To not deep clean house before move

[screamer1]

Backstory is our buyers have massively pissed us about. Our place went to best and final offers, the buyers went in really high (over asking price). Estate agent advised they were a good bet, chain free, young couple with small child. We obviously accepted their offer.

They really started dragging their heels, and then 2 weeks before exchange they dropped their offer massively. Everyone was so far down the road with surveys, solicitors etc that we all dug deep to salvage the sale (essentially is, and the two other above us have absorbed their shortfall, which is now leaving us out of pocket).

Basically I feel pretty resentful about it, wibu and very pretty not to do a proper clean of the house? Obviously I won't leave it in a tip, but I feel like I don't want to waste my time scrubbing cupboards for people who essentially fucked us over.

And yes, very worthwhile selling and moving to rental, zap any power purchasers think they have.

Agents are to blame for a practice that was dropped and blocked previously by agents that now sounds to have been well and truly put back on the map.

Seems gazundering and gazundering and gazundering back all firmly back on the property market shit games list of agents

When someone offers way over asking price, it’s pretty much a dead cert they’ll reduce their offer close to exchange of contracts, backing you into a corner. That should have been the warning sign!

I’d want to not clean but couldn’t bring myself to walk out without hoovering, thorough clean of kitchen and bathroom(s) etc.

Every home I’ve lived in has been left spotless on completion. and every house I’ve moved into seems to have had filthy fuckers living there, who’ve left the place in a grotty state, including a lovely collection of toenail clippings sprinkled liberally over a bedroom carpet.

We had to saw up the carpets when we moved in. First night, I went for a shower, took one look, and decided to stay dirty. Took me two days to clean the loo, plus a litre of acid.

Never seen anywhere so filthy, lovely now.

Why would they be bothered either way , they got what they wanted

Thanks all, I would definitely move into rental next time too (this is what we did on our first house sale and it definitely made the whole selling / buying process a lot less stressful). Incidentally I left that place absolutely spotless because the people who bought the property had been no trouble at all.

I'm trying to be a bit more zen about this process, and realise that we accepted their lower offer. However we were in a pretty impossible situation (needing to move before school applications, found a house we'd loved etc). It just doesn't seem like a very honourable way to go about things, but they're £50,000 better off than we are now so I guess it does, literally, pay to behave like twats.

Anyway, I'm not going to leave any dirty protests, but I'm also not going to go out of my way to make this place sparkle for them.

I wouldn't have minded being gazumped ChristmasSprite but the bastard definitely gazundered us

To the OP who asked about having time for a deep clean, we purposefully moved out before the date we needes to so had flexibility to do the carpets etc. I've always managed it with rentals too in order to clean.

I think it's just being spiteful. I don't think there's a need for deep clean anyway, clean and tidy yes but don't go mad. I did a clean and vacuumed but it gets dusty anyway from moving furniture. I didn't pull wardrobes and the likes out beforehand.

*vacuumed when it was empty

*pp who asked about..

I think it's a bit spiteful to leave it dirty. I had to clean for ages when we moved into its house and tbh I'd begrudge having to work that hard on cleaning if we moved again now that I have two kids

You definitely have to clean the rental when you move from it. You'll lose your security deposit by missing a random bloody cobweb in most of those.

Well, by your logic you're expecting to move into a filthy house anyway, as the people you bought off also had to drop the price and so presumably are entitled to feel just as full of rage about you... I sort of think this is what you get for playing games like 'best and final offer' in a pretty dodgy market. You put them in a position where they were essentially encouraged to over offer, and so they did.

Ours is a slightly different situation as we part-exed our house so they moved into our house and we moved into theirs. My mum came round to help us clean, we scrubbed kitchen units, cleaned down skirting boards etc...
I could have cried when I realised they hadn't done the same.

I think it's a bit harsh to say I put them in that position. I'm not a housing expert and took advice from the estate agents, them being the professionals and all. And their advice was to go to best and final.

My issue isn't just that they dropped their price. It's because it was calculated. Any subsequent recalibration of prices has been in response to them dropping by 50k two weeks before exchange.

@HariboLecter additionally I never said I was going to leave it filthy. I just said I'm not going to be on my hands and knees scrubbing the skirting boards. Every thread I've read on here about moving suggests doing a deep clean first.

I couldn't leave a house filthy. However I always seem to move in the winter and the actual moving out day seems to create lots of mess ( three times out of three it's been sleet / snow) Then I've been aware that the floors will be mucky even if I've cleaned then for days beforehand. Couldn't leave cupboards and skirting boards etc not scrubbed though, that's just minging

I've never deep cleaned a house when we leave.
Don't have the time.
Have hoovered each room thoroughly once empty, but how am I meant to shampoo carpets when my furniture is still there at 9am and we have to hand key over at 12?

All you "deep cleaners", explain exactly how you deep clean a house at the same time as moving out?

@screamer1 sorry I should've said I just wished I'd not bothered with the old place - them leaving it dirty was the straw which broke the camel's back, after loads of last minute issues. I don't think actually YABU. Give it a swish round with a duster & Hoover, it'll be fine (and remove anything not listed on the inventory).

breakfast as each room is emptied, Hoover, wipe down skirting boards, door frames etc... (well that's what my lovely mum did )

I always leave houses clean, some totally spotless when they have been military married quarters as you have a march out inspection.

I will leave tins of paint labelled with the room that they "belong" to though (private houses) so that the new owners can use it if they damage anything moving their belongings in.

Breakfast I deep clean by moving my stuff out into the new house the day before I move out of the old one (or a few days if it has been in transit by ship etc) and just keeping a kettle, mug and coffee, sleeping bag and cleaning materials and spend a very trying day cleaning. Appreciate that it's not always possible to do this though!

BreakfastAtSquiffanys I said up thread, we've always been fortunate with dates and able to move out a few days before we needed to (easier to do in rental, and when selling/buying we weren't in a chain so no moving in a day etc) so were in a position to deep clean for a couple of days at the end. I know It's not always possible.

I had already moved out of my former home before putting it on the market so was able to spend a bit of time getting it nice & clean before the first viewing.
I was leaving all white goods. There was an established garden - my pride and joy! I made sure that during last summer's heat, I kept the garden watered, weeded & the lawn mowed.
It was repainted (a week of my holiday!), a new (albeit cheap) carpet in the living room/bedrooms and a deep clean of the kitchen and bathrooms. All windows & blinds cleaned.
The only thing I didn't get round to was cleaning the oven. I always meant to do it whenever I came over to do the garden but knackered after the gardening, I would forget. What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over.
So they could move in, they had manuals for all the white goods, light bulbs, unused tins of paint, even had some decent gardening tools in the mini-shed & a beautifully tended garden. They just had to clean the oven!
There were no complaints.

I then bought a shit hole & negotiated the price accordingly to pay for renovations, new bathrooms & kitchen which were disgusting! The owners couldn't be arsed to do anything to sell the place, they'd had no offers because of the state of the house, I was a cash buyer who got a £85k discount because of their shoddy housekeeping...

I wouldn't be lifting a finger between now and moving day.