Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to not paint the room before moving

130 replies

hangingshirt · 08/10/2018 03:13

DH and I are due to move in the next couple of weeks (due to exchange this week).

We haven't done anything to the house since we moved in 5 years ago as it was recently decorated in neutral colours just before we moved in. The only room we felt the need to decorate was the bedroom as we felt it was cosier with a bit of colour. So we painted the walls.

At the time we had a new baby DS so quickly moved furniture into the spare room/baby room and painted. Left it a few days then moved back in. DS then moved into his room a few weeks later.

We decided to sell up and move to a bigger place and try for DC2 (arriving sooner than originally planned Grin). We put house on the market, found a new place which brings us back round to this week where exchange is due to happen.

Here's the issue. When we painted the room we just wanted a quick fix so only moved the furniture we were able to. We couldn't move the wardrobe so just bought a small paint brush and tried to paint behind the wardrobe as much as possible. Obviously once the wardrobe is moved there's going to be a very obvious section of unpainted wall.

It's been about 2 years since we painted and we have both forgotten about it. It's only come up now as we have been reminiscing about the house and talking about a funny thing which happened while we painted the room. We now have no time to repaint the whole room which we would have to as we have forgotten the specific shade we used.

Do we/should we tell the buyers about this before exchange which could result in us losing our house. It's been 9 months from offer to now and there is a fairly long chain. I don't really know much about our buyers except they are a couple in their mid-late 30s and are first time buyers with no children.

AIBU to think no one would pull out of buying a house due to a poorly painted bedroom wall?

I already know we ABU for having such lazy decorating skills Blush

OP posts:
Elphabaisnotwicked · 08/10/2018 03:29

You really need to paint the room.

Original poster
hangingshirt · 08/10/2018 03:31

@Elphabaisnotwicked oh crap, I was hoping no one would say that 🤦🏻‍♀️

OP posts:
Redglitter · 08/10/2018 03:35

Personally I wouldn't bother. I certainly wouldn't mention it. No-one is going to pull out a house purchase because of a badly painted room. Chances are they'll paint it when they move in.

Bitchywaitress · 08/10/2018 03:37

You need to tell them or it’s a bit unfair. There is no way someone would pull out over this though surely!

Explain what’s happened and offer £200-£300 for them to fix the issue.

Original poster
hangingshirt · 08/10/2018 03:40

Ooh didn't think about offering them fixing money. Good idea. They may even have a wardrobe to cover the fixing area and then they can pocket the £300. Would we need to write this into the contract delaying any exchange though?

OP posts:
Redglitter · 08/10/2018 03:43

I think you're grossly over Thinking this. It's a bit of paint. Leave them a big tin of emulsion if you feel bad. Paying them hundreds & getting it put into a contract is mad. It'd be different if it was something major

ribblerobble · 08/10/2018 03:43

Could you not just paint the one affected wall with a 'contrast/feature' colour?

nzeire · 08/10/2018 03:44

Paint the room!

hopingandprayingthistime · 08/10/2018 03:45

You don't have any obligation to paint the wall. What makes you think that you do?

Redglitter · 08/10/2018 03:46

Could you not just paint the one affected wall with a 'contrast/feature' colour

That's a great idea. £20 for a tin of paint a couple of hours work and problem solved

Original poster
hangingshirt · 08/10/2018 03:48

On one hand I'm thinking that once exchanged and everyone has moved there's not much they can do when they realise the shitty wall apart from be pissed off - and by then we will be long go. Buyer beware and all that.

On the other hand I don't want bad karma. It's also a small town so chances are our paths may cross one day if they don't already. I don't want to be known as the couple who can't paint a wall properly

OP posts:
KC225 · 08/10/2018 03:50

Tin of good emulsion and a roller plus of bottle of wine

Original poster
hangingshirt · 08/10/2018 03:52

@hopingandprayingthistime well I don't know this is the thing.

OP posts:
Redglitter · 08/10/2018 03:53

I don't honestly think it's the kind of thing they're going to be telling everyone. It's just such a non thing. If you had a beautifully painted room and then when you took down pictures discovered the paint was now a different colour underneath it because it hadn't been sun faded would you feel.obliged to redecorate or leave the buyer hundreds of £s?

They'll probably have a laugh about it when they see it at first then do their own decorating and never give it a second thought.

You're really worrying over nothing

wombat1a · 08/10/2018 03:56

Just paint that wall only. If there are any questions later just tell the truth and that you didn't want to leave it as it was.

PyongyangKipperbang · 08/10/2018 04:06

Offer to leave the wardrobe free of charge.

SabineUndine · 08/10/2018 04:06

This is about 20 minutes’ work and you can’t decide? Just paint it.

tiddlyipom · 08/10/2018 04:08

I would paint the wall, it's a couple of hours work tops.

FrenchFancie · 08/10/2018 04:14

You’re under no obligation to paint, but if you are worried about bad feelings etc then either slap some emulsion on that one wall quickly after the wardrobe is moved, or leave nice wine and chocolates with a note explaining and apologising.
Most people redecorate a house when they move in anyway, don’t they?

hailstone1 · 08/10/2018 04:24

They'll probably redecorate themselves anyway. I don't know what the fuss is about

glintandglide · 08/10/2018 04:26

I wouldn’t bother- you don’t buy a perfect house, you just buy what you get after viewing. There is always something. Personally I wouldn’t want a DIY job anyway

LellyMcKelly · 08/10/2018 04:28

Don’t bother. Don’t apologise, Don’t explain. Nobody buys a perfect house unless it’s brand new. They’ll probably want to repaint it themselves and will have a wardrobe to cover if ip until then.

MrsTerryPratchett · 08/10/2018 04:32

I love MN World. It takes 'five minutes' to do a load of laundry and 20 minutes to paint a wall.

Of course it doesn't.

BigGreenOlives · 08/10/2018 04:36

We bought a house 2 years ago - lots of places where the walls were different colours where they hadn’t moved furniture. They’d even changed rooms’ colours in between when they had photos taken and when we viewed the house. Do nothing, it’ll be fine.

IamtheDevilsAvocado · 08/10/2018 04:55

If you can't be arsed, can you pay a student 50£ to just paint the wall a feature colour..? Not too far from the other walls colours...

If I didn't have furniture to cover, I'd be a bit pissed off that I had to immediately redecorate to cover a previously hidden huge gap,

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

Join Mumsnet Log In

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.