Very likely you picked up an infected lot. Lots you get off the Exchange are frequently tainted with bits and piece of mods and hacks. More often than not, these hacks are equally incompatible with your game and the source of great headache.
I'd strongly suspect the lot. You can use
Sims 2 Clean Installer to browse your downloads and lots folders looking for content that is highlighted in red. Red package files indicate a file that is changing the behavior of your game. If you see a package in red that looks like ff35b35abc895db5bbdaa59682fe.package, it is likely a stowaway and you should disable or delete it.