Why would someone take the toilet roll holder? And what do you have to leave behind?

[IlanaK]

We are hopefully exchanging on the flat we are buying next week. We have been looking through the paperwork where the vendor ticks the boxes about what they are taking and leaving behind. Our vendor is taking the bathroom mirrors, the toilet roll holders, the curtain rails, and the light fittings in most rooms.

We have sold our flat recently and would not even have considered doing this! And we had really expensive ceiling fans in all rooms and lovely bathroom lighted mirrored cabinets!

Anyway, what I want to know is what are the rules of what they leave behind when they take this type of stuff. So, if they are taking the light fittings, do they have to leave a working light? And if they take the bathroom mirrors, do they have to fill the wholes and re-tile where they took it off?

We are doing an inspection on the day of completion before releasing the money (and this has been written into the contracts) so I would like to know what I am looking for.

[WorzselMummage]

I have heard of people taking the light bulbs

[IlanaK]

Me too. But what I want to know is - what is the legal requirement for what has to be left behind.

[choufleur]

if you don't say you are leaving it in the fixtures and fittings list you can pretty much take anything that isn't actually wall/floors etc. i know someone who moved into a house only to find teh fitted hob had been removed - leaving a lovely whole in teh work surface.

I think you have to leave the light fitting, or else it would just be bare wires, but you don't have to leave a bulb

[yellowcircle]

They might have taken the toilet roll holder because it was expensive (still out of order IMO)

I think if you take stuff you might have to make good the damage? Like fill the holes from toilet roll holder?

Some people are just total wierdos. I remember some story my mum once told me where someone moved and stripped the entire house of anything he could. He moved into his new property and all the stuff he stripped remained boxed up as he didn't need it. So it was a total waste!

I also know someone who tore an alarm keypad out of the wall in the house they sold because the buyers had been awkward.

Also, on one house I sold, my parents removed the curtain poles! I was ill at the time and that's why they were moving for me, but I was and felt really bad about it. Years ago, I think people did take far more, including carpets!

[Littlefish]

2 weeks before we were due to exchange, our buyers dropped their offer by a huge amount. Although we were able to negotiate them up a bit, we were still forced to accept a much lower amount, or lose the sale. As a result, we knew that our finances would be really tight when we moved into our new house.

We offered our buyers the opportunity to buy the curtain poles, light fittings etc. for a reasonable sum. They refused, and so we took them all with us, and will be using them when our renovations have finished.

To be honest, after the way they had behaved, I felt like taking every single light bulb as well!

To answer your questions. You can remove a light fitting, but have to leave a working socket. If you remove anything e.g. curtain poles, you have to fill all the holes and make good.

[IlanaK]

I am not that bothered about what she is taking. But I will be seriously pissed off if she leaves unfilled/painted holes on any surface where she has taken things. Perhaps I need to ask my solicitor to specify this in the contracts.

[Littlefish]

Our buyers specified it in their contract with us.

[Rebeccaj]

Our sellers took curtain poles, fitted mirrors/cabinets, toilet roll fittings in one bathroom. They didn't make good the holes, etc (plus they left the ensuite sink smashed). They also left a whole load of furniture, and garden toys including a 2 storey playhouse.

I'm not sure how you would pursue them for it though - it's probably not worth the financial effort. Ours offered to come back with a skip for the furniture, but in the end we told him not to bother.

[IlanaK]

I won't need to pursue them. We are doing an inspection on the day before releasing the money. If they haven't made good, we won't release the money until they do.

[cakeywakey]

We bought really expensive bathroom fittings, so I'd take them with me if I was moving. I would make the wall good though before I left.

When we moved into our current house we just had bare bulbs left in each room, but it didn't bother me. They left all of the curtain poles and curtains though - but only because they'd glued them to the walls! They all took mega-amounts of making-good when they came down

At least you know in advance what is/isn't going to be left for when you move in. I think you are well within your rights to make it clear that you expect rooms to be left without gaping holes etc.

Hope all goes well with the move.

[McDreamy]

Our sellers took everything, every light fitting, every curtain pole, every bathroom fitting EVERYTHING! They did leave bulbs in all the lights though, I thought they had to but I may be wrong. Some people are well odd

[CantSleepWontSleep]

When I bought my first house, the sellers took down some weirdy furniture that they'd fitted all round their son's room, and left masses of holes and some chunks of plaster missing!
Annoying, but not illegal for them to do it. If you want things like this made good then definitely let them know in advance, so that you don't look like the awkward one on the day.

