What level of “making good” for the new owners when you move out?

sleepyjones

I agree, but the OP is talking about filling in cracks and painting the walls!
I'm trying to make a happy compromise between doing nothing and building a 2 story extension! 

Anja

I left the part tins of paint with a room label on.

Also the plumber’s/boiler service number and electrician’s number. 

Irishpearce26

@sleepyjones i agree every house has plaster cracks. Our first house we bought the lady (on her own) was let down by a 1 day skip for all her stuff she was chucking, removals cancelled that day and the solicitor had failed to do the completion statement right which meant she was returned too much money and not enough for SDLT. She needed to get authourisation from her bank who would call the landline in which she had just thrown out the phone. We plugged our phone in and went for a 15 minute walk. Came back and she was literally in tears as she realised she didn't have time to clean. We gave her our celebratory bottle of wine as she seemed so stressed.

@Anja leaving half empty pots of paint may seem courteous but in reality the paint is dead and the buyer will likely want to paint a different colour. Always check with the buyer first otherwise you're just leaving nice junk.

Windofchange

In terms of when we moved in, the previous owners had done a good clean, but had also left the place an electrical nightmare. They had basically removed all the lights off the walls, the two bathroom cabinets which were wired into the mains, and even a few of the wall plugs, and instead of making the place safe, just went and left holes in the walls with the wires poking out. Thankfully I had my head screwed on enough to not touch anything and we got an electrician round pronto who was pretty shocked (no pun intended) with how we had found the place. So, yeah, definitely don't leave live electrical wires hanging out of the walls. Otherwise, I didn't really care about a few holes or the walls being the wrong colour as we always planned to put our own mark on it anyway, and I bet any new home owner will be down B&Q on day two to purchase paint and brushes. 

Carrot007

Irishpearce26 said:

I don't get the obsession about not having an empty wheelie bin when you buy a house? You've paid the c-tax up to the day of completion and you will likely be getting rid of stuff its just part of the way it is. I saw a post on here where someone was wanting to claim the cost of a skip because the wheelie bin was full for 3 days before it was emptied.

Assuming "not having" = "having". Because it is nice and moving in createa  lot of rubbish and you have probably been to the tip many times becfore you leave and it is not hard to take stuff.

I did that last time I sold a house. (and cleaned within an inch, left champagne). As for the house I bought, wheelie bins overflowing, including the garden waste bin full of non garden waste and also the 2 recycling boxes full of general rubbish. All shelving removed and from the looks of it burnt in the fireplace and ash left,leaving massive holes in the walls. Ketchup on the walls. Entire place a tip. Though from viewing it was pretty much as I expected. Couple of relatives to help, many trips to the tip. Bathroom and kitchen repalced within a year leading to fitters saying !!!!!! did that (for instance the cooker was hard wired to the wrong side of the switch and would not turn off and had to be turned of in fuse box (though at least they told us this), and wet room with no tanking that leaked into the kitchen. Only thing I did not expect was to have to replace the toilet on moving in day as it broke when trying to use it (ok did not have to entirely repalce but given the state and teh cheapness of the wickes toilet in a box...).

I would not try to claim money though. They were just slobs. And I am referred to as such my members of my family, so you can see how far down the cleanliness scale they were!

OP, just try to do your best. No reason not to. But yes don't go overboard. I prefer to see what needs patching up and do it myself properly. Yes you would but the buyers do not know this, doing it themselves should give piece of mind.

Redwino222

I left my house clean, grass cut and touched up walls etc.

I moved into my house and while it was clean, the integrated fridge friezes did not work!

I am really annoyed the vendor didn’t give me a heads up.  I got rid of my fridge freezer and now have gone a week in a New house with no fridge (replacement has been ordered). 

davilown

We’ve just completed:

House cleaned to within an inch of its life (vast experience of moving from military quarters).

3 page essay on house, GP surgery, shops and nice thing said about the neighbours.

