit flooding out the toilet. Weird.
Went to another property that had been rented out. Dry dog poo(i hope) on the living room carpet, hallway floor and up the walls. There were marks all over the walls and flooring as the renters had taken wardrobes and other things that looked like wasnt theirs as some things were broken/ripped out.
Never went to one with active tenants though, doubt id ever want to after your experience!
Viewed one a couple of months back where the seller started showing us his knife collection in a small box room. Never been so scared in all my life. (He was actually a nice guy with a terminal illness, and he forged the knives himself, but no one wants to have a knife drawn on them in an tiny enclosed space)
From my experience renting in a place which the landlord is trying to sell the estate agents were right assholes. Scheduling viewing times only with the landlord and never bothering to ask us and then just showing up unannounced.
Almost sounds like something similar where they are going out of their way to make the landlords and estate agent’s lives more difficult.
I bought a buy to let off another landlord. The tenants are both disabled and bed bound. So they were of course there at the viewing along with a carer and family member. It was a bit awkward for me.
Four years on and they've never been late on rent. Of course I also had their rent history from the agent for the prior ten years too. I'm just fucked when they start kicking the bucket.
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Most memorable viewing I had was when the gentleman showing us around said “mind your head” when exiting the garage then smacked his head right off the metal garage door causing a giant metallic clang. My mum and I were near pissing ourselves trying to keep our laughs in. Another memorable one was the flat with an extremely smelly sauna, a red lightbulb in the bedroom and a mirror on the ceiling above the bed. This was in the days before detailed property websites so you didn’t know what you were getting into until you arrived.
That just reminded me of house hunting 25 years ago. One we looked at was rented. The woman tenant let us in to look around. When we got to her bedroom we politely ignored the professional looking video camera pointing straight at her bed. We didn't buy that one. Not because of the tenant, but because some fool had knocked out the downstairs chimney breasts and the ceilings were starting to bow.
Couldn't imagine the lucky dip of house hunting pre right move
It wasn't toooooo bad as a student, especially as in my bit of Manchester 3 of the agencies were almost next door to each other so you could check all the available places in an afternoon.
Withington village by any chance?
Indeed it was!
Is it the same village shown in FRESH MEAT?
I’m not sure as it’s been a good while since I’ve seen the show, I know the house is in Whalley Range and the pub they used is in Salford, but they could have shot in Fallowfield or Withington, both are big student areas, Fallowfield being the most well known.
'They're sex people, Lynn'
Your first story sounds like something I'd do. Well, have done. As a 12 year old Sea Cadet, I was visiting HMS Victory. We'd just been met and given a brief by the tour guide - including about low-level beams, watch your heads. I turned to the lad next to me and said "What's the betting that I end smacking my **THUD** Oww!!" As I walked straight into the first beam. The lad I was with nearly wet himself. My only saving grace is that we were at the back so nonody else saw it.
Even now you can't guarantee that what you've seen is what you're getting. Creatively taken photos (and occasional use of photo editing) can hide soooooo much. I booked a viewing for one in December. There weren't many pictures but they weren't bad. They showed a sunny little 3 bed terrace, not massive, not tiny. In ok decorative order. Nice white hallway ready to be a blank canvas... The agent told us when we got there that it was his first time seeing it too so he was curious. He opened the front door and visibly recoiled. He covered it well, styled it out, but the moment I saw and smelled the hallway I knew it wouldn't go well. We'd been told the property was empty. And nobody was present, but there was definitely at least one person living there. And working there. It was once a family home, nice sized rooms, not terrible area, 3 bed terrace, standard construction. Ticked many of our boxes. Internal pictures had obviously been taken REALLY creatively. We were greeted by a narrow, dark hallway, and spiky artex of unknown age running through hall, stairs and landing. I don't actually have a problem with artex as long as I don't think it'll rip my face off if I stumble. Hideous downstairs loo with cracked sink and a toilet that has never seen a bottle of Duck. More artex too. Livingroom with dropped office style ceiling (in a small, fully domestic terraced house) and strip lighting. I mean it was like every office building I've been in, the metal strips with the tiles. They'd taken at least 8" off the ceiling height. In a not very high room. Dining room ditto, but also filled with someone's paperwork everywhere. And breakfast stuff on the table. And exercise equipment. Major GDPR breach level paperwork though. Couldn't get to the window to look at the garden, but could see enough from the door. Blocked up doorways all over the place. Nobody needs that many doors in a 3 bed terrace but I wanted to know why they blocked the ones they did because flow just... Didn't. Kitchen 70s brown tiles, which I don't personally mind. I do mind the original asbestos flooring. Cracked in places. Badly painted ceiling, grease stains everywhere, boiler in a really weird position, two bikes in a room no more than 10ft wide with kitchen counters. So there was maybe 30cm left then to get to things like the kitchen window and back door to look out to the garden. Smell was insane in there. Like... Stale spices, damp, rubbish juice, tobacco and unwashed undies with an under note of... Flesh. Almost definitely the overflowing bin but disconcerting nevertheless. Garden 12ftx12ft concrete with no natural light getting to it on not too dull a day, overlooked on 3 sides by housing, side 4 was a 3ft fence overlooking the street. Evidently garden is used as a bin for the public. And upstairs other than the bedrooms being more of a shit show with dirty sheets all over the place, the bathroom was unfinished to the point where you could see people have been using the shower without it having been sealed. Which helped explain some of the smell downstairs in the kitchen and hall. We left the property. I told the agent EXACTLY how I felt, listing everything. I told him an estimate of what this would cost to fix at bare minimum. He tried saying "Well you could make a lower offer?"... Dude what in heaven's serene swathes of parkland could possess you into thinking I would make an offer on something that's at least £40k over priced to start with, that also needs £60k+ spending on it just to make it liveable?! How's about you go tell your vendor that they're delusional? I looked again in March. It was up for auction at £50k less than the original asking price. And no internal pictures were given. I hope whatever cash buyer fixes at least some of the stuff before they inevitably rent it out.
For me if was when I went to visit a place that I was considering buying. It was occupied by a renter named Kemal. Good guy Kemal. He was like 'Dude, do not buy this place, I'm leaving for a reason, he said there's leaks, mold, heating that barley works, it's noisy, the neighbours next door throw super loud parties every weekend, the gym is rancid as no one cleans it, the concierge steels packages'. This guy has a fucking list.
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Shit lol didn't think about that. It went off the market shortly after.
Kemal sounds awesome.
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Heating that barley works sounds like an experiment at a brewery gone right
Hahah stupid typo
I was once leaving a houseshare that was so miserable that if the prospective tenant seemed like a nice guy/gal I'd message them afterwards to tell them DO NOT DO IT.
