Taking light bulbs from old house to new house

[EasterBun2001]

When we bought our first home we invested in LED lightbulbs throughout which are not cheap but have paid for themselves in ridiculously low energy bills.

Now looking at moving, my sensible head wants to bring the bulbs with me but I feel like this would be unreasonable for anyone moving in.

What would you do?

Take them and replace them. I have WiFi lightbulbs, no way would I be leaving them!

Have to agree with the posters here, that on the pic @FlamingoAndJohn* posted, (at 10.39,) those lights hanging up in the hall look a bloomin' mess.

If they meant to impress us, they failed spectacularly!*

They look like those dreadful, 'coffee shop' lights. I don't properly understand why people deliberately buy lights with electrical cables so long you have to do something to take up the slack i.e. put hooks in the ceiling to put the extra long (yes be bought it like this, actually) cable in because it is obviously to long.

Then decide how much cable you need for the pendant light to hang from. The ceiling has been painted dark grey which doesn't really help the lighting situation as there's very little natural light coming in from the glass in the front door.

The first time I saw lights like this, in a coffee shop, they had them arranged like spiders legs which is what I thought the effect was that they were going for.

Oops bolded second paragraph instead of 3rd

BoneyBack.Jefferson, I live in Australia, house buying stuff is different here. Our vendors are already fixing up a few things for us before we move in ( replacing fire alarms and fixing the garage door opener) so I don’t think leaving the bulbs will be an issue.

You are contractually obliged to leave your buyer with lightbulbs (F&F's clauses), not to say morally obliged not to inconvenience the people who are doing you the service of paying shedloads of money to buy your house.

If you are so outrageously tightfisted that you will get a buzz out of downgrading your current bulbs to cheap ones so that you can continue to take advantage of your massive lightbulb investment in your new home, then knock yourself out.

You'd likely be a lot happier just being content with a successful sale, focusing on your good fortune in being able to afford to move on to your next house, & wishing your buyers every happiness in their relationship with your old lightbulbs. But if the petty act of unscrewing them & taking them with you brings you satisfaction, then have a nice pennypinching time of it, & forget about the joy & freedom of moving forward in life, in favour of saving a couple of quid.

Be a shame if after all your hard work up ladders, removing, replacing, & packing these precious artefacts away for re-use on your new gaff, if any of them smashed & thwarted your impressive financial savvy, wouldn't it?

alwayscrashinginthesamecar1

Just replying to your post :)

Besides the mess that is the English house buying system shouldn't be underestimated.

I have a switch inside the front door, which I use to switch the lights on and off as I require them. I thought this was standard?

The reason we got them was because the light switch was at the other end of the hall to the front door.
So no. I don’t have a switch.

Definitely replace with cheap ones don’t leave them with no bulbs that’s twaty. But I also think it should be specified before hand what is being left and what isn’t. We views a lovely house with a lot of original features, it was more than similar houses on the street but when talking the owner mentioned he wouldn’t be leaving the cast iron radiator but would replace with standard ones, mentioned similar with the interior doors, he was honest from the get go at least, although my Dp has asked. Basically he wanted the inflated price for it been finished to a high spec, but wasn’t actually leaving half the stuff that made it so.

I just could never imagine being so tight that I take the lightbulbs.

I guess it depends where you go as well? When we left our old house it had modern celling less whereas our new house had a completely different system so really taking them away would have been just pointless as well as spiteful. I also think there is a large form you fill in before moving starting that you leave and not and it's legally binding. I think if I was seeing a house with really great lighting I would check with the vendors that that is included in the sale - as seen.

*modern ceiling led lighting

OMG leave the bulbs. How much have you sold the house for! This is a disgraceful thought.

Flamingoandjohn I love your lights - where are they from?

Our vendors took the mantelpiece, still angers me when I see the holes!

some people on here saying it is mean perhaps don't realize some bulbs aren't cheap.

Some people on here saying it's ok because the bulbs were expensive perhaps don't realise that when you guarantee ('exchange' contractual stage) to sell your home to your buyer, is is with the F&F's as originally seen by that buyer.

It may be a small point, but it's exactly the same principle as if you had sold a home with an expensive slate kitchen floor, only to rip the slate up to take with you & replace with some cheap lino. It's not what the buyer saw, & not what the buyer agreed to purchase.
You'd have your arse sued off if you chose to rip the buyer off with the flooring example.
Nobody would bother to sue over nice lightbulbs, but you would be ripping off your buyer & reneging on your F&F's agreement even so.

