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!)

[Thistledew]

I do think it's weird to take carpets with you. Sure, it's possible, but where would you draw the line? Take up laminate or engineered wood floorboards? Carefully peel off the wallpaper? Load up the kitchen worktops?

Quite often a house will be priced at a certain level to reflect the fact that it is decorated to a high standard- it is either something that will add value or will make it sell quickly. You can't expect as a seller to reap that benefit and then to take the things that made it attractive with you. That is just having your cake and eating it. I would include curtain poles and light fixings (but not easily removable shades) in things that should be left.

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

We also took all the LED light bulbs from Mum's house and replaced them with normal ones. She hadn't had them long and they aren't cheap but they wouldn't make a difference to the price so I thought we'd have them.

[coddiwomple]

Take up laminate or engineered wood floorboards?

In this country, I would advise you very strongly to check every details on your fixture and fittings forms. Everything that is not specifically mentioned will possibly disappear!

[Sweetpea55]

Our previous house was owned by an ambulance driver.
After we moved in , I climbed up to clean the top of the kitchen cupboards and he had left piles of 'work sheets' on the top.
Details about his calls etc, all sensitive stuff,. I ended up shredding the lot but sometimes wonder what had happened if I had returned it all to the local health authority.

[PrimalLass]

In the majority of cases I don't understand why you would want someone's curtains. It's like having their sofa or the pictures on the wall. Very personal taste and usually chosen for a reason.

[LeeksPotatoes]

Anything sentimental or specific that will fit in new house I can understand, but generally seems ridiculous and ungenerous.

We have big bay windows which will be expensive to curtain- we will do it one day to our taste but very glad that our vendors left some. I think they had inherited them from previous owners anyway (very dated pattern)!

[DesignedForLife]

Our vendors were amazing. Left us 4 beautiful wardrobes and a couple bedside tables for nothing. Also left a bottle of wine and a list of all the neighbours names.

[LapdanceShoeshine]

Our vendors left all the curtains (old-fashioned & ugly but hey, they covered the windows! We still use some of them as dust sheets).

Also all the carpets - except the stair carpet because he had made it himself!!!

He was retired & in quite poor health so I can only assume he’d done it to keep himself occupied.

[CactusCactusCactus]

How. How do you make a carpet yourself? I really want to know.

[LapdanceShoeshine]

No idea, Cactus!

People used to hand-make rugs all the time in the olden days (before telly...) Probably not carpets so much. But maybe he was actually a carpet weaver in his youth? If he told us I’ve forgotten - it was 35 years ago & I’ve forgotten a lot of things since then.

(Carpet was plain red, no fancy patterns or anything)

[CactusCactusCactus]

Love it. Remember about rag rug making, but now mega impressed at the industriousness of him!

[PrimalLass]

We have big bay windows which will be expensive to curtain- we will do it one day to our taste but very glad that our vendors left some.

But you might have pulled them straight down and taken them to the tip. That would be a huge waste.

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

But I doubt they would have fitted another window so what’s the point in taking them, unless you were going to donate to a charity shop?

[PrimalLass]

Give them to a friend, use a curtain exchange, have them adjusted ...

[Eatalot]

I don't get why you would leave intergrated appliances. Just having had a new kitchen we bought all new and only difference was they have holes on the front to screw on a door. Doors can be taken off. Why would you have to leave £1000's worth of your stuff. If the new owners want their appliences integtated buy them and put doors on if not stick them in without doors. Their the same width.

[wonkylegs]

I have no problem with it as long as everything is clear and honest - I hate it when they are sneaky about it (yes I'm thinking of the vendors of my parents house who took every light fitting, door handle, toilet seat etc, and most of it was in the fixtures and fittings list as staying tbh that wasn't their biggest sneaky nasty part of the sale, the not mentioning the subsidence and lack of foundations which they clearly knew about as they had wallpapered over the huge cracks to hide them 😡)
A house sale is a negotiation so if you don't want to pay extra don't. If everything was always left there wouldn't be a fixtures and fittings list.
I took our integrated Miele dishwasher but told people I was doing that when they looked round, I said that they could buy it off me if they wanted but it would have to be at a price that I could replace it in the next house as I loved it. The buyers couldn't see the point of a £1k dishwasher so said that they were happy to buy a cheap one instead.

[wonkylegs]

I also took our silk living room curtains they match our sofas and are huge so could be altered if necessary - to buy new ones would have cost me £2k so why would I have left them. They fit really nicely in this house.

[Viviennemary]

It would be unusual to take integrated appliances because they might not even fit in a different kitchen anyway. And they are counted as fixtures so it is expected they would be left. People don't seem to realise on this thread. Curtains fine to take curtain poles not. Light bulbs taken and replaced with cheaper. How mean is that. And there is a come-back when people take things they said they were leaving. I know somebody who bought a house and loads of plants had been taken from garden. They got a few hundred pounds compensation. This was years ago though. How awful there's so many chancers around.

[sinceyouask]

Give them to a friend, use a curtain exchange, have them adjusted

All things that buyers can do, surely?

[PrimalLass]

I think I've already said. but there was a thread on here where buyers were incensed that sellers had not left them the curtains 'to do them for the first few days until they measured up and bought thier own'. Why? What a waste. Buy your own. I really don't see why you would want someone's curtains.

[PrimalLass]

It would be unusual to take integrated appliances because they might not even fit in a different kitchen anyway.

Appliances are a pretty standard size.

[Viviennemary]

Not really. You might have a five burner stove and somebody else has a four burner. Your oven might be a different size. I don't think you are allowed to take integrated appliances without the agreement of the buyer.

[Notreallyarsed]

Our new kitchen has integrated appliances and the fridge/freezer, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer are standard sizes, but the double oven is bigger than my old one and the hob is wider so I’m bloody glad they left them!

[PrimalLass]

* Not really. You might have a five burner stove and somebody else has a four burner.*

A cooker is not what I would call an integrated appliance (one with a matching door to the rest of the kitchen). Appliances tend to be 59ish cm wide and the same deep. Unless you get a slimline version and I think they are a standard size too.

[Bellamuerte]

Technically you can take whatever you like, even items that would be considered "fixtures and fittings", as long as you clearly state what you're taking and it goes in the contract. I have a very expensive handmade doorbell with real bells, it's irreplaceable so I'd take it if I moved, although obviously I'd inform the buyer. Re. curtain poles etc - I can't understand why you'd want someone else's twee curtain poles or colour choices for curtains and carpets?