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?

For all those poor people who moved into a mess and unclean house, I remember on the forms I filled in when selling that I would leave place clean and items removed if not included in sale so you could contact your solicitors if your sellers left the place in a state and they could foot the bill

My previous owners left us a very expensive bottle of champagne

Our previous owners left us a huge mixed bag of unlabelled keys, some spare bathroom tiles, a jumble of manuals, a new home card and a shoddy load of their DIY maintenance that deteriorated very very quickly.

Please get your mail forwarded.

When we bought our house the previous owners didn't bother and it was a PITA.

I didn't want them "popping in" to collect mail and I didn't want to hold on to their post indefinitely.

I printed off a load of sticky labels with my new address on in case any post slipped through the Royal Mail redirect. That saved the new owners having to write it out every single time....

I would try and ask if they would like a selection of paint/spare tiles leaving. I think its helpful but other people will chase you for leaving rubbish.

When we moved in, the previous owners had the house professionally cleaned including carpets and left us a bottle of champers. Never forgot that and we've lived here 20 years

Do leave : directions to the stopcock.

Don't leave: your phone number

I live in a new build in the garden of my old house.

Left toilet roll, spare light bulb and spare plaster for the loft (that they knew wasn't finished) and various other bits and bobs

Since they moved in I have helped when their heating stopped working, the electrics were tripped (neighbours were away and daughter was house sitting) and put their bins out when they are away. As well as post being swapped both ways as I owned both houses for a year.

Loo roll and soap in the bathroom
Local takeaway menus
Instructions for appliances and heating
Certificates/info about last boiler check
Everywhere clean (including windows)
A note of paint colours (I wouldn't want the hassle of disposing paint tins if redecorating)
Local window cleaner
Leaflet with bin days/recycling info
Note of your final gas/electric readings

Having completed on a house this week, when we got the keys we found nothing left by the previous owners that would be any use, except a step ladder in the shed that I suspect they forgot. Someone had used the downstairs loo before leaving however, and not flushed it. 3 days later when we got the keys the smell was pretty bad.

We had to get a full house clean down professionally as it was also filthy. Not even a note of bin days. Thankfully we have met the lovely neighbours who have offered diy help, and other useful local info.

We left our buyers all original paperwork for the house, most appliance instructions, off cuts for the stair runner, bins, obviously all keys, left over tiles for bathrooms and kitchen. Also a welcome card and small bottle of Prosecco. I didn't go through all the length of writing down advice on the area, as I felt they may want to explore themselves.
We did take all curtains with us (had excluded them on fixtures and fittings form). They weren't custom made and are actually now up in our new house. We left all white goods.
We had the house professionally cleaned after moving out.

Our vendors left us all the keys (carefully labelled), paperwork, curtains, white goods. A brilliant bathroom mirror cabinet which cannot have been cheap. They also forgot a few random things.. men's suit trousers, a thermometer, some pillow cases. And they left some junk in the garden which we had to pay to get removed. The house was also a bit filthy, because they clearly had had no time to clean properly after they had moved out, this did sting a bit since we had left our old house spotless. But it wasn't horrendous either.

So long it's not fleas or a shit smeared loo (happened to someone we know), I'm sure they'll be grateful.

I'd add to list:

A pint of milk in the fridge and a packet of biscuits.

DO NOT LEAVE THEM YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBER. You might live to regret it.

I left a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates, with a note saying "Welcome to your new home!"

I'm glad I didn't leave a pint of milk in the fridge - a couple of months have gone by and they haven't moved in yet (drove past the other day)

Only been involved in 3 house sales but left a bottle of champagne and 2 glasses each time.

(Apart from obvious keys/manuals/basic info, obviously)

A bottle of wine, little box of chocolates and pile of manuals and urks for manuals.

We were left a ton of filth, 2cwheely bins stuffed with random rubbish, a glass box full of cheap, expired booze a broken oven, an even more broken central heating timer (in the middle of winter) and tampon wrappers all over the place. We were not left with any keys for the patio doors or garage. Thankfully the garage was left unlocked so dh visited screw fix the next day.

We were left the instructions for the oven, a bottle of wine and in a cupboard weed and a bong (we are not those type of people!)

We left a clean house, a bottle of wine and a card. We arrived to a dirty house with no lightbulbs and no grill pan in the built in oven.

I left:
Bog roll - you really don’t want to need that and not have it
A bottle of good champagne
The voile curtains at the windows so they had some privacy before they got around to putting up curtains
Instructions about rubbish and recycling collections
Contact details for plumber, gas man, double glazing company, electrician, tiler, decorator and the guy who laid the flooring
Lightbulbs and a couple of perfectly good lampshades that I didn’t want
Paint to touch up any damage, spare bits of flooring and spare wall tiles
Manuals for everything: stove, fridge, extractor fan, washing machine
Instructions on finding the meters and stopcocks

I didn’t leave much dirt. My buyers had time to clean before moving in but you really don’t want your first day in your new home to be spent cleaning someone else’s muck away.

Recently moved to a very old house. It has had a full paint job and it was spotless. I mean, like no one had ever used the bathroom/oven etc.

It made moving day significantly less stressful.

There were new bars of soaps in the bathrooms, loo rolls and a lovely bottle of rose wine in the fridge. Tins of paint in the shed with labels indicating which room, wood for the fire. They also left some beautiful pieces of furniture (two sofas and a huge hand made wardrobe) but I think probably because they couldn't get them out of the house!

I actually want to contact them and thank them.

I left labelled paint tins in the shed.
Loo roll & hand soap.
A card and flowers.
A clean house.
Instructions and guarantees etc.
My cat - not intentionally she scarpered the week of the move and I had to go back for her a few days later.

The previous owner of my house left a sheet of A4 with detailed instructions on how to flush the downstairs loo. If the instructions weren’t followed to the letter, the pipes made an unearthly din (replacing that toilet was our first project!). She also thoughtfully labelled the fruit trees in the garden .