So angry at sellers, left the house FILTHY

[Oldperithia]

I feel so sad for DS and his GF. They’ve saved and sacrificed so much for 3 years to scrape together a deposit on a house. Finally were able to buy a small 3 bed semi. Viewed it, offered 5% under asking and it was accepted.
They’ve been no trouble during the process whereas the older (60’s) sellers (who are apparently moving to Spain) have dragged their feet throughout the whole process to give them as much time as possible.

Well, DS and GF finally got the keys yesterday and were so excited but that soon turned to dismay when they got there to find everything really dirty, like they’ve not cleaned for months.

Carpets, skirtings, blinds thick with dust, walls all grubby and marked, light fittings greasy dusty, light switches black with dirt, the kitchen thick with grease and food stains and spatter over cabinets and cooker. Wasp nest in the roof.

Floors are sticky and grimy, the whole house is just dirty.

How do people live like that and how do they think it’s acceptable to leave like it for the next person.

We will all muck in and help clean and decorate but I feel so sad for them, it’s really taken the shine off the whole thing.

I know that they are fortunate to be in this position but it’s still made me so angry. If you know of an older couple moving to spain soon know that they’ve lived like dirty pigs and they’ve no thought for the people they’ve sold to. I hope karma bites them!!

Got to admit we left our last house in, ummmm, a bit of a state when we moved out.

In our defence we'd had a absolute hell of a year, FiL died, agreed to sell up ours and MiL's and buy a place together so we could care for her. Selling 2 places to get exchange of contracts at the same time was a nightmare and MiL's sale fell through 3 times. We had to pack up all of her stuff as well as our own. I didn't care what state her place was in and left loads of stuff there as the new owner was gutting it so it didn't matter. Ours had a number of heavy bits of furniture and as the movers took them out I was horrified by the amount of dust, dead spiders etc and did a 5 minute hoover which obviously didn't put a dent in it.

OH had gone to our new place with the movers and just as I was heading there as well he rang.

He said "I don't want to let the movers in!"

Reply "why?? what's the matter?"
Him "It's so clean and I don't want them to walk on the floor!"

I swear you could have eaten off the floor and it was stunningly clean. I don't know if they did it themselves or had someone in but it's never been so lovely since. Because yes, we are somewhat porcine.

@TickingAlongNicely I was a kid and remember doing March out. Not fun 😂 but they would inspect and then take the cooker out and throw it in the skip as it was so old! But it had to be clean to go in the skip. Scrubbed kitchens which they literally were ripping out after inspection.
almost losing a finger cleaning bed springs 😂 fun times.

Sadly it’s not like an inspection when renting where it needs a professional clean.

we moved into renter accommodation that the owners had moved out of. It was filthy and that was after the letting agency took it on. Opened the pantry cupboard and there was a large branch in there with dried leaves on. Might have been bay leaves. Window sills were black we ended up scrubbing with toothbrush.

took loads of photos of everything which we printed and kept for our move out inspection. We almost failed as forgot to defrost the freezer as it was in garage and had left it on.

in years to come it will hopefully be a funny story. For their first home. They will know
to ask solicitors next time to put a clean house request in.

I clean all houses I move into anyway and we moved into a new build!

Unfortunately this is just one of those things and happens more often than it should. We’ve moved 4 times and with the exception of the first one (which was a new build apartment) I’ve always found properties in a less clean state than I would leave them.

In our last move but one the house was genuinely filthy, and this was a pretty expensive property previously owned by two GPs (who frankly I would have thought better of!) and thought the place was practically a health hazard. The oven was sufficiently minging that we just changed it.

Deep clean will sort most things. Mop, disinfectant, and ideally hire a carpet cleaner if you’re not changing the carpets straight away.

When we moved last time I expected the worst and we delayed the arrival of all our stuff by 24 hours so the whole place could be blitzed.

Exact same thing happened to my daughter and husband when they bought their first house.When they went to look at it and subsequent visits it was immaculate.
When they turned up with the removal vans a toddler and new born, not only were the previous owners still there it was obvious it hadn't been cleaned in weeks.I remember all the family had to take it in shifts either babysitting or deep cleaning before we could even unload the removal vans .We couldn't believe the previous owners hadn't even attempted to clean i remember all the dirty cobwebs hanging down hitting our heads yuk .In the end we left all the furniture in the vans and my daughter and husband had to bunk down at a relatives house overnight while we spent hours cleaning .It felt worse because my daughter deep cleaned her flat before she handed over the keys as her pride wouldn't let her leave it dirty .

Our sellers left an unflushed poo in the loo. Couldn’t really tell if it was deliberate or not. The rest of the place was fairly clean and we’d had no issues during conveyancing, but surely you would check.

I scrub my home to within an inch of its life when I sell. It’s just polite.

My last house was a Georgian maisonette, stunning listed building. The previous tenant left it in an absolute state. It was horrible to see such a beautiful house left in such a way. Mouldy potatoes in the cupboards, everywhere was thick with grime, the way they’d decorated I’m sure they’d done it with their eyes shut. We spent quite a bit cleaning and smartening it up but it still left a bitter taste in my mouth. We’ve since moved again and the new place was left immaculate as the previous owner lived alone and had issues with OCD so we were quite lucky in that sense! All the best to them I’m sure they’ll have it done up to their taste in no time.

