Greedy house sellers

[Strawberryshortcake40]

I'm selling my house at the mo. Am leaving things like curtain poles, curtains etc because a)they were bought to match the interior b)they won't necessarily fit elsewhere and c) I can't frankly be arsed to take them down and make good the holes and repaint areas in every room.

Stupidly I thought this was pretty much the civilised thing to do. However the house I'm buying, they are offering to sell me the poles/curtains in the house. Lounge windows (small cottage windows) - £350 a pair.... I have no recollection of what they were like but I don't remember them being hand embroidered in gold thread or anything to justify that cost! How can they even think that's okay? I declined obviously....

AIBU to think that you either leave such items or offer them for sale at a reasonable second hand price?

(Oh and on the vague off chance the vendors are reading this, I think taking out a few years old integrated appliance or offering it at £500 isnt polite either. (I can buy a new one for not much more!)

[bluebells1]

Our vendors left all the fittings alone. The lovely lady even left the curtains, mirrors and blinds. This is our first home and we did not own a single piece of furniture. We bought a lot of our furniture off of them for £600.

[Strawberryshortcake40]

I've checked...they're leaving the light switches...

The more I think about this the more silly I think it is. I had been doing all I can to rush it all through for their benefit (they urgently want it completed) even though we have hit all kinds of issues. Offered them a good price for the house and have been the ideal buyer, and they do this?

The appliance is one that's built under, so not integral but will still leave me with a gap in the kitchen. Galls a bit when it was shown to me as part of the kitchen and not mentioned they would want it paid for separately!

[SabineUndine]

My mum had neighbours in the 60s who took all the sockets when they moved out.

[Whisper23]

When FIL bought his latest house the vendor offered to sell him the oil in the tank. Personally, I'd have declined the offer outright, I don't imagine they'd want to go to all the trouble of getting the oil pumped back out (if that's even possible) and even if they did it's easy enough to get it filled again. FIL agreed to pay the amount they'd paid to get it filled...several months earlier. He didn't think to check how much was left in it. So he ended up paying for a full tank and actually got about two thirds. They must have seen him coming.

[maddiemookins16mum]

I left all curtains, a bathroom mirror, a child's wardrobe and even a kitchen clock. The new owners were delighted (first time buyers). Never charged a penny, we didn't need them and they were happy.

[Notreallyarsed]

When we bought our place (a few weeks ago) everything was included, the kitchen is fully integrated and the solicitor said you have to leave integrated appliances, they’re even leaving the gorgeous radiator covers and all the garden sheds! It just wouldn’t occur to me to charge for these things!
Our old place is selling soon and once we're out we plan to repaint it all and repair all the minor things (door handles and a few wee bits of snagging). I wouldn’t leave it in a state for the buyers!

[Yogagirl123]

The pettiness can amaze you at times, when we purchased our house, the vendors decided they wanted to take the shed that was listed in the sales particulars, it wasn’t anything special at all and it wasn’t worth losing the house that had taken us over a year to find. Still giggle about it, I am sure if must have fallen to bits when they dismantled it!

[VivaLeBeaver]

The vendor of my current house offered to sell me the antique, ugly cooker for £50. I declined, she said she'd leave it anyway as too much hassle to get the gas disconnected. Moved in and it was gone. So no cooking facilities which pissed me off. She also took shelves down and left holes in the wall which I know we could have complained about but didn't see the point.

We left curtains, poles, a washing machine and a bottle of wine.

My mum always takes her carpets with her. Including to a house where the new dining room was bigger. So blue patterned carpet was put in middle of room and then she got some orange offcuts and made a border round the edge and had it like that for 15 years until she moved and took it all with her again!

[OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow]

I remember looking at houses in the 80s. The one we loved had been lovingly restored, doors stripped, floorboards, sanded and the capper for us the original fireplaces with tiles in two rooms. We were enthusiastic, but the bidding got too rich for us. Ironically i became friendly with the buyer. She was gutted to find fire places and doors gone. (And light bulbs-why do folk do that)

[BalloonSlayer]

When we bought our house it had a fantastic, huge, beautiful, but sadly incredibly dangerous and un-coverable pond in the back garden. We had an 18 month old and another on the way. We loved the house so decided to buy it and fill the pond in. I was alarmed to discover on the paperwork that they intended to leave their collection of Koi behind as well!

They were beautiful fish, (one of them was like the Loch Ness monster) but we had no experience of them and worried about managing feeding/pond filters etc etc. I felt the poor things would be dead in a month or so owing to our inexperience. Besides, if we had kept the pond the children wouldn't have been able to go in the garden.

Luckily they knew someone who could take the fish and did. People said "Oh they are so expensive, you could have sold them, fancy giving them away!" - but if we had sold the 10 big ones who would have wanted the other 50 little fish in there? (Yes we counted them when the pond was drained)

[FlouncyDoves]

We bought our most recent place and it used to be a holiday let. The owners (who lived miles away) included all the furniture in the whole place - more hassle for them to come down and empty it than to just give it away.

We’ve gradually got rid of bits that we didn’t want, but still have two of the bed frames, all the wardrobes, washing machine and dishwasher etc.

When we sold our place prior to buying this one we sold things like the fridge, one year old Tumble dryer and washing machine, curtains downstairs, but all for a reasonable price.

[Biker47]

If I was to sell (Doubt it, currently in a brand new house for less than a year) I would take the "integrated" dishwasher and washing machine, they cost alot of money, I'd leave the doors obviously though. They're not even fixed, they slide in an out with ease.

