Bought a house, filthy stuff left in loft

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Sorry, not filthy like that

The house was rented and the tenants have left a whole load of stuff which the estate agent has confirmed they don't want. Problem is, this is London, we don't have a car so it will cost us to get rid of, and it's generally just tricky to manage. Together with the time taken to heave this stuff (plus some others) out of a filthy dirty loft before we move in, which means everything on the way down will get filthy, mwhich means cleaning - again! Well we're not very impressed.

Here's the stuff taken out; (removed)

Afraid all the boxes are empty for a start so they've gone in the recycling. But all the bags/suitcases etc. are just a pain in the behind to sort out. It's not a big house, we don't want to store them etc.

Is there literally any point pursuing this with the sellers? We had poked our heads in the loft before and before we exchanged contracts confirmed that everything would be removed, together with some rubbish left in the garden (which did go).

We're just pushed for time, annoyed the pensioner landlords have made a mint on this and now not bothered to sort this out as they should have done Thoughts?

PS: For context, this is a house that needs a fair amount of work. It's been rented out but generally neglected. Downstairs original sash windows are sealed/painted shut so we need to do that. We will be converting the loft and one company who poked her head up pointed out the stuff and said how they should have gotten rid of it, and any loft conversion company would charge us for removal/cleaning

EDIT: Plus further stuff as posted below: Sorry, I totally forgot to add that that was the tenants stuff (kept under a sheet hence not so dirty). The owners had clearly left stuff up there as well... an office chair, a trunk (empty), some old pictures/mirrors. All not covered and absolutely filthy - and harder to get down. The roof is still the original c1900 so not sealed, no membrane etc. so there there is thick black dust/dirt all over anything that was not covered. So it's more that, and having to traipse that through the house rather than the stuff itself. Well, that and the aggro of having to get rid of it all without a car, and the aggro of having to clean again.

 

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Sorry, I totally forgot to add that that was the tenants stuff (kept under a sheet hence not so dirty). The owners had clearly left stuff up there as well... an office chair, a trunk (empty), some old pictures/mirrors. All not covered and absolutely filthy - and harder to get down. The roof is still the original c1900 so not sealed, no membrane etc. so there there is thick black dust/dirt all over anything that was not covered. So it's more that, and having to traipse that through the house rather than the stuff itself. Well, that and the aggro of having to get rid of it all without a car, and the aggro of having to clean again.

Sigh. Why can't people just be "normal" and do what's expected of them?

Shame those Rokits weren't in the box. I'd have had em off ya

I was mildly excited at seeing that and the iMac box and camera bags. But alas, no...

 

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Cheers guys. Trying to get my girlfriend to take it less personally which is making it hard to think about this more logically. Like I said above it's more the fact that everything left up there (besides the bags I've shown) is so unbelievably grimy it means traipsing it through the house, getting covered myself, then having to re-clean. And all that in the short amount of time before we move. Etc.

Is that the right photo? Once the cardboard's recycled, it's not much just a few bags. Looks pretty clean too. Zero point in following up with vendor, it's trivial to get shot of if no use to you.

There's the desk chair, another chair I found earlier, speakers stands, an empty trunk, two big picture frames, other cardboard boxes.

Just leave it up there and deal with it when you re-roof the place which you inevitably will if it's an original pointed up, un-felted/un-breather membrane 100 year old rosemary tiled roof.

We had a loft conversion company round and she told us any company would charge to us to clear the loft when it came to it. She seemed quite annoyed by stuff left up there (on our behalf) but I think she was probably trying to get us on-side!

Wow that's like a tiny corners worth of my loft. I've got crt monitors....pc cases/parts....old vhs vid players.....clothing & toys from when my 20+ year old kids were tiny.....everything put up there in case I'll use them in the future! My daughter on the other hand has bats living in her loft so it could be worse! Good luck getting it sorted.

Heh, well it's not a competition but the point is if you sold your house you'd be contractually obliged to clear it all.

Be careful skipping it all though, don't you have to make it available for them to collect? Or get an email/letter etc saying they don't want the stuff. You don't want a bill for the stuff you have got rid of - and maybe them claiming you skipped a very rare item worth £££'s which they were intending to come back and collect.

Good point thank you, although I'm not sure they could possibly lay claim to any of it now we own the house? We set the seller's agent on the case but as expected he was fairly useless. I have a poorly written Whatsapp saying basically saying the landlords and tenants don't want the items and we can get rid. Maybe should get an email as well to be safe.

 

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Lol, another Scam buying a house thread delivers.

Edit: tell your GF not to worry, after all, you own 70% of that mess. She only needs to get rid of a bag and a box and she's quids in.

I'm glad I can provide some entertainment for you. As opposed to trolling people and making incorrect assumptions about people, I actually use these forums for some benefit. Which is getting external opinions on random stuff like this. Believe it or not it's a good base for common sense, especially when people have been through similar situations like this and can provide some grounding. But whatever

Somehow doubt the OP would be moaning if they found something valuable up there.

Depends how valuable, obviously. A Van Gogh worth £10m? Yeah maybe. I don't have the time nor inclination to eBay other people's crap for the sake of £100 or so. Especially not whilst I'm moving house.

 

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Was only being tongue in cheek...& about the masses gained in our loft over the years. Though have to admit I didn't know about those obligations...you learn something new every day..I just hope I die before I ever have to sell my house & empty my loft lol

Maybe the best thing about converting our loft is that I won't have the storage to hoard. My girlfriend is always telling me it clearly runs in my family and loves to point out how much **** my mum has in her garage and loft!

 

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May even be less.

It's all relative. Why should I pay for something that the sellers were contractually obliged to do? I've already paid them enough money. It's a matter of principle really. That said, we'll be having a go at it tomorrow (I've pursuaded s mate to help). Just want to get it done so that we have time to clean again afterwards. Opinion on here seems to suggest that we'd get nowhere trying to charge them, go through the solicitors etc and I respect that.

 

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does it have to be clear before whoever's doing the loft conversion will start work? they'll prob just get rid of the juink for you along with whatever other waste there is from the job

One of the firms that came round to quote told us most companies would probably charge you to clear it first. It'll be taking up skip space etc. don't forget. So it's a case of pay for that removal now, or when the work starts.

The woman we bought our house from did this.

Well, actually she didn't. Cheeky cow turned up half way through us unpacking and asked for it back as she'd accidentally left it in the fridge

That is hilarious! The cheek of her coming back for it - did she not realise that it looked like a present? I'd have told her to get lost, and it's yours now

Anyhoo, the good news is we got most of the stuff out of the loft barring a big trunk that for some reason my girlfriend wasn't happy to catch p). Just need to decide how/who to pay to get rid. Not that we have a car, but it sounds like the local tip is a warzone at the moment, local FB groups saying you need to book months in advance and it's chaos etc. so that's probably a no-go. Oh well, slightly less stressed now it's all out. At least we can dump it in the garden and clean properly before we move in.

 

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Much like the stuff you're complaining about

Bottle of champers = very useful. Old tatty/broken suitcases, bags etc., picture frames covered in grime = not so useful

Several weeks later - strip out and deep clean almost complete my mate was painting upstairs, turned round to see the little old dear behind him ...

Cringe!

 

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Good to see you are a principled man.

Yawn.