Surely everyone cleans the house they're moving out from?

[MyVisionsComeFromSoup]

Bought a house last week, the sellers faffed around so much on their moving out day and didnt get out for 6 hours after completion, which annoyed me to start off with.

But then I realised that they hadn't done any cleaning whatsoever, it's taken us the best part of three days just to de-grease the kitchen!

Surely you'd leave a house at least vaguely presentable?

When we moved, our buyers actually messaged to say thank you for leaving the house so clean. Unfortunately, the house we moved into was filthy. The kitchen was greasy and still had stuff in some of the cupboards. It took days to clean it. I think people should leave things how they expect to find them but, obviously, not everyone thinks the same.

None of the places I have bought - two of them - were cleaned. One was actively filthy. DD has just bought a flat and that was filthy too. Sellers left a load of stuff behind too that we had to get rid of. So I would never expect anywhere to be cleaned, no.

I would get a new place deep cleaned right away in any case. Both my houses were new build so thankfully have never moved into a dirty house. I was pondering this today as I may be moving - I’d get my current house cleaned before I left, but doubt I’d bother, or have the time, to clean where furniture had been as I’d be moving that day. Do people really expect that to be done? Genuine question. And if so, when do people do it? Do you have a cleaner going round while you are moving out?

I’ve always done it whilst the removal company are uplifting and then ground with a hoover and mop when they’ve left. Put them on the car when I leave.

We were very lucky that our sellers left the house pristine- probably never been as clean since! Dm and db both had awful experiences. DM's sellers took all the light fittings (it was November) and dm had moved from a couple of hundred miles away. Also the house stank of smoke and there were marks on the walls were pictures had been surrounded by nicotine. The ceilings were yellow. Dm had viewed it in the summer with the windows open. Db realised the seller had kept their pet rabbit under the stairs and the place stank.

Not planning on moving from our house but if we ever did, I would leave it immaculate for the buyers. I would feel awful leaving it unclean. When we bought our house (needed alot of work anyway), I can’t remember the number of times I cleaned the kitchen just to get it to a state we would cook in it (even knowing it was all being ripped out soon anyway). The previous owners were dealing with the wife being seriously ill so were downsizing (understandable not immaculate) but still would have got cleaners in to give it a once over. I just couldn’t leave that for the next people (aswell as alot of stuff in the loft).

Ive heard to some horror stories ...I dont know how people have the shame.

Im so grateful our sellers left the house clean, they had a dog and didnt find a single dog hair. They also left dishwasher tablets and basic cleaning bits too.

The house we sold was being brought as a BtL and carpets were going to be replaced so I just did a quick sweep and didnt worry too much about the last few days worth of dust. If it was a couple moving in though I would have left it slightly better but the bathroom and kitchen were hardly dirty in the first place

We moved into our house a year ago and my god the kitchen was vile. It was a family with 2 kids who’d lived here and it was so dirty! Luckily we were living with my MIL so we didn’t have to move in straight away. I would have hated to move our stuff in with it being so dirty! The carpets were filthy, replaced them pretty swift and moved in 3 weeks after getting the keys. Honestly would have died if my son would have had to move in straight away!

I scrubbed my house clean when I moved out and my new house was spotless when I moved in.

I had to stay in an Airbnb for a week, home Monday, because of builders doing some work. I cleaned that before I left then came home and am still cleaning from the builders mess.

It's down to respect and lack of imo.

Many years ago mine left all their belongings and did a runner with keys.

Solicitor had to come out to the house with paperwork to prove the house was mine to the locksmith.

It was not in a pleasant state when I finally did gain entry! I was so glad I hadn't intended to move straight in.

First home we moved into was not clean but it was an elderly lady who clearly couldn’t manage so didn’t begrudge her too much. Second was clean and most recent very cleaning but has been tenanted. We led the houses clean. I did the deep clean a few days before (windows/skirting wall etc) so last day was just hoovering each room as it became empty and quick clean of the bathrooms. I shut the door to each room as it became went to show it was clean and empty. I have the oven professionally cleaned once a year so it wasn’t spotless but it was pretty clean and everything was wiped down.

