Preparing house for new owners

jaylee3

We left a house we were in a long time ago (back in the mid 1990s) and we touched up the walls, repainted the doors, re-grouted in the bathroom, and left a big spider plant, and a big bunch of flowers for the new lady owner. We also left toilet rolls, bleach, cream cleaner, kitchen rolls, a new waste paper bin for her, the fireguard and hearth furniture, a fan and a wardrobe and dresser. Along with a nice 'welcome to your new home' card.

She thanked us by attempting to steal my identity. She ordered catalogues in my name, and ordered loads of things from them and I found out because I got the bills, and the demands for payment! (as our mail was redirected.) I didn't get the items though as 'white arrow' delivered the items directly to the old house.

I contacted the 3 catalogues in question and told them that the all the stuff ordered in my name (some £700 worth altogether!) was not me, and they didn't believe me. I said that I didn't live at 1 High Street anymore, and they demanded to know my new address! I said 'that is irrelavant because I didn't order the stuff! So I am not paying for it.' And I said 'this woman is ordering stuff under my name, and not paying for it, thinking that *I* will be responsible for it or get done for it, and SHE won't have to pay for it.'

I went to the house to confront the woman, twice, but didn't get an answer. I actually spoke to the police, and they went to see her, and she said she knew nothing about it. They didn't take it very seriously to be honest. Then out of the blue, I got some little giro slips from one of the catalogues (again redirected from the old house) saying 'thank you for offering to pay the money you owe in 5 instalments.' And when I phoned them to say what the hell?! Turns out that *I* had rung them 'admitting' I was lying, and that I DID order the stuff and I want to pay for it now! It was the lying cow who ordered stuff in my name pretending to be me and saying 'sorry I was lying before!'

This rattled on for about 3 or 4 months, nobody wanted to help me, and the catalogues didn't believe me, and like I said, the police did very little. So in the end, I took the advice of a colleague and didn't bother contacting the woman or the catalogues again, and when the letters came redirected, just bin them. And 6 months after leaving the house, our mail was not redirected any longer. The catalogues' debt collectors would have eventually gone to 'her' house for the money. They didn't bother me, as I never gave them my new address. It wasn't their business, as this debt was nothing to do with me.

This was in the days before this would affect your credit record, thankfully. And also (unluckily) in the days before you had to give your date of birth when you apply for a catalogue. If she had had to do this, she wouldn't have known it, so wouldn't have been able to order stuff in my name!

Don't know what happened to the lying fraudulent cow.

But anyhoo, back to the OP; I would never ever even in a billion years EVER do anything for a new owner again!

questionss

When we sold our flat a few years back we left a second load in the carpark and when we went back a couple of hours later the new owner was busy ripping out the (admittedly ugly) fitted wardrobes I had oainstakingly hoovered out & cleaned!

We moved into a 2 bed terrace which was filthy (previously been rented to 3 couples - 1 couple slept on a mattress in the front room).

I was planning to leave it very clean for our buyer but she was a pain, tried pulling money off At the last minute & refused to complete the day that suited everybody in the chain - insisted on the day before (we eventually agreed to hotel it for a night). I left 1 cheap lightbulb in each room and took pretty much everything else. It was cleanish but nothing special!

bylromarha

Just bought a house 3 weeks back. Really really not clean - one of the loos smells like my nan's house did...

When you buy a house that's been lived in you expect it to be just that, lived in. With marks on the walls and discoloured paint and bare patches in the garden.

I just wish the vendors had let us know where the water meter is located - managed to find everything else out for ourselves, but just cannot find that and the water company just said it was outside the property. The garden is huge (and a mess with bare patches, overgrown bits and nettles and 3 compost heaps, and 9 water butts (I kid you not))

So a helpful letter of useful information and a bottle of wine is the way forward IMO.

pinky28

Wow I hope whoever we buy off is this nice. Personally if the vendors are nice (dont mess us around) I fully intend to send them a card + wine/flowers... if I get the house I really want I will hire a plane thanking them to go over their new house for the day!!!