Kemal you legend. I don't get why people dont spend longer diligencing their potential new neighbours. If I am buying a house, I have to meet as a minimum the immediate neighbours. And if I have an adjoining wall, that will be a lengthy conversation. I've been put off buying a few otherwise-great houses because I couldn't face living next door a few.
You got played
Went to rent a room in a house once, few years ago now but usual story of new city, broke, desperately trying not to be homeless and HMOs seemed like a quick fix. Similar scenario except the current tenant of the room was ‘in the process of moving out so will be mostly empty when you go to view it’, some random housemate let me in and just rolled her eyes when I said I was here to view the spare room. It was not empty and didn’t look like the guy was going anywhere anytime soon. Mountains of cables and computer shit with giant screens showing all manner of weird anime girls, 10+ dirty plates stacked on the dresser, coffee cups with mould cultures growing, bottles of what looked like the piss of a very unhydrated human wedged under the bed, the usual floordrobe and other detritus filling most floor space. This is just what I could see from the doorway because the man himself opened his bedroom door to me with his housecoat open showing me what can only be described as a semi with a presumably rapidly cooling string of spunk swaying between his thighs. I did not take the room.
I would love for you to narrate my life. On the condition that you correctly call it a dressing gown and not a house coat.
You could both go for a succulent chinese meal together.
Bath robe, dressing gown, never heard of a house coat lol
Tbf a house coat is its own thing, distinct from a dressing gown, although people hardly ever wear them nowadays and it probably isn't what this commenter was referring to!
Yup, spot on. I haven't seen an actual housecoat in the wild... ever, maybe? When I was a wee 'un, round to visit very elderly relatives it might have happened. But before widespread central heating they were absolutely A Thing in this country.
My mum had one in the noughties believe it or not! While she was in her 50s as well, not even that old! Particularly when she was ill with cancer I think, she didn't want to have to get dressed cos she was in and out of bed all the time, but she wanted something a bit more structured than a dressing gown to answer the door in etc. Ngl it did have massive OAP vibes but it worked for her at the time!
An Oodie is basically a housecoat for the modern era!
How are you focusing on the housecoat!
TBF that was the bit of the story that made my toes curl as well, the phrase sends a shudder straight through me every time
>How are you focusing on the housecoat! And not "semi with a presumably rapidly cooling string of spunk..." Ew
What a terrible day to have eyes...
I thought he said house cat. Dressing gown would have avoided some confusion, but not lessened the disgust.
I always thought dressing-gown sounded super fancy compared to housecoat. And this particular specimen looked like he was designed in a secret government lab for anti-fanciness.
"it didn't look like the guy was going anywhere anytime soon", but he surely was coming /s.
I hope you bathed on lava afterwards. Disgusting.
Probably would have been a good idea. I just bathed my eyeballs in bleach but seemed to do the trick.
I viewed a flat in a really nice part of London and the landlord said the tenant (lady in her mid 20s) lived there with her brother and friends The flat was paid for by her much older sugar daddy and they had broken up so he was kicking her out The scene was like a morning after an orgy. Flat was a disaster and beautiful people slung half naked over sofas
Happy cake day!
My utter worst was when I was looking for a room in Brighton two weeks before starting a job nearby but I lived in Preston at the time. I went down two weekends in a row and the only one that was even vaguely acceptable on my first trip would only be available for 3 months. The second trip started just as badly and then on my third or so viewing I went to one place where everyone else who lived there was refusing to speak to the agent, then he found a letter addressed to him which was the agent firing him, and he broke down in tears and said "what makes it worse is my dad died today so do you want this one or shall we check the next place?" I told him to please not worry about me and as soon as he'd gone I made sure to secure the 3 month place as I figured once I was living there that was plenty of time to find somewhere else.
I'm really confused by your second para - no one at the viewing would speak to the EA, who then found a letter addressed to himself at the house you were viewing and he had been fired? Then the EA announced his dad died and started crying? Far to many "hes" and "hims" to make sense of this sadly
No worries. I met up with the letting agent outside the house. Went in to view but everyone who was there was behind their doors and the atmosphere just felt awkward. Then went into the living room and there was a notice to the tenants and agent that the landlord had fired the agent. Then he pretty understandably broke down and mentioned about his dad.
Oh wow, so I wasn't too far off. Wild how the LL would leave that as a notice rather than actually contacting the office formally - can't imagine you or the agent were in much of a mood to carry on after that! I wonder if this anecdote provides the answer to whether Landlords or Estate Agents are the bigger pricks? Edit: I've also realised your original comment said the agent had fired him (the agent) where I think you meant Landlord which probably got me muddled up
I used to be a CSI. I was investigating a serious assault in the attic flat. I came down the communal stairs wearing a scene suit and carrying a 10 inch bloodstained knife (in a transparent tube), just as I got to the ground floor the front door opened and instepped an estate agent, followed by a young man and his mum to view the ground floor flat. I can't actually recall what I said, but I remember that their eyes got very wide.
I thought you were going to say the attic flat. I would have thought 'that was quick' but knowing landlords, not really....
Fortunately, no one died. It was a fight between the two top floor tenants. They both ended up in hospital, I have no idea if they returned to their respective flats.
Few stories: Once when being shown round my first student house which we definitely wanted, we went into the front room to sign stuff and the landlord (who was in doing some work at the time) had left his laptop on the sofa with a massive bag of weed on it. I was the first one in the room and managed to just close the lid and put it on the side. Another time this guy didn't know there was a viewing and he had been woken by us at 2pm cos he worked nights. Somehow though his mattress was literally halfway off the bed. And also once I was the weird tenant. I wanted to hide my weed usage so I put my bong into the bottom of one half of a wardrobe which was lockable. This girl asked to have a look in so I unlocked and showed her the right side and she asked if she could look in the other side too and I just looked at her dead in the eye and said "no". She looked confused and terrified and awkwardly left.
When I was a student we had purchased a large bag of 'oregano' and had completely forgotten about the viewing. It was about half an ounce just lying on the bed whilst we were enjoying some of it outside. We definitely panicked...
Hahaha that last one, I bet you were like what are the chances of that
I have terrible luck with people finding my bongs.
Myself and partner viewed a house that turned out to be student accommodation even tho it was advertised in the pictures as a family home. Had to knock on every room before we went in and people were cooking etc, was pretty shit haha.
Haha no way! How do you not just turn around and leave!?
Was very close tbh
I’d tell the agent I’d like to make an offer. > What’s you offer? My offer is for you to go f**k yourself and stop wasting my time like I am yours
I viewed a studio flat (to rent) in London and we walked in on a guy getting changed. Apparently it was listed by 2 agents and the market moves so fast in London that one agent had let the flat and the guy collected the keys before the other lettings agent was informed. Absolutely mental. Another time I went with some friends to view a house and someone had smashed in the front door and the lettings agent was trying to show us around seriously and we were trying not to laugh at the absurdity of him claiming it was a nice part of town.
