What to leave for the new owners?

[mrsleomcgary]

We complete two weeks tomorrow and are well into packing. I have a small pile of paperwork etcfor the new owners and was wondering how much of it, if any, is necessary. So far

*card for having keys cut (front door has a garrison lock which can't be done on high street, no card no new keys)
*copies of invoice for work done to roof in new year, last boiler service (done last month) and double glazing (done within the last year)
*guarantee for kitchen

We also have some left over tiles for the bathroom and some paint for the kitchen. Is it worth leaving these?

I left wine for the girl buying ours! She was a really easant person to deal with and it was her first place.

I also left the pot of oaint that matches each room in the room it belonged in in case she wanted to touch up before she could redecorate in her own colours.

Is leave tiles too. We left our spares in case of future breakage.

I also left a note about bin collection.

oh yes, I have a leaflet from the council for bin collection, will set that aside too.

The best thing our sellers left us was an old aerial photograph of the house which we have put on the wall with one taken recently. :)

They also left useful stuff, like the instructions for the burglar alarm, heating etc. We left tiles and paint behind in the garage for our buyers.

Yes leave paint and tiles. Previous owner of our house also left list if colours used which was dead handy for just touching up some walls. (That's if you remember). I second a bottle of wine unless they have been right pains!

Burgular alarm code, and manual.
Boiler instructions.
Number for best local takeaway for 1 st night

Instructions for any fitted appliances. Window lock keys and all spare keys in one place (drawer). Window cleaner/chimney sweep etc business cards, forwarding address for you and takeaway menus, new house card and flowers/plant if you like the new owners! Good luck with your move!

Forwarding address for post. The PO redirection service isn't 100% foolproof.

I left a note to the buyer telling them the 'knack' of opening the tricky front door! At least I was honest! It was knackered so I'm sure they would be replacing it anyway.

Details of bin days : recycling etc.

Any useful products that you don't need to take with you, eg specialist cleaning product for granite worktop, laminate flooring, if you won't need them in your next place.

Location of allocated parking if it isn't obvious, and any quirks of local parking rules - we have just moved into a road with no yellow lines and wouldn't have realised it was in a controlled zone if a neighbour hadn't told us.

The most useful paper you can leave is 'toilet paper'. It amazes me how many people take the loo roll and the light bulbs. Really tight & weird!

You sound like a lovely person to buy a house off of :)

Definitely leave the tiles and paint etc

I left wood and coal for the open fire - it was January

Please leave directions for the whereabouts of the Water Stop Cock, the electric meter, and the gas meter. Particularly the water stop cock.

Anything that is of no earthly use to you in new place but would be handy for them, eg curtain rails, spare paint, spare tiles....

If however they have been evil shite bastards who attempted to gazunder with 24 hours to go or anything similar, several decomposing prawns down the back of one of the radiators would be entirely appropriate.

I left loo roll, wine and biscuits, old photos of the house that the previous owner left for us, manuals for hob, oven etc

Yes to leaving tiles and paint. Do leave instructions to things like the cooker. I was so glad our sellers left the cooker info as the cooker we inherited was the most complicated thing ever.

Do people really take stuff like loo roll and light bulbs with them? That's just nasty.

We left wine and an A4 useful info leaflet about the village, I included things like what time the shop was open, who ran the village sports club etc etc.

A nice bottle if wine

Wine; instruction manuals for any gear; old paint, tiles or paint codes for anything else you've used; label keys; warnings re mad neighbours.

Pay it forward: the warm fuzzy glow you get may be repaid by your buyers doing the same when they move.

Ive put together a file with instructions for heating, cooker etc. They key to repressurise the boiler.

Copies of all receipts/certificates relating to the house (originals with solicitor).

Where to find water meter and the serial number.

Spare key for gas and electric boxes outside.

A collection of local takeaway leaflets and the 'town booklet' we get once a year with useful phone numbers in (Doctors, dentists, plumbers etc).

A couple of bin bags and a loo roll will be left for them too.

yes to all those things, and instructions.

you will (I hope) have at least 3 months of mail redirect setup. A sheet of printed labels with your new address and 'please forward to' for anything that slips through is also a good.

a new home card and a box of chocs too!

a reasonably clean house and manuals for all appliances would be nice.

Ours left all the information relating to the house build (1930s) up to the day we moved. It was lovely.

If you have keys for internal doors, either label them or put them in their corresponding doors and don't leave a huge bunch of keys that are not labelled or have anything to do with the house

Manuals for any appliances staying there (if you still have them) - boiler, in-built cooker, aga, solid fuel stove, air conditioner, in-built stereo system, alarm, solar panels...who knows what anyone has in theirs. And info on any lights that need special bulbs, or anything that is not quite "standard".

If you have any details for the last servicing of same, useful too. Or installation details that might be useful.

Agree anything about specialized locks (we have a card to get front door keys cut too).

If you know them, the key for each room hanging in it's lock. Any spare keys that you know belong to the house put together. And any window locks too.

Any spare paint, tiles, wallpaper ends etc for touching up.

If you have a few favourites, the leaflets of local takeaways, good local taxi company, local handymen (plumber, electrician, gardener, window cleaner, chimney sweep etc), perhaps a note of any shops (especially like a nice butcher, fishmonger, greengrocer or bakery) that you have loved and found to be good service/value/produce etc, especially if they are not terribly obvious on the high street.

Details of bin collections, and what goes in each bin if you have multiples! (Our green bin is green, but our brown bin for compost is the small green one, and our black bin for landfill is purple - neighbours have green, brown and black as use a different company).

Details of the energy/water providers/phone/broadband/tv services you had signed up to - they don't necessarily need to stay with those in some cases, but it helps to know these things to arrange handovers and potential changes.

We had some spare personalized notepaper - it just had the address but not our names printed on it (our great idea to not get "Thank you" cards after the wedding - write everyone a thank you letter instead and then have leftover paper to use ourselves), so we left that and a decent handful of the envelopes (I kept the leftover plain paper and the rest of the envelopes).

If you know they have children, useful numbers for sports clubs can be handy. Or for the school, phone and email contacts, principal's name, secretary's name, PTA contacts, etc - if there is only 1 local option and you know them yourself.

Emergency supplies - YYY to loo roll, bin bag, bottle of wine/box chocs, congratulatory message (card or note) etc.

If you could check that your cats/dogs don't have fleas before moving out that would be great. In the unfortunate event that they do, please treat them and the house asap, and forewarn the new owners who may wish to have the house spray treated before moving in......

If you've had the chimney swept, the cert to say it's been done is handy