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

Slinky

Our current home, when we arrived after driving 110 miles there wasn't so much as a sheet of loo roll. Had to send OH to the car to raid the travel tissues. That didn't impress me much.

We spent a 3 weeks renovating the house and rented it out for a year before we were able to move into it ourselves. When we got the house back from the tenant I was really annoyed to find the tenant left all sorts of crap in the bins, and mostly it was the wrong stuff in the wrong bins, so the binmen would have been justified in refusing to take it. I had to drag it all out, wash the bins out they were that bad, then re-sort into the correct bins. They also left the front door locked and bolted from the inside so we couldn't get into the house until we'd gone to the letting agents and got a full set of keys back.

onylon

Slinky said:

Our current home, when we arrived after driving 110 miles there wasn't so much as a sheet of loo roll. Had to send OH to the car to raid the travel tissues. That didn't impress me much.

I am now wondering if we left loo roll when we sold as this didnt even cross my mind. I know how I felt when I first moved into my flat and found a huge gooey, slightly moldy spillage in the fridge so I did do my best to make sure everything was clean and tidy. I was quite annoyed that I wasnt able to hoover the living room as by the time the furniture was out, my hoover had been packed away by the removal men. My husband acted like I was a total crazy person for bothering but he did leave the router and the WiFi password so I guess 2 weeks of free internet was his way of saying "Welcome". I also left a house plant, a good bottle of champagne and a welcome message with some info about the flat. 

Our buyers Mum asked us to make good the walls in one room which I thought was a bit cheeky. I had only decorated it a few months earlier and its an easy enough job so I thought it would be better to agree with a smile and get a little bit of goodwill. The other rooms had wall mounted furniture which we would have been happy to leave but the buyer asked us to remove it. The furniture didnt come down until moving day so I wouldnt have been able to fill and repaint even if I wanted to.

GBNI

When I moved into my house, it had been empty as the person who owned it had passed away, although there was some furniture when we went to view it which included a built in unit in the dining room. A family member removed the built in unit (another family member was taking it) and they replaced the skirting where the unit was sitting. The house was all cleaned, they had left instruction manuals for all the fridge etc and the alarm code details. Also a card and a bottle of fizz. I did clean it myself as well, but it was more to freshen it than anything. 

GN2020

MalMonroe said:

I have moved many times over the years and have both owned and rented properties. I've always left each one as I'd like to find mine. And fortunately, have received the same consideration from others. 

I've always scrubbed from top to bottom and would never dream of leaving any kind of mess. I do realise that not everyone has the same standard of cleanliness as me but even so, if people don't want to clean up themselves, they could pay a cleaning firm to come in to do a 'deep clean'. That's what I plan to do whenever I leave the place I'm in now. (I'm a bit held up by coronavirus at the moment) as I'm not getting any younger and big cleans now get to be a bit much.) But I will still make sure the place is spotless.

I've also known vendors to take lightbulbs as well as their light fittings. I never do, that's just mean and petty. If I can leave the fittings too, I will - they'll do until the new person can get round to fixing their own.

It's awful enough when you move (so stressful, all that packing and unpacking to do) without having to start scrubbing the place and moving others' muck (and fleas! ugh) before you can start to move all your things in. 

I'm sorry this has happened to you but once it's all sorted you'll be able to settle down and enjoy living in your nice clean and fresh new home.

Taking lightbulbs! That’s tighter than a wet knot! 

Honest to god....you’d think they’d leave them behind....

