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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think garden plants are classed as fixtures and fittings?

33 replies

Flingingmelon · 10/03/2015 22:15

When you buy a house? DH says no, but I am rather annoyed about the gaps in the garden that weren't there when we put the offer in.

OP posts:
thatsn0tmyname · 10/03/2015 22:18

That's naughty. They should have stated which plants they wanted to take on the f&f list.

NYE2015 · 10/03/2015 22:20

I'm afraid your DH is correct, although I'd say the majority don't bother to uproot plants. Moving house is stressful enough without adding it it like that!

The problem is that keen gardeners can feel they're moving into a home where the occupants were not interested in the borders, and they know often buyers don't care too much either, so they could easily assume you wouldn't even notice.

However, I do understand your disappointment if you really liked the way they laid the garden out. Perhaps you can replicate it yourself? Time passes quickly and before you know it plants get well established. Thanks

MoanCraft · 10/03/2015 22:23

How bloody rude and very sad of them to do that, especially not letting you know as well.

MaidOfStars · 10/03/2015 22:27

Ah, I can see why people do it. My parents have a plant in their garden that was originally my paternal grandparents' (both dead). He'd definitely shift that if they moved.

CornChips · 10/03/2015 22:28

Did they uproot the plants or were they in pots?

(It makes a difference, hence my query).

Viviennemary · 10/03/2015 22:31

Yes they are. I know somebody (albeit a good number of years ago) who got back several hundred pounds from the vendor as they had removed every plant from the garden.

RedCrayons · 10/03/2015 22:38

When we bought ours the vendor asked for extra money for the hall stairs and landing carpet and a couple of shrubs in the garden. We said no thanks to both. They dug up the plants but left us with the manky carpet!

I'm not much of a gardener so wouldn't be bothered. It's a bit cheeky to not tell you beforehand though.

Maryz · 10/03/2015 22:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

itsmeitscathy · 10/03/2015 22:40

In Scotland they're a fixture unless potted and should be left. You can challenge it but they'll probs reply saying they died or were never there. (I had this with vertical blinds which allegedly never existed despite being In photos of the house online and during viewing!)

ErrolTheDragon · 10/03/2015 22:42

Some plants can be of considerable sentimental and/or monetary value.

According to this 'There is no law defining fixtures and fittings, nor are they automatically included in the sale, but buyers expect to negotiate a lower price if a fixture is to be removed, just as they will pay more to keep one'

Sorry, but it's another case of caveat emptor - or in this case, buyer get a painstaking list of what is to be left. You shouldn't have made any assumptions.

CornChips · 10/03/2015 22:46

If they have been uprooted I would go back to your solicitor and argue the point.

People become arseholes sometimes. We paid our vendor at her request an extra £1 k for a chandelier that was gorgeous and huge, which we enquired if we could also buy separately to the house purchase. She had already said she could not take it as she was downsizing and we thought it was lovely. She took our money and the chandelier and replaced it with a cheap plastic B&Q jobby. Pain in the arse to sue for, but she had been such a cow over other things we went for it.

LaurieFairyCake · 10/03/2015 22:48

Did you get the money back Corn?

Can't believe she took your money and then stole the chandelier Shock

olgaga · 10/03/2015 22:51

I do have plants I'm very attached to for sentimental reasons.

A Rhododendron which when in flower I've taken a photo of with DD every year of her life (14 years). A few grown from cuttings from family wedding bouquets. Some Japonicas and a Canary Palm from my late mum's garden - but they're in containers.

However I would never let a prospective buyer think they would get everything in the garden if I intended to take it with me!

Plants - even mature plants - are so cheap now it hardly matters. But if I planned to take special plants with me I'd have them out and in containers before photos and viewing, and make it clear they weren't part of the purchase.

Bowlersarm · 10/03/2015 22:53

I wouldn't class them as fixtures and fittings.

