Stuff found/taken from your new house

Stuff found/taken from your new house

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Discussion

Harry Flashman

19,352 posts

242 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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My own place in London, house looked empty when I bought it. Until I went up to the attic. So. Much. Junk.

Dining table and chairs, suitcases, building materials old tools, broken furniture, old carpet etc etc.

It took 3 large skips and a lot of effort to clear it out - carting that rubbishdown 4 storeys with narrow staircases was a joy. Sods.

DaveJns

523 posts

144 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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When i moved into a new house as a kid, we found a small bag of counterfit £1 coins in the garage, all of them scratched/scored so as to make it obvious they were counterfit. Very unusual!

moustachebandit

1,269 posts

143 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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A stty old leather sofa that smelt of farts and garlic! Strangely when I went to move it I noticed that it had been heavily water damaged (despite being in a top floor flat).

Some hideous reclining arm chair that even DFS wouldn't consider stocking. Seriously it was so ugly blind people would have recoiled at the sight of it!

Multiple thick black skid marks in the toilet that went from the seat down - nothing would shift them, they were literally bonded to the toilet!

A random assortment of broken crap that even a tramp wouldn't bother hoarding.


Funnily enough a few weeks after they moved out the past occupants swung by one day to try and reclaim their sofa! As it was so big, weighed more than a planet and I couldn't move it by myself I had sawn it into quarters with plans to take it to the tip. I happily loaded their sofa back into their car for them though! dheads!

paulrockliffe

15,702 posts

227 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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We were left with quite a few things because the house was inherited and the new owners didn't want to clear it out. This was fine by me as it's wasn't onerous and there were a few things of use. Lots of wooden things got sawn up and will burn this winter. Got £350 off the scrap man last winter when I shifted all the metal and the roller came in really handy when we seeded the garden.

I found a peg rug frame on the loft which was of interest to my Mum, though I notice it's still cluttering the place up. And there was a full-on scythe hung off the workshop wall. This will be cleaned up and used as part of my 'Death' costume for when I go trick or treating with my nephew.


soad

32,895 posts

176 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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DaveJns said:
When i moved into a new house as a kid, we found a small bag of counterfit £1 coins in the garage, all of them scratched/scored so as to make it obvious they were counterfit. Very unusual!
Obviously, has tried to "age" them.

moustachebandit said:
A stty old leather sofa that smelt of farts and garlic! Strangely when I went to move it I noticed that it had been heavily water damaged (despite being in a top floor flat).
Leaky roof? wink

Trevor450

1,752 posts

148 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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A child's crayon drawing in a frame of a black hooded figure with a large scyth hung up in the main bedroom. Slightly disturbing. yikes Got rid of that the first night!

austinsmirk

5,597 posts

123 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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I didn't find this quite when I moved in: but 2 1/2 years ago we bought a large family house, 1920's built- but its a full project, property.

all habitable, but last touched 30 odd years ago.


lived there 18 mths and I then got round to renewing the central heating.

ripped every last bit of pipe out, including 3 header tanks in the loft, lead feed pipes, old copper cylinder....... to put everything new in from scratch.

(actually the scrap weight of this was worth £397)

anyway, best find: buried deep under the floor boards....... carrier bag, inside which was a wallet, inside which was full of cash. 4 figures smile

happy days...........

clearly the lady of the house had no idea I guess her husband had secreted it away.



My parents also used to own and rent a lot of houses out, so typically when we got them back, you'd find allsorts of stuff left.

as a 8/9 year old, the best one ever was an entire garage, floor to ceiling with ben shaws pop !!!!!!

and then at about 10/11- 100's of vouchers for free burgers from mcdonalds or somewhere (tnt had been the mgr I think)

and at about 12- you've guessed it.......... lots of gentlemans literature.............

simoid

19,772 posts

158 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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Moved into current house, opened rear doors, walked out to inspect new kingdom... giant dog ste in the middle of the lawn.

Cheers s!

Joey Ramone

2,150 posts

125 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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My house's previous owners were kind enough to leave the accumulated evidence of 15 years of chain smoking on all walls, ceiling and fittings. The fking place was orange with nicotene.

Wasn't too much of a problem as we were due to spend the first month still living in our rented place while we had the new place redecorated but fk me it was disgusting. Plus side though was that the interior looked great once it had been scrubbed and repainted.

Spice_Weasel

2,286 posts

253 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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We moved just over a year ago into a house that had been unoccupied for a few years. During viewing the rooms were chock full of old furniture, junk and old belongings. The place was cleared before we moved in but I did find the following:
A screwdriver and a hand shovel in the shed.
Boxes and boxes of old lightbulbs for the many wall lights (8 in the lounge alone) in the place.
3 shotguns in a locked cabinet in the boiler room.

