To leave money for cleaner for buyers?

[Shahlalala]

I’m not going to leave a mess! I will vacuum and do all sides and cupboards, but i’m Going to struggle to get it to an amazing standard with a 4 year old and I’m 22 weeks pregnant too (not that big I know but the whole move is exhausting me).
Would it be a CF thing to say I know it’s not immaculate, but here’s £50 towards a cleaner coming in?
They are re-doing the kitchen and redecorating other bits so it will need a clean after that anyway....

'Not immaculate' doesn't equal 'filthy'. 'Cleaned to an everyday decent standard' is normal and acceptable but is not 'immaculate'.

Most people clean anyway when they move in.

Only if the vendor has left the place minging. The buyers are ALSO moving house, exhausted, have just cleaned their own place, etc.

Perhaps a bottle of wine and card welcoming them to their new home, with a brief apology about it not being immaculate due to your pregnancy, might be a cheaper but nice touch.

Good grief. So essentially the card reads "I know the house I sold you still needs cleaning, but can't be arsed to book a cleaner myself. Here's another job for you to complete in the throes of moving."

As to "might be cheaper" - that's pretty insulting to the people who are paying a 5-figure sum to buy the OP's house. Why not organise a cleaner AND leave the buyers a nice card & a bottle? After all, they are the people who have made it possible for the OP to sell her current gaff & presumably move into another one which she prefers.

Just leave it clean. I'd probably get the window cleaner to do inside and outside then hoover, mop, wipe down surfaces and clean the oven / bathrooms - empty house shouldn't take long

No, people don’t deep clean houses on moving out.
Unless they are renting and it’s in their contract.

EXACTLY @insancerre

Unless you were renting and wanting your deposit back, the vast majority of people would not be doing a deep clean. The very idea of doing it when you are selling your house is bizarre!

@heartshapedknob

The last time we moved, I left one house sparkling clean and moved into a midden. It took three hours to steam the kitchen floor, cupboards covered in grease etc. Made moving day more difficult than it needed to be.

Yep this. I have bought and sold 5-6 times, and every single time I have moved into a new home, it's been either a) in decent condition, but in need of a clean and redecoration, or b) a damn shit-tip, that has needed a few 1000 spending on it to fix its flaws, to deep-clean/steam-clean it, replace broken stuff we never noticed when we viewed the property, and remove loads of rubbish left etc. No home has ever been cleaned, let alone deep cleaned.'

And whilst we have never left our home (that we sold) a shithole, and we have always left it in reasonable condition, we have certainly never thoroughly cleaned/deep-cleaned it when we sold it. I mean, this may come as a shock to some, but we actually cleaned it when we lived in it, so it didn't need much doing to it really...

So unless you have lived in filth and squalor for the last few years @Shahlalala - you don't need to worry about deep-cleaning the house you are selling!

One house we bought the sellers had left, stuff in all of the fitted wardrobes, food in the kitchen cupboards, 3 skips of shit in the back garden and a puppy who had peed all over the downstairs carpets in the back garden 9why they thought we would just take on a peeing puppy i dont know) so im sure yours wont be half as bad just do a general tidy and maybe hoover the carpets before you go they can put their furniture in place cos im fairly sure that is what your sellers will do

Three of the times we've bought a house they have been left in a filthy condition.
The first we expected, the previous owner had died and hadn't been upstairs for 10 years.
The second time we didn't expect at all, it was really clean on the viewings but disgusting when we got the keys. Un flushed toilets, old food in the cooker, stains all over the carpets.
This time we kind of expected it as there was a lot of dust/cobwebs when we viewed. I probably wasn't prepared for the sheer amount of filth though. Again cooker looked like it had never been cleaned and had old food in it. The kitchen bin was left and over flowing. Also there was a lot of random crap left behind.It didn't seem much initially as it was spread out but gathered together it was an awful lot. I don't know if she learned our plans to renovate and though ah fuck it there's no point or she was just lazy.

In my experience, they do. It's not really a deep clean though really is it? It's an empty house so you are really talking about an hour or so to ensure that bathrooms, floors and windowsills etc are clean. You clean kitchen cabinets and built in wardrobes etc as you are packing them up.

Lat time we moved in it was absolutely disgusting and no effort had been made at all. You really do t want to be caring the previous occupiers hair from your shower and baths etc.

I'd be really embarrassed by a buyer having to deal with my family's dirt and dust and grease. Even if it's not expected I just find the idea of someone else having to scrub my dirt really mortifying.

My flat wasn't deep cleaned when I bought it and I didn't expect it to be! Is this really a thing? I'd expect the toilet to have been scrubbed etc but nothing beyond a normal household clean. If the seller had left me £50 for a cleaner it would probably have just been absorbed into my decorating budget.