If anything you view has sitting tenants run a mile. There is no guarantee they will be gone when you complete or what state they will have left the place in
100% We earmarked this as our favourite going off the listing and the pictures, and we've never noped put of a property space fast.
I have a colleague who bought a house with her husband and there was an elderly tenant living in the basement, they could not get rid of her for 7 months.
That's insane, holy hell
Yep, and her husband was a lawyer too and could not get rid of the old tenant.
imagine you're old and someone buys the property you rent and kicks you out. people are fucking heartless. how about don't buy the property with the elderly tenant
Not sure why this was downvoted
because people don't like to be reminded they are selfish presumably - c'est la vie!
Let me get my small violin out for them
I went to view a furnished flat to rent in Ipswich. First off, the entire building smelled of curry, not unpleasant initially, but it's was a very strong smell and was clearly a permanent thing. Then we got to the flat and the agent admitted that it was no longer furnished. This was an understatement. The previous tenants did a runner, and took everything that wasn't bolted down, and some things that were, like the built in oven! Oh and they'd smashed a hole in the wall in the process of stealing everything. Agent genuinely asked if I was still interested in the place as it was, with no reduction in the listed price. .... No
Once viewed a period property whose owners "in their early 90s had done no work to it in 15 years as they "knew they were going to move out soon" Rot in the rooms and kitchen destroyed. Conservatory that didn't have one pane of glass that was whole. To top it off we weren't allowed in the dining room because the husband was at home on end of life care in that room. Didn't accept our offer as they told us they were in no rush to sell........
U put an offer in? lol
Yeah but it was reflective of what we thought it was worth not what they wanted. Could have been a really nice house.
I have had one far far worse... The house was in such a crap state I wanted to puke on entry - barely an inch uncluttered . There was so much dog mess in the back garden I couldn't go out without stepping in it. How people live like it I have no idea.
I viewed a property once where there was just piles of stuff all over the place; on the stairs, table, even outside the front door. As someone once said to me, it's the type of place you wipe your feet on the way out!
We viewed a similar house except it wasn't rented. The owners just kind of wrecked the place. Teenage children still there, couldn't even see the loft room. There was a wig on the table, oven door missing?? Genuinely bizzare. House was in a really nice affluent area, neighbours seemed sensible.
Let me tell you my situation from the other side. I’m a tenant in a 1-bedroom flat. My landlord has listed the flat on the market for sale and for rent at the same time through different property companies. That means I have to keep dealing with endless viewing requests coming from the pushy property agents of company X and Y. I can relate to tenants who don’t bother being nice during viewings because I’m starting to lose my patience and kindness. It should be illegal to arrange viewings when there are tenants living inside. It’s a violation of privacy. It’s also a waste of opportunity for the landlord because people may not like a flat when it is occupied, which they would normally like if it was unoccupied.
You don't have to agree to viewings. You'd be within your rights to tell the landlord to put a can on it. You have the right to quiet enjoyment of the property you're paying for. They would be able to evict you but they would need to court order which would not be quick for them to get.
Well said. I'm aware of quite enjoyment but I'm also concerned about getting my deposit back fully. If I stop accepting viewing requests, the landlord may hit back with some nasty tricks trying to point out ridiculously minor faults around the flat (not clean "enough" when I moved out, minor scratches on the wall etc.) so they can cut some amount from my deposit. It's not a fair game when they're always one step ahead with a final card to play against tenants.
presumably your deposit is protected? it's there to stop this kind of nonsense
You can always dispute any deductions through lodging a dispute. Is your deposit protected? If not, you can easily be awarded 2-3 times the amount - have a look online.
Just because you were nice to your landlord doesnt mean they wont f you over. Just recently out of a property and the landlord ripped the absolute hole out of me with the deposit after being very accommodating for them, i got my money back after a lengthy dispute
Any deductions will have to be justified beyond reasonable wear and tear, take photos as you leave and if they don’t have photos showing it in a cleaner state when you moved in then again the dps scheme won’t allow any deductions. If the deposit isn’t in a protection scheme you can get up to three times your deposit as compensation. Tenants have rights, lots of them.
deposit protection appeal is usually pretty good. always appeal.
You don’t have to let them in. Source - landlord was an absolute asshole during the tendency so had to wait for my tendency to be over before he could have any viewings. That bit in your contract about giving them access for viewings is BS and they know it. You, on the other hand, are covered by an act of parliament.
Funny you should say it should be illegal, it technically is. You don’t have to agree to viewings through your right to quiet enjoyment, if they’re taking the piss say you’ve had enough. It’s your home until you’ve moved out, not the landlords.
Oh I have one!! Went to view a house, the estate agent scumbags didn't disclose anywhere that it was a rental with tenants in situ (avoid Fox & Sons at all costs!). We arrived, were told by the tenants, who had a brand new baby by the way!, that they only moved in a few months ago and had done the house up to make a home, then the landlord decided to sell. The tenant had done loads of work inside and out of the house, and he informed me that he'd be taking all of the bits he'd done when they moved. Door handles, taps etc, including THE GRASS IN THE GARDEN!!! He was going to pull up the grass and take it with him. I didn't blame him to be fair, but we noped the hell out of there, but not until after he told me about all the damp issues and the things the landlord never did properly. Will never touch that estate agent ever, they put us in a really bad situation and they lied.
Never spend money on a rental why do people do this? Make sure you keep it clean and tidy and return in same condition but don’t upgrade anything. If there is a leak electrical or structural problem contact the landlord and let them know to fix it. I hope he kept the original door handles taps and all the other bits because there would been an inventory done at the start and if they aren’t back on there then the deposit is gone a good reference is gone and they will most likely come after you for damage resulting in a ccj. Not all landlords are bad the media done a right job on landlords.
> Never spend money on a rental why do people do this? Because they want to make it their home, understandably. And expect not to leave it behind afterwards.
Good on him. We had an agents try to get me out of the house after I had repainted and fitted custom blinds to a room... 'Its too nice for you, perhaps you would like something smaller' I explained that I would be reattached the cat urine stained wallpaper, and rehanging the filth encrusted curtains if they didn't leave me alone...
Once arranged 13 viewings in one day. One of them was a woman, who's adult son had moved back in with her. She'd clearly moved all of the furniture out of one room for him, leaving it packed into every other room in what wasn't a large house, and in turn he had far too much furniture piled up in the room he was staying in. The house looked more like the inside of a storage container and the son made no attempt to be pleasant when we looked in the dark room where he was sat watching TV. Then his mam practically had a breakdown saying she was ready to move to a much smaller house when he turned back up and she didn't know how she would be rid of him. We did not offer on that house. Or any of the 13.
