AIBU to not paint the room before moving

[hangingshirt]

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 ). 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

Leave it. We couldn’t paint behind our big Ikea wardrobes and won’t be moving them in advance if we leave here. Any new owners would cope I am sure.

I have just noticed the plastic box lid on top of the wardrobe!

I painted two walls for my new buyers in diferent rooms and left flowers and prosecco purely on the basis of karma. I did this because the first house I bought the seller did the same so I consider it to be good form.

Don't tell them before exchange. Tell them after, and give them a bit of cash to fix it. (Cash, not anything contractual.)

I once moved into a place and went in to bedroom to see that the wallpaper had been wallpapered around the furniture. Who actually wallpapers around furniture?!? But I found it funny, and less to strip off the walls!!

Really, don’t worry about it.

I wouldn't bother. It's a complete non-issue.

Houses are bought as-seen which is why you have to pay for all the searches and surveys to satisfy yourself of their quality. Anything that isn't revealed during this process is not your problem. If at any point the buyers asked "and does the paint fully cover all the walls" and they were answered with an unequivocal "yes" then you would have an obligation to make good. Otherwise not.

If you are worried about karmabut don't want yo do it then leave them a welcome card/bottle of fizz on the side with a £50 Homebase (or wherever near you sells paint) voucher for the paint.

There's a big mirror in my lounge that I suspect has something heinous underneath it, because it has remained in the past two house sales. I imagine sellers planning to take it, finding the horror underneath, then deciding to leave it there.

I have actually found traces of bright red paint under the window sills, so might be onto something! Either way we're going to follow tradition and leave it there.

You don’t need to do anything, it’s a complete non-issue. I wouldn’t think twice about this as a vendor or a buyer.

Anything is surely better than our house when we moved in - lady had previously worked for a little DIY/homewares shop, so each room was decorated in whatever was left over I imagine. So lime green gloss on all walls in 1 room, bubblegum pink gloss in another room - including ceilings!!

I wouldn't bother either. If you feel really guilty, then leave a note "sorry, completely forgot we didn't paint behind the wardrobes until we took them down" and a box of chocolates in the room.

It wouldn't make me pull out from the sale, but i would be pissed off if I wasnt given any warning. When my husband and I bought our current house, we chose it over others specifically because it didnt need any work done.

Wont they see it at the final check once you've moved out though? Or doesnt that happen in the UK?

Our vendors child had a party, which involved them painting one room completely black. We did not find out until we moved in. It would not have changed our mind about the purchase. They covered it quickly with cheap shit Homebase paint. It was streaky and uneven, splats of both black and off white on the carpets and light switches etc. It looked dreadful because it had been done in such a rush. I would far rather they had just left it for us to sort in our own time.

Oh god no! We discovered all sorts of mini bodge jobs when we moved it. Don’t people expect that?

I wouldn't worry. They will almost certainly want to repaint the walls themselves.

You see I don't understand this, I know very few people, who unless buying a doer upper, want to buy a house and start redecorating right away.

However, it's one wall, it's half an hours work, it's no big deal for either party,

Leave it! It's amazing what comes to light when furniture is moved out.
It's pretty common sadly and buyers just have to suck it up

@Bluntness100 see I wouldn't say that was often the case from my experience. The majority of people I know who bought houses that weren't doer-upers still wanted to be able to put their touch on the house, which usually involves basic painting and/or wallpapering, just didn't want to do major work.
Those wanting to do nothing/near nothing bought new or recently renovated houses.

This happened to me. The owner (not resident) was very apologetic as he only discovered it on moving day. I’m intending to redecorate anyway so it makes no odds to me, though I’m a bit put out that I actually should have demanded £300, £280 of which would have been clear profit after I had bought a pot of paint.

I wouldn't get too stressed over it. They'll probably redecorate anyway, especially if the whole house hasn't been done for some years.

It could be worse - we moved into our house when I was pregnant with DD1 to discover the previous owner had laid carpet cut to fit around furniture!!

I’d usually expect to paint a house. I think of a doer-upper as something that needs more than cosmetic input.

i wouldn't worry. its not as if its structurally not-sound or anything, its just a bit of paint

Don't leave money, or tell them, or do anything like that. A nice thing to do would be to leave the tin of paint in the right colour so they could touch it up themselves if they want to.

No one will care, they'll have a plan for redecorating everywhere anyway.

Leave a moving box, ( toilet roll, tea, sugar, list of keys, wine, welcome to home card) then put magnolia paint Tin in room - if you want to feel better

You don't need to paint. Is buyer beware if they didn't look behind furniture, not u're problem.