Unfortunately lots of people are utterly minging. I helped friends move house recently and I was not impressed with their attitude, just disorganisation and unrealistic timeframes I had done a lot of cleaning before hand so the house was clean but the husband intended to leave rubbish in the garden I was having none of it and gave a neighbour with a skip some cash to chuck it in I do love cleaning and tidying though and love leaving houses immaculate!

Finally got the kitchen clean enough to unpack stuff into the cupboards, now it's onto a deep clean of the bathroom (it's had a quick wipe round and some serious chemicals down the toilet so far). People can be disgusting!

Thankfully it's just me and DP here, I couldn't have coped with small DC

I moved a few weeks back & scrubbed absolutely everything. The oven was cleaned & unused for the day. Moved into our new home & it was filthy!! I’d have cleaned everything anyway but I was annoyed!

Obviously it's the decent thing to do, but as it's not a legal obligation, a lot of people don't do it - either because they're arseholes who simply can't be bothered or because packing and moving all the furniture etc takes a lot longer than they expected and they need to get out of the property.

We cleaned before we moved out of our old house. Our sellers didn't clean the house we moved into, though. Come to think of it they didn't even remove all their old stuff!

When we had a new bathroom fitted we discovered a pair of underpants coated in dust and mould that had been out of sight on top of the old full-height bathroom cabinet. I also had to scrape chewing gum off the laminate floor in one of the bedrooms.

Our sellers took the light fittings, literally left bare wires dangling from the ceilings in some rooms, they were still in the house when we arrived to move in, left half their stuff in the garage for days because they couldn't get it on the lorry. The house being dirty (which it was) was the least of our problems. They also had various pets and we found some of the carpets had been soaked with dog/cat urine and the boards underneath had puddle marks on them, truly disgusting.

We left our house pretty immaculate and it was so depressing moving into a disaster. It was a step up in area and was detached but quite a small house and for quite a while it seemed like a really bad move. It is great now, years and a couple of extensions later.

Have always left them spotless, literally mopped my way out the front door.
Middle house was a fixer upper [for us anyway] but we had to live in it for 6 months before building could start. The movers felt so sorry for us they offered to go and get some lunch so we could figure out what to do. It was utterly filthy. The family had clearly not touched it from the date they got the offer. You could scrape the grease off the kitchen surfaces. The boiler was condemned by the gas repair guy on our second day and best of all, the house was infested with fleas.

No. Some people let their dog piss all over it.

What's supposed to happen and what actually happens are, unfortunately, different things. And I am not speaking only moving out, I mean everything - parents/child relationship, boy/girl relationship, work relationships, even getting on a bus, etc. - people forget their manners, they only think of themselves. Me, me, me all the time. Have you ever encountered a post on MN along the lines of 'I feel I don't do enough for my step children/my husband/my siblings/my elderly parents/ I feel I don't deserve my salary, I don't do enough work/My wife or my husband are far too good for a bore that I am? No. It is the opposite.

Nope we had a 2 year old and a newborn when we moved, we were overwhelmed with a lot of other things in our personal life. We really struggled to leave it clean we're still loading the van when the buyers came to move in. We did put absolute best that we could, and it wasn't good enough. I feel vaguely bad about it but honestly we had to just take care of ourselves and couldn't manage a deep clean. They were buying the house, not the crumbs in the kitchen or the dusty carpet.

The fact that the kitchen was covered in grease shows that they weren’t big on cleaning anyway! We are moving next week and our house will be left lovely and clean.

I always have the house empty for a day to give it a good bottoming!

Last thing I did with our old house was hoover it. All packed, they were itching to get in but I couldn't leave it like that!
We moved into new place a couple hundred miles away and... omg. I don't think it had been cleaned for 6 months. Never buy a house off a single man gamer with a dog, that's what I say. It was horrific.

With empty houses you can get a company in for a deep clean for a few hundred pounds. It's what I did for Mums house after it was cleared. I can't understand those who won't do that. Everything was cleaned, including the carpets.

For our own houses you pack up as much as you can before moving day, and clean as you go along.

We have always insisted on cleaning clauses in the contract of sale. If it's not done, or lots of stuff is left behind, you can charge the sellers.

The whole system would be a lot better if there was an actual break for cleaning. For example... you have to vacate by 10am, and buyers get possession at 2pm... but the house can be accessed for cleaning between these times.