Astonishingly meanminded. Especially as I imagine OP has made a significant mark-up on her property, as she bought it as a repo. But I suppose goodwill & good intentions are priced at just a few quid for some people. After all, you never need see those buyers again, so who cares about your contractual & moral obligation to them?

Leave the bulbs, imagine if you moved to a new house and had no bulbs... honestly that's push me over the edge.

If I had smart bulbs I’d take those but would replace with regular bulbs

@FlamingoAndJohn you’d take your gall and landing light bulbs, saving £100 on a house sale for thousands, leaving the new owners with no lighting and needing to work out what type of magical bulbs they need and where to buy them from as they wouldn’t have an old bulb to take to the shop for comparison. You’d cause someone else all the hassle, to save a few pounds, someone who had paid you thousands.

I find it really sad how low some people can sink.

Do a good thing and leave the bulbs for the people moving into their first home. Feel happy that they will not have the annoyance of them needing replacing any time soon.

Taking them without replacing them would be absolute wanker behaviour. Imagine getting into a new house and you can't even turn the fucking light on at night and don't know where stuff is. I mean come on. Why not empty a few packets of drawing pins onto the floor to complete the experience for the poor fuckers? Make sure you don't leave any bog paper for them either.

Why replace them with cheap ones? It's just crappy behaviour IMO. Just leave them. You'll probably break them in transit. Don't you have enough stuff to pack up without taking breakables like this? Will they even fit your new place? It just seems mean spirited. Your new place will most likely have bulbs already there and you can deal with it when they are finished with.

I've heard that this is the custom in Germany, where everything possible is removed from the house on sale, down to and including the slide out oven racks.

In the US it's customary for the sale contract to list anything being taken by the seller, otherwise it's left to the buyer. The only thing I've ever taken was a very expensive Miele washing machine.

Martin Lewis has a simple analogy for working out what contents insurance covers. He says if you turn your house upside down and give it a shake, practically everything that falls out requires contents insurance.

I think the same test should apply to the items you would leave behind when you hand over ownership of your house.

I wouldn't repost but I did say it's personal taste and so I don't know why the poster thinks anyone would be impressed by it.

I didn’t think anyone was going to be impressed. I give not one shit if anyone on here likes my lights. I like them which is a good job because they are in my house.

The reason I posted it was to show that some bulbs are expensive and when you have multiples of them the cost adds up.

I don’t expect anyone to be impressed and neither am I boasting. I’m simply pointing out that some bulbs are expensive and worth taking with you. Also, without the whole hue system the bulbs won’t work. No point leaving non working bulbs is there.

I'm sure I read that it's unlawful to take bulbs, it came under the heading of things you are taking and leaving, the inventory thing.
It was in bold capitals iirc. This was a while ago so not sure if it still stands.
Maybe take your own and replace with cheaper ones.
I'd check with your solicitor first before you take them though, and in the scheme of the k's it costs for a house a few light bulbs are neither her nor there, surely.

you’d take your gall and landing light bulbs, saving £100 on a house sale for thousands, leaving the new owners with no lighting and needing to work out what type of magical bulbs they need and where to buy them from as they wouldn’t have an old bulb to take to the shop for comparison. You’d cause someone else all the hassle, to save a few pounds, someone who had paid you thousands.

I wouldn’t take the whole light fitting, just the bulbs. They are a regular bayonet fitting. The bulbs in there wouldn’t work without the whole system.

As I’m not planning to move it doesn’t really matter does if.

We bought a house from friends many years ago. They told us they would be taking the fitted carpets and curtains and 'one or two special plants' from the garden. We arrived to find that all light bulbs, curtain rails, toilet roll holders, towel rail were gone and the garden was pockmarked in every flower bed where all shrubs had been removed.

The person I bought my house from replaced all nice wall and ceiling light fittings with cheap pendant fittings and took the bulbs too! Also took loads of plants from garden, left the house in a tip and was hours late leaving so held up a long chain and added massively to the stress of moving day. Just leave the lightbulbs and hope those ahead of you are thinking kindly too. Leaves a real sour taste otherwise. Why not be a thoughtful seller and not grab back every penny you spent in a place?

Please don't take the light bulbs. So cheap skate. It's awful.