Would you/did you leave a bottle of something in the fridge for your buyer?

[Sinkingfeeling]

Just wondering - can't decide if it's a bit naff or not ...

We recently moved and before we left we cleaned house top to bottom, left a folder on side with all instruction booklets/guarnatees for boiler etc and I left a bottle of prosecco for our buyers in the fridge as well as a pile of 'please redirect to our new address' stickers (thanks to mumsnet for idea) in the hope they'd forward our mail as I knew royal mail redirection would be late starting.

They'd been quite rude and stroppy throughout the whole housing buying process but we got a lovely card from them a few days later thanking us for everything and they have been forwarding on our mail whilst royal mail tries to get it arse into gear and sort out redirection

When we got to our new place it was filthy, looked like it hadnt been cleaned in months, the kitchen drains were totally blocked and the freezer was so iced up the door barely opened. There were loads of broken stuff like toilet seats and taps and no plugs in the sink as well as ripped wallpaper and marks all over the walls from when they moved their furniture out and writing all over the kids bedroom walls, which hadn't been there on the last viewing about a month before. I could have cried and its been an irritating few weeks as we've wasted time we had booked off work for decorating cleaning up someone else's filth and doing loads of basic remedial and maintenance work.

DP has been going on and on ever since we moved about how we shouldn't have bothered with cleaning up our old place and leaving a gift and i'm a softie and out of touch with people of today so this thread restores my faith in human nature and proves I'm not alone!

I left a little hamper and a card, saying that was always a happy house & we wished them every happiness in it. But them I am a sop for doing daft things like that. Also I could afford to be magnanimous as they paid us a whole lot more than what we paid for it

I had to sell my parents' home after they had died. We moved there in 1975 when I was four so it was hard to part with it. I left a bottle of bubbly and a note saying that we had had a happy life there and hoped that they would too. I am in the process of selling at the moment and plan to do the same. Moving is such a stressful day, why not make it a bit nicer? And houses aren't just objects, they are far more than that. I disliked a couple of our viewing people and was pleased that they aren't getting what has been my home for 16 years.

Yep, have always left card and a bottle of wine (as well as a hoovered and clean house) when I've moved out of a home. Think it's such a lovely thing for someone to arrive and find....
Last time we moved, we'd just hoovered our "old" house, arrived and promptly had to hoover our "new" house. Grr. And endless other cleaning. And no wine. Oh well, some people just aren't thoughtful / nice!!

I have always left my houses spotless and left a card and bottle of sparkly something.

I have never ever received any of these things in the houses I have moved into! The wine would be nice, but people could at least sweep up!

I did but they were utter tossers on the move day so I took it back again.

My last house was left immaculately clean and tidy with a little welcome pack for the new owner.
The new owner was actually an acquaintance anyway, and we still exchange the odd email and he forwards some mail every now and again (that keeps slipping through the net) and sent me some photos of the renovations he's done. The house looks much better now! It's nice to leave a house with that sense of having handed it onto someone who will take care of it and enjoy it.

I was left a bottle of white wine; it went some way to making up for the fact that they obviously hadn't cleaned or hoovered between our offer being accepted and us moving in three months later and they had a pet parrot!

When I sold that flat, it was to a young couple buying their first home together, and I left a bottle of nice sparkling wine, and cleaned until everything shone, in the hope it made up for my dodgy DIY

This house was bought from an elderly couple, all they left was dirt and an attic and garage filled with crap. We are finally nearly finished getting them cleared almost seven years later, and have made over £150 selling stuff on eBay and had several monumentous bonfires!

I left nice bottle of wine, chocolates and a card, plus instruction manuals and takeaway menus. It's just a gesture. I wouldn't expect anything and our sellers didn't leave anything in our new house, except instruction manuals.

I've never sold a house but when I bought mine it was spotless with a bottle of bubbly, a card and a folder of guarantees/instructions/keys etc left on the book shelf. Thought it was a lovely gesture and wasn't expecting it.

I think my parents were a little surprised as when they bought their last house their vendors has been knobs and taken everything, carpets as well, and left the place in a bit of a mess. My mother was all for me giving my new house a clean from top to bottom until she saw it had already been done

What did you all think of the form which asks you if you are planning on taking the toilet seat and the door knobs? Do people really do that?

When I sold my first flat I was moving out on the day of exchange, a Friday. At 4.50pm on day of exchange the buyers tried to reduce the price. It was being bought by a Baronet for his daugher. I told them to forget it then, told the EA to put the flat back on the market, tore up the nice file of info I'd left and removed the champagne from the fridge. By 9.30 on Monday we had exchanged at the original price but they no longer had the file of info or the champagne.

I've only bought one place and never sold anywhere but I think it would be LOVELY to be greeted by a bottle of wine when moving in. You all sound very nice.

Our buy was a probate sale and after being sweet through the whole process - giving us access to the house several times during the sale so we could get moving with builder's quotes - they left us with a massive shed full of ancient furniture and a garden full of rubbish that cost us hundreds of pounds to clear. Clearing the whole place was a condition of the sale but when we sent them photos, the clearance bill and a solicitors letter all we got in return were letters from their solicitors ranting about how shocked and hurt their clients were by these allegations, how accomodating they had been to us in other respects, and they had thought we appreciated it etc etc. We pass one of them on the street occasionally and they glare at us!

