How to leave the house I sold

gab3x

House is sold and now waiting for Completion in 5 weeks time.
We will pack ourselves as we have time.
Plan is to leave it very clean with bottle of wine and a card for our FTB. The flat has been fully renovated 2 years ago so it's looking great.
My question is what do I do with state of walls & a broken plug:

• When I take out the large shelf do I need to fill the holes?
• Do I need to paint over the holes?
• Do I need to repaint walls where there are furniture marks?
• Do I need to get windows cleaned?
• Do I need to take out nails where pictures where hanged on and if I do then do I need to fill the holes and pain them over?
• A plug at the back of the kitchen where dishwasher is plugged in has stopped working. I now plug the dishwasher into an extension lead. Do I need to fix that?

Thanks

macman

Surely 5 weeks is enough time for you to remove the picture hooks, dab in some filler and paint over if you have some spare paint.? 
I'd expect all sockets to be in working order, presumably just a loose connection or a broken switch? A trivial DIY repair for a handyman who does basic electrics.

UnderOffer

Well I felt obliged to do the following in our home:

• When I take out the large shelf do I need to fill the holes? Yes, we removed shelving, filled holes, sanded and painted the area with matching paint. 
• Do I need to paint over the holes? As above, yes. 
• Do I need to repaint walls where there are furniture marks? We did paint a kitchen wall where a unit had rubbed the wall. However, equally we were unable to repaint an area when we removed a mirror as we had no original paint colour available. 
• Do I need to get windows cleaned? Our windows were cleaned bi monthly so they were recently cleaned when leaving. 
• Do I need to take out nails where pictures where hanged on and if I do then do I need to fill the holes and pain them over? Again, for us yes and no, the hooks above a fireplace I left in place as felt they were very likely to hang something there. Other hooks in quirky places I removed and filled. 
• A plug at the back of the kitchen where dishwasher is plugged in has stopped working. I now plug the dishwasher into an extension lead. Do I need to fix that? I’d feel obliged to get that fixed, but up to you. 

Vendors leave houses in a variety of conditions, I wanted to leave everything as I’d like to find it. So for us we probably did more than what was expected. 

kazwookie

I seem to recall on some paper work from the solicitor, we would 'leave the property in a clean and tidy condition'

I knew my buyers were about to 'take the place apart' and reconfigure it to suit them, as they had visited 3 times with various builders / trades, so everything was carefully removed from the walls etc, holes etc were left, carpets / wall dusted and hoovered, I contacted them regarding cleaning the oven / hob, back can the answer don't bother as we are ripping out the kitchen.

gab3x

we will leave the place in a very nice condition but unsure what the custom is and more importantly what we need to do legally

@macman yes but I don't want to be faffing with painting given it might make it messy unless I have to
@UnderOffer I would be super happy if our sellers leave the house in as good a state as we will leave our sold house for our buyers
@kazwookie alas we just renovated 2 years ago so unless buyer is absolutely insane they won't do any renos 

Aranyani

Leave the shelf where it is.  

MFWannabe

I think most things are entirely up to you but I would expect the plug for the dishwasher to work so really think you need to get that fixed 

pinkteapot

I *think* there’s something in standard contract wording about making good holes in walls? I’ve always filled and painted over. 

Falafels

When I left my property, I left the property really clean, filled in all the holes and painted over them, painted over furniture scuff marks and vacuumed the place to within an inch of its life.

I also left all the instruction manuals, gas servicing record etc and, as I owned the house outright - the Title Deeds going back to the 19th century.

And, of course, a card and a bottle of prosecco. My purchaser had just got divorced, and was buying the property with the sale proceeds of the marital home. Probably a very stressful time for her... and every little helps!
 

xylophone

• A plug at the back of the kitchen where dishwasher is plugged in has stopped working. I now plug the dishwasher into an extension lead. Do I need to fix that?

This didn't worry you? Why on earth didn't you have it checked when the problem started?

HanPop

I know you don’t have to but we left our house exactly as we would have wanted it if we were moving in. We filled in holes, repainted and generally did above and beyond because I just thought that was the right thing to do. We left a bottle of wine and a nice card for them too....turned out this young couple had lied about living there themselves and rented it out within the month!! I should have known it was dodgy when it was one guy who viewed and told me he wanted it as a buy to let but it would cost him a lot in stamp duty, then when an offer was accepted it was his son and wife who were on the sale memorandum and said they’d be living there, but it was still let out in the end?!
It wouldn’t stop me doing it again though but I wouldn’t believe anything a buyer says now.