A house swap has gone horribly wrong for a woman one side of the deal (stock image) (Image: Getty)
A swap deal has gone horribly wrong on one side of the exchange – documented by the property’s furious new owner on .
Suzanne Elizabeth was disgusted after doing a ‘mutual exchange’, which is where you can swap your council or housing association home with another tenant. In a set up by Elizabeth, she explained it was a “five way mutual exchange with housing association houses”.
She made the move on December 6 with her teen boys, and since then she’s been working tirelessly to improve the state of her new home. A video she shared of ‘Day Two’ quickly went viral with more than one million tuning in to witness the horrors the previous occupant left behind.
Beginning her clip stood by a window, Suzanne showcased an overgrowth of mould. “After travelling for tow hours to get here, this is what I turned up to,” she cursed as she panned her camera around the room to reveal smoke-stained walls adorned with grime.
“The woman I swapped with was full of promises she’d get things done – she promised she’d clean, but she didn’t do anything,” Suzanne said. Proving her point, she pointed her camera at her new kitchen’s tiled flooring, which again was filthy with mud stains. “The feelings I have right now are beyond disgust,” she fumed as she made her way into another room.
Adding further insult, Suzanne hit out: “I don’t know how anyone can live like this or anybody could leave their home like this knowing that somebody like me has gone above and beyond for them in helping them in any way I could. I even cleaned the garden because they said they couldn’t – I bent over backwards to help them.”
Suzanne went on to show the belongings left behind by the previous owner, including shelves full of ornaments, cabinets and even a snooker table propped up against the wall. A view of the living room ceiling followed, which appeared full of cracks and further areas of mould.
“They were meant to get rid of everything,” Suzanne fumed. “The toilet had faeces everywhere, all over the floor and as you can see – all over the back of the toilet and all up the walls. There’s no way, even though they said they had a deep clean, you can see nothing was done and they just moved out in a rush.”
Opening a cupboard to reveal more mould, a coat and several rolls of wallpaper, Suzanne continued her justified tirade: “They didn’t give a damn about who was moving in. I don’t think they’ve ever cleaned, it just looks like it was left for the rats. Look at this carpet – it’s absolutely stinking, it’s vile.”
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“Every nook, cranny and surface is mouldy, greasy – there’s years and years of layers of grease from these people never cleaning,” Suzanne said of the kitchen’s walls and cupboards. “It’s serial deep fat frying – once upon a time these blinds were white,” she added, emphasising their now brown shade.
Out in the garden, which was left in a similar state of disrepair, Suzanne admitted: “I thought I knew these people and I thought I’d built a relationship and friendship with them, but this is what they left me with. Half of this stuff [dozens of bin bags] I had to move out of the house. They were told by Housing they had to move it out, but they left it as a little prize for me.”
One of Suzanne’s followers questioned in response: “The council wouldn’t allow an exchange whilst the house is in this state. Why did you agree to it?” A second concurred: “This should have had a council inspection before you swapped so both councils were happy with both properties conditions.”
Elsewhere a third person told Suzanne: “You sound remarkably calm considering. I’d be spiralling I’ve now seen the house you moved from to what they left absolutely shocking.” Suzanne explained: “This voice over was recorded 12 hours after I moved in. There’s only so much crying you can do. Hence my voice.”
According to Suzanne, “the housing are trying to track the previous tenant down”.
Others shared similar horror stories, meanwhile, including one user who wrote: “My exchange was just like this. The morning of moving they said they couldn’t get a van. My partner told them in no uncertain terms that van or not we were moving in. We were 200 miles away.”
A second avised Suzanne: “Mine was worse – honestly, really bad… clean the living room and camp in there until you’ve cleaned. Then paint what you can until you go back and do properly… you’ll get there.”
Whilst a third person added: “I had this done to me, I left a beautiful, brand new house all decorated and cleaned for her. She left me a dogs’ home with holes hidden, dirt, black mould, broken windows etc. I was devastated.”