To Clean Or Not To Clean?

Salty71

I unfortunately have experience on both sides of this thread.

I am a landlord of a rental house and when tenants move out I always clean again just to make sure I am happy letting someone view. Then I give the place a quick freshen up the day before the new tenant moves in. I have had one tenant move out though who did not clean the oven (or much else) for the whole time she lived there. The thought of cleaning her filth still makes me heave.

Also, my in-laws moved house last year. I liken my MIL to Mrs Bucket on speed. When they moved, their old house was completely spotless. Even the wardrobes were washed when the final coats were taken out.

The house they moved into was previously owned by an old lady. Its perhaps best I will leave this one to your imagination, suffice to say it was vile and probably hadn't been cleaned for a very long time. Its definitely true that a lot of filth is hidden by furniture.

My in-laws were devastated to have to start all over again and refused to unpack anything until the place had been cleaned. This is not the thing you need when moving house. So I would definitely say clean like you have never cleaned before. Don't be known as a dirty !!!!!!.

Sofa_Sogood

Dora_the_Explorer wrote:

Who decides how clean is clean ? You or an independant third party?

I can't work out if toys19 replied to this Dora (dial-up problems ) but I'd love to do the job

Clean to me is when you've cleaned the house so well, you give it a last look .... and wonder why you're leaving it!

If I was inspecting I'd expect the tops of doors (that no-one sees) to be clean.

That's usually a good indicator that the rest has been cleaned imho.

But I've never heard of a 'sold as seen' (re your later post) although it makes sense if it's a just a house and not a home that's being sold. If that makes sense?

clockley_2

I'm in the process of buying a place that has been repossessed. I just know the place is filthy - the light brown bedroom carpet has a black run between the bed and the en-suite bathroom! Makes me wonder what the hell he was doing.

I know for a fact we'll be getting cleaners in to sort out the new place and painting every room at the insistance of MOH.We would clean up the rental we're moving out of for the sake of our deposit.
Likelihood is the landlord will redecorate anyway, going on the state of the place, as it was pretty bad when we moved in!

robwend

i was the victim of a filthy person 2 weeks ago when i brought my house, even left it furnished and put a whole greenhouse full of crap!, the filth was awful so much so even the removal men helped me hoover the thick layer of dust on the carpets which made it look white!!, he broke the contract, what can i do?? nothing!!!apart from fork out for more solicitirs letters slagging each others clients off, that peice of paper stands for nothing,

clairehi

Oh Wendy Im so sorry! what a complete git.

we have had a bit of hassle too although the place was fairly clean. vendors wouldnt let me in before completion to measure up the windows so we had blankets up until we had time to buy curtains!

they didnt get their mail redirected and have not given us their forwarding address - so I have to take it into the estate agent. needless to say I have been saving it up to drop off at my convenience.

the downstairs loo stinks of p*** and the lawn has a 15 foot square bald patch where their kids trampoline was.

hope youre enjoying the new house despite it all!

Claire

Vital_Spark_2

budgetflyer wrote:

We left our last house spotless and also flowers and champagne for the new owners.
Im not a bible basher but
"do unto others what you'd like done to you"
NOT
"what others do to you"

Nice touch, budgetflyer. My thinking too and some homemade sweeties thrown in for good measure.

hobbesandco

A friend of mine used to live in Austria and she said it was the law to leave rentals or the house you just sold in tip-top condition. In fact they had inspectors come around and if they weren't happy with the condition of the place they would charge you for it. Doesn't sound like a bad idea to me.

robwend

clairehi wrote:

Oh Wendy Im so sorry! what a complete git.

hi ya claire good to see you again hun!! when you off? not long for you ?:D

annebarby

clairehi wrote:

we have had a bit of hassle too although the place was fairly clean. vendors wouldnt let me in before completion to measure up the windows so we had blankets up until we had time to buy curtains!



Claire

I usually leave curtains behind when I move out of a house - it's very rare to move to another house where the windows are going to be the same size, so I don't see the point of taking them. When we moved into our current house we suggested the vendors leave us the curtains - they weren't my taste, but the house has very wide windows and I knew it would cost loads to replace them all - but the vendors refused our very reasonable offer, so I shrugged my shoulders and said 'have em then!'

What I didn't realise at the time was that they were smokers and when we moved in we ended up removing the carpets they had left behind because the whole house reeked of fags - it took weeks and loads of febreze to get rid of the smell. We hadn't noticed it when we viewed, so they must have bombed the place with febreze each time to cover it up.

annebarby

I spent my childhood moving from one RAF married quarter to another, as my Dad was in the forces - by the age of 18 I'd had 21 different addresses, so you can tell I'm used to moving!

In the RAF, occupants of married quarters are 'marched out' by the Housing Officer, which means the property is inspected for cleanliness and to make sure everything on the inventory is present and intact. RAF personnel are responsible for making sure they take care of the property and are charged for any damage. Woe betide anyone that left their property dirty - they would be severely reprimanded and it would be recorded on their personnel record.

As you can imagine, that left a lasting impression on me, and in response to the topic, I can't believe people move out of houses without cleaning them, and I definitely think you should, whether its a rental or your own.

The trouble is, there's nothing in a house purchase contract that stipulates that the house should be left clean, unlike in a rental agreement, so you can't rely on other people to clean before they move out.

I like the Australian thinking!