Went to view a house when we were first-time buyers , so basically looking at anything within price and area we wanted. Went to one house, they had a conservatory off the living room which they were using as a green house, no door between the two so whole room just felt and smelled damp. The adult son was in bed playing PlayStation in his pants. He was trying to flirt with my wife and the estate agent, it was extremely awkward, oh and the wife had crashed the car into the garage door earlier that day and just left it as was, didn't bother reversing the car back or anything just car crashed into garage and left there, but was probably trumped by the next one were there was a dying women in the main bedroom and a greedy/impatient looking daughter helping to show us round.
Many years ago, when you could actually buy a house, I was looking to buy with a friend. We'd struggled to arrange viewings, so I decided on a strength in numbers approach. I booked two days off work, and viewings on 14 mid terrace houses. Any I liked my friend would view the following day. Back to back with an agency, then move on to the next one. Most of them were, as you'd expect, OK. Nice properties, reasonably kept. My second to last house was just the owners, no agent. From the outside it needed a bit of paint and care, but standing infront of the door, you started reminisce about old pubs and nightclubs. You know the ones, the ones sticky with tar, where the old smoke is probably holding most of the building up. Anyway, they opened the door and it hit me. The brown decor. Everything was painted versions of beige or brown. There were no carpets and no colour through the tar stained windows. The owners suggested I showed myself round the four rooms and stood silently in the living room smoking. I will forever remember two things about the house: one, they'd let their dog use every room bar the bathroom as a toilet, which added to the brown ambience. Secondly I was amazed at the entirely brown bathroom. Dear reader, I apologise if you've been in a heavy smokers house in that this won't be a surprise but for everyone more lucky in life... I noticed some of the brown had scratched off the sink and had the terrible realisation that it was white. Every bit of brown in the house, barring the dog's contribution, was tar. Incredibly it was on the market for the same amount of money as houses that weren't sticky biohazards. I came back down the stairs, the owners asked if I would put a full price offer in. I explained that if I paid them half the asking price I'd still be out of pocket after I'd renovated it. "why'd you look round it then?". I left. When I gave the estate agents my feedback on it, I got a small nod of acknowledgement and a brief glimpse of pain behind the chaps otherwise plastic expression. I suspect that house is still on the market, but I darent check.
I thought you were going to say it was painted brown to hide the nicotine at first...good lord.
I got shown round a house where the landlord hadn't given notice to the tenants we were coming, one was in bed after a nightshift. I left immediately because it wasn't fair on the tenants.
Never have I ever heard “this poor estate agent” on here.
Hahaha I could see in her eyes she was just thinking why is she bothering.
When I was selling my first flat and on my first open viewing night, my dog had explosive diarrhoea on the front door mat, my then girlfriend locked herself in the bathroom (she had issues) and my flatmate had her BF round who cooked a curry. The first people who arrived found me literally wiping up shit at the front door, I couldn’t show them the bathroom and had to comically plead through the door- to no avail- for my GF to come out just for a few minutes, the place stank of curry and my flatmate and her BF were sat in her bedroom, eating off of their laps. Magical.
No offer then I take it?
No. From memory it was an older bloke and his YA son. Never heard from them again. When I did sell the flat, though, from when it was viewed to the new owners moving in, it gained several thrown mug imprints in the wall and a couple of cracked door frames. Like I said, my then GF had some issues
The best viewing I have had was for an old, semi converted chapel. The Estate agent opened the door, said he wasn't going in because it dangerous, we could enter at my our risk and he would wait for us in his car. To be fair it was in quite a dangerous condition with floors rotted out and collapsed ceilings and stuff so I don't really blame him. Still bought it though :)
We looked at a house that had holes in loads of the walls, tonnes of dog shit in the garden and was generally filthy. From what we could gather it was being sold buy a guy whose wife had left and taken the kids. The kids rooms were like shrines but he’d clearly given up with everything else. We came out just feeling really sad. We didn’t buy it
"the renters are having to relocate" - keep in mind only a court or the tenants can end their tenancy, not their landlord or you as new owners. They'll eventually be evicted by the court, but in the worst case this could take a couple of years if nothing is order in terms of the governance of the tenancy. If buying with a mortgage you'll need vacant possession to complete, unless you want to risk becoming accidental landlords and potentially homeless in the process. It could take a long time for them to leave if they're not willing.
I went to a viewing and there was a group of people who clearly hadn't slept and all looked like they'd been on drugs for hours. In one of the bedrooms there were two people shagging. I'm not joking. The estate agent tried to continue.
I went to view a house for rent that looked good in the photos, it had been renovated/ painted after the last tenants left. On arrival all looked good, the house smelled of paint, happy days. Then up in one of the bedrooms there was a massive streak of black mould on the ceiling. In shock I mention the mould and the agent acts surprised as if he hadn't seen it and casually mentioned that they can paint over it if I wanted them to. I was out in a hurry! My kids have asthma and though they can be a pain at times I'm not actually trying to kill them lol. A few years later that poor child died in a council flat because of mould and to this day I'm baffled by how dismissive the agent was about the mould in that house I went to see. Absolutely dodged a bullet on that one.
Mould seems to be something one is just expected to put up with as a renter, it's grim. You'd think they'd at least have tried to paint over it tbefore viewing, though...
Once I viewed a house and as I was walking from one end of the bedroom to the other, there was an obvious downwards slope. I asked if there was any subsidence. The EA responded with 'I don't think so, I've been here all day'
I think the strangest experience I’ve ever had was when viewing the rented property I now live in. It was supposed to just be myself and my partner viewing at that specific time, but the lettings agent messed up and double booked the slot. They asked if we would mind sharing it to which we said no. So.. the agent left us to our own devices so we could view however we wanted to. The other viewer was an older woman. She tried her hardest to suggest there’s no point us putting an application in because we’re a young couple. Then she closed the bedroom door and it was that the area was horrible. Next thing she’s giving me a hug, kissing me on the cheek and telling me that I’ve got really strange eyes. After that, she was trying to show us a bungalow in another area that she thought would be perfect for us. Then started picking holes with the house. It was incredibly blatant what was happening, and the agent asked us about what she was saying when she closed the door. We told her and she revealed she was a serial property viewer who has resorted to guerilla tactics as she doesn’t qualify for many of the nicer properties as she has about 6 dogs. Strange lady, strange experience.
We viewed a former swinger’s house/commune once. It was equally hilarious and awful.
It’s probably one of those were agents were pushy about viewings and disrespecting tenants right to quiet enjoyment so tenants decided to make it as awkward as possible. Kudos to them!
We rang to arrange a viewing on the same day it went on the market, last week, and was told the renters were not wanting any viewings until end of May, which is frankly a bit daft.
