What to leave for new owners

[adogisforlife91]

As the title suggests, what's normal to leave for new owners

• Local takeaway menus
• Boiler paperwork and details of the plumber who installed it
• Bin days
• Spare floor boards (incase they need to replace any, the colour is now discontinued - or would this be considered trash?)
• The wall paint colours incase they want to touch up? (1 bed flat so only 2 colours)

Any other advice or what has been helpful in your experience?

Previous experience of a friend, they were grateful they left the door knobs, they took all the lightbulbs 😂

Any other paperwork, nhbc certificate if it’s a new house.

A note of the meter readings

Alarm code (if you have an alarm), instructions for any appliances that are being left, a forwarding address (with a note that you've arranged for RM forwarding but just incase anything gets missed, esp once a year letters that you forget to switch the address with), maybe a bunch of flowers or a bottle of wine.

I'm selling imminently and plan to leave the window cleaners number.

Good luck!!

If u have any receipts/guarantees for anything u are leaving in the house it would be nice to hand them over incase the next owner has any issues with the items.

Any keys that won’t be passed on by the EA, all labelled (window keys, gas/electric cupboard, shed etc).

I’d be redecorating, so I’d not bother with the wall paint, though some might find it helpful and it can’t hurt to write them down .

As for the floor, if what’s laid is in good condition and you have a few spares that would otherwise go in the skip, then I’d probably leave them for them.

A little ‘welcome to your new home’ card is always nice.

The previous owners of our home left very detailed instructions about bin collection, various keys, and intel about the helpful and no-so- helpful neighbours 😉

Spare tiles, paint, flooring, etc can be useful.

We got left chapter and verse on all the paint colours used around the house, most of which were awful, and nothing useful like where the header tank for the central heating was.

@nachonachoman (great name btw) I wondered about leaving my phone number so if there's any post I can come every so often and collect it (only moving 1km away!) that way they don't have to go out of their way to post anything. Then I wondered if that was too personal?

This probably is not what you are looking for ideas wise but we had this house a few days before we moved in and were doing a bit of decorating etc in those days. The previous occupants had left us a toilet roll in the upstairs and downstairs toilet! I never would of even thought to take any! Really thoughtful of them

A nice clean house

Who takes the toilet roll?!

There should be loo roll in each loo because people shouldn’t be taking it with them, that’s plain petty!

@cheesecakejar thats a nice idea I wouldn't have thought of!

Makes me think of when we moved in here, it had been unoccupied for 2 years and we had a weeks wait to get a plumber in to reinstate the system. So while we were doing our DIY had to go over to the big Sainsbury's to use the loo! let alone have toilet paper handy! good times...

@JonHammIsMyJamm

Who takes the toilet roll?!

The same person that took the lightbulbs 😂

We left a folder with things like the local GP and dental surgeries, bin days, nearest shop / post office, post box - that sort of thing. Also a bottle of wine. It’s a long time since we moved but we’re still in touch as we’ve not moved far and were able to give recommendations for nurseries and schools when they had their children

I wouldnt take the loo roll but ours is empty more often than full so probably wouldnt think to replace it with everything else going on with the move!

[quote adogisforlife91]@nachonachoman (great name btw) I wondered about leaving my phone number so if there's any post I can come every so often and collect it (only moving 1km away!) that way they don't have to go out of their way to post anything. Then I wondered if that was too personal?[/quote]
I suppose you could leave both so they have the option to call you if they wanted you to pick it up, and an address incase they are happy posting it. I put the previous owners post when we got in the post box with address crossed out and wrote "no longer at this address forward to xxx" although I have no idea if it actually got there 😂🙈

The names of the neighbours!

We had a bottle of wine, loads of instructions, a massive bowl of keys for side gate, garage, all the window locks, spare door keys - none of them labelled , name of builder who did extension, name of plumber and electrician, recommended takeaways, nearest doctor & dentist, all the names of neighbours (and their kids), bin days - it was a whole folder and we did use it as a bible for the first year or so.

Nine left us dirty pans in the cupboard, a shed full of crap, a leaky garage they dudnt disclose and a garden and bin full of dig shit. I wish I was buying a house off you!

My previous owner left me a tester pot of the paint that almost the whole flat is done in, so I knew which one to buy for touch-ups, a couple of utility instruction booklets, oh and 2 bottles of wine in the fridge with a polite request for me to forward on any lingering post to his new address.

(Although when the post was still coming thick and fast after 6 months I decided that 2 bottles had not been enough to continue indefinitely )

We left:

All spare spotlights (Id bought about 20 extra because they were hexagonal and not being made anymore)
Pamphlets for appliances that remained.
Tile cleaner (it was natural stone and needed a special solution)

On a laminated sheet 🤣:
Details of electric/gas providers
Bin days
Codes to locks on a couple of doors
Some other random bits of info specific to the house that I must have thought was worth laminating (clearly needed an excuse to use the laminator that had been gathering dust for years).

As well as welcome card & chocs.

Ours left all the things already mentioned and also details for the doctor, dentist etc.

Definitely a forwarding address. The people who moved into my old flat didn't forward any mail (I had it redirected for 6 months but it was after that) which meant that I missed a store card bill and several reminders and eventually got in a bit of bother about it. It was a small amount that I was able to pay off immediately once I realised but I was lucky they took my word about how it had happened and it didn't affect my credit rating.

I left alarm instructions, loo roll, hand wash in the bathroom with a new guest towel so they didn't have to hunt around in boxes. Also a picture that the buying couple had admired on the stairs, A bottle of champagne, vase of fresh flowers and a card. We gave the estate agent all four sets of keys for the house. I left the heat on all morning so it was warm for them as they arrived as the day was freezing before taking a meter reading.

In the house we moved into, however, we were given one set of keys, no lightbulbs, no door knobs but he did kindly leave a garage full of junk. There were also no instructions of how to turn an antiquated boiler on. I think it had been half dismantled and my FIL lay on his back for hours trying to get it to work as it was in a kitchen cupboard. The house had apparently been unoccupied for six months and it was stone cold; it was colder inside than outside. But the move was still worth it!

Our sellers were super generous. We had flowers from the garden (in an old jug/vase), all keys, endless supplies of lightbulbs and batteries, loo roll plus soap and an old hand towel, a greenhouse full of flowers, a bottle of champagne and nibbles