I do this when we have a rental changeover a nice bottle of something sparkly, plenty of take away menus, tea, coffee, biscuits, loo roll etc.

Mind you we let fully furnished, so I have to go and make sure cutlery/crockery/bedding/towelling is all there so it doesn't make much difference.

and not get fucked off at all when they leave and there is blood all over the mattresses, pull light sockets off the wall and claim that moths ate the sofas

when I was 14, and we sold our house, I wrote a long letter, telling them there was a spare xmas tree in the attic, all about the lovely walks in the nearby forest and places to go blackberry picking and the best trees to climb, amongst other stuff I cant remember now, and wishing them and their kids a happy stay in my house!!

My old house was clean and left with a bottle of Champagne in the kitchen with a little welcome note.

The house I was buying was dirty, with wallpaper stuck up with sellotape and all the nice curtains and poles they had officially agreed to leave taken away. This house has been one problem after another and very unhappy for me :(

Yes, we had the house professionally cleaned and left a bottle of champagne, folder of instructions and a card or the new buyers. It was their first house, as it had been for us 8 years earlier.

The previous owners left us a card, and I thought it was lovely.

Yes, I'd planned to leave a bottle of wine for the new owners, along with information re bin collections, local takeaways, water/gsa meters etc plus other bits of information.
Then when we got the call to say exchange had been completed I got a phone call from the new owners saying they were in the pub 400metres away and their pizza was due to arrive so could we drop the keys in there. So we ended up doing what probably looked like a dodgy deal on the corner outside the pub.
Thinking about it now it really wasn't a big deal but on the day, with a screaming baby and after the new owners had turned up 2hours before exchange demanding the keys, it really pissed me off. So I grabbed all the useful information I had left, plus the bottle of wine and took it with me

We had nightmare buyers for our last house and I am not at all ashamed to say that we didn't clean anything before we left. It all started off so well - they offered the asking price so we took it off the market straight away, then there was delay after delay after delay.

They threatened to pull out of the sale unlesss we knocked £20k off the price once they learned that we had put in an offer on another house (and obviously didn't want to lose it). Then we had some works done on our roof which we told them about and they insisted on us paying for an expert of their choosing to survey the works. We refused to pay their costs on the basis that they obviously decided not to include the roof in the survey they paid for which came out fine. This all went on for months during which I had a miscarriage which I blame on the stress of the whole thing.

They insisted on second vists on 3 occasions which they then didn't turn up to. They used to stand outside and stare in the windows while we were at home. Then on the day before we were due to complete, they insisted on a 'pre completion inspection' or said they wouldn't complete the following day. We had the movers in, the house was in a complete state and we were stressed and knackered but had to go down to the pub while they did the inspection. Only the wife turned up and was there all of 3 minutes apparently so it was obviously just another inconvenience to place on us.

I warned the EA that we weren't going to clean the place and he said he absolutely didn't blame us as they were nightmares for him to deal with as well and would often drop off the radar for weeks so no one knew what was going on.

I still get all riled up when I think about it and love to think about the look on her face when she walked in to the house and it was all messy (note, it wasn't messy when we lived there but there were dustbunnies behind furniture and grimy marks everywhere where the movers were trudging in and out etc).

So the only thing we left them (besides the instruction manuals for the boiler etc) was a note saying 'We would have taken £15,000 less'.

We've just moved into our first house and didn't revieve anything. It would have made a big diffference because the house was left filthy and it took 4 of us a whole week to get it clean. There was still piles of sawdust inside the kitchen units, bear in mind the house is 9 years old and it's the original kitchen, I know every single place that the dog sat/slept. The blinds had been completely chewed, the fridge (which they charged us for) came with a broken seal and that's the start. Errghh!!! I was going to be nice about forwarding their post, but I've just left it in a drawer and they can pick it up if they ever knock our door.

Have only moved out of one place, and I did leave him a bottle of wine and a list of things like the dustbin day. Even if it never happens to me back I still think it is the right thing to do, and just doing good stuff is good for you..

When we move, I'd probably leave a bottle of wine, all the booklets, takeaway menus and instructions for the heating etc. Obviously if they were a nightmare then I'd skip on the wine and probably put less effort into the info I left behind.

Our sellers didn't leave us anything except a forwarding address but there was a tub in the garden containing garden furniture, lawn mower and garden lights. Nice surprise as we hadn't had a garden before so didn't have anything.

I did however forward their post for 12mo.

Well, we did leave a bottle of wine (not in the fridge though as we took it with us!) along with a folder of appliance manuals and useful info about the burglar alarm and how to clean the kitchen worktops. :) When we arrived at our new house the vendor had also left us a bottle of wine, a folder of appliance manuals and a note of useful information. The place was also spotless - dated, and with a damp problem and very dodgy electrics but still clean. Karma, I reckon.

IWantToGoToThere at your note - I think we share the same evil sense of humour!

We didn't but as we had already left the house we did allow them the keys between exchange and completion as they wanted to rip out the kitchen.

I left the place clean and made sure i left loo roll, soap and working bulbs in all the lights. I also left some pretty decent garden tools as i needed to replace them with petrol for my new larger garden. I left a note to tell them if they didn't want them either ring me to collect or pass them on to a charity shop but as they were moving from a top floor flat it is unlikely they would have stuff like strimmers, lawn movers and trimmers.