Hi there, I've tried everything to trigger this quest and I just cant get it to fire.

• I've entered Winterhold at 2AM.
  
• I got the key to the house from the girl (by picking her pocket).
  
• I entered the house and clicked on all the invsetigation points.
  
• I have all the butcher diaries, including the one from the chest.
  
• I spoke to the man about buying the house (he won't let me).
  
• I have the weird amulet.
  
• I even tried typing in a console command to bump the quest along.

NOTHING WORKS!

I'd really like to sort this out so I can become the Thane of Winterhold.

Any tips?

Thanks,
Dan

Winterhold? This quest is based in Windhelm, is it not?

In pre 1.4 the quest triggers while you enter the area around Windhelm. If you've missed it (maybe because you were just passing by) then it's lost forever. The patch may change the script but will not reset the values of variables included into the savegame.

It doesn't help that you forced you way into the house. If you're trying despeeately to get the house, type into the console:

completequest ms11
compeltequest ms11b

then you can go on an purchase the house. Note that the 'quest triggers' won't be cleared (even if you had purchased the option to remove the blood and gore) and you'll have to disable them manually via console

Ah yes... Windhelm. Thanks!
OK. I think I will wait until the Construction Kit comes out, and then see what I need to fix for the quest to trigger properly.
Cheers,
Dan

If the quest was bugged in your savegame before the patch was released it probably still won't work. I had to start a new save to get the house/complete the quest.

I tried this and I still can't buy this house. Is there a way to activate the quest?