New house unoccupied prior to taking possession

Slinky

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. 

Our house was a probate sale and had been empty for about 18 months. We weren't moving in immediately so I got hold of a Legionella kit and sent off some water samples to be tested. I think we had the results in under a week. Ours was all fine.  If you're doing a pre exchange inspection that could be an opportunity to take some samples. You need one from every tap. IIRC it was about £40-50, that was in 2017. There was a company in Dunstable who sent us the kit and instructions. Could be a lot easier han emptying all that water.  Don't forget to take a water meter reading if you've got a water meter.

prettyandfluffy

Silvertabby said:

la531983 said:

Change the locks.

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

In our case, we had NO spare keys or any window keys and it was a pain to sort out in a new town but we got there eventually.  Then 6 months later we found them all, hidden in the boxing-in round the pipes in the bathroom.  (The previous owner had had dementia).

our_des

Not as essential as things mentioned by others but given the property has been empty for a while, might be worth checking if theres anything in the wheelie bins. I'd use a broom handle or something similar to flip them open, if there is anything in there, it'll be one awful smell you don't want to be right next to! Hopefully the current owner had made sure they'd been emptied if the previous tenants had moved before the next collection.  

kiss_me_now9

Turns out all this lovely advice didn’t matter as the boiler was packed in when we moved in, so we had to replace it all including getting rid of the tank in the loft!

penners324

Run the taps for about 10 minutes, including the shower. Before that, crank the hot water / heating system up to 60° for a few hours