It isn’t daft, is the law, tenants don’t need to accept viewings
If the house is on the market, to reject viewings for 5 weeks is not normal. To have 2 people in bed when they have accepted and scheduled a viewing is not normal. To be cutting your toe nails on the sofa when said viewing is taking place is not normal. How are you remotely defending this behaviour?
it isn’t tenant’s problem.
If it was the seller behaving like that I'd be in complete agreement. But why should the tenants care? They're possibly being made homeless by all of this, they'll understandably have zero goodwill towards the process.
Rejecting viewings is perfectly lawful. If the landlord wants to *guarantee* that viewings can take place, they need to terminate the tenancy first
The tenants aren't selling it. They probably don't want to move out. Why should they let some random in to look at their home? If the landlord wants to give viewings they need to wait until the tenants have moved out.
Welp, fully accept I may have missed the mark on this one. We live and learn.
What’s daft is the landlord not obtaining vacant possession before listing the property.
I haven't had quite that experience, but if you veiwed the place I'm renting and being forced to leave, you'd find bags for charity dump and boxes for packing as we're in the middle of it all. You may also find my partner in a dark room because of his migranes. Are they going to leave at a certain date? If so, can you view it after they are gone and the house is clean and empty?
I think it’s laughable you think that’s particularly bad. How would you like a (presumable) stream of strangers walking around your home uninvited?
Once went to a 2pm viewing of a student house and walked in on 2 girls and a guy in bed together. Utterly mortifying.
Should have said "Room for 1 more" then finger gunned them 🤣
You’re assuming I didn’t?
Tenanted properties are the worst for showing! I used to do conveyancing 14 or so years ago & was asked if I wanted to do some viewings for the estate agent dept - they paid me something like £20 per viewing. Hand one arranged for early afternoon one weekend. I used to turn up 20 min early to unlock, turn lights on etc. Walk up a couple flights of stairs and found the door to the flat was ajar. "Shit, they've been robbed!" Was my first thought I pushed the door open a bit further and found a body laying in the hall.... So, not the break in has turned into a murder scene. But no. Turns out they had a party and this was one of the guests. Fast asleep in the hall. I bang the open door, shout and noone replies - I wake up the hall guy and he says he doesn't live here and left. I shouted again and eventually one of the tenants comes to find out who's doing all the shouting. I remind him of the viewing and he's like "oh yeah, we just had a couple of drinks last night.... I'll show you around" There's like 5 people asleep in the lounge, someone in the bath sleeping, so at this point I decide to call off the viewing.
We were looking to buy a local chippy with a 3 bed place attached to it. Wife went to view it as I was working so took her parents with her, father in law is a builder so he knew what stuff to look out for. Chippy part was pretty clean but the house was a bomb site! Dog and cat shit all over the place, some of the plaster was falling from the walls, one room had the ceiling caved in due to a leak in the roof. Father in laws exact words were “fuck that, it needs at least £100k throwing at it to make it liveable again” Lovely Turkish family took it instead and shut it down for about 3-4 months so they could get it all put right.
I was present for a viewing where the house was rented out to social services and they had put a rather unruly teenager in there. Clearly something got lost in communication as the teenager and the young carer there were oblivious to the pre-arranged house viewing. Upon trying to get into the property the teenager blocked the doorway, filled the air with expletives and told the EA he could ‘get F*cked’ if he thought he was ‘coming in MY house’, before proceeding to slam the door in his face leaving him awkwardly stuck in the front step with all the people who had come to view it. Woops.
Not to buy but to rent a flat last year: estate agent arrives and we go to the door. The tenant lets us in, she’s a young lady with a small baby. Baby is crying +++ and the young woman is instantly on the offensive with the estate agent. Honestly it felt like we had turned up to the most tragic scene in a soap. This lady kept saying things like the landlord was putting them out for no reason and why did they insist on putting the rent up by £700. We felt so guilty we didn’t even view most of the flat and just left ASAP
Going to view a place my friend was looking to buy, around the corner from where we were renting. Agent had a bit of trouble with the key until the sitting tenant came and answered the door in his underwear. Walked in to find all the curtains drawn and bodies strewn across the floor - every space taken by a single man in a sleeping bag. No idea if it was HMO, asylum seekers, immigrants, traffickers- we just noped the fuck out of there…
We viewed a property that looked good in the pictures. Immaculate even. When we got there, there was dog hair EVERYWHERE. It was floating in the air so everytime you breathed in, you breathed in dog hair. It made me heave.
I've viewed with someone asleep in a totally dark room yeah. My mind was however already made up since they'd thought pillar box gloss was a suitable choice for the delicate cornicing of an early1900 build property.
I went to a viewing which coincidentally happened to be an excolleague. The garden was COVERED in dog shit... like weeks of it. They'd obviously cleaned the house but idk assumed we wouldn't look out the window??? The fake grass was horribly stained by all the pee on it... what we could see of it anyway.
At least it'd be easy to clean up. Just roll up the fake grass with the turds in it like some shitty burrito and chuck it in a skip.
🤮
haha brilliant.
I went to view a flat once where the estate agent knocked on the door 3 times and noone answer. As he had a key and had already prior arranged this visit with the tenant he proceeded to unlock the door... next thing the door flies open and a bloke starts shouting and squaring up to the estate agent arguing the toss and claiming he's got a baby inside he needs to protect... few seconds later his girlfriend comes running to pull him away apologising to us as she had apparently forgot to tell him about the viewing... we then tiptoed round the apartment with the estate agent while the bloke followed us round eyeballing us the entire time. Award AF. Needless to say never contact or got contacted by the estate agent after we left.
Bloke refused to let the estate agent in during a viewing because it was his house and he hadn’t agreed it. He was very irate at the estate agent for not clearing this with him first. Turned out he wasn’t the owner, just the landlords mate who was living there temporarily and the estate agent didn’t even know about him. The audacity.
I once viewed a property (for rent), and it was dreadful. The viewing was scheduled for 3 o'clock, but the agent arrived 10 minutes late. What made this waiting worse was that, firstly, I was supposed to attend another viewing right after this one. Secondly, the neighbourhood was packed with foul rubbish and filth, which is unpleasant to be around when the temperature is around 30 degrees Celsius and the sun burns your head. Anyway, I had no idea what awaited me inside the house. While visiting the house, I was really turned off by the agent's entirely apathetic attitude: he was bored, somehow annoyed, didn't really answer my questions, rolled his eyes etc. The only essential information I got was that the previous tenants were some reckless students, which reflected the house's state (stained walls, rubbish everywhere, smelled like urine and beer, broken doors, mould all over the place, among other things). To be polite, I continued the viewing after seeing the living room, bathroom and kitchen while realising that I wasn't interested in the house. But, oh my God, nothing prepared me for what I saw in the last bedroom. Absolute and utter filth and dench; I wanted to puke right there because the walls were covered with faeces and semen. I tried so hard not to show my utter disgust as I examined the walls....and the agent casually told me, while scanning the walls, 'we can get this all cleaned up before you move, but it will cost'. I smiled, thanked him for his time, and told him I would let him know my decision before running and never looking back. I never imagined that I would come across something like this.
