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AIBU?

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Original poster

Bathroom comes with the house??!!

607 replies

greencygnets · 29/07/2018 12:10

So DH and I have just bought a new house (not brand new but new to us :)) and it cost us a lot of money (far more than a care to admit! :))
We moved in yesterday, the house is perfect except for one thing...

They've taken the bloody bathroom with them!!!!

One of the two main bathrooms upstairs is literally empty, like I don't mean just the furniture which you obviously take with you. But they've taken the bath, sink and shower!!!!

The room is tiled but theres random pipes sticking out of walls where these things should be!! The only thing left is the toilet. I honestly don't know what to do... We were going to redo the bathroom anyway at some point but never told this to anybody and weren't planning to do so until at least November/December time but now we don't have a choice!!

The kids come home from the holiday with my in-laws on Tuesday and we've got no bathroom for them!!!!

AIBU to think that the bathroom comes with the house, or is it totally reasonable to take the bathroom with you to your new house??!!

OP posts:
Kool4katz · 29/07/2018 15:41

What if the vendors deny having taken the the bathroom fixtures?
What if they argue that they were there when they left the property at the allotted time and that someone else must have entered the property when you owned it at 7pm and stolen them between 7pm and you moving in the next morning?
What if their removal company also confirms that the bathroom fixtures were in situ when they left on Friday?

I think the OP has been far too trusting and her solicitor sounds very dodgy.

Jaxhog · 29/07/2018 15:41

btw, have they capped off the basin and bath water and waste? Or just turned the water off? The former is a specialist job, so would have been planned in advance. My bet is that is the reason they wanted you to move in the day after.

IggyAce · 29/07/2018 15:43

CF. Can't wait to hear what the solicitor says.

LeighaJ · 29/07/2018 15:43

They stole a bathroom...now I've heard it all. Shock

Bluelady · 29/07/2018 15:44

Any attempt to deny responsibility would be pretty implausible. I bet the neighbors saw them loaded on the van, a bath is hardly a small item.

Jaxhog · 29/07/2018 15:45

Another thought. If you had insurance on the house from the moment of completion (which you should have), your fastest action might be to claim from them. They will then pursue your vendor for the costs.

Although what kool4katz says is also concerning.

Gilead · 29/07/2018 15:49

Oh Lordy me, I'm moving next week!

FabulouslyGlamorousFerret · 29/07/2018 15:50

know someone who removed a fireplace and fittings, leaving a big whole.

A bit whole what?

🤣 oh the irony!

Mehaveit · 29/07/2018 15:52

I hope your solicitor is shit hot on Monday!

cardibach · 29/07/2018 15:55

I think koolkatz is onto something. Why else stop you moving in as they left? They couldn’t actually stop you, the house was yours from the moment of completion, but the odd story about ‘county moving times’ was designed to keep you out. You can’t prove what happened after they left and before you arrived. The fact your solicitor advised this ‘leeway’ is even more worrying.

cardibach · 29/07/2018 15:56

Kool4katz apologies on name error!

FrayedHem · 29/07/2018 15:57

I guess if they deny it then the OP would go to to the police. I know resources are stretched but she'd need a crime number for insurances purposes (I think).

SimonBridges · 29/07/2018 16:07

What if the vendors deny having taken the the bathroom fixtures?
What if they argue that they were there when they left the property at the allotted time and that someone else must have entered the property when you owned it at 7pm and stolen them between 7pm and you moving in the next morning?

That is a very good point.

peachgreen · 29/07/2018 16:08

Eesh, this could get messy.

Everyoneiswingingit · 29/07/2018 16:10

That's not right unless it was specified in the contract. Back to solicitor!

OliviaStabler · 29/07/2018 16:17

I came on to say just what Kool4katz said.

You'll either find the previous owners will cut contact with their solicitor so you'll hear complete silence about this issue or say it must have been stolen as it can't have been them and it was your fault for not moving in on the Friday as they left that day and the bathroom was still there.

I think everyone assuming you'll easily get a new bathroom is fooling themselves. You'll likely have to pursue them through the courts to get anything back and that takes time.

Oysterbabe · 29/07/2018 16:21

This is crazy. What on earth were they thinking?

UrbaneSprawl · 29/07/2018 16:26

Not to detract from the OP's situation, but I hadn't realised until I saw this article yesterday that the standard contract has changed and you're expected to have insurance in place at completion rather than at exchange, like Jaxhog said.

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 29/07/2018 16:45

They stitched you up, didn't they. Of course they didn't want you to go in on the Friday, you'd have seen the bathroom was missing and been able to contact your solicitor straight away!
So they made you wait til the Saturday, complicating things for you.

What a bunch of bastards!

I agree with PPs who say demand compensation rather than the return of the original fittings - then use it to pay for a new bathroom to be fitted.

Bloody cheeky sods!

UrbaneSprawl · 29/07/2018 16:46

...sorry, exchange rather than completion. You can tell it’s a while since I bought a house...

dudsville · 29/07/2018 16:48

There's none so queer as....

ChasedByBees · 29/07/2018 16:54

Wow! I hope your solicitor is pro active in sorting this OP.

GreenTulips · 29/07/2018 16:59

I sold to a young man who's sister lived a few doors away. He told me the seller had taken the bathroom and the fences etc.

Funnily enough he turned up early on completion day to 'have a look round' I know he wanted to check the normal things were still in place!!! I don't blame him.

ElementalHalfLife · 29/07/2018 17:00

Bloody hell! I've seen some previous owners do shitty stuff like removing light bulbs, door handles and in our last, the towel rails and matching toilet roll holders and medicine cabinets in both bathrooms etc but the bath and shower - NO!

We left all the kitchen appliances on our last move, that's pretty standard here, they were matching stainless steel built in stove, microwave and dishwasher - that's pretty standard here and they wouldn't have fitted in the corresponding spaces in our new kitchen anyway - but made sure our realtor excluded the fridge which was only a few months old, bloody expensive and I wanted to keep it plus there was no fridge in the house we were moving into. The buyer did complain when she saw the exclusion prior to closing but didn't want to pay us for it so had no grounds to complain when we actually took it.

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 29/07/2018 17:04

The seller of our house wanted us to pay him £300 for a knackered tumbledown shed and greenhouse. We said no thanks. Funnily enough he then didn’t bother to take them. They went in the skip eventually. I think he did clear us out of heating oil though. There was half a tank listed in the sale particulars but when we moved in there was no heating or hot water and an empty tank.

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