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Original poster

To think that there's a house selling etiquette?

108 replies

1onelyranger · 01/10/2019 10:48

DP has just bought a house. It's filthy - crumbs in the cupboards, grafted woodwork, claggy oven and hob, the sink Envy, marbles all over the garden path... Oddly the bathroom isn't too bad.

When I sold my previous house DM, nowEx and me cleaned it spotless. We left a bottle of wine and a toilet roll. I think that's just normal.

What have been your house-moving acts of kindness and horror discoveries?

OP posts:
VanGoghsDog · 01/10/2019 11:54

I cleaned the last house I sold - followed the removal men round with the hoover and a duster.

I had done the bathroom early as nothing to pack in there.

I really really didn't want to still be there when the new owners arrived.....I had done everything, just in time.....and one of the removal men asked if he could use the loo. I mean, you can't say no, can you?

He was in there aaaaages! Anyway, I'd already packed up all the cleaning supplies etc, so I had to just leave and hope he'd not made a mess.

I had left them a bottle of fizz and a card.

endofthelinefinally · 01/10/2019 11:54

Moved into our current house and found the boiler was broken, all the plug holes were blocked with long hair, drains blocked, all sorts of things that had been carefully concealed. It was a freezing cold January and those first few weeks were miserable because we just didn't have the spare cash to fix everything.
We left our previous house spotless.

Kaddm · 01/10/2019 11:56

It's all very well to say, oh yes, we cleaned ours until it was spotless, left wine, flowers, takeaway menus etc...when in reality, the majority of people struggle and stress just to get everything out in time. As long as you don't leave the place filthy, horrible or dangerous then it's fine.

lovemenorca · 01/10/2019 11:59

Even if it was clean when I moved in

I always get a couple of cleaners in day we complete to do a top to bottom

LucyAutumn · 01/10/2019 12:00

We bought our first house last year. When we finally got the keys the front lawn was a meter high, there were 19 pots of half used paint left in the utility, thr shed was left full of rusty tools/ bbq and heavy garden waste, a wardrobe was left- broken, the tumble drier that had been part of the sale was broken, the inside of the oven was covered in blacked fat and grease, a hole in the skirting board that led straight through the wall outside had been blocked with what I can only assume was dog hair, the whole house was filthy and there were dead flies/ cellar spiders and snail trails everywhere! Thank god we love this place!

SchadenfreudePersonified · 01/10/2019 12:00

That happened to my DS - no lightbulbs, no door handles Hmm

lovemenorca · 01/10/2019 12:01

I just wouldn’t trust previous owners approach to cleaning even if it looked “spotless”!

SchadenfreudePersonified · 01/10/2019 12:02

I think you wind LucyAutumn

I can't imagine they get much worse than that!

Beautiful3 · 01/10/2019 12:03

I deep cleaned our last house and left flowers and a card to say welcome to your new home. The house we moved to was reasonably clean but they were still moving their stuff out while we were waiting?! They decided to do it themselves. When they left I rang their solicitor to tell them to come and get the rest of their junk from the garden. They just left it there and said be back for that later?! They did return and collect after my phone call. I was so annoyed.

WonderWomansSpin · 01/10/2019 12:04

The last time we moved, the previous owners had paid for a deep clean but it wasn't clean at all. We ended up having a cleaning party with friends, wine and lots of cleaning stuff.

LucyAutumn · 01/10/2019 12:04

Oh, and when we dug up the hedge in the back garden (to make room for a vegetable patch) the soil had been filled in with full rubbish bags, a whole archway of bricks (we're going to re-use these elsewhere) and styrofoam!

SinkGirl · 01/10/2019 12:05

When we sold our mum’s house, we cleaned it spotlessly and I wrote multiple pages about how certain things worked (underfloor heating, boiler, water filter system, keys for window locks, location of mains taps, key for meter box etc etc).

Arrived at new house to a mess, a note saying “bins go out Thursday but they’re full”. Took us a month to find the water mains tap (was very well hidden), didn’t have keys for the window locks, etc. Was actually quite annoying. Still, better than my friend who arrived in her new house to find the tenants had ripped up and stolen the flooring, taken all lightbulbs, nicked appliances that were included in the sale, etc. Think they got compensation from the seller in the end but was a nightmare to sort out.

inlectorecumbit · 01/10/2019 12:06

When we bought a flat for DD to use for Uni we were left with

  1. a used bar of soap complete with hair
  2. 2 cooked sausages in the grill
  3. a dish of butter in cupboard
  4. a dirty mug of ? tea
  5. a credit card Grin

To be honest when we viewed it, the man selling it looked like Rab C Nesbitt- complete with string vest -so l wasn't completly surprised !