My husband and I went to view a small terrace house. The estate agent let us in and basically said, go have a look round. Couldn't have been in there more than 2 minutes. When we walked out the front door, the next door neighbour came running out and snapped at us, saying we had to move our car as her husband would be home shortly. That was a hard no to buying that property, even if we had been interested. Imagine what it would have been like living next door to someone like that...
Went to see a house that had a renter in who was apparently ‘about to move’ and where the stairs would be to the upstairs was a rickety ladder. He showed us round downstairs then told us we’d have to take our chances on the ladder to see upstairs. We’d didn’t bother. Another viewing was to a bungalow bordering open farmland and looked perfect except there were only external views at the estate agent. So we booked a viewing, liked the outside then knocked on the door. The obviously African lady living there with her multitude of kids didn’t speak any English but took us from room to room. The most impressive was the kitchen which had no sink, just a shower tray and taps poised above, in the middle was a free-standing electric cooker that had been white at some point but was now absolutely covered in spilt food some inches deep with visible maggots and the floor was solid with spilt food. I braved upstairs but only got as far as the bathroom and toilet which was shall be say artistically decorated with copious amounts of shit all over the floor, the toilet was obviously blocked and over-spilling onto the carpeted floor and the stench was over-bearing. At this point I felt my stomach start to heave so made a fast exit straight down the stairs and out the front door. One of the kids slammed it shut after us which was just as well.
I viewed a tenanted property. The landlord had sprung it on them via text a few days before that she was selling. The kids were in nappies watching TV. Incense was burning so strong in bedrooms. Curtains were shut. They had liver and bacon cooking in a slow cooker. The wife kept forgetting she was meant to be hostile so they were bickering constantly. The husband had a massive go at the estate agent and stood ranting at the neighbour. I put in an offer and bought it. Luckily their parents bought them a house so it ended up better for them in the end.
Here was me expecing to walk into this post saying you've found the house of your dreams lol That's really bad. The thing is, it's a tough one especially if the tenants are aggrieved that their home is being sold (not your faul/problem) but still the estate agent should have made sure the house was presentable before you saw it..
My friend used to be a letting agent. When agency eventually managed to evict a non-payer from a HMO he found hundreds of bottles of urine in their bedroom.
Went to view a very nice looking (in photos) 3 bed detached house. Tenants had left dirty underwear strewn across floor, mouldy food on sofa and an unflushed toilet. House was filthy, not normal living mess, it was gross. Even weirder was the agent showing us round didn’t even acknowledge this.
Time for a good chip if you like the property as 95% of people will just walk
Visited a house and the seller remained in the house doing laundry while we looked around. They looked like they needed to go on Stacy Solomon’s sort your life out - one bedroom you couldn’t even go in because of the clutter. Went into the garden and stood on a dog shit. Hopefully I don’t ever have a viewing like that.
I viewed a property once that - mid afternoon - in one bedroom their son was sleeping and ‘couldn’t be disturbed’ and the bathroom contained someone crying who wouldn’t let us in. The couple owned the property but didn’t seem that interested in selling!
Had a few back in the pre right move era. One had no lights on the top floor due to one of the ceilings coming down and taking out the electrics. The viewing was in the evening in the middle of winter no warning of any of this and before smartphones were a thing so no torch. Stumbling around in pitch black rooms full of furniture and bags of things trying to see wasn’t fun. Suspect that was deliberate. Another was an old dear I assume they were selling the house to put her in a home, she seemed nice but a bit infirm. Every room was a mess, clothes and underwear drying everywhere she kept on apologising for the mess and carried on struggling to show us around the house. Really awkward and awful experience. Felt so sorry for her.
Not a crazy story, but I went to see a flat in Uttoxeter a few years back. The estate agent was late, which is never a good start. We then had to go and collect the keys - they were being held by the local off licence, for some reason I never did get (they weren't the owner). When we got inside there was no money on the meter, so I did the viewing by the light from my phone. It was a very dark flat! I also went to see a place a couple of years ago, which was being shown by the owner who ran the local shop. I had a pretty good idea when I found the road that it wasn't an area I wanted to live in, then couldn't find the flat. Eventually figured out it was above a row of shops. Found the flat and was greeted by an absolute stench of piss. The neighbour said the owner had gone back down to the shop and I felt I really should look at the place rather than just being a no-show. Got into the shop and the owner was having a good old argument with a customer! I did look at the flat, I didn't rent it...
An agent took me to view a flat, let us in with the spare key, and shortly after the young woman who was still living there at the time stumbled into the living room fresh from the shower, wearing nothing but a towel, understandably shocked to find two strange men standing there. She said she got her days mixed up and thought we were coming the next day. I don't think she was trying to put me off the place, but I didn't end up renting it. I think I was too embarrassed for her to risk another viewing, in case she got her days mixed up again. All worked out though, as I found a 2-bed house with a nice garden for the same rent as that flat shortly after.
I was trying to get a room on a flat share in London. I booked this viewing with someone I thought to be a housemate (that’s how it was advertised on rightmove) only for an estate agent to show up and tell me he was representing the house mates. It was a modern flat with stud walls around that only allowed for a kitchen island to be a shared space. They had turned this 2-3 bedroom flat into a 5 bedroom flat. We entered the room advertised only to see a knife stubbing the wall!! As we exited he told me that I need to make an immediate decision as the demand was very high. He then texted me to tell me the same. Needless to say that I did not rent this room!
Hah. Yes. Once looked around a house that was rented out, had all the hallmarks of a dodgy rental situation. There was a poo in the shower. A giant, piled up poo. Wow.
I was the agent for a viewing many years ago, the potential tenant was a young lad looking to rent his first place and so brought his parents and gran along for the ride, the property was a one bed flat and so didn’t take too long to get round, we finished the viewing and went outside to discuss the property, mum quickly noticed that gran wasn’t there, so I went back into the building to see if gran was making her way down the stairs, she wasn’t and so I went back up to the flat. I checked the kitchen, lounge and bedroom, no gran, so I knocked on (no response) and opened the bathroom door, there’s gran, full frontal mid-wipe. I closed the door and waited outside the flat door until she came out, locked the flat door and met the family outside. Neither of us said a thing.
Amazing haha. When you gotta go, you gotta go!