On moving in we were given a big bag of mixed keys to the place so I went around trying them everywhere I could fit a key which is how I found the gun cabinet. I still haven't been able to open the floor safe in the boot room so who knows what's in there!

The owner collected the guns about six months after we moved in.

LordHaveMurci

12,043 posts

169 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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Spice_Weasel said:
We moved just over a year ago into a house that had been unoccupied for a few years. During viewing the rooms were chock full of old furniture, junk and old belongings. The place was cleared before we moved in but I did find the following:
A screwdriver and a hand shovel in the shed.
Boxes and boxes of old lightbulbs for the many wall lights (8 in the lounge alone) in the place.
3 shotguns in a locked cabinet in the boiler room.

On moving in we were given a big bag of mixed keys to the place so I went around trying them everywhere I could fit a key which is how I found the gun cabinet. I still haven't been able to open the floor safe in the boot room so who knows what's in there!

The owner collected the guns about six months after we moved in.
Erm, I hope the bit about the guns isn't true eek

Spice_Weasel

2,286 posts

253 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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Unfortunately it is. The old owner is a nice old chap who'd moved to a new place but admin and the like wasn't his strong point. Despite regular calls to him and promises to collect he didn't until I asked my solicitor to call his and request he removed them.

FailHere

779 posts

152 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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My last house was bought as a project, the previous owner had been born there and was in his 90s when he finally snuffed it. His daughter who lived miles away had paid someone to clear the house, which they had. They had not however cleared the cellar, the coachhouse (upstairs or downstairs), the car-port or sheds, at least the attic was empty.

I contacted the vendor and we reached an agreement where I would dispose of it but keep any proceeds.

It took me a year to sort and clear it all, some was worth money and sold, the rest went to the tip in multiple loads in my old Renault Espace (the tip doesn't allow vans/trailers and I'm too tight to pay for skips)

I did send on to her some ancient volumes of family photographs I found under the stairs.

There was also one house before which came complete with its entire contents, which was only a problem because I wasn't expecting it.

Also repo that came complete with used needles.

Another where the cellar had loads of completed jig-saw puzzles stuck to boards.

My latest project came complete with an unexpexcted but fully functioning dentist's chair.


LordHaveMurci

12,043 posts

169 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
quotequote all
Spice_Weasel said:
Unfortunately it is. The old owner is a nice old chap who'd moved to a new place but admin and the like wasn't his strong point. Despite regular calls to him and promises to collect he didn't until I asked my solicitor to call his and request he removed them.
Assuming you hold a cert & he signed them over to you then wink

soad

32,895 posts

176 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
quotequote all
Spice_Weasel said:
I still haven't been able to open the floor safe in the boot room so who knows what's in there!
The suspense must be killing you?
Contact the safe company/employ a safe cracker!
Alternatively, blow it open. hehe

Le Mans Visitor

1,119 posts

202 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
quotequote all
soad said:
Spice_Weasel said:
I still haven't been able to open the floor safe in the boot room so who knows what's in there!
The suspense must be killing you?
Contact the safe company/employ a safe cracker!
Alternatively, blow it open. hehe
< Subscribed to thread to find out what is in there. >

gtidriver

3,344 posts

187 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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Both our last houses where repos and both had loads of kids stuff left behind, first house had all the guys tax and account documents, all the kids birth certificates and there red books they'd of had since birth. Surprisingly no tv or laptop...
Second house had all the light fittings from the house in the garage, and he had taken the electric metre as well.

myvision

1,945 posts

136 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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We opened the door expecting to move our gear straight in oh no didn't work like that.
Everything had been left popcorn thrown around the living room. The kitchen smelt of the strongest curry known to man.
Clothes still hanging in the bedrooms but the beds were propped up against the kitchen wall outside?
They couldn't get any more in the shed if they tried god knows how they shut the door.
The garage was also full of junk but all useless junk must have asked his mates if they wanted to dump anything.
I appreciate that they were moving back to Canada but that wasn't on. I have since heard from a neighbour they stayed friendly with that they are back in town so I look forward to bumping into them.
So many DIY disasters to mention. It has taught me that next time I will look then look again then again.

Pints

18,444 posts

194 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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The first house we bought had a stinking fridge left in it, which was a pain to dispose of. They also left a large gas canister in the shed (which was useful) and a brand new set of gym weights.

Chris Type R

8,026 posts

249 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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Pints said:
... and a brand new set of gym weights.
And another powerfully built PH member was born wink