BJV

We left loo roll, an old, kettle, coffee tea, milk, sugar, even a box of chocolates and a bunch of flowers. Almost a welcome tray. They paid a lot of money and it was their new home and we wanted them to have a good 1st memory. We when we finally got our new home where met with a bin bag full of dog poo in the garden, used sanitary products in the bathrooms and bathrooms that where so bad ???? makes me cringe to think of them. Bins full and I never know why but no pugs in the sink. Some people are nice and some are just nasty. I guess it is pot luck and you knew really know how the house will be until you get there. Sad really. 

gingercordial

Our sellers left our house disgusting.  It wasn't dirty when we viewed, so I don't know if they just gave up on cleaning once we'd done all our viewings.  Or maybe they meant to do it and ran out of time as on completion day we turned up, having been told the keys were ready, they were still here although about to pile into the car to drive for their long-distance move, but their removals team weren't finished for another three hours.  But either way it was filthy - literal piles of dust, dirt, fluff and cat and human hair in all corners, empty cat food pouches strewn around, sticky floors, kitchen drawers full of loose rice and spices.  A disintegrating Ikea wardrobe, various shelves falling off the walls and an old freezer full of gunk that shouldn't have been left.  

I nearly cried when I saw it.  I DID cry the following day when the professional cleaning firm I'd booked turned up and said it was too bad for them to deal with so they wouldn't do it as they knew they wouldn't be able to get it satisfactory within the day, and wouldn't even agree to just do the kitchen and bathroom.  Luckily we had a couple of days before our tenancy ended so we spent them scrubbing and bleaching...

What was particularly galling is that a nice old man from opposite came over to welcome us to the neighbourhood but tell us that he was sadly moving out himself that day too - and as his removal truck rolled up we could see a team of cleaners working in his house.  So at least our new neighbours opposite got to move into somewhere clean!  And that is how I intend to do things if we ever move.  I couldn't live with the shame, but clearly our sellers had no such qualms.

Skiddaw1

BJV said:

We left loo roll, an old, kettle, coffee tea, milk, sugar, even a box of chocolates and a bunch of flowers. Almost a welcome tray. They paid a lot of money and it was their new home and we wanted them to have a good 1st memory. We when we finally got our new home where met with a bin bag full of dog poo in the garden, used sanitary products in the bathrooms and bathrooms that where so bad ???? makes me cringe to think of them. Bins full and I never know why but no pugs in the sink. Some people are nice and some are just nasty. I guess it is pot luck and you knew really know how the house will be until you get there. Sad really. 

Sink plugs had been taken from our previous house. Very bizarre we thought. Mind you, their lodger returned some weeks later to ask if we'd found a fridge magnet (we hadn't). Presumably it had sentimental value. To be fair, they did leave us a bottle of fizz and had laid a fire in the hearth. When we moved out we left firewood, kindling and coal, a bottle of fizz and a home-made cake.

TBagpuss

GN2020 said:

Taking lightbulbs! That’s tighter than a wet knot! 

Honest to god....you’d think they’d leave them behind....

Yes, I couldn't believe it when I moved in to find my sellers had removed them all. All other considerations aside you'd think they'd be awkward to pack at the last minute! They also didn't leave any loo roll, and while I admit it's possible that the roll ran out just before then the left it seems more likely that deliberately they took that, too!

(When I moved out, I made sure to leave not only loo roll, but also a (new, wrapped) bar of soap and some paper towels, in the bath room,  and  some new J-cloths and spray cleaner in the kitchen,  together with notes about bin collections, contact details for milk and paper deliveries, notes of where the fuse box and stop-!!!!!! were,  menus and recommendations for local take-aways,  and a box of chocolates. I had planned to leave a bottle of wine but I left it out and the removal men packed it with everything else, which I realised too late to retrieve it!)

badger09

Removal men will pack anything which doesn’t move! 

I can’t understand why people would take loo rolls & lightbulbs. I left 3 full rolls (one in each loo) and spare lightbulbs for the sensor lights in lampposts on our drive. It’s a few £s in the context of several hundred thousand £s😡

Shelldean

In our place we had light bulbs taken and the carpet in all rooms, but in one room they'd left the gripper rods with lovely sharp spikes on (I had twins 18months and an elder child of 4 1/2) and the gap between the gripper rods and the wall was black. On closer inspection it was thickly matted dog hairs.
We knew they'd had a dog as the back door showed his nose marks.
Every room was Brown with nicotine. And for long while afterwards when I cleaned Windows the nicotine seeped out of the cracks.
Tiny back yard no grass due to all the oil spills, where apparently the son had fixed his moped!