New house unoccupied prior to taking possession

RAS

Are there any window locks? Had a nightmare with my mother's house because she lost/misplaced a lot of "keys." Not great in a south-facing house where neither door can be seen if you are working elsewhere.

gwynlas

Hire professionals to do the cleans on both houses then you do not have to worry about time equipment or products.

Make sure that all essentials tea coffee kettle etc travel with you and that you everything to hand for first night bedding towels etc/

Label boxes and rooms they belong to to ad distribution by  removers

Flugelhorn

kiss_me_now9 said:

Section62 said:

kiss_me_now9 said:

Just wanted to see if anyone had any practical things we may have not thought about regarding taking on a new house that has been vacant for (we think) 6 - 8 months before we move into it. Ex rental, was on the market from just early January with no tenants and we believe the last set left before Christmas time. 

I know we will need to run the water through but how long for? And every tap/sink/shower? We've had a survey and confirmation of the boiler being in good working order but given that we're going into summer, do we need to try the heating on one of the colder days to make sure it's all good and not broken over the winter? 

Is there a water storage tank in the loft and/or a hot water cylinder somewhere, or does the house have a combi boiler and no water storage?

If just a combi then running all taps/showers and flushing the toilets a few times should be sufficient.  It should be possible to leave the boiler turned off so you aren't heating the water you are running away to the drain.

If you've got stored water (tank in the loft and/or hot water cylinder) then you'll want to flush those through first.  If possible, start by flushing the loft storage tank through the cold taps (leave all the hot taps closed) as there's no point putting the potentially most contaminated water (from the loft tank) into the hot water cylinder.  When you are happy the loft tank is Ok, start running water from the hot taps.  Leave the showers and toilets till last - if there is any debris in the system then it is better to keep that out of shower valves/heads, and out of the toilet cisterns.

Thanks! Stupid question - how do we know for sure the water will be fine after flushing it through? We have a toddler who guzzles water so I don't want to risk it being contaminated in any way. Is just an amount of time that would take for that stored water to run out the tank and be refilled? 

I will ask OH about the water, he looked at the plumbing and does all those kind of bits. 

@la531983 yes said to OH we need to change the locks especially as it's an ex rental!

I think in houses where the water tank was in the loft etc, then it only supplied upstairs taps and the hot water system. The cold water taps downstairs were off the mains - at least that was the case in my parents 1950s house - you were only supposed to drink water from the kitchen tap 

FlorayG

I moved into an ex-rental that had been empty. Massive infestation of carpet moth so check carefully! I had to have the house fumigated.
Also I kept getting bills from EON for the previous 12 months, presumably because the tenants moved out and didn't give the LL address as responsible; it took months of threats ( On both sides "We'll take you to court" ; "You just try it, I'll see you there") to eventually get it sorted

Section62

kiss_me_now9 said:

Thanks! Stupid question - how do we know for sure the water will be fine after flushing it through? We have a toddler who guzzles water so I don't want to risk it being contaminated in any way. Is just an amount of time that would take for that stored water to run out the tank and be refilled? 

I will ask OH about the water, he looked at the plumbing and does all those kind of bits. 

If there is a tank in the loft then I'd empty it if it isn't already empty, then allow it to refill, then fully drain.  If possible leaving the tank full for a while (say an hour) before that final drain.  Don't add any chemicals to the tank or pipework.

If no tank then a few minutes of running the taps should be enough.  Start with the kitchen cold tap as that should be connected to the mains supply and you can flush through what is in the supply pipe from the meter/external stoptap.

If you've checked the kitchen cold tap is connected directly to the mains supply then it should be fine for drinking after running for a couple of minutes.

The other thing to look out for is if you've got a water softener or cartridge-type tap water filters.  Change the filters (if you've got them) before using the water.  And bypass the water softener (if possible) until it has run a recharge cycle.

Herzlos

kiss_me_now9 said:

Unfortunately we're moving half way across the country so a day of deep cleaning isn't possible at all! We will want to do a pre-exchange viewing any way so might be able to see if we can take a bit longer and at the very least hoover through the carpets. 

It might be worth seeing if there's a cheap hotel nearby you can book on the off-chance. A lot of them offer free cancelletion before a certain point (Premier Inn is 3pm I think), so you can get the advanced rate and defer comitting until the day and you've been inside.

Jude57

I think I'd ask the removal firm to store my furniture for at least overnight, preferably two nights, book into a cheap hotel and book carpet cleaning and deep cleaning the new house for the day after completion. It's extra expense but at least your partner can oversee everything and run all the taps, check the heating and hot water etc before the furniture arrives. If there have been pets in the house, you might want to consider a flea treatment, too because once you disturb the larvae which can survive for years, you could be infested very quickly. Sorry, but that was the reality for me once. I recommend you 'bug bomb' the place at least once before you bring your furniture in.

For drinking water, I'd suggest either a couple of packs of bottled water, available cheaply at any supermarket, or a water filter jug, again, widely available fairly cheaply.

Good luck with the move!

theartfullodger

Bought at different times two repossessions 1st over 24 years ago. Empty between 1 and 2 years .  Just tidied them up didn't run taps.  Started living there, then rented them out .

Neither myself nor tenants died or suffered ill-effects.  Come on kids.....

prettyandfluffy

kiss_me_now9 said:

Unfortunately we're moving half way across the country so a day of deep cleaning isn't possible at all! We will want to do a pre-exchange viewing any way so might be able to see if we can take a bit longer and at the very least hoover through the carpets. 

No white goods included so hopefully no nasty surprises there (though I do need to clean out our fridge soon for our buyers... hah)

Will certainly get the windows open as soon as we're in and get the taps on and try. Should be able to get the carpet cleaner out in the first couple of days. 

An added complication may be that we might be moving in after I start my new job so I will likely not be able to help with the moving in process, and my OH isn't exactly thrilled with the idea of cleaning two houses in one day as well as driving from one to the other...

I don't know how tight your budget is but we moved cross-country into an empty house at the end of the pandemic.  We paid to have the house cleaned throughout (MUCH easier when it's empty) and the carpets deep cleaned (they were terrible).  The cleaners picked up the keys from the estate agents to gain access.  It was so worth the money, we could move straight in and unpack and the carpets came up like new.  I would do it again, every house we'd moved into has needed a thorough clean and there's enough else to do.

Silvertabby

la531983 said:

Change the locks.

Beat me to it.  As an ex rental, there could be umpteen 'spare' keys out there.