Question about the garden when you move house

[GoldieLookingBoots]

We are due to move house in the next 6 weeks or so. We initially offered on the house we’re buying back in the autumn. Yesterday we went for a pre-exchange look around/measuring up and felt that the garden is now overgrown and wild. Is there anything we can do about this? Is there generally a standard clause in the contract about what state you leave the garden in when you move? Or is it just courtesy to leave it tidy? Should we ask our solicitor to raise it or is it too late? The house is occupied by the owners, so surely they should maintain it until it’s sold?

No, I don’t think so. If the bones of it were good in the autumn it won’t be too hard to get it back there.

If it's just foliage then I doubt there is much you can stipulate. It's pretty easy to fix when you move in.

Wild and overgrown is excellent for nature during spring and early summer months. Embrace it for a few month and admire the wildlife! 🐞 🐛

Gardens will not have gotten too far out of hand in 6 months. Nothing half a day pruning and mowing will not fix again.

Given the weather has been absolutely atrocious it’s been hard for a lot of people to keep on top of gardens, it’ll only take a few hours to chop it back once you’re in, I wouldn’t raise it.

I wouldn't bother raising it but it is rather rude of them to neglect the garden imo.

No, I think you just have to accept the state of the garden when you move in.

The people we bought from did absolutely nothing to the garden from when our offer was accepted (August) to the moving day in December, it was wildly overgrown and almost ankle deep in dried leaves. They hadn't even bothered sweeping the leaves up!

I was so annoyed. I power swept and raked leaves for about two hours in my fury 🤣

Yes, it’s been so wet here, it’s been impossible to do normal clearing.

You could offer to pay for a gardener to come in prior to exchange/completion.

I've seen it suggested that when you move into a new house you do the minimum to the garden for the first year to see what actually is planted and what may pop up... view this as you've got a head start!

It's rained pretty much non-stop for the past six months, and winter generally isn't the tidiest time for gardens anyway, so to be honest I'd chalk it up as one of those things.

Nothing is happening in my garden and we don't cut anything back at this time of year to allow the wildlife some shelter.

I find it amazing that anyone has been able to do anything to their gardens with the weather we've had. I tried mowing once on a rare vaguely dry day, but just ended up with great clods of wet grass blocking the mower. I think it's unfortunate timing for you, but don't blame the sellers. It'll be quick and easy to fix if the garden was in good nick in the autumn.

I've been able to get out there to do some weeding & general tidying up

When we moved in it was clear that the previous owners has not done a thing in the garden since we offered. Other actions made it very clear they were not decent or thoughtful people. I had no issue spending their DIY shop vouchers that arrived. I'll be moving soon and I'll be leaving the garden as good as I can. It's good manners.

You can’t really say anything or expect them to do anything. It’s probably like mine - I do zero gardening in winter months and leave it all until around now, but only if I have time and it’s sunny. It doesn’t take long to get it all back to nice again.

It's rained here pretty much every day since October meaning we haven't been able to cut the grass since September.

Our garden is clay so even on the odd day it's been dry, the ground has been so wet you can barely walk on it without the water on the surface coming up. If I tried to cut it all I would do is churn up the grass.

When I move out, all I am going to do is make sure all rubbish is removed, the patio swept, any dog waste removed and if they are lucky I will actually manage to cut the grass but I would rather leave long grass than a mud bath from trying to cut it.

Just factor in a couple of hours mowing for you when you get a dry day, and a couple of hours for you or someone else to tackle any big pruning or hedge trimming jobs. Gardeners round here charge £15 an hour but it might be more where you live.
Ultimately, it's like everything else when you buy a house - if you don't like the colour of the walls, you wouldn't expect the owners to change it for you before you buy, would you?

When we've moved previously our lawyer has put a clause in our offer (which I thought was standard!) that garden is to be maintained until exchange.

Wild and overgrown is my favourite type of garden! A few hours work and you'll have a brand new garden. Take before and afters - so satisfying.
Absolutely hate "undergrown" gardens so be glad you have vegetation and just look forward to getting stuck in - you might get the bug too which is brilliant for stress relief and green bathing :)

Thanks for the replies, I think we’ll be investing in a strimmer to get through the brambles when we move in!

This. 13 house moves under our belt and this clause or similar has been in every single one. In fact I think ours normally says that the garden will be tidy on day of completion. It actually doesn't matter what it looks like until keys are exchanged and you've completed. there's plenty of time between now and when you will actually move for the weather to cheer up and make some gardening possible, so they may be intending to do it, but I would definitely mention it to your solicitor.