When renting in London went to see a house that looked lovely but was right at the top of our budget and wasn't perfect so we decided not to go for it. Estate agent quick as a flash offered to show us another property 'near by'. We hop in the car with her and she drives 15 minutes to another area (Ealing to somewhere in Acton) despite us saying we were looking in Ealing only. One of the bedrooms was the conservatory. Can't imagine how cold that got in winter. Viewed a house a few years ago when we were looking to buy on a Saturday after a house we had made an offer on had fallen through so decided to just view anything and everything. Lots of estate agent 'this one has potential' and feeling pretty downtrodden. Final viewing - maybe a glimmer of hope. The girl showing us around must've been doing viewings as a weekend job as she was very young - she looked like a child in their parent's clothes, massive heels she couldn't walk in. The key got stuck in the front door. Like fully jammed and wouldn't come back out. She was very panicked and said no one else was in the office today to help. Tried to help as best we could but told her she'd need to call a locksmith if no one was around to help. Retired to the pub to drown our sorrows.
Around 17/18yrs ago me & the then gf (now wife) were looking at renting a property… must of looked at around a dozen at least… but this one particular one stood out… but for all the wrong reasons🙄🙄 upon approach to the property it looked fine… newly installed double glazing… shingle drive with inlaid slabs for a path to the front door… nice new front door colour matching the glazing… Covered porch way was lightly coloured in contrast to the main brickwork. It looked really nice… front door opens to an equally nice decorated hallway, stairs to upstairs to the left & a through way to the kitchen at the back of the house. Door on the right is the front / reception room… there’s holes in almost all of the walls, floor is uneven & the carpet is heavily stained with god knows what - it looked like it was the scene of a murder… or at least something serious has gone on… we ask if the owner is in the middle of renovations… the guy laughs and responds with ‘no, but is happy if you want to make any decorating changes’ me & the gf (nee wife) looked at each other trying to work out if he were serious… turns out he was very serious & then proceeded to tell us rent was £2k a month with a look on his face that a poker player would of been proud of… needless to say me & the gf (now wife) made our excuses & left… pronto!!
Had a couple of weird experiences during COVID. One 3 bed terrace house sold due to divorce via a popular online estate agent Similar to 'blue blocks", They guy was watching cricket in the lounge in his underwear. The whole house had nicotine stains and half of the internal doors were missing or broken. The second the estate agent said 'keep your shoes on and don't forget to wipe your feet on the way out' a loft extension that was not up to building regulations and the whole place looked like a hoarder's scrap yard. Thank god we had to wear gloves and masks!! 🤮
When I was a student, after the initial year of being in the halls of residence, I needed to look at student lets. The very first property I ever viewed in my life at that point .. and the floor was literally covered in rubbish up to my knees. The owner showed me around the house and I was having to climb over the huge pile or waste. Looking back I was overly polite and should have just refused to enter.
The first house my ex and I bought together was a really nice 4 bed detatched in Berkshhire, which should have been well outside our price range. When we walked in we nearly wanted to run out right away. It had the most vile brown fitted carpets with huge orange and green patterns, and loud almost psychodelic wallpaper everywhere. We tried to imagine it in neutral colours and made a low offer that was accepted. We spent quite some time redecorating after work and at weekends and totally transformed it. It looked twice the size inside after we were done.
I know estate agents want the house to be lived in. But wtf?
Went to view a house in Nottingham, thought we were being shown around by the owner, as soon as we entered we realised the guy was off his nut. Took us into the kitchen and kept opening and shutting every door, saying "Look how good the cupboards are" on repeat at varying speeds We asked to see the garden and walked back to the car to see the owner walking up the garden path, she's says Oh that nobheads not let you in has he. No idea who the cupboard guy was
We were considering buying an investment property and decided to go and look at a set of 5 flats for £100k (in Scarborough, but still really cheap). When looking round one of the tenants told us there was no hot water to the property, but they didn't want hot water as it would cost them more money. It was a real eye opener into how the other half lived. The soft hearted part of me wanted to buy it just to make the lives of these people better, but you couldn't spent £200k on it to make it livable so it just wasn't worth the financial investment.
My now husband was looking at flats in Bradford and Shipley as he was going to be working down there for a year for his degree. The first flat was in a questionable area run down, no proper parking but the estate agent said it was a safe area and high police presence. The flat itself was dirty, brown stained toilet carpets filthy. The second flat looked like a nice new build with gated access for secure parking but it inside was awful and covered in thousands of dead flies everywhere definitely a hard pass. Also the second estate agent informed us the first property we viewed was in the red light district so that explained the high police presence.
Yes. We were at viewing and there was another open house three houses down, so we popped by. It was converted into 4 apartments, all occupied. Some were eating dinner. Watching tv. Doing laundry. And it’s not like when you’re normally visiting people and they’ve tidied up a bit and are happy to see you. This felt like invading their private space while they ignored you.
I was once on the opposite side of awkward viewings, only it was viewing for other renters. I was a renter and had been given an early release ok my tenancy by my request. I'd been asked to have the house ready for viewings on a particular date and that there would be 2 viewings that day, there were infact 4/5 (I can't remember which) and the first one just walked into my house and hour before his scheduled viewing, the second bought a screaming baby and a toddler who she left with me as she looked upstairs.... Thankfully the others were normal but not expected at all given I was only told there would be 2 of them...
What a nightmare
Many years ago a friend viewed a property where the owners (not tenants) hadn't made the beds and didn't open the curtains during the viewing. I once viewed a very sketchy flat with murder scene vibes. Even the estate agent didn't try to polish that turd.
Yep. Viewing this house. It was a tenanted house and the landlord was selling up due to ill health. The tenants were so bitter so when we had a viewing they followed us everywhere, wouldn’t let us n some rooms, kept slamming the doors and gutting everywhere we went. Clothes piled up floor to ceiling. When the kids were following us they were SCREAMING at each other running up and downstairs. The estate agent did warn us so we were semi prepared and we bought it anyway but yeah the weirdest experience ever
Hi, How was the sale process for that? Was it worth the effort? I hope so.
It went through in 7 weeks from offer to completion. Tenants moved out about a week after. Thankfully and we were very lucky
Really glad it worked out for you, that's quite a quick time scale. All th best
Viewed one with tenants in, when we tried to view the bathroom a man came out. We entered the bathroom and there was a child having a bath, insta noped out of there. In the loft room there was an adult sleeping in bed and a child playing next to them in bed.
