Leaving a note for the buyers of our house when we move?

[ErlingHaalandsManBun]

Have you done this when you have moved?

I think I am going to leave them a note with some useful info on for them. So far I have got:

The codes for the outbuilding locks
How to read the gas and tell if you need to order more (we are on LPG)
Who our gas supplier is
Who services our boiler
Who cuts our hedges (they expressed an interest in getting this done also)
Who our window cleaner is (although we will cancel him before we leave)
When bin day is

Is there anything else you would include/have included if you have done the same for your buyer?

Anything else you would do/leave before you go?

I knew of somebody that took the light fittings, garden plants and door knobs when he sold his late mother’s house.

He was a multi millionaire and a giant cockwomble.

@7238SM You might be able to find old maps covering your house on this website:

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=15.8&lat=51.45442&lon=-2.61106&layers=1&right=BingHyb

Or the 1911 and 1921 census returns might help.

People like him should be on a publicly accessible list of unreasonable house buyers and sellers. And remain on it for at least 25 years so any future sellers or buyers are aware.

As for the OP, if you have a good plumber or electrician, recommend them.

Our vendor told us what the paint colours were (and left some half tins) which was actually incredibly helpful as we didn’t redecorate fully for a few years.

If I loved the house and the location was perfect… if I read the vendor took the door knobs and lights, I’d think “twat” but I sure as heck wouldn’t not buy a property I otherwise loved

I usually do this too. In my current house the previous owners left a useful similar list. What I wish they'd also left was a list of all the plants and trees in the garden, they were amazing gardeners and there are lots of unusual varieties, I'd have loved a list.

The previous owners left spare tiles and paint which was useful.

Your favourite colour

When we bought the property had been in the same family since 1900, which meant it had never been put on the land register so we had to do that to buy it and got all the original documents. It was really fun looking through it all on our first night here!

OP, I would add any manuals and certificates you might have and also the names of any local trades people you use.

My parents received a colour coded map of the garden which told them how to care for everything too! Such a gift!

Paint colours is a good one. Previous owner sent us on a Farrow & Ball wild good chase, as the paint was actually a Dulux colour - something his son was able to tell us after we wasted money on a few F&B tester pots!

We had such an awful experience as first time buyers that when we sold ours i was determined to make their experience more pleasant. Left bottle of wine, note with information such as stopcock, meters to read, bin day collections, who our water and utility companies were. I got a lovely message thanking us for that. Stop cock defonately important tool us 3 years and 3 different plumbers to find our internal one! Main one outside turns of several houses! So yes wish we had this information!

I just bought a house and the sellers left me toilet paper in each bathroom, hand soap as well, and new towels in each bathroom. curtain rods and new curtains up, lightbulbs and instructions for all appliances.
it has helped me SO much, as the move in has been difficult!

A note with all the handy info mentioned by other posters, tin of posh biscuits, manuals for all the appliances in a folder and also a homemade card from my kids wishing them as many happy memories as we'd had there and saying to look after the neighbours as they were behind lush 🥰

They were craftspeople and they sent us a gift they'd made to wish us happy new home as well. Was all rather lovely!

We move a lot and I have always left a folder of relevant documents (warranties for white goods, alarm codes, tradesman’s details etc) with an immaculately clean house, wine and flowers and a card.
The last two people that bought from us however had been so VILE (lying about financial position on viewing, delaying exchange due to said lies, demanding various inclusion of things that were openly excluded (hugely expensive curtains/blinds and lights) that I moved out and left absolutely fuck all.
The outrage was almost amusing to witness!!

As well as most of the above things (manuals for appliances, guarantees, recommended tradesmen, bin day, names of the surrounding neighbours etc) we've always left up to date menus for any decent local takeaways.

Also a bottle of champagne and/or a plant in a pot and a little card welcoming them to their new home.

I also left a couple of addressed envelopes with stamps for our new place on them. We have mail forwarding set up but the new owners did end up using them.

We sold our house to a lovely elderly widower. He needed to know what apps he needed for underfloor heating, the boiler and smart lighting. We left lots of information. He sent us a lovely card a few weeks later via the estate agent thanking us and saying he would never have managed without it (and his son who helped him). Was worth the effort.

When I left my maisonette I left a folder of all instruction manuals, labelled jars of touch-up paint, catflap accessories, new spare curtain for the door, every curtain pole, blind, light fitting, bulb and shade, labelled door and window keys, spare kitchen tiles in the loft, Ring doorbell, Hive, cleaning products, instructions for stopcock and bin days etc… everything I could think of. Everything was spotless. I left my email address and a welcome note. The sale had been smooth, he’d offered asking price then just been fine throughout.
When I left my house, I was going to do exactly the same but the buyers were horrendous and messed me about so much, kept stalling, tried to discount the price further, moved dates further and further back. I was just shattered from it all, didn’t bother with anything (obviously it was clean). I didn’t do anything out of malice, I was just worn down by the purchasers and, after so many Fridays expecting to exchange but being stalled, relieved to finally leave.

I left all the above info plus a framed picture of the house dating from around 1930, and and aerial photo of the street that we'd bought.

Your seller bought new curtains @Newnamehiwhodis ?

Apart from more ordinary things we left the instructions for accessing the secret underfloor storage compartment for valuables which DH had installed using some weird hinges from a car bonnet. From above there was no clue that the bit of floor could rise.

Our seller left us with a brand new washer / dryer, as the original one was dying, a plant list for the garden, which they’d had created by a local well known gardener (it was a 3 yr old new build) and the most fabulous curtains and blinds.

Am moving in the next 3 weeks. Have left paint tins with rooms marked on, sorted keys and will write a note about bins, window cleaning, post, neighbours etc. Will leave the curtains and blinds as don't need to take them, plus light bulbs and a few loo rolls and some wine and a card. I think it is the right thing to do. The person I'm buying from is abroad so I expect nothing. I know it is clean though, which is a great start!

In one (1980s built) house we discovered a cylindrical safe sunk into the garage floor. Took us ages to find it and never managed to get into it.

Friends had a period country house with a gun safe - proper big heavy door hidden behind panelling in one of the bedrooms.