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

ss2020jd

olgadapolga said:

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).

That really sounds like the worst I have heard. Fireworks in the wardrobe?! And having to deal with all that on top of what happened must have been really horrific.
Some achievement to get it all done but hopefully it was all worth it and now a distant memory. 

Ally_E.

Carrot007 said:

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.

that's a huge assumption that people are making multiple trips to the tip, some people especially in metropolitan areas don't own cars, they are certainly not making any trips to the tip and using the bins to dispose of rubbish. Yes, shock horror, impossible to imagine, but not everyone drives!!!

babyblade41

Depends of what type of buyer they are , if they are a PITA then the place get cleaned...if they have been great then they get the works ... tea, coffee, kettle, biccies, bottle of plonk and a couple of cans of soft drinks , maybe some beers if they have been super great. 

maisie_cat

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. 

Also people leaving old tins of paint and flooring, in reality no one wants it as they want their own style so its more hassle having to get rid of it. My previous house loft was full of it and most of it was spoiled as it was months/years old.

Our sale contract last time actually had a section about leaving no rubbish, luckily next door let us put a bag in theirs.
As for the paint, tiles etc it's okay as long as the buyer agrees. I wish they'd left a few floor tiles here  as a lazy contractor had only tiled to the base units not the wall. The other day a plumber had to buy a non matching roof slate because we don't have spares, so annoying !

Irishpearce26

maisie_cat said:

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. 

Also people leaving old tins of paint and flooring, in reality no one wants it as they want their own style so its more hassle having to get rid of it. My previous house loft was full of it and most of it was spoiled as it was months/years old.

Our sale contract last time actually had a section about leaving no rubbish, luckily next door let us put a bag in theirs.
As for the paint, tiles etc it's okay as long as the buyer agrees. I wish they'd left a few floor tiles here  as a lazy contractor had only tiled to the base units not the wall. The other day a plumber had to buy a non matching roof slate because we don't have spares, so annoying !

I would say the part about rubbish being left would refer to anything in the house. Rubbish in the bin wouldn't constitute as rubbish being left behind. I agree with others that its unacceptable to fill the recycling or garden waste bin with landfill stuff. 

To be honest the majority of kitchens are only tilled to the base unit (our new house is) but when we put a new kitchen in next year we will put the flooring all the way wall to wall. Roof tiles again usually people don't have spares unless they had the roof re-tiled.

Afourteen

We will leave the house as we would like to find it - thoroughly clean, toilet roll in the bathroom, all lights working, no exposed wires, meter readings done as we leave (with a copy for ourselves). 
Have House 'Logbook' detailing where the stoptaps are, property boundary markers including photos, washing machine and dishwasher connections, history of when maintenance work completed, Broadband router point and cabling, 2nd  phone cabling. That will be left behind marked clearly as useful and important information.

harefan

I have left three previous properties in pristine condition, all thoroughly cleaned for the buyers plus all the instructions left for appliances and other useful information. Unfortunately, I have taken over four properties where the same courtesy has not been afforded to me. Something I have learned when viewing properties is to ask to see inside the oven - if it's clean then I think you can be satisfied the house is clean. The most recent property we bought needed two whole days of oven cleaning to get it to an acceptable level of cleanliness - completely black and charred foodstuffs in a layer on the base - it was disgusting! Kitchen cupboards covered in flour and other foods. No excuse as they had loads of time to do some basic cleaning.

Lizzie8591

When I moved into my first home when married I remember thinking what have we let ourselves into re the decoration ! I don`t remember anything else. But on moving into a flat when divorced I wish they had cleaned the carpets as the wet dog smell was AWFUL ! But I will add something, you are expected to leave the lightbulbs and if you remove your nice lampshades you really  SHOULD replace them with something. (charity shops are best/cheapest) 
Clean, clean, clean of course and a bottle of wine is a lovely touch.    

beardiedog

I sold my house the first week of January and was all set to move in to my new house around the end of February. All was going well until the vendor pulled out after 3 months. I found and secured another within a couple of weeks but it took over 12 weeks to complete. The buyer was unhappy because it was taking so long and kept pestering. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I hadn't quite shifted everything at completion time so she was threatening me with the police - I'm talking only a few hours grace here. She virtually camped out at the house and was getting really irate and upset. We shifted the last lot out onto the lawn ready for collection. No time to clean or anything but as I was aware that she was going to be gutting the house anyway I wasn't bothered. Even so, if I had completed when I wanted to a few days later, I would have cleaned and cut the lawn.

The new house was mostly clean apart from a very greasy range cooker that cost me £85 to have cleaned and virtually every kitchen cupboard had grease stains in them. Evidence of shoddy DIY all over the house. To top it all, when I came to change the fireplace and gas fire I found that the flue had collapsed (missed by the surveyor) so I had to go electric. Also the boiler's cover hadn't been fitted correctly and was in a dangerous condition. So, check, check, check before you turn on any gas fittings.

steph2901

When I moved in to this house the seller had left cupboards full of junk and bare lighting wires when they had removed the lights and not put those plastic light fittings to replace it.  

We are moving on Monday and so far I've cleaned the cooker and kitchen cupboards as much as I can at the moment (still got to live in the house), cut the gardens yesterday and will be giving the rest of the house a clean and hoover as it will be dusty behind furniture.  I'm not painting or filling anything as they may want different colours and may want to hang pictures where I have the hooks.

I'm not expecting to move to a perfect house as I know on moving day there isn't always time to do things as it's stressful enough.  As long as they don't leave a filthy house of junk I'll be happy enough.  I don't mind a bit of cleaning and would probably clean even if it looked clean.