Taking shelves when moving house

[legfaced]

We are due to move in a few months. We have long and quite expensive scaffold board shelving in our kitchen - AIBU to take it with us when we move?

[SpongebobNoPants]

Is your house already for sale and are they in the photos

This makes no difference either. All of the things they are taking with them will be in the photos, presumably dishwasher / fridge freezer/ washing machine etc too. As long as you are clear in inventories what you will be taking it’s fine.
Honestly, it’s not different to taking light fittings! These are often removed after sale

[GertiMJN]

If there were shelves (floating or otherwise) fixed to the walls in another room e.g. in an alcove in the living room they would be expected to go with the house. A free standing shelving unit would not.
It doesn't matter whether or not they are part of a fitted kitchen

[WhentheDealGoesDown]

How much are we talking about price wise, they seem readily available, are these particular ones rare to be worth the bother

[MangoBiscuit]

If they are in a fitted space, such as fitted between 2 cupboards, then I would think they were part of the kitchen and should be left.
If they are stand alone, such as floating over the dining area on an otherwise empty part of the wall, I would think they were removable and would not assume they came with the house any more than the flat screen TV did.

As SpongebobNoPants said, be clear in the inventory, then it's a non-issue.

[WhentheDealGoesDown]

We need a photo for context

[Cooloncraze]

YANBU at all.

There’s a form that the estate agents provide for you to list which fixtures you’ll be removing or the additional price to include them in the sale. We added the cost of all the shelving we had installed in a study and the buyers chose to keep it.
This goes for curtains, blinds etc. Some we took, and some they asked to buy as they’d been made for the particular windows. You can choose to offer your shelf to the buyers or take it with you.

[Iloveyoutothefridgeandback]

I think it's fine to take them as long as you patch up and paint over any wall damage. Leaving a mess on the wall would be an arsehole thing to do.

[MinnieMountain]

It needs to go on your fittings and contents form. Then see how your buyers feel about it.

It's not ideal but it's not like you're ripping out half the kitchen.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

Pretty sure that legally, if they are not free standing shelves, they are included a standard sales contract unless you specifically exclude them. But here’s the thing - if you are selling your house you will have a solicitor and real estate agent. And rather than asking a bunch of random people on the internet for their opinion on whether it’s okay or not you can expert opinion on your individual case including :

• how to exclude them if you haven’t signed a contract,
  
• whether they are included in any contract your have already signed,
  
• and the best way to ask if you can take them if you’ve have singed a contract that includes them.
  

So ask them and come back and tell us what they say.

[jeremypaxo]

When we moved in to our house they'd taken down all the internal doors that we'd seen at the viewings and replaced them with crappy old ones that were two inches too short. There was nothing we could do as we technically still had doors, but it left a nasty taste. We had to replace them at our own expense at a time when money was tight.

You can take them and still be within the terms of your legal agreement. Whether it's the right thing to do or not is a different matter. It's probably worth mentioning it to your buyers.

[Flamingolingo]

How far through the process are you? Have you done your fixtures and fittings list? If not you can definitely specify on there that they are going. Your buyer might be annoyed or try and argue that they stay but you can take anything you like. It’s good practice to decide this before marketing the property so the estate agent can confirm if it comes up, but it used to be common for people to take carpet with them when they move, and in a kitchen someone might take the range cooker if they wanted (when our buyer tried to lower their price I raised the possibility of us taking our expensive ovens and they changed their mind but we needed new for the new house and they were trying to wipe £10k off late in the game). Basically it’s a negotiation so you can negotiate on some of these things. I was a bit annoyed that our sellers specified that they were taking two large chandeliers from this house. I didn’t get a chance to look at them so I have no idea how long they’ve been here - I get annoyed thinking that they could ‘belong to the house’ but they are gone now and we have gone quite modern so at least one would have gone by now anyway.

[Elastins]

Have you filled in the fixtures and fittings list yet?

If not, then list them on there as ‘not included in the sale’ and it’s fine.

If the buyer specifically wants them they can - through their solicitor to yours - ask whether you’d be willing to leave them, and if so, for how much money. That then goes in the contract.

If you’ve already listed them as included in the sale on that form then taking them is not ok as they form part of the contract of sale.

This situation is exactly what that form is designed to cover, and it really doesn’t matter what anyone here thinks or says about whether they’d consider it unreasonable. That form is there to clear up precisely what it and is not included in a sale. It even covers things like light fittings and curtain poles. You don’t list all this stuff on the estate agent information because it’s too long.

For those who are getting on their high horses about what they’d get angry about if it wasn’t included, they’d do well to familiarise themselves with how the process of buying a house actually works, otherwise they could be in for a very disappointing time.

[Elastins]

@WhentheDealGoesDown

We need a photo for context

No. We don’t.

[thedancingbear]

Why don't you take the doors as well. They're only held on by screws, you know?

If you're not interested in any answer other than the one you want, why ask the question?

[Callingallbutterflies]

If the shelves are noted in the estate agents brochure/notes as part of the kitchen and are a 'feature' - leave them. If not make it very clear in the fixtures and fittings form that they are not included or the extra cost of leaving. This will flush out the buyer's expectation prior to exchange of contracts. If you do remove make sure the wall is made good.

[Cluckycluck]

YANBU - Make sure they are listed as excluded on the fixtures and fittings list.

Just because they are shown in photos doesn't mean they are included. Anyone who thinks that because things are shown in the photos they are included are idiots. Even carpets are often excluded on the fixtures and fittings lists.

We're currently buying a house and all carpets, light fittings and various bathroom cabinets are excluded.

[Dinosauraddict]

Absolutely fine to take them as long as you make the wall good after you've taken them down!

[Fleurchamp]

Just make it very clear in the fixtures and fittings form that they are not included.

Then make good the wall too.

When we arrived at our new house we found one side of the kitchen devoid of the shelving units - it was only Ikea stuff so not expensive- it was a bit annoying but the most annoying thing was the holes left behind! It was like someone had attacked the wall with a machine gun. They obviously had started to fill in the holes but did about two before giving up. It took ages to sort out. We didn't raise it as we didn't want the hassle.

They did leave a lovely cabinet on the wall in the bedroom though which they subsequently (about a month later) asked to have - we refused. I think we would have been more reasonable had they been.

[CasuallyMasculine]

@PolPotNoodle

Christ ignore these people OP they're acting like you're ripping off the skirting boards. No one is buying your home based on 2 standalone floating shelves, and they will not know that they were expensive because usually floating shelves aren't.

The OP didn’t describe them as “floating shelves”.

[pilates]

You can take the shelves but you must make good any holes

[Jubaju]

All the hysteria over a couple of shelves 🤣

[GreekOddess]

As a previous poster has already said it depends on whether you have included them in the fixtures and fittings. If you want to keep them don't list them as included on the fixtures and fittings.

[Idontgiveagriffindamn]

Of course you can remove them - just make it clear on the fixtures and fittings list.
Not sure why people are getting so wound up about this.

[sothebellsring]

Could you take a photo? Of the four times we've moved we've always moved into a house with all shelves etc removed. Most of the time the place is just full of bloody holes.

When we move we always take down those types of things and fill in holes before putting house on market just to avoid these types of problems but you can take your own shelves.

If you look on the list of fixtures and fittings from solicitor you can specify what will be left on there for your buyer to review.

[Babs709]

I took all my shelves when I moved, they were expensive and I liked them. Ironically ended up being friends with the girl who bought the house and she has never once mentioned that it pissed her off.