One of the
terms of the contract that sellers have a lot of trouble with involves leaving
the property “free of trash and debris”.
The problem
seems to lie in defining the words “trash and debris”.
I mean, that stinky old couch on the
back porch isn’t really trash, is
it? It looks perfectly okay – the dog liked sleeping on it for the past ten
years. We left it out on the porch because it got left out in the humidity for
so long, so we’d never move it indoors. (Frankly, I wouldn’t even want to sit
on it!) But it’s okay for a porch
couch. Right? I mean, we don’t want
it anymore, but the buyer might, right?
Wrong. If the
buyer wanted it, he’d have asked for it.
The point
of this story is – don’t leave stuff YOU wouldn’t keep for the buyers to get
rid of. If it’s something you think the
buyers might want – ASK! They’ll either say yes or no, but don’t make it their
responsibility to get rid of your trash.
On the
other hand, if the house was painted recently, it’s perfectly acceptable to
leave the leftover paint – IN GOOD CONDITION – in the house for the buyer to do
touch-ups. Especially if you label the cans so that the buyer knows which paint
was used where.
You can
leave a few left-over cleaning supplies, but not if they have only one good spray left in
the container. A mostly full bottle of glass cleaner that you just don’t want
to move would probably be welcome, but not all your dirty sponges and old rags.
You get the
picture. I mean, let’s admit it. When you’re moving into a new house, you bring
enough trash of your own, without having to deal with the previous owner’s
trash.
Right?
(C) 2006 Susan Pruden.
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