What state will you leave your house in when you sell it?

random321

Splatfoot said:

I liked to think I left my house spotless. However, in reality, moving midst pandemic, moving stuff into storage, 5 pets, 2 teens and 2 adults, a 5 bed house with 3 bathrooms was going to be a challenge! I *know* there were things I wanted to do better but just didn't have time. Everything was clean, skirtings, bathrooms, kitchen etc, I did not fill in holes, (there were only a couple and these were in the loo). But it was in move in ready, and ready for another clean I would imagine after the removers had trampled through it. 

This was similar to our situation (albeit less pets and kids!) Trying to move out and move in on one day meant we couldn't get to leaving everything immaculate but we left it as clean and tidy as we possibly could. The property we moved into this time was immaculate, but the previous property we purchase (the one we sold this time around) required all carpets ripping up and a deep clean as it was so dirty!

TBagpuss

In fairness, my parents had the opposite situation and it caused a bit of a problem - their sellers hired a carpet cleaner and did all the carpets in the house, but unfortunately they did it the morning on the move so they were all still damp when my parents arrived, which caused a few issues with where to put the furniture until the carpets were dry!  Well meant, but not as helpful as they no doubt intended!

Drawingaline

We are hopefully completing on the 27th. Moving a house containing six people and two cats in one day, I already know I won't be able to leave it as clean as I would like (I clean houses as my job) I am doing as much as possible now, but unfortunately the conservatory is so full I know I won't be able to do our there well (it's all hubby's stuff and I am not allowed to even be involved in packing it!) Our oven needs a deep clean, but right now I am desperate to avoid having to isolate so won't have anyone round to do it. I will do my best and leave them the contact details of who normally does it every six months.

The garden won't be left brilliantly. I am not a keen gardener and it is Jan so unfortunately it won't be in a great condition. I can only visit our tip once a week with an appointment, so the trampoline is going this week and we have a bed to go next. I need to arrange someone to collect the old washing line pole actually!

I will fill holes and touch up paint, and scrub walls that are behind furniture as we go, it will be clean, but not to a standard I would like.

The one we are hoping to buy has been empty for a few months, but I know it would have been left gleaming, a few people I know, knew the family living there and apparently she was very particular about her house! So probably a bit dusty from being empty. I am going to do a ore exchange viewing next week to check a ceiling hasn't come down and measure some spaces, it will be interesting to see it.

Marvel1

Whatever I have time to do, clean so be it, if not then leave it.

Doodlebugs

The last two houses we’ve had have been new builds so we’ve not had any horror stories like that thankfully. But I am very conscious about leaving ours clean for our buyers and intend on leaving a bottle of bubbly and a card for them. 

We have a few weeks yet but I’m getting in an oven cleaner the week we leave as well as cleaning all the carpets. We have a dog and I know we’re ‘nose blind’ to the smell. Will definitely make sure there is no poo left in the garden! I can’t imagine finding cat poo in every room, that’s disgusting. 

Bonniepurple

I did what I could, not helped by the fact that my vacuum decided to die on move day, I’d had 48 hours notice of completion and it was a week where my self employed husband was working daily in different locations.  This time round I’m getting packers and might even book a cleaner.  The place won’t be spotless but it will  be habitable.

Slinky

OP, sorry to hear about the state of your new home. It sounds a lot like my SIL & BIL's house when they moved in. Filthy oven, flea invested carpet with lots of cat hair, which wasn't great for our nephew's partner who was also moving in and is allergic to cat hair.  Just to warn you, you will most likely find you end up with blocked kitchen drains with a fatburg from where they've been tipping fat down the sink. That's what my rellies had with theirs.

ETA when we moved, we moved out 4 days before completion so I arranged for a cleaner to go in and clean before the new people arrived.

Jumblebumble

bolwin1 said:

What state would you leave your house in when you sell it?

This is a part question, part rant. 

Have just moved into what (for us at least) is our dream home. Lovely large family home in a conservation area. The purchase went fairly smoothly & there were no attempts by me to reduce the price or anything that could annoy the sellers. This is not a fixer upper, it was presented as a family home in good condition in all the viewings. 

The seller had done the absolute minimum to 'prep' the house for us moving in. There was dried cat poo in almost every room, along with a flea infestation. It took a whole day to carpet clean & scrub the floors. Rubbish has been left at the side of the house & a sofa dumped at the front. Various shelves had been removed & no attempt to fill the holes in (& some had been painted around, so look a right mess). The fridge was filthy & stunk - it needed a good scrub. There was thick grease over the hob & integrated oven - the oven was that bad, I've ordered a new one. Multiple lampshades / curtains have been removed, despite the fixtures & fitting form saying otherwise. I'm not going to waste energy claiming for missing lampshades etc. & will just get things sorted. 

Am I being unreasonable ? Our old house will be cleaned thoroughly from top to bottom before exchange, along with leaving a bottle of bubbly, a new home card, some notes on the neighbourhood etc. I wouldn't dream of leaving any rubbish there or deviating from what was said on the F&F form. 

What do you think is reasonable ? What state would you leave your house in when leaving it ?  

On the other hand we employed a cleaner to leave our old kitchen immaculate
A few days later  we drove past the house and the whole lot was in a skip on the drive
Naturally we were not bothered as it was not our house any more
I got a phone call from the vendors of our new house apologising profusely  that he had left a wheelie bin half full as he had not had time to get it emptied

amandacat

Me and hubby will do as much deep cleaning as we can a couple of days before. Removal day will be hectic particularly as we are relocating a long distance but we will give it a steam mop and vacuum once the house is cleared. 

Everyone has different cleaning standards so it is difficult. But I would leave it in the standard I would expect to move in. 

When I moved into my current house it was reasonable clean but not deep cleaned. Moved in on a Friday, bin collection day was a Thursday and they’d left about 10 bin bags and a load of rubbish in the front garden ready for the bin men to collect. So we had that there for 6 days which did annoy me a little, particularly as they only moved to a house one street down. 

tinytiddles

We left our house spotless and cleaned it right through once the removal men left, mainly because when we moved in the previous owner had left all of his stuff still in the house including dirty dishes in the sink 🤢 and it completely ruined what should have been a wonderful day when we bought our first home. Even though we were part ex-ing and knew the developer had sold onto a buy to letter, I didn’t want them to have the same experience of opening the door and being met with a grubby house (not that it was that bad anyway!). I’m so sorry that this has happened to you and that you sort it soon.