Leaving handover notes on completion day?

Niv

I left a box of bits when I left my place which included the roof guarantee etc. I also left half tins of paint with the room names on them so if they wanted to keep the same colour for now but needed to touch up they could match it without having to do the whole room.

I didn't tell them where the stopcock was because I already did in the legal info - as should everyone else, so if they couldn't read it in there I was not going to tell them again for it to be ignored

I didn't leave wine etc. because I know the new owner was simply going to rent the place out.

pawlala

I never did leave a note for new owners when I sold up 6 years ago. If I did, it would read "I think there might be a dead hamster behind the kitchen fittings. That's where it liked to go when let loose, and this one time it escaped it's cage and I never saw it again. Enjoy your new house!"

Niv

pawlala wrote: »

I never did leave a note for new owners when I sold up 6 years ago. If I did, it would read "I think there might be a dead hamster underneath the kitchen fittings. That's where it liked to go when let loose, and this one time it escaped it's cage and we never saw it again. Enjoy your new house!"

Well the person we bought off would have left a note about rodents too, something along the lines of:

'ahh yea, did I forget to say, we had mice a few years ago, I didn't bother checking after I put the poison down so you may find a number of skeletons'

Never mind - I did mange to pick up the poison before the cats got to it... :cool:

dc197

I left a large cheat sheet, and I enjoyed compiling it.
The new owners, when I met them later, said how grateful they were for it.

Don't say too much though, and be careful that what you say doesn't conflict with what you said in the Property Information Form (if there is a conflict it suggests you've filled in the PIF incorrectly, or failed to update it).

littlemissbossy

I left instructions and manuals etc, I left piles of keys with a little tag on them explaining what they were all for, I thought it would save trying every key in every lock!

DaftyDuck

I've sold quite a few houses now, and I always leave a folder full of useful information, and various useful bits as well. Things like paint, tiles and spare wallpaper I always clear with the buyer first, but they have all said "yes" to it being left, without exception.

I leave a folder of the manuals and receipts for all white goods, fitted heaters, lights, fans and the like. I leave a "cheat sheet" for any oddities on these. Copies of the downloaded manuals on a CD or USB as well.

I leave a list of the neighbours names and phone numbers (having asked them first), and a list of the builders I have used and recommend. A local map or two if available for free. Then I leave bus and train timetables, takeaway menus from the good'uns, a recent copy of the local newspaper, parish newsletters and local advertising magazines, library opening times, or mobile library days, list of local organisations and societies in the village. Then (yep) I leave spare lightbulbs for any odd lights (those halogen bulbs mainly) labelled for the appropriate light, and used to leave fuses (and fuse wire before that..., no need for either these days...) ... And I leave photos of any renovation work, showing where wiring and plumbing, structural elements and the like are under plaster or floorboards....

... Um..

I leave copies of old photos of the houses (they are always older properties) along with a bit of historical archive (say the last couple of centuries of owners' names, who they were, that kind of stuff).

Card for bin days, other essentials like that.

And... Photos of the gardens, taken at different times of year, plans of the planting schemes, along with a list of all (! Yep, all...) the plants planted in the garden. Spare packets of seed where the seed is something specific to the garden design (sure, let them change everything if they want, but if there's a seed that should be planted in the first few weeks, they may want it again this year, and have better things to do than source it...).. All the plants have their labels attached as well...

A bottle of bubbly, normally left hiding in the fridge (if left), a bunch of flowers (usually from the garden) on a mantelpiece, a copy of the last meter readings (there's details of where they are on one of the 211 bits of paper in that folder, so there's a one-line description on that easily-available sheet as well, along with location of stopcocks. There'll be a small bowl full of the keys (all labelled), which nowadays also has a USB pen (was a CD) where much of the above information is repeated, manuals downloaded, photos stored...

My phone number (but it is a burner phone).

A "Welcome to your new home" card.

I think that's about it... But, I think I'm still in friendly, if distant, contact with most of the people who've bought from me!

phoebe1989seb

When we sold our last house in 2014 as well as labelled tins of leftover historic colour paint, we left the usual folder of stuff for our buyers including manuals/instruction booklets for everything from multi fuel stove to hot tub - although they'd already spent a few hours with us going over the intricacies of the latter , some wine and tin of chocs as well as some historic photos of the house.

These (including a few framed examples) were from 100+ years ago and showed the house when it was divided into a saddlery and residence. Also included were some letters and old documents from when the PO was tracing the Georgian building's history. He had discovered a descendent of the original owner now living in Australia and had corresponded with him for some time. These were no longer of any use to us and we thought the new owners would appreciate them

TBagpuss

I think it is a nice thing to do.

I left a bottle of wine and some chocoaltes and a small folder with
- details (including phone numbers ) for the gas and electrictiry suppliers, (yes, it's on the property information form but not eveyone is organised enough to have that handy!)
- details of local milk man and the nearest papershop doing deliveries
- menus for the best local Chinese and Indian takeaways
- details of which bins & receycling were colelcted on which days, and where in the cycle we were
- a copy of the detailed report and invoice for the electrical work I had done when I moved in
- A note to say I had arrangedwith RM to forward my post but giving a forwarding address to which anything which 'slipped through' could be forwarded

I didn't leave instruction booklets because I didn't have any, but would have left any I had.

The people I bought from didn't leave anything, didn't get their post redirected or leave a forwarding address. Fortunately the neighbours are lovely and were able to fill me in on local knowledge.

warehouse

For me it very much depends how the house sale went. If they were "buyers from hell" then they wouldn't even get a complimentary clean, but if the sale went well then all of the above really.

EmmyLou30

Wow, there are some truly lovely people out there....shame I've never bought from any of you ;-)

Personally I'd leave all the manuals for things, warranty documents, details about bin day, plant labels for what's in the garden, spare paint labelled for each room etc. Previous owners of my last house kindly left a note telling me they'd connected the outside light to the socket ring and not the lighting ring so saved me a potential fire/electric shock as I knew to get it done properly....but at least they told me :-)