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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think people should actually clean their houses before moving out?

187 replies

vic1981 · 23/08/2014 02:14

I am more than somewhat annoyed. I spent ages cleaning my flat before moving out today, it was pristine. Also left a letter for the new owner with useful information about the house, such as where the stopcock was located etc with a card and bottle of champagne.

On arriving at my new place today have been confronted with an absolutely filthy house. Dirty toilets, not hoovered, deep in grime everywhere. Horrible smell pervading the house, previous owner has left things in the loft and garden. Oh, and the icing on the cake, cat shit on the bedroom floor.

Am I being unreasonable to think that you are supposed to make an effort to have a clean and tidy house when you move out?

OP posts:

whatever5 · 23/08/2014 13:03

You can only leave the house spotless if you have plenty of time between the removal men taking everything and completion though.

however · 23/08/2014 13:05

You can leave a place spotless with a bit of forethought and effort.

LapsedTwentysomething · 23/08/2014 13:09

Why don't people clean their fucking toilet rims? I haven't had the good fortune to move into a house where I haven't on cleaning the loo for the first time.

We have been reluctant landlord for a couple of years (just sold, hooray!) and an ex tenant who was supposedly a friend of mine clearly hadn't cleaned the toilet in nearly two years. It had been perfectly white before but after there was loads of green mankiness that took lots of scrubbing and chemicals to clean, and actual splashes of ground in shit behind the toilet itself. Orange bacteria everywhere. We don't speak.

whatever5 · 23/08/2014 13:10

You can leave a place spotless with a bit of forethought and effort.

Really? How would you get the place spotless if the removal men leave at 11.45 and the new owners are at the house wanting to move their stuff in on the dot after completion (12 o'clock).

TheRealAmandaClarke · 23/08/2014 13:16

Maybe nobody should bother and just arrange for your new place to be deep cleaned.

BitterAndOnlySlightlyTwisted · 23/08/2014 13:17

You don't need "plenty of time" to leave a property spotless. You just need to get your bloody finger out beforehand and not leave it until all of the furniture has been removed. In the last hour or two all that should need to be done is a final vacuum, a quick wipe down of kitchen surfaces and a final clean of the lav/s if necessary.

Pretending that it's too difficult or there isn't enough time is an excuse used by the stupid or the plain bone idle.

Any vendor who leaves a loft, garden or garage full of crap is the vendor who is most likely to turn up unannounced to collect their precious treasures days or even weeks after they've completed. A letter should be sent by the buyer's solicitor giving the vendor X number of days or it will all be sent to the dump. A few buyers have got lucky and found stuff that can be sold on ebay to compensate them for their trouble. Unfortunately, once the vendors have got their mitts on the buyer's money, many don't give a shit. There's a lot to be said for solicitors to hold onto a grand or so of the sale's funds, pending cleaning and completely clearing their sodding property.

Onesleeptillwembley · 23/08/2014 13:19

Even though the buyers of my house were complete twats, and I ended up (with grateful neighbours) swapping anything decent that was listed for older, tattier stuff, including fitted wardrobes, white goods, I still left the place clean. It's not just decency to leave a clean place, it's self respect. Admittedly it wasn't to military quarters standard, which as a Navy brat and member of the Army's wife (won't say Army wife) I know well, but certainly clean enough to move straight in.

exexpat · 23/08/2014 13:21

I moved into a rented house in Australia which the estate agents had supposedly checked and passed as having been professionally cleaned, including the carpets.

There was inch-thick grease and dead cockroaches in the grill pan, burnt food all over the base of the oven, rotting defrosting meat (for the previous tenant's dogs) in the freezer, stains and melted candle wax all over the carpets, dust and grime over every surface… I spent two weeks scrubbing everything, repainted most of the downstairs as the walls were so badly marked, and paid £300 to get the carpets properly cleaned. I did insist that the agents/landlord paid for exterminators to come and treat the place for cockroaches and also the flea infestation left behind by the old tenant's cats and dogs.

Then when we moved out a year or so later, the agents had the cheek to tell me I had to come back and clean more because there was some chimney-dust in the fireplaces.

RoganJosh · 23/08/2014 13:28

We asked out removal men to be out by 11. Keys weren't available till 12.30 I think.
Even if there had only been 15 mins between the two then you can still be cleaning each room as they finish. Obviously this is just a final hoover and dust of skirting boards, you've done a big clean of the kitchen and bathroom in advance.

It's always seemed a rush but possible when I've done it. That's been moving locally and far away.

Snugglepiggy · 23/08/2014 13:34

YANBU.20 years ago when we moved we knew the house needed a lot of work doing on it,but I was totally unprepared for the filthy state it was left in.It was a grim,wet winters day and it sounds pathetic but I sat down on the doorstep and cried having just spent days not only wrapping and packing our last house,but leaving it lovely and clean for the family moving in.
We're about to move again and in between work and packing I shall clean thoroughly as I go along.Why is that so hard to do ?If it's basically well cleaned it's just a question of moving furniture and boxes out and a quick vac round.I'm pretty hopeful this time as our next place looks to have been very well looked after and hopefully won't stink of cat pee.I own a cat and two dogs by the way and that's still no excuse for a mess.

however · 23/08/2014 13:38

By employing Roganjosh's methods, Whatever.

