Moving House - what to leave for new owner

[4forkssake]

Hoping to move house soon. Last time we lived we sold to someone who was renting so it wasn't applicable. What sort of things/info did you find useful that previous owner might have left?

Planning on leaving a bottle of something / flowers & a card, appliance instructions, takeaway menus, window cleaner details, local taxi number.

Anything else that would be useful?

Final meter readings

What day the bins get emptied.

Bin collection calendar

Location of stop cock.

Bin collection day.
Energy suppliers.
Labelled keys.
Boiler/cooker instructions.

Why would you leave bottles/cards? I mean, nice gesture, but you don’t know them.

The names of your neighbours. I would also leave a card/wine. Boiler service man, alarm codes.

Bin collections, boiler instructions, which neighbours to avoid

A clean house.

Maelstrop you answered your own question, because for less than £10, it's a nice gesture.

Thanks for the tips, had remembered bin collection but forgot to write down. And yes, house will be cleaned before leaving.

Recommendations of your fave restaurants in the area, if they aren't already local

Water stop cock is a must, location of main telephone line box

Depends on how 'nice' the buyer has been during the process!! I was blown away when the house I bought had been deep cleaned and she had left me a bouquet of flowers as I had been so accommodating and helpful to her.

I always leave a house clean and would leave a list of helpful points such as bins, utility suppliers, neighbours names but only leave wine and new home card if they've been nice buyers!

I'd agree it depends on how reasonable they've been during the process. Leaving the lightbulbs is always a useful gesture.

Just the essentials, paperwork for any work on the house (boiler servicing, chimney swept, electrical work etc), bin collection calendar, location of stopcock, labelled keys, instructions for anything tricky (it's not obvious how to open our loft hatch for example), perhaps names of reliable tradespeople. Maybe if your buyers aren't local takeaway menus etc would be useful.

I would find card/wine/flowers etc a bit odd really, given that whenever I have bought a house the communications between us and the vendor have been very guarded, a bit strained at times, all communication going through third parties and this lasting months.

I'd really rather keep the entire thing business-like and impersonal. Also you have no idea if they drink wine (we don't). I'd appreciate the gesture though.

Oh and leave a loo roll.

Explanation of any weird annoyances about the house.

For example, the hot/cold water pipe markings on the washing machine pipes in our first house (from the days when hot and cold water filling was a thing) were the wrong way round and we didn't notice until the washing machine had been connected up and washing was hot at the end of a cycle. Was a pain to drag the machine out and replumb it.

As well as recommended restaurants and takeaways, tips about ones to avoid because the food is shit, delivery takes ages etc.

Loo roll and light bulbs -yes I speak from experience!

Aa above: bin stuff, stop cock, how the heating works (if it's fiddly).

I would leave everything in pristine condition. I wouldn't bother my arse with cards or flowers. Cards go in the bin, flowers need water and looking after and shit - they'd just get in the way or bashed as we're unpacking.

Dates that important things were last done - e.g when the chimney was swept, boiler serviced, gutters last cleared (or if they might need doing). Instructions for how things work and info on any weird quirks. Label the keys - or leave them in the locks they operate. Details of bin collections and parking restrictions. If there is on street parking with residents permits then leaving a couple of visitor permits is a nice gesture. Leave a toilet roll in each toiler and make sure you leave all the lightbulbs - preferably working! (Our current house had no fewer than 16 lightbulbs that didn't work when we moved in! They must have been sitting in the dark a lot!) Neighbours names can be helpful. If you've used a particular gardener, cleaner, window cleaner etc then leaving their details if you'd recommend them.

Most importantly though, leave the house clean and as you would like to find your next property.

Oh, and a forwarding address for any mail that escapes re-direction. We had no address for the previous owners of this house and yet several pieces of mail came through for them which we then had to sort out through the estate agent rather than just popping it in the post box!

The names of Neighbors, I always struggle to meet new people mainly because I’m useless with names.
Any parking issues/problems/agreements ie neighbors park on the road in front of their house, visitors tend to park down the road

Toilet seats!
All were removed from our house when we moved in

Gosh, We've never left anything when we have moved, just packed up and gone.
Had no idea this was a thing, we've always been too busy packing and dealing with solicitors and EA to do all this stuff.

I left a pack with all the instructions for built in appliances, bin calendar, how the house worked, stopcock, neighbours, GP surgery, meter readings, nearest postbox, etc plus a bottle of fizz. I also left the house immaculately clean.

I received absolutely disgusting filth, bin full of shitty loo roll, bare wires where lights had been removed, enough rubbish to fill 2 skips, a pile of keys (I still don’t know what about 30 of them do), a massive leak that rendered a bedroom unusable, unflushed loos, etc.

I think my approach was better.

Leaving light bulbs isn't a nice gesture you can be sued for taking them, along with anything that is listed in the contents.

OP, you should be made aware what you are legally allowed to take. If you remove any fixtures and fittings you have to make the area good. In other words plater if there is a hole etc.

Explanation of any weird annoyances about the house.

Oh yes! The first house we owned had a roll-top bath with overhead shower and the water dripped down the side of the bath. The deal with it, the previous owner put a tub under the bath to catch the drips but didn't tell us so the first we knew about it was when the tub started overflowing. It would have been good to have a heads up!

Flowers/wine etc are nice I suppose but I can see flowers being a faff as you'd have to dig out a vase and not everyone wants wine. I'd much rather have a clean house and the useful information/instructions manuals etc. Oh, and the loft cleared. The previous owner of the house with the bath also left a load of junk in the loft that we had to deal with after we moved in.