What would you want to know?

[HenDoNot]

I’m writing a welcome letter and a bit of manual of our house for the new owners. It’s been a while since we last moved and apart from bin day and where the stopcock is located I’m struggling to remember what bits of information we’d have found useful when we first moved in.

DH is dealing with explaining the heating which is pain in the arse complicated, and cctv systems.

What type of things would you want to know about your new home?

List of trusted trades who have worked on the house.

The alarm code

Which key belongs to which door. We had a pile of window keys, patio door, back door, garage etc keys

Bin collection dates.

Any instruction leaflets/guarantees you still have for the cooker/shower etc (I still look at the cooker instructions when I have to change the clocks 😂)

Very thoughtful of you, OP. A lovely start for the new owners who I’m sure will appreciate it.

A page of sticky labels with “please redirect” and a forwarding address so new owners can pop any stray post straight back in the letterbox for you?

Previous owners left the leftover paint from various renovations. The paint itself isn't much use, but knowing its "Homebase Willow Blush" was very useful for colour matching.

Was going to say the same as @Gettingmadderallthetime if there's a specific plumber that knows your system, their name and number.

Paint colours, the style of the kitchen if it's an off the shelf one (I found it so helpful to be able to go to B&Q to pick up some new matching units when I did some minor changes to our old kitchen... wouldn't have known otherwise)

Any noteworthy plants or trees in the garden?

Name of window cleaner?

Best Chinese takeaway!!

Biggest pain is to find matching paints.

Surely you just do a Royal Mail redirect instead of this faff.

Agree with PP about paint colours.

This is very kind of you OP.

I wish my previous owner had done this! All I got was a scribbled note about bin days torn from a scrappy A5 notepad, an instruction book for the dishwasher, and an installation guide for the boiling water tap!

I had to go through the estate agent to get a forwarding address for her after receiving debt collection stuff from O2 for her!

Quirks of the house. I'm going to let future buyers know that the patio doors need 'a firm hand' when closing so the lock will engage. Also that the gas fire (newish and regularly serviced) has a safety cut out that errs on the side of anxiety on a windy day - it's meant to do that. The wood burner will need a volume of its own. The joys of living at the bottom of a deep valley that acts as a vortex in our frequently windy area.

Window cleaner’s details. Labelled keys, instruction manuals for appliances, good local takeaway menus and a bottle of bubbly.

We have left and had left:
Forwarding address
Folder with all instruction manuals for: kitchen appliances, heating system, gas fires, alarm, garage doors, etc.
Labelled keys
Instructions for the safe
Leftover paint, tiles, slates, wallpaper, etc.
Window cleaner and gardener details
Trees with tree preservation orders
Stop cocks
Location of water tanks, gas supply, etc.

How to get hot water, clearly and on- its- own instructions.