Moving - to Fill or Not to Fill

[Belle427]

myvision said:

When we moved in the previous owners left everything the Hoover was plugged in and in the middle of the living room.
It looked as though they'd just said right let's leave now.
Clothes still hanging in the wardrobes and washing in the machine.

Took fking ages to move it all out. A sty note to say enjoy your new house.
they'd gone back to Canada.

A similar thing happened to me.
Guy moving out asked if he could leave a dining table and a spare bed to collect at a later date and I agreed.
Day I got the keys I opened the front door to see a coat on the stair bannister, a bit odd I thought.
Went in to find he had just left the house as is with everything in it and gone to Spain, he was a bit of a crook and was running from the tax man!
Lots of shouting and swearing over the phone and a day or so later he had a mate moving his stuff out.
Nightmare.

[DonkeyApple]

sociopath said:

DonkeyApple said:

Diplomatico said:

Hello,

Moving house in a few weeks. Do people generally fill holes from pictures, TV in wall, mirrors etc?

Or do you leave the fixing in place and ride off into the sunset.

We don’t have the paint for every room. So can’t paint over all of the holes we fill if that’s the consensus.

What has everyone else done?

I generally leave picture fixings in place but will fill any holes. I don’t then decorate to blend in.

I’ve always had the property cleaned once all our stuff is out because a lot of buyers seem to move in immediately. We took four days sterilising the latest property before moving our stuff in

What did you move into, a house or a pigsty?

I've never sterilised a house for 5 minutes never mind 4 days, and I'm not dead yet

You could probably lock a public toilet and not die. Doesn’t mean that it’s a civilised way to live.

Day 1 all the carpets are steam cleaned. Those then take three days to properly dry so that furniture doesn’t leave marks, especially old brown furniture.

Days 2.4 proper cleaning of bathrooms, tiled and wooden floors, banisters, walls, switches, sockets, windows etc and patching of holes.

Don’t personally see the pleasure in moving in on top of someone else’s carpets and general domestic grubbiness when you can easily get rid of it all.

[DonkeyApple]

Belle427 said:

myvision said:

When we moved in the previous owners left everything the Hoover was plugged in and in the middle of the living room.
It looked as though they'd just said right let's leave now.
Clothes still hanging in the wardrobes and washing in the machine.

Took fking ages to move it all out. A sty note to say enjoy your new house.
they'd gone back to Canada.

A similar thing happened to me.
Guy moving out asked if he could leave a dining table and a spare bed to collect at a later date and I agreed.
Day I got the keys I opened the front door to see a coat on the stair bannister, a bit odd I thought.
Went in to find he had just left the house as is with everything in it and gone to Spain, he was a bit of a crook and was running from the tax man!
Lots of shouting and swearing over the phone and a day or so later he had a mate moving his stuff out.
Nightmare.

Some people are just douchebags. It’s why you must retain a part of the payment to mainly help focus a douchebag as they are usually greedy and the withholding of some of their money is enough to stop them doing what they are genetically prone to doing andnif it doesn’t then at least you just have the inconvenience to deal insteadnof the cost also.

The reality is that when you go house hunting in the first instance you do get a bit of a shock as to just how many people live in squalor out of personal choice.

[DoubleD]

Retain part of the payment? How do you manage to do that?

[DonkeyApple]

DoubleD said:

Retain part of the payment? How do you manage to do that?

It’s normal practice to hold back a grand or two in escrow to cover things as far as I am aware as the likelihood of any success in chasing them once they’ve got all the moneybis close to zero. It normally gets released to them after three or six months.

[Mr_J]

Only moved house once. We cleaned and hoovered as we emptied a room.

We did leave a bottle of bubbly in the fridge and a welcome to your new home letter with details like the neighbours names and our contact details.

[DoubleD]

DonkeyApple said:

DoubleD said:

Retain part of the payment? How do you manage to do that?

It’s normal practice to hold back a grand or two in escrow to cover things as far as I am aware as the likelihood of any success in chasing them once they’ve got all the moneybis close to zero. It normally gets released to them after three or six months.

