How much contact with buyer of our house, after we've moved??

[Pruuni]

Our house has been bought by a woman of 70, on her own, very capable but perhaps not that shrewd.

I am getting a call perhaps every two days, reasonable questions about bin collections etc but also some stuff about the roof that came up in the survey, apparently. Plus lots of repeated requests for me to recommend her a builder and handyperson. Now, I don't know any builders or handypeople, so my advice has been to look in the yellow pages, but she has asked me three times now.

I am a bit concerned that she is going to ask for my phone number when we move so she can ring me with questions. Obviously, I don't mind, not too much, at the moment, but when we move, we say goodbye to the house, and I don't want to be giving it any thought - iykwim. Half an hour on the phone is not unusual for her.

Is it normal to keep in touch when the house is sold? My feeling is no. Would you give her your number?

No, try not to , although she sounds lonely!!

id say you dont have a phone number when you move as theyre changing it and wont get it until line is installed, surley she ahs family, friends/yellow pages she can get help from?

No way!

We've got the opposite - the seller of our house (old man) won't leave us alone. He is forever telling us that he doesn't approve of changes we've made and why at long and tedious length. Sometimes he seems to forget that he doesn't live here any more and arranges for things to be delivered to our address. I run and hide if I see him coming now!

Are you still in the house, or have you moved out yet? if you are still there, then this is all information that I owuld try to get from the seller, but I might try to be a bit more organised about it (ie wirte odown all my quesions and save them up for a day or two prior to the move). If she has already moved in then this is a bit much I think.

Oh god know, absolutely not. Disaster will that way fall. She'll be calling you in the autumn and asking you whether you found the leaves fell in the gutter when you lived in the house too. No, no, no. If you're a kind person though, leave her a 'book of the house' when you move out, tell her you're doing this and then scarper.

Definitely not. Wouldn't dream of it.

I think legally she is supposed to go through her lawyers. We sold our house, left a note in the house with all the relevant information regarding bin collections etc.

Tell her the next time that she phones that you will leave her a list and under no circumstances give her your number unless you want your children to have a new granny

You should also tell your solicitor that she/he is not allowed to give out your new adress or phonenumber.

Right, that's unanimous then.
Definitely my feeling too.
She hasn't moved in yet and I appreciate atm that she is older and alone and moving is a big deal anyway, so I don't mind talking to her. I do not want to be taking responsibility for finding information for her after we move.
Of course we all have mobiles these days so the 'oh we don't know our number' thing isn't going to wash....

She is 70 though. You can blind her with mobile science and get away with it, I think.

What, like give her the wrong number, 100?

Leave a forwarding address but no number (say you don't have it assigned yet) and a note with all the bin collections, key details, maybe the window cleaner's number if you have one, current utility suppliers, names of the neighbours either side etc. The local Age Concern branch may have a list fo approved tradesmen or her surveyor may have contacts. Also leave a couple of A4 SAE's for forwarduing any stray post.

I agree with everyone else. Leave her notes of relevant and useful info but do not leave a phone number (I'd hesitate about an address too). My parents had awful trouble with a very elderly couple that bought my grandparents house off them. They ended up expecting them to run errands for them!!

P.S. Pay the Post Office to redirect your post then they won't find ot your address. Not particulary cheap (about £30 for 6 months I think) but worth it if it brings you some peace!

my parent's sold their last house to a family who were constantly pestering them after they'd moved in - how do you do this? or that? in the end, they had to ask them to stop calling. it is not normal.

The man who bought my flat found our new number through 118. I would be polite and friendly when he called, but unhelpful (well, I really couldn't help) and after I didn't return his messages a few times he must have got the hint.

OTOH it pays to be nice - I left a longish note with explanation how the heating worked, where stopcocks were, when bins/recycling were collected, etc, together with a stack of self-adhesive redirection labels, and he forwarded post which slipped through the Royal Mail redicrection service. Even now, over a year on, we still get the occasional forwarded stuff.

All very useful. I planned to leave the info, it's the phone calls I don't want to have to handle. She talks you see and leaves sentences hanging in a "And your reply is...?" way, and is just clearly the sort of person who is used to getting people to do things for her.

I sort things out myself. Always have done.
I have lived in about 14 different places since I left home at 17, so I am pretty well-used to working all this shit out for myself.