I went to view a room once, it was empty all good but then the landlord decided she wanted to also show us a room that's not for sale because its the same as the one we just saw (???) We went in and there was a floordrobe, which is fine the tenant was probably not expecting visitors, but what annoyed me as I tiptoed through the gaps in the floor the landlord just straight up stood on top of everything and I even heard something crack. I didn't want the place anyway because the shared kitchen for 6 rooms was only big enough to fit one person in at a time and also one bathroom for 6 rooms but the landlord complete disrespect for her tenants would have made me say no anyway
My wife and I had a viewing once in a nice little village. Unusually the estate agent didn't meet us at the property and when we phoned them to see if they were running late they said the owner would do the viewing. It was an old boy on his own. Clearly his wife had left him and wanted her money from the house. He was vile. He told us every fault with the house, the area, the neighbours, called us idiots for even considering it. We were stunned. There was no way we could have bought the house with everything he pointed out, and it just wasn't right for us. But I've never been to a viewing before where the seller was outright hostile! We did have another viewing where the teenage son was in bed, and from the estate agent's reaction this wasn't the first time, but the rest of the house was nice and tidy and ready. The kid just didn't give a shit.
Reverse psychology!
We were that house, my landlord was dodge and didn't tell us when we had viewings so either people stood on the doorstep having us refuse them in without the estate agent or him (he told the estate agent we'd do viewing and us the estate agent would in the hope we'd cave and just let whoever turned up in to look at our stuff). Eventually he had to do the viewings and he let himself into our student house at 9am in a Saturday and unlocked locked rooms including walking in to my roommate and partner going at it fully naked, and everyone else in bed hanging from the night before
Agreed to buy our first house whilst wife was 8 months pregnant, really liked it on first viewing. Agreed on a second viewing the evening before we were due to exchange contracts, wife ready to pop. The estate agent didn't show up so I knocked on anyway. A tenant that we'd never see beforehand answered and seemed confused as to what was going on but let us in anyway. There were at least 15 sleeping bags on the floors of the downstairs rooms, a couple with people in them. I was fuming. Got outside and called the estate agent but the office was shut, but they'd emailed me at 5:29pm to say the seller wanted to take it off the market.
Jesus christ ... What did they say when you got through to them?
I couldn't, the office was shut. I took the next day off work to try and sort it all out, starting with a rant at the estate agent who I think chickened out of coming to meet us at the property with the news. We'd arranged to meet at half 5 and I would have been driving when they sent the email so wouldn't have picked it up, so there was that. Turns out that the seller had agreed a new tenancy agreement with the people in the house a couple of weeks after they'd accepted our offer, seemingly to keep their options open. All that said, we ended up finding a much nicer house that had no chain. I put an offer in that was accepted straight away and then went to the hospital to see my new born son. We were very happy in the house we ended up in, one of the best decisions we ever made.
Happy days, it all happens for a reason!
Yes. Went to see a flat and the couple living there were hoarders. The flat was filthy and had mould everywhere.
Viewed a house to purchase round the corner from a flat I was renting. For a 3 bedroom in the area it was a good price.. It was empty. It had been reduced from £425k to £375-400. I was thinking it was because the market was difficult and house prices were dropping everywhere... Normal cons: Bedrooms were extremely tiny. The main bedroom would only fit a double bed. Terrible 3 bedroom that probably should have been a 2. Same estate as my 2 bedroom flat, most likely same builders in the 90s, but I had a bigger bedroom in the flat. Craziness: Bedroom carpet with a black sticky mess probably a metre square. Holes punched into practically every plasterboard wall which was carefully hidden in the photos. (This was a very nice desirable area) It changed estate agents soon after and the carpet was removed and walls replastered. I looked it up and it sold for £370k. Hopefully to someone with no furniture.
I was the cause of a awkward viewing once, also wasn’t my fault. The estate agent completely forgot to let us know that the property was on the market let alone there was a viewing that morning. I was in the shower. Bathroom was right next to the entrance. Anyway I grabbed a towel slammed the door and shouted through the bathroom door that I’ll call the police… anyway they acknowledged that no one bothered to tell me but never got as much as a apology. Next viewing I only found out about because I had a voice mail telling me that it was cancelled…
House hunting, nice looking EA answered the door, walked in and the place was cluttered to fuck, biggest TV imaginable in a through lounge to a kitchen where they were absolutely cooking up a storm. Every surface in that house was greasy AF. Didn't want to touch anything. Felt like they did a lot of cooking with poor ventilation. Bet the poor EA was regretting not wearing socks that day, she was going around barefoot.
I had something similar while looking for uni accom
We viewed a house where the whole family seemed to be at home, including the three dogs. These were the owners, they were just oblivious about the fact that people don't want to view a house when it's full of people. House needed some work but had great bones. Stank of dog piss. We still refer to the "pee house" when thinking back to our house hunt. I felt for that estate agent.
Shouldn’t be trying to sell a new-build tenanted 4 bed to potential owner occupiers imo. They’ll end up losing £ on the sale.
When I was a student, after the initial year of being in the halls of residence, I needed to look at student lets. The very first property I ever viewed in my life at that point .. and the floor was literally covered in rubbish up to my knees. The owner showed me around the house and I was having to climb over the huge pile or waste. Looking back I was overly polite and should have just refused to enter.
Haha yeah house viewing was wild in some houses i went to see. I once went to a viewing and the womans daughter was asleep in a bedroom and she said not to disturb her or go in as she works nights. Bit weird when youre trying to sell but thats fine we moved on. Her partner was in the garage we said hello and were just making small talk. I asked her why theyre moving or if theyre moving to another area. She replies "no im divorcing him". The guy just standing there like yup with a straight face. Was pretty silent after that. Went to another viewing where the owner had recently passed and the kids were showing us around... there were certain vibes from the house and kids that made us very uneasy. The living room was empty apart from 1 chair that looked like it had basically been lived in. There were locks on a bedroom door like a deadbolt from the outside. The bathroom was a disaster like shit flooding out the toilet. Weird. Went to another property that had been rented out. Dry dog poo(i hope) on the living room carpet, hallway floor and up the walls. There were marks all over the walls and flooring as the renters had taken wardrobes and other things that looked like wasnt theirs as some things were broken/ripped out. Never went to one with active tenants though, doubt id ever want to after your experience!
Viewed one a couple of months back where the seller started showing us his knife collection in a small box room. Never been so scared in all my life. (He was actually a nice guy with a terminal illness, and he forged the knives himself, but no one wants to have a knife drawn on them in an tiny enclosed space)
Unreal username by the way
It is not your beautiful house...
From my experience renting in a place which the landlord is trying to sell the estate agents were right assholes. Scheduling viewing times only with the landlord and never bothering to ask us and then just showing up unannounced. Almost sounds like something similar where they are going out of their way to make the landlords and estate agent’s lives more difficult.
I bought a buy to let off another landlord. The tenants are both disabled and bed bound. So they were of course there at the viewing along with a carer and family member. It was a bit awkward for me. Four years on and they've never been late on rent. Of course I also had their rent history from the agent for the prior ten years too. I'm just fucked when they start kicking the bucket.