Someone asked about leaving a ‘handover note’ when moving house – 21 examples of the good, the bad, and the downright odd

Moving house is an almighty pain in the arse, there’s no doubt about it, but the experience can be sweetened a little if the place you’re moving into comes with a nice little note from the previous owners, and perhaps even a bottle of champagne.

But is this standard practice? They’ve been chatting about this on the AskUK subreddit, after user Fine-Night-243 asked this question…

‘Is it normal to leave a handover note when you sell your house?’

… before sharing their own experience.

‘We recently sold our house and bought a new one. We left a little handover note with the keys for the new owners just with some useful things like the water stopcock location, that the back gate is a bit sticky but don’t worry the key works, a radiator is a bit temperamental, how to dial in the thermostat quickly, some of the plants in the garden’s needs and also the local WhatsApp group.

‘The house we bought, the owners left the keys and a ‘new house’ card wishing us years of happiness (which was nice) but no information. Just wondering if handover notes are normal? Our previous house the owner did not leave anything but we figured that was because it was rented out and obviously we wouldn’t expect tenants to leave anything.’

Lots of people chipped in with the things they had been left in their new homes, which ranged from the delightful to the disgusting, like these…

1.

‘My grandparents left a bloody binder with about 20 laminated pages for their new owners, that also included a map of ‘Neighbours we like and who we avoid’, with individual houses crossed out.

‘At no point did it occur to them that it might be considered wildly insane.’
–crgoodw

2.

‘My brother has just bought his first house of an old couple who are downsizing and the old boy left a ring binder for him. Honestly it’s been incredibly useful and has probably saved my brother thousands. Everything from the numbers for good handymen to information on where pipes and wires are throughout the house and garden. Even has dimensions for rooms and stuff.

‘I personally didn’t think it at all insane, just a guy thats proud of the house he’s maintained for decades.’
–External_Violinist94

3.

‘When I moved into a house there was a note left for me with ‘be careful of the family in number 22, they steal things from your car and accuse you of stealing their post’. Sure enough, a couple of weeks after I moved in, the woman from number 22 came over and tried to get into my house to check for a card with money in it that had apparently been posted in my door by mistake.’
–lodav22

4.

‘My outgoing owner had the flat professionally cleaned, left a card, bottle of prosecco and box of chocolates. Then a two page typed set of instructions explaining every key, switch and everything else they could think of. 10/10 seller and obviously you don’t need to go that far, but I was extremely appreciative of the list.’
–vientianna

5.

‘I didn’t do the professional cleaning, but I did the typed list of switches, bin schedules, the number of a good window cleaner and an MS Paint diagram of how to access the stopcock under the bath in my 1900s tenement flat (it was a complicated process).’
–Varvara-Sidorovna

6.

‘My sellers left behind a pile of keys in the kitchen in an envelope. Apart from the main door and garage keys, the rest are still in that envelope and I have not needed any of them. This was 6 months ago.’
–Sway212

7.

‘My outgoing owner left me a load of dirt, a biohazard washing machine and a carpet moth infestation.’
–Katietori

8.

‘Mine left a single rubber glove and a poo in the loo. Was supposed to have cleaned. The quantity of rotting onions in the cupboards proved that to be untrue.’
–HerrFerret

9.

‘I don’t think it’s expected but is nice. The old owners of our house left:

-A nice card/bottle of wine. Also some loo roll, kitchen roll and basic hand soap which was much appreciated while we were moving in having forgotten to leave it on the top!

-Some local history documents and old original deeds of the house they’d got when they were doing research into the area as a hobby – unnecessary to leave but lovely for interest!

-Many bizarre and borderline dangerous DIY decisions they made we had to correct.’
–medphysfem

10.

‘We arrived on completion day to find their belongings all over the house and the wife doing the dishes in the kitchen. We agreed to give them a couple of hours to clear the place (we didn’t have a van waiting).

‘Told our solicitor after it was over and he went berserk, saying we should have contacted him immediately. It is not OK and could have legal consequences. They weren’t entitled to be in the house, full stop.’
–opitypang

11.

‘I just moved in a week ago to my first home. And there was a lovely note from the seller who had lived there 32 years. It had some practical info about some appliances and also some info about what she left in the loft and garage. Specific paint and which room it was used in and spare floor tiles. I’d say pretty normal to leave one and if you have info to give them I would be grateful to hear it.’
–ExoticExchange

12.

‘I would say yes if it’s a complicated house. Former owners left us a binder, total godsend when navigating going from a city centre terrace to a 300 year old rural cottage – info ref septic tank, oil delivery, trades who’d worked in the house, etc.’
–hausplants