I have never heard of that before.

[DonkeyApple]

Mr_J said:

Only moved house once. We cleaned and hoovered as we emptied a room.

We did leave a bottle of bubbly in the fridge and a welcome to your new home letter with details like the neighbours names and our contact details.

Yup. Bottle of bubbly is simply to empower the wife to put that extra bit of effort in on stopping the husband being a tool about any inconsequential things you may have forgotten in the carnage of moving home.

[DonkeyApple]

DoubleD said:

I have never heard of that before.

I assumed it was standard practice. We’ve always applied to any vendor and our buyers have always requested it from us. It supposed to be for little bills that may come in after sale but be the responsibility of the vendor. In reality it’s real purpose is as a Sword of Damocles to help generally good people not to cut corners or cheat on the F&F agreement.

[sociopath]

DonkeyApple said:

sociopath said:

DonkeyApple said:

Diplomatico said:

Hello,

Moving house in a few weeks. Do people generally fill holes from pictures, TV in wall, mirrors etc?

Or do you leave the fixing in place and ride off into the sunset.

We don’t have the paint for every room. So can’t paint over all of the holes we fill if that’s the consensus.

What has everyone else done?

I generally leave picture fixings in place but will fill any holes. I don’t then decorate to blend in.

I’ve always had the property cleaned once all our stuff is out because a lot of buyers seem to move in immediately. We took four days sterilising the latest property before moving our stuff in

What did you move into, a house or a pigsty?

I've never sterilised a house for 5 minutes never mind 4 days, and I'm not dead yet

You could probably lock a public toilet and not die. Doesn’t mean that it’s a civilised way to live.

Day 1 all the carpets are steam cleaned. Those then take three days to properly dry so that furniture doesn’t leave marks, especially old brown furniture.

Days 2.4 proper cleaning of bathrooms, tiled and wooden floors, banisters, walls, switches, sockets, windows etc and patching of holes.

Don’t personally see the pleasure in moving in on top of someone else’s carpets and general domestic grubbiness when you can easily get rid of it all.

Where did you live and store your possessions during those 4 days? Most people don't have the luxury of a spare house

[caiss4]

DoubleD said:

DonkeyApple said:

DoubleD said:

Retain part of the payment? How do you manage to do that?

It’s normal practice to hold back a grand or two in escrow to cover things as far as I am aware as the likelihood of any success in chasing them once they’ve got all the moneybis close to zero. It normally gets released to them after three or six months.

I have never heard of that before.

I had £6K held in escrow on my current house. Circumstances slightly different. It was a new build and the garden hadn't been landscaped so the money was held back in anticipation of the builder finishing the job. Reality was he was on the verge of going bust. I knew that, he knew that and we both knew that on completion I'd never see him again. 3 months later I got my money back!

[Teddy Lop]

my folks bought a house of some berk who took the carpets and light bulbs!

I think it was the "pretentious tw4t" row of large Victorian semis in the village - he was the headmaster of the recently closed prep school - initially he wouldn't budge on price, house wouldn't sell, so against advice let it - too tight to install central heating so the bunch of student nurses made use of the open fireplaces and fked the carpets, then when my folks chipped him on the price came back with "xx extra for carpets and curtains", they said no thanks, so (being the posh tw4t he was,) he employed some labourer serfs to remove them all the day before exchange!

Bare grip rods everywhere on moving in!

[DonkeyApple]

sociopath said:

Where did you live and store your possessions during those 4 days? Most people don't have the luxury of a spare house

My wife went on holiday with the children and I slept on a camp bed in the new house. Possessions held by the removals firm. I didn’t feel the need to buy a house just to use it for four days. You’d probably only do that if you didn’t understand the basic working concept of the hospitality industry or the storage industry.

[DonkeyApple]

Teddy Lop said:

my folks bought a house of some berk who took the carpets and light bulbs!