SinkGirl · 01/10/2019 12:07

The house we moved to was reasonably clean but they were still moving their stuff out while we were waiting?! They decided to do it themselves.

This is pretty standard - some of our stuff was still on the drive when our new buyers arrived, same with the house we moved into and our buyers said it was the same with theirs - it takes time to empty and load everything!

thenightfury · 01/10/2019 12:07

When we bought ours it was filthy. Took me days to strip it top to bottom. Oven was minging. When we sell it I'll be leaving it spotless!

thenightfury · 01/10/2019 12:09

Oh yeah. Mine also asked me to look after her cat while she got her house unpacked 🤬 I was only 19 when we moved in and a bit timid so I just said yeah. She didn't even leave me any food for him!!

MissRabbitNeedsAHoliday · 01/10/2019 12:09

We bought our house from someone who has a massive Instagram following, she looks perfect all the time and posts pictures of her luxury holidays. House was disgusting Envy (not envy)
Dog hair was actually everywhere! Oven was disgusting. Big orange rim around the bath from fake tan! I spent about £50 on cleaning products the day we got the keys. They also smashed most of the lights in a rush to move the furniture out, that was a nice surprise. I have a little chuckle every time I see on of her Instagram stories now knowing what her life is really like behind the scenes!

Gothichouse40 · 01/10/2019 12:11

We have moved only once or twice in our long married life. I cleaned the houses we left.The house we moved into , we had to clean though in all honesty it wasn't as bad as some horror stories I have heard.The worst experience was when we moved into a place where the owner had two massive Persian cats,the living-room carpet stank and we binned it. I then had to scrub the wooden floors in the corners as it was stinking of cat. We did get rid of all traces but the last house we moved to I made sure there were no pets. I don't think pet owners at times realise animals can smell quite badly.

64sNewName · 01/10/2019 12:11

When we sold our flat we had a cleaner come on moving out day, and we got the oven done professionally a few days beforehand - so I think we left it in good shape.

We forgot to take the last-minute things out of the fridge though. So we left behind most of a bottle of Grey Goose vodka, some unopened fizz, mayonnaise and a tub of Lurpak spread ... all of which must have seemed pretty random. (Fridge was cleaned thankfully)

OMGshefoundmeout · 01/10/2019 12:13

I don’t think there is any particular etiquette around this. Dirty and inconsiderate people leave dirty houses. Thoughtful and clean people leave clean houses.

We once bought a house from keen gardeners who also ran a small catering business. The kitchen was spotless but the sheds in the garden were so full you couldn’t walk inside them. We filled an entire small skip with empty plastic flower pots.

RantyAnty · 01/10/2019 12:13

I can think of 2 houses that were clean when we moved in. One of them was because we had just had it built!

One house we sold was very clean when we left but we did end up leaving a few bits of furniture end tables, lamps, as we just had no more room.

Seems the main problem with moving into a place was dirty kitchen and toilet. One cooker looked as if it had never been clean. Clear glass door was dark brown. yuk.

I'm too old to mess with it these days so I hire a cleaner for move in and move out.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 01/10/2019 12:14

I've bought both pristine and grotty. But the grotty ones were neglected anyway (as reflected in the price) so I fully expected pretty filthy conditions.

Having said that, I did once refuse to complete until the owner of a grotty one removed all his rubbish and manky old furniture. Cleaning is one thing - having to pay someone to take away a disgusting old sofa is quite another.

bridgetreilly · 01/10/2019 12:15

I wouldn't assume or expect a house to be spotless when you move in. I would expect a normal level of cleanliness in the bathrooms and kitchen, but where furniture has been moved, rooms always, always look grimy.

Dan68 · 01/10/2019 12:15

The house we bought this year was filthy when we got the keys. Old dirt everywhere, but that was the least of it. All the radiators were disgusting-she had radiator covers on them all so we didn’t see it at the viewing, so we had to rip them all out and replace. There were dodgy electrics everywhere-non waterproof ceiling lights above the shower for a start. We found a hole in the wall that had been taped over and painted! Boxes and boxes of crap in the attic. Don’t think the chimney has been cleaned in 20 years. All the shelves in the freezer were cracked and broken, fridge was disgusting, oven didn’t work! We got it all sorted out ourselves but it put a massive dampener on things at the start.

EdtheBear · 01/10/2019 12:16

We had buyers, off load a van into the garden before we'd signed the final paper work with the lawyer.

But people who leave the house manky are hardly going to admit it on here.