To be disappointed the curtains aren't included

[blackjacker]

We're buying a house and have just got the fixtures and fittings form which says that all the curtain poles and curtains are excluded from the sale, is this common? I think it's pretty bad form to take the curtains (even though they're horrible) because it's pretty unlikely they're going to be the right measurements for the vendor's new windows! We're going to have to tack blankets up over the windows when we move in because I don't want to pay for 'interim' curtains while we decorate ...

We have tended to leave our curtains even in rental properties (because they wouldn't fit our new house). We'd leave the landlords see-through crap curtains folded up too (they always seem to buy the cheapest ones in ikea - the ones that offer neither privacy, nor warmth, nor any effect on light levels - in our experience). The last house we rented still has the cheap Argos blackout curtains we bought up rather than the truly awful curtains that had been there before.

We're getting our house ready to sell at the moment, and I was planning to leave the curtains and the blinds. The blinds were made to fit the windows so it seems ridiculous to take them with us (they're white wooden ones). I'd imagine the people who buy this place would want to replace the curtains, but our would save them trying to stick towels/blankets up with gaffer tape on their first few nights.

We've also just bought a house and I was surprised to see that the vendors are including the curtains and blinds in the sale - I wouldn't have expected it at all.

Not sure if anybody has said this yet, but if you remove fixtures and fittings you have to make good.
So they can't leave you a hole in the wall etc.

"Entirely normal. I don't see why you care if you hate them - just buy your new ones straight away? Why would you need 'interim' curtains?"

Buy your new ones straight away Pootles2010? Curtains can take weeks to be made - they aren't always the kind of thing you can just buy off the shelf. Even if you could, it's unlikely that someone who has just moved house - one of the most stressful things you can do - will dust themselves off, having just lugged the last box into their new place, and say "right, shall we head to Ikea?"

You need the curtains from the day you move in. Once your lights are on at night, if yo don't have window coverings people can see straight inside, can see that you've just moved in, can see all your stuff - it's a privacy issue.

OP I'm with you.

it's unlikely that someone who has just moved house - one of the most stressful things you can do - will dust themselves off, having just lugged the last box into their new place, and say "right, shall we head to Ikea?

Isn't that precisely what everyone does do?

If you aren't too far away and you need emergency curtains, there are worse things you could do.

And they serve half decent food and alcohol in the restaurant, and have a childrens play area - for a lot of people, it could be exactly what they need.

"it's unlikely that someone who has just moved house - one of the most stressful things you can do - will dust themselves off, having just lugged the last box into their new place, and say "right, shall we head to Ikea?

Isn't that precisely what everyone does do?"

Erm, no. I like to put stuff away first and take stock of what we need.

It's true you should make good if you remove the curtain poles, but nothing will happen if you don't.

Your buyer can make a complaint through his solicitor, but it will cost him more than buying a tube of filler would. I actually prefer if they leave the holes, as opposed to hastily fill them with cheap polyfilla. At least you can do a decent job yourself.

Curtain poles are a bit much, but there was no way i was leaving £10 k worth of silk curtains, unless they paid me for new ones that is!

People say they are not included so they can sell them to you for an additional cost.

Not always - sometimes it's because they love them and plan to use them in their new home!

In our case it was a light fitting. We'd bought a set of lighting that included ceiling light, two standard lamps and two table lamps. We loved them even though they were just cheapies from BHS, but they were carefully chosen to reflect our taste in decor. When we were selling we knew we'd be taking them all with us so we were very explicit that the living room light fitting was excluded but we would replace it with a standard fitting.

When we accepted an offer there was no mention of the light until just before the sale was concluded, and the buyer suddenly said he wanted the fitting, or the sale was off. We checked BHS but the set had long been discontinued so we couldn't have got another, but the buyer refused the explanation that it was part of a set, etc. etc. He was adamant we had to leave it or lose the sale. I suspect he didn't believe us and thought it was an original (Victorian flat, with ceiling rose) that we were trying to make off with.

DH and I argued all weekend - he wanted just to leave it and I didn't - then I had the idea of buying another similar light fitting and putting it in place of our one. He'd only seen the original once, and probably didn't remember it in exact detail, just that it looked "old". So I found one made of plastic in B&Q that looked close enough and only cost about £15, so that's what he got when he moved in. He never said a word about it, but I'd love to have seen his face when he finally found out...

I don't have interior design tendencies so I don't buy expensive light fittings/curtains poles etc. To me they are functional items that I don't set much value on. I do find it extremely irritating and mean spirited that some sellers remove light fittings and curtain poles. They never leave another light in its place either. In one house we moved to we had to light the front room with a small lamp until we could get a light fitting and OH could get round to wiring it in.

On the other hand we have had to replace many light fittings that have simply been too low because OH is tall and kept bumping his head on them. One light had a nasty spike at the bottom so that one went pretty quickly.

Bloody hell in Germany they even take the kitchen. The entire kitchen. I'm not joking at all.

Light fittings and curtain poles the lot.

People say they are not included so they can sell them to you for an additional cost.

I took mine because I wanted them and could not be arsed to buy new ones, not because I was trying to sell them on.

I do find it extremely irritating and mean spirited that some sellers remove light fittings and curtain poles. They never leave another light in its place either.

I love the light we have in the living room. It's just from Dunelm but it can't be rebought, so I will be taking it with me and we'll rewire a standard plastic fitting in. But I'll make that clear when we sell.

I shan't be taking curtain poles or light fittings when we ever decide to move house again. I really can't be faffed with removing and replacing them.

When my parents moved house the vendors made a big thing of the curtains in the living room (3 windows including patio doors) that they were leaving behind (they took the rest). My sister took them down to wash while the decorator was in and discovered that they were held on the curtain poles by sellotape, rolls of it! The were full of spiders and cobwebs and filth so they went straight in the bin as the sticky of the sellotape was left as well! We think they were never cleaned the whole time the previous occupants were in the house.