I think it was the "pretentious tw4t" row of large Victorian semis in the village - he was the headmaster of the recently closed prep school - initially he wouldn't budge on price, house wouldn't sell, so against advice let it - too tight to install central heating so the bunch of student nurses made use of the open fireplaces and fked the carpets, then when my folks chipped him on the price came back with "xx extra for carpets and curtains", they said no thanks, so (being the posh tw4t he was,) he employed some labourer serfs to remove them all the day before exchange!

Bare grip rods everywhere on moving in!

I’m not quite appreciating that. Your parents agreed to not buying the carpets and curtains so he took them. It’s what they negotiated and signed for.

It’s onviously all a bit a tiny minded but they negotiated a discount and the removal of fked carpets that they were going to have to replace and pay to dispose of. It’s a win win for your parents isn’t it? Or were the carpets actually ok and they were gambling that he might leave them?

[Dromedary66]

DonkeyApple said:

I assumed it was standard practice.

No.

[Teddy Lop]

DonkeyApple said:

I’m not quite appreciating that. Your parents agreed to not buying the carpets and curtains so he took them. It’s what they negotiated and signed for.

It’s onviously all a bit a tiny minded but they negotiated a discount and the removal of fked carpets that they were going to have to replace and pay to dispose of. It’s a win win for your parents isn’t it? Or were the carpets actually ok and they were gambling that he might leave them?

fk me did you sell a house in newnham-on-severn in the late 90s?

I was offering a story of a petty tight fisted tosspot for general amusement, not asking for legal advice.

[DonkeyApple]

Teddy Lop said:

DonkeyApple said:

I’m not quite appreciating that. Your parents agreed to not buying the carpets and curtains so he took them. It’s what they negotiated and signed for.

It’s onviously all a bit a tiny minded but they negotiated a discount and the removal of fked carpets that they were going to have to replace and pay to dispose of. It’s a win win for your parents isn’t it? Or were the carpets actually ok and they were gambling that he might leave them?

fk me did you sell a house in newnham-on-severn in the late 90s?

I was offering a story of a petty tight fisted tosspot for general amusement, not asking for legal advice.

Apologies. I thought you were having a hard done by whinge.

[DoubleD]

Dromedary66 said:

DonkeyApple said:

I assumed it was standard practice.

No.

I would imagine that lenders would be a bit funny about doing it?

[DonkeyApple]

DoubleD said:

Dromedary66 said:

DonkeyApple said:

I assumed it was standard practice.

No.

I would imagine that lenders would be a bit funny about doing it?

I wouldn’t have thought it has anything to do with the lender. And I’m genuinely of the view that it is completely standard practice for the buyers’s solicitor to hold back an agreed amount. I’ve done so every time and it’s been asked of me every time.

If we take the example above of the vendor agreeing to remove the carpets but then you turn up and they haven’t then the cost of fixing their breach will be worn by them. Likewise if you agree to ‘making good’ and arrive to find enormous holes. Or if appliances or any other fixtures and fittings are there or not there.

We’ve never arrived to find any issues other than general dirt to clean and maybe the retention serves to keep people focussed as much as anything?

Back to the OPs original q, I’d leave all picture hooks unless specified but fill holes where a TV was mounted or a wardrobe secured etc.

[DoubleD]

DonkeyApple said:

DoubleD said:

Dromedary66 said:

DonkeyApple said:

I assumed it was standard practice.

No.

I would imagine that lenders would be a bit funny about doing it?

I wouldn’t have thought it has anything to do with the lender. And I’m genuinely of the view that it is completely standard practice for the buyers’s solicitor to hold back an agreed amount. I’ve done so every time and it’s been asked of me every time.

If we take the example above of the vendor agreeing to remove the carpets but then you turn up and they haven’t then the cost of fixing their breach will be worn by them. Likewise if you agree to ‘making good’ and arrive to find enormous holes. Or if appliances or any other fixtures and fittings are there or not there.

We’ve never arrived to find any issues other than general dirt to clean and maybe the retention serves to keep people focussed as much as anything?

Back to the OPs original q, I’d leave all picture hooks unless specified but fill holes where a TV was mounted or a wardrobe secured etc.

Ive just checked with a property solicitor (yes I know one). This is definitely not normal practice.