Paid for window/door warranties to be transferred.

Left 2 bottles of wine, new soap for the sinks and toilet roll!

We didn’t touch up or remove the picture hooks (it takes time for drying sanding and painting etc).

We did leave 4 smallish tins of paint labelled with the rooms on if they wanted to touch up. (I know it might be junk, but there’s a massive difference between vinyl Matt and Matt finish wit white paint and a room with vaulted ceilings is not fun to paint!

We left 2 x 2 packs of tiles for the bathroom and en-suite.

We also left a tonne bag of shingle to top up the drive way (only been down a few month so still bedding in), along with 15 old roof tiles that match the current roof.

The bins however, we had no choice but to leave full. They were being collected the next day and one cut of the gardens filled the brown bin, and the last bits from the house (plus normal waste) filled the black bin. We had already been to the tip once a week for the last 3 weeks (we have to book and can’t go more than once a week).  I think that’s acceptable especially when you take alternate weekly collections into account.

olgadapolga

ss2020jd said:

Deleted_User said:

ss2020jd said:

I would be interested to know what others have done and what people think would be expected. 

Our buyers have so far been brilliant so I want to make sure they are happy when they move in. Apart from a deep clean and not leaving holes in the walls, we are going to touch up a few minor bits and pieces we have spotted. 

The buyers were happy with the survey but there are some hairline plaster expansion cracks that I’m sure they and their surveyor would have seen. I would prefer to have them filled but my husband says that’s going too far as we’d have to get paint to touch up the walls etc and they’ll probably just want to repaint when they move in anyway. I also saw a thread here where a buyer had seen cracks in the survey photos and then when they moved out they were filled and then they were worried about it.

Any opinions or experiences gratefully received. 

This is so lovely to read! It's heartening to know that there are people who will go above and beyond to ensure others are content moving into a new home. When I moved into my current rented place, I had to scrub shaved beard hairs from the bathroom walls and there were crumbs in the cupboards. Kudos to you for asking the question and going the extra mile for the buyers.

Thank you! 

That sounds disgusting!  I have read some really horrible states that people have left things in. That must be so awful. As if the stress of buying wasn’t already enough. 

Our not-so-lovely vendor left us a filthy house, overgrown garden, food in the dirty fridge, fireworks in a wardrobe, rubbish everywhere, used towels, mouldy curtains, unwanted furniture, a load of paperwork that revealed a lot of personal information and underwear. Judging by the state of his home, they were probably not clean!  There was a lot more filth but we didn't find this out initially. We were in a rental so had a month's overlap to try to clean/redecorate, which would have worked out fine if I hadn't been the target of a drink driver and ended up with multiple injuries. It was a difficult few weeks, sorting our new home out, moving and then sorting out the rental to hand back. I didn't need an ambulance trip in the middle of it (not that my foray into A&E was the vendor's fault, of course, that was just bad luck).

youth_leader

I was upset to have someone steal my green general waste bin just before completion, and had to buy a new one for £39.  It was full and I was worried for a while the thief had fly tipped the contents.  I sparkle cleaned the house for completion as I had already moved out into a rental up the road, and had time. I had left paint etc in the shed but read on here that someone was being asked for money to removal of shed items - I rushed back to remove it all and didn't check the paint lids were on securely.  Spent about an hour scrubbing paint off the garage floor.   I don't think I'd have managed to clean as thoroughly on moving day, I was exhausted. 

When I moved into this bungalow it was clean, but I was really irritated to have both bins full of mixed rubbish, I hadn't planned for trips to the dump.  

ss2020jd

Thanks so much everyone for all the latest replies. Some really lovely ideas there that I hadn’t thought of. Some shocking horror stories too of how things have been left or taken as well! 

I will leave the minor cracks etc but will leave some nice things for the buyers as per some of the suggestions. I’ve already bought a little notebook to write useful info down as well. The bin should be empty as we have time in between. Now just have to keep it clean and damage free until then!