[belnryan]

We settle tomorrow afternoon at 2:30pm on our new house. We had our presettlement inspection at 5:30pm today.

I'm not sure i was 100% happy with it or if i am expecting to much.

What did you expect at your presettlement?
eg/ house to be empty, near empty, still full of furniture boxes etc.

What things did you check?

cars in or out of garage?

owners to be there for it or not?

anything else you can think of.

This post has been edited by belnryan: 25/10/2011, 09:20 PM

[onthephone]

I expect the house to be completely empty except for chattles, spotlessly clean both inside and out, the garden to be neat and tidy.

If it is not in this condition then I would invoke the hold back clause that I always put in the contract. If you have not stated in the contract that you will hold X$ unless the house is in a certain condition then you have no recourse.

[futureself]

What did you expect at your presettlement?

That all the fixtures, fittings etc that are supposed to be there are there and no damage has occurred since the acceptance of offer.

It's not yours yet so their furniture and boxes are quite entitled to be there, as are they, until settlement. Had something happened to the property that worried you?

[Stellajoy]

It's hard as they don't have to be out yet. I just checked that nothing obvious was broken, oven worked, and asked that all te pot plants be removed and shed cleaned out. What did you have issues with?

[niksia]

Pre-inspection is to ensure there is no damage etc that has occurred between contract and settlement.

Unless they are working all night I would expect 99% of property to be out and cleaning to be majority done.

Keep in mind different levels of cleanliness. I alway clean our new houses again and get the carpets cleaned. Unlike rental properties, there is nothing to demand that it is cleaned to a professional level.

Cars wouldn't bother me as they can be moved quickly.

Our last house that we sold wasn't as clean as I would have like to have left it but the buyers kept pushing for an earlier settlement so it was the price they paid for their convenience.

[babybeli]

When we moved out of our old house into this one we settled on the same day for each house. So that meant getting our things out of one in the morning and into the other that afternoon.

The agent came and did the pre settlement inspection (it was a member of their staff that bought our old house) she did it amongst us loading the truck but could see that I was doing the final once over on each room as it emptied.

I would though normally expect to find a house completely empty and clean at the pre settlement inspection.

I guess our situation was slightly different as we were selling to the agents secretary and she was already aware of how pedantic my DH is so knew it would all be ok.

The house next to us though when it sold had an older lady in it that had gone to a home. Her family didn't empty it or clean it. The new owner turned up to a house full of furniture that was not cleaned. He must have said something because not long after all her adult kids turned up ranting and raving loading all her stuff into Utes etc. They were so feral.

[Guest_Bubbalicious9_*]

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This post has been edited by Bubbalicious9: 29/10/2011, 05:01 PM

[belnryan]

I didn't have issues as such, it's been a stressful week with work and tiredness so i am sure i am probably over reacting.

I think my biggest thing is a friend recently purchased a place that was left very messy (they extended settlement until cleaned) at my inspection i couldn't really tell how it will be left cleanliness wise as there were boxes randomly all over the place, cupboards, wardrobes etc still full, furniture still mostly there.

I felt like as it is still their house full of their personal belongings that i couldn't look well. Especially as they were sitting right there and i heard the husband comment to his wife when my husband went to touch a sunscreen thing on the awning.

I guess i expected it to be tidy, with boxes stacked/ put somewhere neatly so i could get a better picture of how the house would be left.

I'm probably just nervous and stressing over nothing.

This post has been edited by belnryan: 25/10/2011, 08:51 PM

[3XY]

We bought our place 3 months ago and had so much trouble with the previous owners we had to delay settlement until they had removed most of the rubbish out from under the house, and then with-held $ to ensure they finished the job properly. Luckily we had written this into the contract as the building inspection identified all this extra stuff we hadn't seen that was stashed under the house. The owners protested that it had been there when they moved in but tough luck.....we wanted it gone.

They left the place a mess, years worth of dust, carpets disgusting, feral oven, dug plants out of the garden, you name it. All this after repeatedly trying to get us to release the deposit so they could pay rent with it, then trying to say they couldn't move out on time as their rental property had fallen through. We had a 6 week settlement and they could have asked for longer but to ask to stay longer 3 days before settlement was a bit crazy.

Anyway......I suppose having your new house in a nice clean condition is really a bonus as it's not like a rental property where you can demand a certain degree of cleanliness.

The pre-settlement inspection is really as the PPs have said, to make sure all the fixtures and fittings are still in place and the place hasn't been wrecked, and also to make sure they take all their crap with them and don't leave it full of rubbish.

Good luck!

ETA: if you weren't satisfied you could see the proper condition of the place, ask you solicitor/conveyancer to request another inspection, closer to settlement. We did this, they didn't comply, so we delayed settlement until we could be sure the stuff was gone.

This post has been edited by 3XY: 25/10/2011, 08:58 PM

[FreeRangeBabies]

I work as a conveyancing clerk, and we suggest to our clients to do the inspection the morning of settlement, but not less than 2hours before settlement is scheduled.

We tell clients that they are checking that the house in the same condition as when they first inspected it and that the chat ells noted in the contract are there and in working order.

With cleanliness, it's subjective, so it's a difficult fight to undertake, however, having said that, there is a difference between it needing a vacuum and dusting to having to call in the professionals before you step foot in the house.