[bumpybecky]

our first house was a reposession, they left us with one light bulb and it was a bank holiday weekend and everything was shut, we had to move the bulb with us to where ever we wanted light!

[hester]

Our sellers are taking their outside bins! Isn't that odd? Wouldn't it make sense for everyone in the chain to just pass on their bins, rather than us all transporting stinky old bins across London?

But advise me, someone: I'm taking some Ikea shelving that has been screwed into the wall (to stop kids pulling it over). I will of course fill the holes when we leave, but do I also need to paint over? (The buyer has already had his architect in, so it's not likely he won't be repainting, but I'd like to do the right thing.)

[cakeywakey]

Hester, I don't think that they can take the bins - they're the property of the council not the homeowner. It could also leave you having to pay a delivery charge for new ones, might be worth checking out.

What are they going to do with their bins if the other house has them anyway? Very odd.

[hester]

Oh thanks, cakeywakey, I'll definitely follow that up. Are they always property of the council, though? We just have our own black bins here, not wheelybins, because we're in a flat, and I haven't noticed a wheelybin outside the new place.

We are forced to keep our bin on the fire escape, where all the pigeons sleep. You can imagine the state of it. it's not going anywhere, though it would probably beg me to realise it from its misery.

[ClaireDeLoon]

My seller did the same as CantSleepWontSleep - took down some home made raised bed thing and left holes in the walls and damage to the carpet.

She also took curtain poles and bathroom fittings.

She also said she only had one set of keys, clearly a lie as it was the estate agent that showed me around both times I viewed so she obviously kept a set of keys too. Bizarre.

[surreygirl]

Friend's seller even took the putty holding in the shed windows so the minute she opened shed the windows all caved in

...and I have had a seller take curtain poles and some light fittings to leave bare wires... but hey they left me their Feng Shui poster

[Lilymaid]

IME most people take bathroom fittings such as towel rails/loo roll holders etc. They should make good any holes but in practice that often doesn't happen. Everything should be specified in the contract e.g whether or not carpets are included in sale, whether sheds/plants etc will be taken. It would be interesting (but expensive) to refuse to complete because holes were left etc. No doubt there's a legal precedent about this but I can't imagine that leaving a few holes would nullify a contract for sale of a property worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

[Fizzylemonade]

Usually written into the fixtures and fitting lists are things like if you are taking light fittings you will leave behind a ceiling rose flex, and bulb or something like that.

Also if they remove anything they are supposed to "make good" any holes left by removing the item.

We left everything, mirrors in bathrooms. toilet roll holders, cabinets in the bathroom and en-suite because it all matched in (chrome and glass)

We have taken stuff from a previous house but it was because we loved it and couldn't get it anymore but it was only the mirror, towel ring and toilet roll holder in one bathroom. We left everything else.

I never take curtain poles and luckily the house we are completing on in 2 weeks they are leaving behind loads too.

[cakeywakey]

Hi Hester, sorry - am assuming that everyone has wheely bins now, which of course they don't . If they are wheely bins though then they belong to the council - I know that's how it works in my district and the council that I work for.

If they're just normal bins though that householder has bought themselves then of they can of course take them with them.

People can get very funny about their bins - if the binmen leave the wrong wheely outside the houses in our street, people get very twitchy about making sure they get their one back

[UniS]

if its not listed as being left in the fixtures and fitting doc. you can't assume it will be there when you move in.
Light fittings are supposed to be left safe. that may be a a connector block for wall lights or a ceiling rose for pendent lights, even light switches may be taken, tho those should be replaced with a basic functional switch.

Some vendors tick to say they are not including XY & Z but when it comes to it they leave X&Y and walk off with W.

[displayuntilbestbefore]

When we moved into the house the vendors had taken all the light bulbs and 3 bushes from the garden (they had told us they would be taking them) but left us with a peachy pink shower curtain, bath mat and pedestal mat - and the toilet seat lid was cracked in half but we didn't know this until we had removed the furry peachy pink loo cover they had also left

[Ivykaty44]

Gosh - when i moved in the old lady left me;

a working electric free standing cooker
fridge
kitchen table
mop and bucket
mirrors in just about every room bar the lounge
table in the shed and a dust pan and brush
two pretty flower pots
a whole shelving unit in the garage for tools etc and a work bench a full chimney sweep outfit and a tool box
a trowl and gardening tools and a broom

that was along with the curtain and carpets -some were ok and others threadbare but it worked till I sorted out the flooring

[rebl]

We took the toilet seat. I stated we were taking it but it was a special toilet seat that was expensive and there was no way I was leaving it. I did however replace it with another toilet seat.