Fredula

My MIL left her house with 'instructions' for the new buyers lol. She'd labelled every single key, left boiler instructions etc things like that. Bless her. She'd left a mirror behind as well on the day they moved, only to go round the next day and tell them, and they were lovely and kind to give it to her - they might not have if she'd left it in a state.

Kynthia

pleasedelete wrote: »

I paid £400 to have 6 contract cleaners in when I last moved house. As the removers emptied each room they cleaned it- spotlessly. The buyers did pay a lot and had a newborn baby and so I wanted to leave everything spotless. We had contract cleaners every 3 months anyway and they were due.

we got to our new house where apparently professional cleaners had cleaned it (family firm ) and it wasnt sparkly and the carpets had fleas.

I wish you were my vendor. I recently moved with a 6 day old baby, she came early and it was extremely difficult to pack and move in. We had the usual let down of seeing scuffs on the walls and the place not looking the same as with all the vendor's nice furniture in, but this is normal and expected. What was a let down was that the place wasn't as clean as it should be, the window frames were filthy black in the corners, lots of mould and limescale in the bathroom, dusty kitchen cupboards with some rubbish left in them, and very dusty skirting boards and doors. Plus there was a broken plug socket, foot high grass in the garden, loads of holes and big nails in the walls in most rooms, and all the curtains gone but broken blinds left behind. Normally I would have coped, but even unpacking was murder and took weeks when we were sleep deprived and feeding/changing a little baby every 3 hours day and night.

Fredula

Kynthia, that must have been terrible! I bet it looks lovely now though

Kynthia

Fredula wrote: »

Kynthia, that must have been terrible! I bet it looks lovely now though

We're getting there but weeks go by with little getting done other than doing laundry, which there seems to be a lot of. I spent 2.5 hours scrubbing that bathroom only 10 days after giving birth which was probably not the best idea I've ever had. The vendor only gave us one set of keys even though four adults lived here for years and I've been meaning to get a locksmith out, but it was annoying having to get copies cut when walking was still painful. It still all makes me mad now, especially as she pushed back the completion date last minute. It's great having space and being near family, and we're getting a nursery done now, but I'd hate to go through that again.

DRP

We cleaned to the standard we always do, didn't leave them any extra rubbish and left them all the keys and manuals .... and that's that.

flora48 wrote: »

My worst experience on moving house was to find they had taken all the light bulbs and every scrap of loo paper. Since then I make sure everywhere is basically clean, bathrooms and toilets stocked with the bare essentials and always leave soap and a little hand towel, plus of course the light bulbs with a welcome card and a bottle of wine or a pot plant.

Loo roll? not sure i'd particularly want to use anyone elses loo roll. Especially when i have my own.

In our current house we had a nice card and bottle of prosecco (and forwarding address).

What we didn't have was a clean house (stunk of dog, damp and dirt) nor did we have the location of the stoptap. We eventually found it - it was propping up the front door mat, which our (and presumably their) removals men had been stomping on all day...

TBagpuss

I'm confused - what's wrong with using someone else's loo roll? Even if you are squeamish about using the outer sheets the rest of the roll would be fine...

I've moved into 3 different houses in my time. Each time I moved in, there was no loo roll, in 2 cases the house was filthy, and the third it was so-so - not really filthy, but obviously hadn't been cleaned or hoovered after moving stuff out (which considering the seller was moving in with a partner and moved out about a month before completion seems particularly inconsiderate)

In one case the sellers took all of the lightbulbs and left a load of junk including a fridge (still half full of food) dumped in the garden.

None of my sellers has ever left a forwarding address or arranged with Royal Mail to forward their post.

It would be so nice to move into somewhere with a considerate seller!

(although that has draw backs. When my parents last moved, their sellers had hired a rugdoctor to clean all the carpets, but left it late, so when my parents arrived with the vans, all the carpets were still damp and the vendors had not left. They ended up having to pay the removal company extra because of the delays and some of the furniture couldn't be put in the right rooms because the carpet wasn't dry.