Removal etiquette - cleaning ?

[oncemoreuntothebeachdearfriends]

This is about owners, not renters who presumably have rules to obey.

In my experience, the incomers always clean.

Pointless vacuuming or washing floors when the removal men are tramping in & out.
Can't clean inside cupboards as they are not emptied until the actual day.
Bathrooms should be left clean of course.
All cleaning materials are also packed away.
Never been a problem for me. In a new place, I clean cupboards etc before unpacking boxes, vacuum after the men have gone.

However, a good friend received a very rude e-mail from her buyers about the state of the place when they arrived. They demanded she pay for a deep clean.
She denied it was dirty, & told the CFs to pay for it out of the £10,000 she'd knocked off the selling price.

I hope to move soon, & was wondering if the etiquette has changed since I last moved.

I always thoroughly clean and leave house and garden spotless and neat. I paid for the oven to be professionally cleaned when I sold my last house and fixed a new fence panel, etc

We thoroughly cleaned before we left, including paying to have the oven cleaned professionally.

In stark contrast, the house we moved into was grotty. Cupboards and shelves (which we'd bought off the vendors) were dusty, there were condiments left in the sticky kitchen cupboards and the oven was grimy, with a dirty baking tray left inside. It wasn't years of ingrained dirt or anything, but it was all just very grubby and I didn't appreciate having to clean other people's filth before I could unpack.

I would always clean before I leave - I wouldn't want the buyers thinking I was a slob!

We’ve used packers. You still need to clean! Nothing crazy, but hoovered, wiped down. It’s grim to leave all of your dirt for someone else to encounter when they move in.

Clean as you leave! My houses have always been cleaned, hoovered, dusted. My current house was minging when we got the keys. It has since transpired they were dickheads in all sorts of ways

The oven was so dirty we couldn't heat up the pizzas we brought for tea. The professional cleaning company thought it didn't have a light until they found it. They found a charcoaled sausage in the bottom. These were people with 3 kids in a nice middle class area.

It’s funny, everyone (including me!) says ‘I clean my houses thoroughly when I leave but the houses I move into are always filthy’. Someone must be moving into these thoroughly cleaned houses 😁

I cried moving into my last house as it was filthy. They hadn't cleaned in about 6 months(it took that long to complete), the toilet was brown and took lots of elbow grease to get it white, the bath was blocked I pulled out almost a wig of hair 🤮. The teenage son had scored something into the wall in his bedroom. The carpets were disgusting and there was rice in the sink and we had to get the oven professionally cleaned before even using it.

When I moved into my current flat, my cats got fleas (which distressed me as they had never had fleas before).

I've always left the property in a clean condition, probably because I watched my parents move out of army quarters and they had to leave it spotless.

Vacuum carpets, mop hard floors, wipe down cupboards, and if it is summer have mowed the lawn in the final few days. Not that hard, and it’s grim moving into somebody else’s dirt. Of course they will clean again one the removal people have left, but you don’t want to start off knowing that your heavy furniture has someone’s nasty fluff behind it!

I have alwasy thoroughly cleaned my houses prior to moving out, I would hate anyone to move in to a dirty house. However this has never been the case for me, I have moved multiple times and each time my new home has been dirty and required cleaning before I could unpack - I think it's lazy and thoughtless to just pack up and leave.

I've cleaned the flats and houses I've moved out of and fortunately the ones I've moved into have been clean. It's just good manners.
When I've moved into a house I'm buying, in both cases the vendor left a welcoming bottle of wine and a card, which prompted me to do the same.

We cleaned after the removal men had packed and moved out all the furniture and boxes.

We’d cleaned before that as well, so it was just a case of hoovering and mopping once it was all empty really.

We had the removal firm pack for us - same team as loaded the van. Meant we could clean a lot of rooms the night before moving out.

Well worth paying for packing as it's not much more in the scheme of things and means you live normally with no packing stress until a day or two before you move. The pack better and faster than you can. But they will pack absolutely everything if you let them - like a bin with rubbish in it!

I have to admit I couldn't clean before I left when we last moved, absolutely intended to but a catalogue of errors with our removal firm-turned late in a too small lorry, plus a very early completion/ money transfer time 11am! Meant that the people moving in were waiting outside as we hurriedly put things in our neighbours garden in the rain whilst waiting for second lorry.
Nightmare, I wanted to hoover and clean my way out but literally didn't have time... And in the stress DH unthinkingly packed hoover (and kettle and mugs!)
I had cleaned as much as possible beforehand but with the rain and time pressure muddy foot prints got in the house and to top it all one of the last things the removers did was pull out the the white goods-eek! Felt really embarrassed to leave before cleaning but had no choice as it was legally no longer our house and buyers were waiting outside.
But in an ideal world definitely clean before leaving.

Your friend is bu.

I’ve always cleaned thoroughly when moving out. I’d be ashamed to leave the place dirty for the new owners.

Normal practice to clean when moving out: tough when movers pull out furniture and years of dust descends!

My last contract said only place had to be ‘brush clean’

I made a lot of effort cleaning my previous home as I left, only to find the new owners re-did it all!

House I moved into was disgustingly: I hired a team of cleaners to get it ready before moving in (think we had 1 day to do it as completion date changed which was lucky!)

I've moved 3 times and the first time I cleaned as I packed up rooms. The other 2 times I've had a cleaner to do it for me. Delivery drivers pack up lorry first thing in morning and out by 10am. Cleaner comes for about 1 1/2 hours when house is empty. We complete around noon. I've also booked a cleaner to do new house before we get removals people to unpack as no guarantee it will be left clean.

You just heard of one! It’s the only way to move!

I bought a new house in July and it was left spotless. Obviously I did not know this would be the case and so I had booked a cleaner and when I opened the oven door it was obvious the previous owner either never cooked or had a professional oven clean prior to selling. All windows were sparkling too. Grass was cut and edged which made DH very happy. They were 3 hours late moving out though. They had issues with removal van people not arriving on time. We went for a meal, came back and they were still waiting for first load to be unloaded and to return for second load. The sellers kept apologising and they had bought us some wine to leave in house which we ended up drinking together.

We kept the hoover out and cloths etc and vacuumed and gave everYthing a wipe down. That all went in our car as we had packers too. I cleaned the tops of kitchen cupboards etc the week before. I wasn’t leaving it dusty or not vacuumed .

I’ve moved into some filthy places.

our first house the landlord had been renting it out and came over from Ireland specifically to clean it before we moved in (we were buying).

yea, you should clean.

Not if you have paid for the removal people to pack. They empty the cupboards as they pack (at the speed of light).

It's interesting that (most) renters manage the juggling act of moving all their furniture and cleaning - because they have to, yet there seems to be a lot of excuses when you're selling even though the practicalities are identical.

I would think it easier to overlap renting by 48hrs (just the extra rent for 2 days) than when selling and buying as you need the proceeds from the house sale to buy the new one.

Just moved recently and left ours spotless. We had been packing for a while and every cupboard and drawer was cleaned as they were emptied. I even mopped the bottoms of the built in wardrobes.

Although it looked OK on the surface, the house we moved to hadn’t been cleaned.
DH had made several trips to the tip before moving. Our vendors ( who had been lovely) left allsorts in drawers and wardrobes. There were loads of old coat hangers, clothes, random items in drawers
( crisp crumbs in cupboard over the bed, melted sweet in bedroom draw, a urine sample bottle!) Had to deep clean before we could unpack.

Happily settled in now and we do love it. Another thing I’d say is don’t use lots of air fresheners and plug ins. I’m asthmatic DH had to go round removing air fresheners and opening doors and windows before I arrived.