Legally do I have to clean house for buyer?

[InsulatedLoft]

I remember in the property information form I signed that I would leave the house in a "clean and tidy" condition. But our buyer has been a complete arse and I don't want to do anything more than I legally have to. I was going to run the hoover around for 5 minutes before leaving and that's it. Unfortunately we don't clean all that regularly anyway, so bathroom will still be covered in dust and water stains and hair, kitchen will be crumby and dusty, pet hairs will be deeply ingrained into the carpet. He won't have any comeback against us will he? Although he's a BTL investor so I doubt he'll give a damn.

[GrimmauldPlace]

Not quite sure if you're serious or not? Hair and crumbs? Nice.

[MilesHuntsWig]

I think that sounds ok but I'm no expert!

[ChocolateButton15]

Please leave it as you would want to find it if you was moving in. Especially remove your hair!

[nancy75]

And this is how you live? Lovely

[ladylambkin]

Grim

[MrsBertMacklin]

Boak.

And no, that doesn't meet the legal definition, so you would risk a claim for cleaning costs and the associated legal fees created by any claim.

[Batteriesallgone]

Reverse?

[AmserGwin]

Sounds like you don't want to clean at all. YABU

[Brokenbiscuit]

Seriously? We're not the hottest on cleaning in our house, but please don't leave your mess behind for the new owner. That's not fair!

[Boogers]

In what way has your buyer been a complete arse?

For what it's worth our buyer gazundered us two weeks before we completed on the sale by a considerable amount, but because we were desperate to move we had no choice but to take it, but when moving day came I had absolutely no inclination to hoover or clean round for her, so I can understand where you're coming from.

[cupofrooibos]

This lampshade gives you an indication of the state our vendor left the house in (yes, that's inch thick dust). It was an absolute disgrace and completely ruined our move-in day (FTB).

Even if he won't care as a BTL its still basic courtesy to leave the house in a reasonable state if you ask me.

[PurpleDaisies]

This must be a reverse...

Our house was disgusting when we moved in. It's a really low thing to do.

[BeJayKayven]

You sound totally minging!

[InsulatedLoft]

Hey we don't live in grime, its just the last couple of weeks have been manic so standards have slipped. I would honestly begrudge spending even an hour of my lifedoing anything to benefit this total arsehole of a man.

[PepsiPenguin]

How do people live like this, this must be a reverse nobody would come onto MN to announce that they live with ingrained pet hair in their carpets, surely they wouldn't? If you were the sort of person not bothered by this you would just think it was acceptable.

[Scarydinosaurs]

We cleaned our house so thoroughly, and still our buyer complained and tried to claim money from us- we said that was fine, but we would pursue him for compensation following the expensive reinstallation of our broadband after he prematurely disconnected us (apparently completely legally! Ever want to annoy someone, call BT and claim you're moving in to their home and they'll disconnect them no questions asked!) and after that he dropped the whole thing. I was fuming, it was perfectly clean and respectable, our buyer was just a prick.

[ayeokthen]

My brother informed us his house was fine to hand over, cue my mother panicking when she went over the day before and it was absolutely vile. 9 + hours of me and my Mum scrubbing/polishing/bleaching/mopping and vacuuming like lunatics and I was still mortified at the thought of the poor buyer getting handed the keys in the morning. She went after my brother for cleaning costs, a new oven, new fridge/freezer and dishwasher (all were built in) and won. Quite right too.

[cupofrooibos]

arf it was awful and that's not actually the worst of it. I know it sounds petty but as FTB we'll never get that special day of getting the keys to our first house again.

OH had taken the day off work to collect keys etc and he rang me, almost in tears, telling me to go back to my mum's from work as we'd not be staying in the new house that night.

[cupofrooibos]

Interesting to read here that we could have gone after the vendor for cleaning costs. Hopefully we'll never need to use that knowledge, but we certainly didn't know that was an option 18 months ago!

[InsulatedLoft]

Yes but that is why I'm minded to not bother! Our buyer is not a delicate FTB who will cry if the house isn't immaculate.