There was a thread on here not that long ago with moving in horror stories and people had bought houses with all sorts of filth left behind (including, in some cases, the previous owners themselves and/or their unwanted pets). In comparison a "not amazing" cleaning effort is hardly a grave injustice.

@isseywithcats they left a puppy

But @PCohle surely you'd leave it the regular level of clean you live in anyway? Unless you tend to live in dust and grease then why would your house be like that on moving day??

I'm a really clean person. I never deep cleaned a house when moving nor expected the new place to be spotless.

On the morning of the move the movers are loading the vans, which takes ages, it exposes dust when furniture is moved, you see the marks on the walls all of a sudden. You've got to be out by noon so there's no time to sort it out and beside the cleaning gear is packed. A hoover of the worst dust and wiping spills from bathroom and kitchen is the most I'd do.

New house gets a hoover before we unpack. New cupboards get wiped before we fill them. This is completely normal

Money left for a cleaner would be weird.

We've always cleaned houses we have sold to the best of our ability, assumed it was the norm.

Incidentally, we took photos of the mess left a d went to our lawyers about it and they agreed it was in no way acceptable but said its very difficult to claim as people's view of clean can be different. Ours had one clean spot in the bath where their head had been resting. They were moving to a larger new build nearby. DH gathered up the shit they left behind, including a tub of stagnant water left on the deck, and drove it to their house and dumped it on their new garden.

@PChole

I'd be really embarrassed by a buyer having to deal with my family's dirt and dust and grease. Even if it's not expected I just find the idea of someone else having to scrub my dirt really mortifying.

Like @EstrellaDamn I am also confused as to why a new buyer would have to deal with your family's filth and shit and grime and dust.

As Estrella said, do you not clean your house when you are living in it?

How bizarre!

Unless you live in squalor and are a complete lazy slob for the duration of living in your house, there would absolutely no need to deep clean it on leaving it!

I booked a cleaner for moving day. She helped me clean as the removers emptied the house (behind all furniture etc) and then drive with us (was local move) and helped clean as we moved into new house. Was a blessing and god send and for £100 was money well spent

TowelNumber42

I'm a really clean person. I never deep cleaned a house when moving nor expected the new place to be spotless.

Exactly this.^

Most people 'clean as they go', and keep their house clean and tidy when they're living there, and do not need to 'deep-clean' when they sell their house!

And as I said, (and many others have said,) it's perfectly acceptable to just leave it in reasonable condition. For a start, most people would be too busy to faff around deep cleaning the house they are selling, and also, most people wouldn't need to do that, unless their house is a utter shithole that they have not cleaned for 5 years!

No...don't do that!

Just leave it the best you can...that's what most people do and most people expect.

Because my regular cleaning doesn't account for moving out of the house, including furniture and fitted kitchen appliances being moved from long standing positions.

Plus the level of grime etc I'm comfortable with inflicting on total strangers is far less than for my family and friends!

Presumably if OP is finding cleaning "to an amazing standard" for her buyers difficult then her house isn't currently deep cleaned to a gleaming degree.

I wouldn't bother, especially as you know they're renovating.

When my neighbour died his daughters spent a whole weekend cleaning and tidying the garden. New people had a skip on the drive the day they moved in, ripped everything out and dug up all the front to pave it.

WTAF??!!

People pay for a deep clean and for a window cleaner before they leave?

Surely just move all your stuff out and see none of your shit is left behind (belongings or otherwise)?

I'm moving and so am cleaning out drawers and cupboards as I go but will be getting the moving company to pack. I'm sure it won't look pristine once the furniture is removed though.

We don't have the luxury of owning two properties, for even a short time, when we move.

If time allows, I will run the hoover round where furniture has stood (some is too heavy for me to move myself) so can't do it in advance.

In other words I will do my best!

The place we are moving to is owned by someone that has another property very close by and can move into it a few days or weeks before they Complete. They have told me they will be getting the one we are buying deep cleaned. I'm very lucky.

Well an end of tenancy clean is circa £80-£150 so £50 isn’t going to touch it. Why not book a deep clean yourself?

I don’t live in squalor!!! There is no shit, grease and grime!
It feels a mess at current because we are packing and there is stuff all over the place, which I find hard to handle.
I think I’m just over thinking everything, I’ve never sold before so many it’s the thinking from absolutely blitzing rentals to ensure I get the deposit back.
It will be clean as usual, no rubbish or food or anything awful like that. I think I’ll leave it at that.

We are moving 6 hours away, which was part of my thinking for paying for a clean so I can set off with DD without too much delay after the stuff is packed up.