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?

I spent so long making everything perfectly clean before I moved out. We knew the buyers were several hours away so thought it would be nice for them to come in late with literally nothing to worry about. Got to our new home about 5pm. Chuffing FILTHY.

It was disgusting. Thick dirt on all the light switches, dog hair and dog grease on everything, floors dirty, very old dead mouse in the kitchen cupboard. They did leave 10 rolls of toilet paper though (during Covid so it was appreciated) 😄

Have always left a house spotless when moving, along with a welcome card. Our current house, they hadnmt finished moving out on oir arrival, even though their new house had been bought for ages. The house was filthy, mouse dirts in the bedrooms, oven so thick with grease you could grow potatoes in, crappy wardrobes left, which had been painted around on the walls. Middle class, professional people 🙄

Yes, there is a charge but it makes everything so much less fraught and if the completion is late in the day etc it is just one less thing to stress about! And I say that as someone who had movers eventually turn up once at 4pm on completion day as the lorry had broken down!

My daughter moved a few weeks ago. She left her house spotless, then had to bleach and steam clean the new house because it was disgusting, greasy kitchen cupboards and filthy floor. She only knocked 7% off the price, even though the windows (including 3 sets of patio doors) all need replacing! Some people just don't care.

We've never sold a house and only bought one house in our lives and it was very clean when we moved in. We were obviously very lucky.

I didn't assume it was the norm for houses to be deep cleaned when the vendors moved out tbh. But you would think it was common decency to do a normal clean like you probably did when people looked round the house.

I don’t think it’s the norm for a deep clean . It is expected that the house be clean and tidy though.

I would have burst into tears.

You don’t have to clean a house when you move out (upon sale) it’s good manners to leave it dirt / grease free of course, but you don’t have to deep clean or leave spotless.

Yes, I did say that in the sentence after.

But there have been a few posts saying they left their houses "perfectly clean" and that they spent a really long time on it. I think our vendors did too when we bought our house. Although it was very nice of them, I don't think it is the norm to have it "perfect" and absolutely spotless. Tidy, empty and not dirty is fine

We left our old house empty and spotless (the buyers agreed!) and the only things left in the shed were cans of paint labelled with the room they were used in, in case the new owners wanted to touch up before doing whatever they wanted.

The house we moved into was a disgrace. It took us the best part of three weeks to deep clean.

There were still things in the cupboards, pictures on the walls and a garage half full of their things - 10% they had someone come collect two days later. It's just as well we love the house and the location because we never ever want to face another move!

That’s what I always do too.

Gross detail so skip if you’re sensitive….

When we moved into our house 15 years ago, one bedroom carpet was encrusted with - cut-off toenails!
The house had been lived in by an old man on his own but he had adult children so there’s no excuse. For some strange reason, the living room carpet had drawing pins scattered over it.
???
People are strange.

I was mortified that I didn't clean my house when we left.
Unfortunately, we had booked a packing service, and the movers massively under estimated the amount of stuff we had.
This resulted in us being really late moving out and the new owners (rightly) becoming annoyed we hadn't left on time (even though they weren't moving in that same week.) We were under so much pressure to get everything out, we had no time to clean, and just left it as it was.
I was actually a bit annoyed to find out that the new owners didn't turn up for a week as I could have stayed behind and cleaned it for them. Hey ho.

Not only did we leave our house clean we left wine, chocolates and a welcome card for the new owners wishing them happiness in their new home.

I cried when we got ours as ftbs. Looking back, it was just filth, nothing groundbreaking. But it absolute ruined the excited of the day on top of seller leaving at 5pm instead of midday.
It smelled, it wasn't cleaned since last viewing (pre exchange viewings weren't really known much at the time). They left the cleaning products. With crapton of dust on them....

Next house was amazing. We even told them not to worry about deep clean, but they did. Mopped behind them. They were very house proud and lovely sellers.

The house i moved into was pure filth. The place I left was immaculate as I like to leave it in a way you would want it. I worked and have children but managed to clean to a high standard, the house I moved to, the previous tenant did not work, and never cleaned. It is just lazy behaviour

When we bought our house (quite a few years ago now) it was filthy. The person we bought it off only moved round the corner and I saw her often - she was always smartly turned out so I never expected her to be a dirty slut. Never saw her the same way again and I made sure to tell everyone I knew in the village about it too.
I wouldn't have been able to look the buyer in the face again if I'd left mine in that state. By the sheer state of the place, I'm assuming she lived like that, not just left it a bit grubby. Took my mum and me days of cleaning to get it half decent.
We knew it needed work but not basic cleaning. No excuse for that but apparently some people live in squalor and don't care.

When we moved from our last house I left the vacuum cleaner, broom, mop and bucket out so I could go round quickly when the house was empty. When I went to get them I found the removal men had taken them.

I popped the cat in his basket on the back seat of the car and set off to the estate agents to hand in the keys. The cat pooed in the basket, so I opened the car window and a wasp flew in. The cat then turned around and started kicking the poo out of the basket while I was trying to drive and fend off the wasp who was buzzing round my head angrily.

Most of the poo got stuck in my long hair so I can only imagine what the estate agents thought when I handed the keys over and stammered out an apology for not cleaning the kitchen floor. I still cringe when I think how dirty the floor was where the fridge and washing machine had been.

@MyVisionsComeFromSoup I recently sold/bought, and booked my cleaning lady to come after I'd left, she came with a friend and it took the two of them two hours. You can't really clean properly until the furniture's out and the cupboards are empty (I'd had the oven professionally cleaned before then, tho). But this was only possible because my buyers were coming from a furnished rental so could wait a bit to get in after completion. I had to race off to get the keys to the new house and meet the removal men.

As for the house I bought, dirty throughout, even though it had been empty for months and the owner lived nearby.

So sorry @crowsfeet57 but that made me laugh. Poor you, what a nightmare.

Book in professional cleaner for the house your selling for move day. They can work around removals. We’ve always done this.

For those who had sellers who left filthy houses, what was the state of the house when you viewed?

If it was filthy then, I don't expect it will be much different after they moved out. Have you viewed a spotless house only for it to turn into a tip at completion?

I think a lot of people just stop cleaning when they’ve left sale is agreed.

We had this issue. The kitchen was absolutely vile. I managed to get some sense of revenge as they forgot to empty 2 of the cupboards containing pots and pans. I messaged them and they came to collect. I made a point of telling them that I couldn't stop and chat as the kitchen needed a really deep clean before it could be used. They looked very ashamed

Yup. It was not absolutely spotless, hard to do with kids, but it was very clean and didn't stink of grease and whatever theother smells were.
I am sure they simply stopped caring and 3.5 months I guess does this.
Might have also been revenge for us not accepting month and half in a surprise that we are now apparently in a chain and still demanding original approximate dates or we would have to drop out. (otherwise we would have to sign another AST and didn't have spare money for expensive short term lets).