Forethought, and planning.

AnneElliott · 23/08/2014 13:42

YANBU. We cleaned out old place and left it spotless. I paid my cleaner to come and go it and my parents helped as well.

The place we moved into was horrible and I wanted to go back home

We had to get a whole new toilet as it was so bad.

HenriettaTurkey · 23/08/2014 13:56

'Spotless' is a challenge - but there are basic standards that can easily be met. We rent my old house out and recently had a change of tenants. Our (wonderful) outgoing tenants thoroughly cleaned everything before they left. It was immaculate - I know as we checked an hour after they'd gone.

Went back a couple of days later to update photos etc and there was a layer of dust over everything that had clearly been disrupted by moving. So you can leave it spotless but it doesn't last...

Having said that, a layer of moving dust is not the same as cat shit in the bathroom/grime on the oven/junk in the cellar.

whatever5 · 23/08/2014 14:09

It's not really a good idea to start hoovering and generally getting in the way when there are four removal men removing furniture and boxes of stuff especially if you also have small children. Why do you assume that everyone has an hour or two after they have gone? As I said, I only had about 15 minutes, between removal men leaving and the new owners arriving with their stuff.

aylesburyduck · 23/08/2014 14:22

When we moved the vendors parting shot was "sorry, we've shoved the vac round but it's not too bad"

Oh how I laughed... filthy mingers. I don't know about not cleaning since they accepted our offer. I doubt they'd ever cleaned beyond a quick shove round with the hoover and a squirt of pledge.

I cried.

whatever5 · 23/08/2014 14:27

Even if there had only been 15 mins between the two then you can still be cleaning each room as they finish. Obviously this is just a final hoover and dust of skirting boards, you've done a big clean of the kitchen and bathroom in advance.

They didn't finish a room at a time so that wasn't possible. Even if it was, we had very small children to keep an eye on. Not sure what you mean by a "big clean" of the kitchen. My kitchen is clean anyway apart from behind fridges, freezers and oven etc

MrsTaraPlumbing · 23/08/2014 14:32

If you don't have to move in the day the people move out you can pay a house cleaning company and if it is filthy that is money well spent.
We have employed them.
The company we used send a team of people with good equipment so the whole house is done within about 2 hours. Including professional oven cleaning and carpets shampooed.

m0therofdragons · 23/08/2014 14:35

You can clean the bathrooms while removal men are working then run the hoover round... How dirty are your homes in the first place? The kitchen cupboards will be empty as surely your stuff is boxed up so they can be cleaned and the oven (if built in) can be cleaned a few days before. I've lived in 3 homes and never had an issue. I scrubbed the tops of our last homes kitchen cupboards only to find they were replacing the kitchen. We did leave a loft full of stuff (dh was sorting it an I'd assumed it was all in the spare room but turned out the idiot put it all back in the loft so we had more space grrrr). We had to go back the following day and apologise while cramming it all into a Renault clio. Dh had to take stuff to the new house then come back for me as there wasn't space for a passenger... I went to a cafe and had cake!

TheRealAmandaClarke · 23/08/2014 14:44

You cannot do anything with small children around.

nocoolnamesleft · 23/08/2014 14:49

The bit that confuses me is how people have time to stay and clean afterwards when you have to hand over the keys, bomb it over to where you're moving to to pick up the new keys, and beat the removals van to your new place? I cleaned bathrooms/kitchen etc again at about 5am before they arrived, but no time to "just run around with a hoover and wipe everything down" after. Got charged extra as it was, as they had 2 guys to share the driving, and I needed a short break after 3 hers on the motorway, so they had to wait for me.

m0therofdragons · 23/08/2014 14:49

I have 3dc - a 6yo and 2yo twins... I manage to clean my house. Didn't realise I was so unusual

TheRealAmandaClarke · 23/08/2014 14:51

Theres no point in doing a really deep clean on your exit house. You are just as likely to have to do it at the new place unless you've made arrangements with the vendors of the new house.
Its definitely something that should routinely be written into the contracts. One way or the other.
The removal company makes a big difference. The vendors of our current house were still packing on the evening of moving day. If they had used a really good company that wouldn't have happened. And there would have been time for a clean.

whatever5 · 23/08/2014 14:53

nocoolnamesleft- My experience was similar. My house is pretty clean anyway and no way was I going to break my back doing a final clean to make things totally spotless.

m0therofdragons · 23/08/2014 14:53

We had to meet removal men at the house but they arrived before us and waited/ate their lunch. We handed our keys over at 12 pm but didn't get new house keys until 4 pm as the seller's solicitor was in meetings and didn't confirm money was received.
Yes it's stressful but there seem to be a lot of excuses on here from people justifying their muck.

nocoolnamesleft · 23/08/2014 14:58

Nah, just thinking this thread may be biased against families that don't have 2 adults with 2 cars.

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