IreneA78 · 10/03/2015 22:54

There is a form isn't there where you give details of exactly what you are leaving and what you are taking.Shrubs are specifically listed , so they should have indicated whether they were leaving or taking.

CornChips · 10/03/2015 22:58

We did Laurie. :)

She screwed us on other things too..... taking taps etc, the chandelier was the last straw. Seriously....who takes the taps from a bathtub!

Mintyy · 10/03/2015 23:03

It doesn't really matter how you would class them Bowlersarm. Unless specifically agreed otherwise between vendor and buyer, plants growing in gardens (not pots) are always classified as fixtures and fittings.

samsam123 · 10/03/2015 23:21

when I moved I had to list which plants I was taking - so I did using the latin names very attached to my plants and they all survived.

pinkr · 11/03/2015 06:41

Yeah that's not on. But if we ever move I have a collection of a certain plant that I have over seventy varieties...they'll be coming with me...but I would make it clear. And leave cuttings if requested Smile

londonrach · 11/03/2015 07:26

Parents just moved and told the buyers that there were taking a certain bush whilst walking around the garden. Without telling someone its rude!

Original poster
Flingingmelon · 11/03/2015 07:59

She has taken plants out of the ground, but TBH she was a PITA so I think I'll chalk it up to experience. Problem is, I'm no gardener (half the reason I liked the garden so much, didn't need to do much more than maintain it) so getting it to look good again seems like a big scary job.

OP posts:
BiddyPop · 11/03/2015 09:13

We moved plants into pots before the viewings, so it was clear they would come with us and told the buyers about it. Just a couple that had special meaning for us.

I left my beloved fruiting dwarf cherry tree behind.

We hadn't done a lot to the back garden, it being a brand new build in an estate and we were only there 30 months. The front had mostly been planted up by developer (all houses) but we had added a few plants and a couple of those were presents from others.

Where we were going to, we had a much more open front garden (no fences or walls) and there were a lot of kids playing football etc on the green in front so we already knew lots of balls on plants etc. The back garden was a bit of grass surrounded by leylandii trees so we weren't going to do a lot with it fast but it needed serious work. (First jobs were things like new windows, new bathroom, new kitchen, new carpets and curtains almost throughout, paint throughout - all within the first 6 months!). So we only took what would last for a season in a pot.

But we were up front about it.

We also changed out the bathroom toilet roll holder and those bits for similar style but much cheaper - but again did that before viewings. (The ones we took were wedding presents). And changed 1 nice lampshade which we had only recently bought back to the paper shade we'd used prior to that, to take the nice one with us - but again, the buyer only saw the paper one.

Our vendor asked if she could take the horrible orange pine bathroom fittings, and if we'd buy the cooker and fridge from her. We said no to both - only to find massive holes in bathroom walls where she'd ripped off the fittings, and left the stinking old fridge and cooker behind after all (we'd actually specified that they were to be removed - we later had to send them to the dump at our expense as they were not only surplus to our requirements but unusable by anyone else).

CornChips · 11/03/2015 09:23

Flinging she has behaved badly indeed. Plants in the ground would be fixtures. Personally I'd raise it with te solicitor..... not least because how bloody dare she??!! (Also.... she would probably be made to either pay you the cost or put the plants back. )

I hate chancers like this... why can't people just be honourable?

catkind · 11/03/2015 09:33

The standard Fittings and Contents form had a box to tick to say whether we were taking or leaving plants and shrubs. Next to ones for things like garden shed, water butt, compost bin. Was there nothing on your paperwork? I assumed if they have to ask it isn't a given that they are left.

Tarrarra · 11/03/2015 09:49

Fixtures for sure, a well maintained garden can add value to the house price, so I think you would be well within your right to say that had you been aware that the plants were going, you would have negotiated a lower price.

When we moved, we were told that the vendor wished to take 2 plants from the garden (names and locations given) but in the end she didn't take them.

Some mature plants can be very expensive to buy, so it could be a high value that they have taken. However, I am sure if they had been honest, you may have just agreed it.

Good luck

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