Legally do I have to clean house for buyer?

[InsulatedLoft]

I remember in the property information form I signed that I would leave the house in a "clean and tidy" condition. But our buyer has been a complete arse and I don't want to do anything more than I legally have to. I was going to run the hoover around for 5 minutes before leaving and that's it. Unfortunately we don't clean all that regularly anyway, so bathroom will still be covered in dust and water stains and hair, kitchen will be crumby and dusty, pet hairs will be deeply ingrained into the carpet. He won't have any comeback against us will he? Although he's a BTL investor so I doubt he'll give a damn.

I had a thread on here at the time we bought our house - shit in every toilet, smashed lightbulbs and a still-smoking bonfire of furniture in the garden. I heartily wish I had loaded all their stinking filth in a can, driven to their new address and dumped it all on the lawn. Others may have been less forgiving OP.

Bloody can! Too much filth for a can!!

Where is your pride & self respect. Be a decent human being and leave it clean, tidy and with all waste and rubbish removed.

Aargh! V A N

Yes but that is why I'm minded to not bother! Our buyer is not a delicate FTB who will cry if the house isn't immaculate

That's irrelevant. You leave your house properly clean and tidy because that's what you are legally obliged to do and it's the morally right thing to do. It does not depend on whether you like your buyer or not.

I think you should have some pride and give it a really good clean.

I love the fact the OP is completely ignoring any responses!

Your house must stink?

InsulatedLoft we didn't expect immaculate (we had seen the house on viewings, after all!) but would have preferred not to spend two weeks cleaning before we could move anything in. Like I said, it's basic courtesy - if that makes me delicate, so be it!

It has to be really bad before you can claim for costs. Like lots of things left behind that the buyer has to hire a skip for.

The place is presumably empty so it would be easy to go sweep up crumbs and go round with the hoover. But that would be the extent of my efforts.

Ingrained pet hairs don't appear from a case of standards slipping...

Clean it, regardless of what they plan to do with it there still going to have to clean it, how would you like to clean up someone else's pubes and water from their bathroom (that had been there two weeks)

Gross

I have moved into houses that have been left dirty. Ruined my feelings for those houses and for the worst one, I couldn't wait to move out from the day I moved in.

Since then I have always made sure to make the time for a last wipe over and thorough vacuuming. I would hate someone to move in after me and feel the way I felt

i think new people will do some refurbishment anyway, so not to do a deep clean is reasonable.

If he's a buy to let, he won't be bothered, so leave your disgusting house as it is.

Eww
What's in the contract?
It might be a btl who will live there while working on it. How awful have they been? That's foul and it's not 2 weeks of dirt.

I bought from a BTL. This wasn't my first flat either, but they left it spotless, left me an orchid and a new home card and left the names of a couple local tradesmen.

After I arrived it turned out an error in the paperwork had left them £200 short which I sorted immediately. Better hope you're not in that position...

You sound a right dirty bugger. So your plan to leave it filthy is absolutely fine if you don't mind people knowing you are a right dirty bugger.

Legally your buyer will have very little comeback because the cost of pursuing you down the legal route is likely to be more than the cost of just getting a cleaner in. Even a team Kim and Aggie style which it sounds like your minging house may need

How will you feel if the house you move into is the same state as the one you're leaving, OP? Honestly?

YABU, OP. It doesn't matter whether or not you like the vendor: you have a moral and legal responsibility to leave your place the way you would like to find it.

Your house sounds disgusting. To answer your question, yes he would be able to come back at you.

You have signed a contract to leave the house in a clean and tidy condition. If you don't and he chooses to do so, he could take you to the small claims courts for cleaning costs and legal fees.

we've just moved and our buyer is an arse (we moved out before we completed as own the other property we moved into as well). I'm paying a cleaner to go in on Monday to clean it cos whilst our house was clean, and cleaned weekly by a cleaner and daily by me, when u take out all your furniture the dust and 'bits' are gross and even tho our buyer has literally phoned me up and given me shit cos they failed to speak to their solicitor until 7days before they wanted to complete and then were pissy we couldn't complete on time, I still wouldn't leave it like that!

Gross yabu

I hate cleaning my flat (I do it for a living).

I guess general decency would involve a spot of hoovering, dusting etc. Just to be....polite?

When I first moved into this place, it had been freshly painted but the bathroom was awful. As I'm not naturally fastidious when it comes to housework, I found it forgiveable but I also thought it was a bit weird.

Her house doesn't sound very nice but I'm not sure I'd call it disgusting without seeing pictures. Neither would I care what my buyer thought of me.

Have some self respect and just clean it.