[mummyhaschangedhername]

We have been lucky but we have also been generous in what we left ... a friend sold her house a few months before mine. The night before the MOVE she called up and asked for £200 for the oil that was left in the tank 🙈 the buyer pulled out! They had already got a really good cash offer and on top of that the buyer said they could carry on living in the house for a month as the new house needed work done. I couldn't believe how far they pushed their luck when the buyer had been so patient and helpful. A few days later they agreed to the solicitor that they would still sell but they had to move out (and didn't pay for oil).

[Ghostontoast]

Just browsing on Rightmove and saw a lovely house that’s been on for ages.

Read the particulars and it says “all the fixtures and fittings will be subject to further negotiation” Does that mean that the current owners will strip absolutely everything if the buyer does not pay the extra??

No wonder it hasn’t sold!

[Cantspell2]

I can understand why people take curtain poles and light fittings as these can work out expensive. As long as the put it on the fixtures and fittings list and make good any damage left by removal then it is fine. After all you are buying the house not the contents.

[c3pu]

Someone I know bought a massive fridge freezer not long before they moved. They offered to sell it to the buyer as it wouldn't fit in the new place. Buyer made a derisory offer, clearly hoping it would be left.

The buyers were a bit of a nightmare, when it came to moving day the fridge was disposed of.

[Polyethyl]

When my parents bought their retirement home they were almost stalked, not by the people they bought the house from, but by the previous owner before that. She sent us a bottle of wine as a Christmas present then on boxingday morning phoned to complain that she hadn't received a thank you letter. She offered to sell us curtains, and when I declined saying we were enjoying selecting our own choice of curtains she hung up the phone. She then sent us an embossed visitor's book and asked us to pay her for it. (We declined.) Then she sent a photographer to photograph the garden. We had massively restored the garden from the wrecked chaos we found it in, so God knows what she was wanting photographed. We sent the photographer away.
She then hit the press as a supported and funder of the BNP. She was weird. Our neighbours were so glad when we moved in.

[Dakiara]

House sellers can be weird. We moved into one house when I was smaller where the seller had left a garage and loft full of junk. With the old owl and eagle cages in the garden and air rifle pellet holes in the windows it was a bit of a mess. All well and good though. Right up until the point we caught him trying to let himself into the house two weeks later to "search for his hammer". O_o

Always change the locks!

[TremoloGreen]

Curtains are easily moved and can be very expensive - the ones I made for our bay windows cost £300 for materials alone (and I could have spent twice that) and I would have expected to spend another £100-£150 for someone to make and fit them. If I sold my house for a very good price I would leave them as they fit the particular window, but I can imagine that if I felt the selling price was at the bottom of what I expected, I would offer to sell them, but probably only at the price would expect to get for them if I offered for general sale (with an alteration service). Probably around £150-200. If they were coincidentally a good fit for the new place, I would probably take them regardless. As long as you're transparent about these things on the fixtures and fittings form I can't see the issue. You negotiate what you're getting and for what price... it's not personal.

It sounds like the appliance you're discussing isn't actually integrated. Things like dishwashers and washing machines are very easy to plumb in/move if non-integrated and I would always check that they were included as again, they can cost £100s. I would be a bit if they wanted to move an integrated appliance though as it seems like more effort than it's worth.

Things like carpets etc are simply not worth moving and anyone who suggests this is clearly a chancer. Our vendors tried to sell us firewood and oil in the tank even though we were completely refurbishing before moving in, including replacing the oil system with gas. I said they were welcome to take it with them(they didn't). If I had intended to use either I might have paid, how hard I negotiated the price (knowing they don't really want to move it) would again probably depend on how reasonable I was feeling about the overall price I was paying.

[flirtygirl]

Im selling now but im not leaving light fittings, i chose each and every one with care but i will put in the standard bulbholder and leave bulbs.

I agree with others that curtains and poles are not fittings and so as long as made good, they can be taken or left and it up to the vendor.

I will probably take my shed and i have to take the summerhouse as its pink and its my daughters and she would kill me over it.

However the house is being sold and not the contents or the gardens contents.

To be honest though except the light fittings and curtains/ poles (left up for the estate agent photos and viewings), if i like something and want to take it i would do so but swap it out for generic before the house goes on the market and then the seller is none the wiser. Many things were added for my benefit but my street has a ceiling price and my house is at the top so why leave things people wouldnt expect to see in a house of that pricepoint?

[flirtygirl]

Im wierd though and i would offer most vendors money to take their curtains and carpets as i would just skip it all and would rather live on floorboards than carpet.

[tinysparklyshoes]

It's not greedy at all, its business. If you don't want their stuff then don't buy it, that doesn';t make them greedy for trying to get the best prices they can.

[BestIsWest]

I don t mind paying for things if I want them but our vendor was in touch practically every day asking if we wanted to buy blinds, greenhouse, carpets, curtains etc etc- we didn’t. On moving day they’d taken all of the bulbs, all the glass from the greenhouse and ripped the dishwasher out leaving a live cable trailing in the kitchen.

[MatildaTheCat]

Where I live it’s very much a buyers market. Vendors imagine that just because they paid x amount for their curtain rails etc it means they still hold that value. It is incredibly petty when dealing in hundreds of thousands of pounds or more.

I had a cast iron curtain pole made for £600 many years ago. If we sold the house it would be included in the sale because it’s of no use anywhere else.

The only exception to this was back in the day when stamp duty was payable on the whole sale price so it made sense to pay just under the level and agree a separate price for extras. We did do that once and then skipped the lot.

[CactusCactusCactus]

I'm hoping to exchange soon and have started writing a guide to various appliances, when bin days are, neighbours names etc. I will not be taking the shutters, blinds or curtains, they are made to measure and as far as I can see part of the house!

at people taking carpets! Carpets?! They won't even fit the new house!