To think that there's a house selling etiquette?

[1onelyranger]

DP has just bought a house. It's filthy - crumbs in the cupboards, grafted woodwork, claggy oven and hob, the sink , 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?

Have name changed as people know this. It happened when we moved into a rural house on the edge of a hill about 15 years ago. The property had been leased to an employee of a foreign embassy. The previous occupants had moved back to their home country. On entering the attic there was a huge array of hanging vertical wires, antennae, desks and chairs and evidence of significant computer equipment having been in operation. We always believed it had been used as a monitoring post given the proximity of particular sites nearby. The police noted it all but that was it.

We’ve moved so many times, each time we’ve walked into a filthy grotty shithole with the previous people still coming out.

I’ve always left mine immaculate and been so frustrated to land somewhere new, exhausted from moving only to have to start scrubbing someone else’s years old grime 🤢

I've moved a lot and do try to mob and vacuum before I close the door, although it's always deep cleaned prior to selling anyway so no nasty surprises in the oven or under the heavy furniture. Champagne and a card. The old lady we bought this shak off of left us freshly cut flowers from the garden in a jug next to champagne, a card and a signed print of a painting by her rather famous son who grew up here! Was so lovely. She said it would be nice to know a part of them was still in the house.

Needed every carpet ripped up, rewired and the rest mind you

I wouldn't wipe out the cupboards after emptying them or any serious cleaning. That's up to the news owners to sort.

That's grim, it's your mess to clean not the new owners.

I was actually surprised at the state of ours when we moved in and I expected it to be much dirtier. Owner was a single bloke who didn't clean. We went to view/measure up, he'd had a week's notice and there was poo oyn the toilet, skid marked pants on the carpet and piles of crap all over the place. He did leave massive black wardrobes though, that was annoying.

And he used to still send his parcels to our house as he knew I was a SAHM and was usually in, so he came and picked them up on his way past from work. I shut that down sharpish.

When we moved I worked with a cleaner for a few weeks in advance, sorting and properly cleaning cupboards etc. The house was also recently painted.
We were finished packing the day before we moved.
On the day of the move, we had two cleaners working behind the removal team, plus me.
Apparently the new people complained that the house was dirty.. Some people just like to say it. They think it says something positive about themselves.

When I was a kid, we moved into a huge house which was unbelievably filthy, food under the Lino in the kitchen, toilet so filthy mum was in there for ages with a bottle of bleach. The garage was full of old prescription medication. Vendors were both doctors.

We bought a house some years ago, looked superficially clean, was not! Mouse shit everywhere, dog shit in the garden, everything pretty filthy. No window keys left despite it being old windows that swing open all the way!

Next house was clean, but the very overgrown lawn was mostly catshit and brambles, tricky to get rid of both! There was an old bbq still full of bones and used coals plus an unfinished and unsecured decking project. Yuk. Bins were rammed, with the wrong kind of rubbish in all of them. Wanker vendor has had bailiffs round saying they’d remove furniture until I could prove I’d bought the place!) then the police came knocking for him. Fun times.

When we last moved, I thought I’d left the place really clean, but after moving the couch, the carpet looked awful! I was ashamed. Current house was left extremely clean, despite the vendor being very unwell, bless her.

I bought my current house from 2 filth ridden reprobates of society (funnily enough they are professionals in that they are police officers) absolutely horrendous I was heaving my guts up constantly until I ripped the carpets up. It's not even an old house!

Always left houses spotless, all keys labelled and info about bin collection,window cleaner etc noted down. Flowers/wine. We've moved into places that were grubby ( clearly not arsed to keep it nice once sold ) but the previous owners of our current home took the piss a bit:

Asked if we wanted their chickens on the day (no!) they ripped the chicken run fencing out but shoved it behind the shed.

Bucket of dog shit half buried in the garden.

Random crap like boxes of books and letters left in cupboards.

Didn't bother redirecting post for weeks cue texts for us to leave it out.

7.30am one Saturday TWO YEARS LATER a random bloke is in our garden removing 2 huge concrete tubs with trees in that had been left. Husband goes out to challenge him (turns out he vaguely knows him from the gym) and CF ex owner had asked him to collect!!! He was vv embarrassed as thought we knew errrrr no.

We still have the tubs. And a more secure lock on the back gate