I feel their pain. We recently moved to our second home. The people we bought from left it absolutely awful.

The house we moved from I made sure was spotless. Had the oven professionally cleaned just before moving (and then hired the same oven cleaners to come do our new one - literally scraps of food left in trays of grease).

I actually panicked after as realised in the final rush of completion I hadn't given the fridge a final wipe. But we had to pop back and pick some post up a couple of months later and the new owners thanked us for leaving it so clean. I would never leave a place a state!

When I was 18 and leaving the care system I was put into a rented flat which was an absolute state - I couldn’t really afford the cleaning products to sort it out but I had to just deal with it.

They’re in a situation where they own a property and have people cleaning it for them - I know this isn’t very sympathetic of me but 🤷‍♀️😂 it will be a distant memory in no time I’m sure.

There are obviously a lot of people who live like pigs .

We bought our house 10 years ago and in the 4 weeks between them accepting our offer (asking price) and us moving in as they were moving into family and wanted a quick sale. They managed to get wax allover the upstairs carpets, an iron burn in the middle of the living room one and the kitchen and bathroom looked like it hadn't been touched for the 4 weeks. They also left all kinds of rubbish in the built in cupboard in one of the rooms!
I think people just don't care once it's sold.

I just recently bought my first house and knew the place needed a bit of work but when I finally got the keys and took a look properly I questioned whether I had bought the right house. I had the same with the place being left filthy, they hadn't hovered so place was covered in hair, kitchen was tacky where walls covered in grease etc. Had even painted hair into the walls last time the house was decorated, its was disgusting. Evey job he had done to the house in 20 years of ownership is a seriously bad bodge job. I've had to rip everything out and basically start again as couldn't live in it. It's costing me a fortune to do but I know the house will now be safe and clean and I won't have to worry about anything. Should be in beginning october (fortunate I can stay at mums while I do the work). Next year I shall tackle the shambles of the garden... I hope you manage to help sort things out for your son.

Maybe it’s necessary to go and physically check the house just before exchange. In Scotland you aren’t allowed to visit once the offer is accepted which is crazy.

I have always taken great pride in ensuring I leave a property I've sold in immaculate condition. I recently got 11 out of 10 on my departure from an Air B&B! I recently helped some friends move and her DH's attitide was very laisez faire. I have been helping her declutter for a while (since Christmas) and was cleaning and decluttering their house for 2 weeks solidly before completion. I cant imagine what it would have between like if I had not done that. On moving day I had to bribe a neighbours builder with beer to let me use their skip. My friends was completely full and I knew it woud never be big enough when it was delivered. The DH thought it was fine to leave a load of crap for the new owners. We got out ok and it wasnt too bad once empty except that all the decor looked absolutely awful and the oven was not properly clean, I had only had time to do one Oven Pride on it! My Friend is absolutely lovely though and was incredibly grateful and thankful for my help.

Wow! I wish you were my friend!

This is normal in owned houses (as opposed to rented with full end of tenancy cleans).
In a previous move, we got all the furniture etc. into the van (several trips), and despite keeping a fairly clean home, it wasn’t until the rooms were completely empty that you could see the dust, fluff and dirt build up, behind where furniture would have sat. By this point I was broken and exhausted and didn’t have the mental nor physical capacity to do a full clean - especially when the next task was to get everything unloaded into the new place !

When I moved into my current home, the house had been empty for 18 months. We were doing some minor but messy renovations first, so had plenty of opportunity to deep clean before moving all of our stuff in. But we are moving again soon, and I know there will not be time for me to clean properly once the house is emptied, as I will be following the removal van to the next destination. Again, I know I will be so exasperated by the whole ordeal I will not be returning to clean - as I will probably be deep cleaning the new place before I can unpack, or even rebuild my bed lol ! No matter how clean the new place feels, I will want peace of mind that it’s up to my standard of cleanliness before I position all my furniture.

Thank goodness for M / MILs to help ! I had no help whatsoever. It is what it is I’m afraid, and although I’d be far too proud to leave my house in a filthy state for others, hopefully I’ve offered some perspective here. Also, the whole living in limbo state of trying to sell & buy, and the constant cleaning to show-home standard is stressful, and I know once we get an offer my cleaning schedule will definitely become more ‘relaxed’ lol !

My sister moved into a house and the grill pan was full of dirty fat and the oven was grim.
i was in the Army and when we moved out the house had to be pristine or you were for the high jump.

Cleaning is not contractual in a house sale. It’s good willed, and nice, but not contractual. As for the wasps nest, unless the buyers had a building ls survey and this was found in the building survey and requested by the purchased to be removed pre-exchange/ completion, then rough luck.
As a buyer your solicitor advises you to view the property immediately before exchange. Not many people take this up but once you’ve exchanged, to a degree you are contracted to buy as is at the point of exchange. Even the dirt and mess, if the buyers viewed again as their pre exchange viewing then they are accepting the house in that condition. Even if they say that the sellers didn’t clean the house from point of offer being made / agreed, then their fault for not viewing pre-exchange and raising the issue then. Not that complaining about a dirty house is going to get them far.