Vendors leaving junk

[RisingMoons]

Have just bought a house and the vendors have left some junk in the shed, it's half full of broken furniture, car tyres and general crap. A good van load.

AIBU to think you should leave the house empty?!

I've taken pictures and want to tell the estate agent but not sure if there's any point.

The house was clean-ish, at least!

i think they are contractually obliged to leave an empty house and garden OP. I’ve always put up with stuff like this until we were told that we would be charged removals costs if anything was left behind. Get a removal quote and contact estate agent, don’t be like me !

Yes ,they should have moved it. You could ask them via either the agents or the solicitors to pay for the costs of removal or to deal with it - be nice, present it as 'they must have overlooked it'.
Although vacant possession is a term of the contract, the cost of trying to enforce it isn't worth it at this point.

So it might be worth contacting the agents then? I hate causing any bad feeling but it means we can't fit our stuff in the shed now, and I've always left property 100% empty!

If the same thing happens to me again, I’d get a quotation for removal & send to agents. It’s going to cost you atleast £150 and it’s so cheeky.

My friend left some tins of paint in the shed when she moved, they’re were labelled as to the rooms of the house they matched - she thought they might come in handy for the buyers if they scuffed the walls moving furniture in.

the buyers solicitor wrote to her solicitors advising they needed to be removed by x date, or she would be charged for their removal plus inconvenience fees etc as it was in breech of the sale agreement.

Estate Agent can't do anything you will be better off contacting your solicitor. But could cost more than just getting rid of rubbish. It shouldn't happen but happens all the time.

Oh I did a pre completion inspection , told them to clear the loft

They didn't , on day of completion I said I want to see the loft empty ... still hasn't been done so at 5pm they were manically clearing it ( still hadn't completed) as I said well not completing till it's done !

They can be utter twats

Nothing to do with the agents. Contact your solicitor to deal with the legal process of removal- they are only allowed to leave anything detailed on the fixtures & fittings form.

I’m moving on Friday, my buyer is relocating to the area. I’m moving into my partners house and what we do need we’ll be buying new, so I’ve agreed with the purchaser I’ll leave an almost fully furnished house. This means he’s got no rush to empty his current place (which he’s keeping for now) and saves me the huge headache of full removal and tip/sell/giveaway. He said anything he decides he doesn’t need he’ll tip. But it’s not junk, all useable day to day. Still do much to move/tip. It’s been an exhausting lesson in decluttering.

Think your solicitor will be able to bill them for removal. There might be money ringfenced for this. Think solicitors are quite used to billing for small things after sale.

When we moved we left the house we were selling completely empty. The two times we've bought vendors have left unwanted furniture both times, it's a pain in the ass. Our first vendors even left all their crap in the loft and then had the cheek to knock on our door four months later to ask to go up there just to get their Christmas tree back (but not to take any of the rest of it!) DH let them but I'd have told them to jog on 😂

We has vendors leave so much crap including a whole loft full. At first solicitor instructed them to clear it and they refused, (,divorce couple both staring it was the other ones stuf. So then stayed there needed to pay for removal or skip and they did give us £500. It took 2 skips so cost us more than that but still worth raising it.

I worked in a solicitors and it's them as other have said, who you need to contact. No rubbish or items should be left if not on the fixtures and fittings or previously agreed.

When we cleared my FILs house to sell we forgot all about the attic which was full of junk. When it was brought to our attention we paid to have it cleared. I would go back to the estate agent and tell them they need to get it cleared.

We were left with literally a loft full of junk and a wardrobe. Got nowhere moaning about it. One thing we realised on clearing out the loft was that the couple opposite had once lived in the property as well, as some of their named things were left in the loft. I took them over, suggesting they might like them in case there was anything of interest - that was an easy way to dispose of some of the items!

A trip or two to the local tip and it will be gone, cheaper than sending solicitor's letters. Sometimes, even if you are right, it isn't worth the hassle.

Our current house was left full. As in we could have moved in with clean clothes and a tooth brush! Solicitors told us it wasn't worth trying to claim money back as it would have to go through small claims

Our dump has limits on what can be dumped for free, e.g. allowed 5kg of wood.
After that I have to pay (by weight) to dump more.

Same with rubble, allowed 3 garden tub sized amounts free per month , over that has a charge.

Ours doesn’t have a limit so it’s worth checking.

That's harsh! Ours left spare floor tiles, spare lightbulbs which were non standard, and little notes on how to set the alarm/heating/turn the water off. Very sweet.

I sooo wish I’d known about this. When we bought our first house, two sets of curtains were included in the sale and when we got there, they were gone! It cost us about £100 to replace. We reported to the solicitor and they said we had to go to the small claims court to get the money back which seemed ridiculous for such a small amount of money (although after buying a house, money was very tight) I was also miffed that they’d stolen our property. Had I know this, I would have pushed for a post sale invoice. How annoying. They were a crap solicitor anyway, says it all.

Go via your lawyer, we had this & sellers had to stump up for removal including hiring a skip.

Yes we thought so too - they thought they were being helpful by leaving it and labelling the rooms on the lids but guess they didn’t see it that way 🫤

Oh god, we did this. I was so mortified. We completed and moved on the same day (we couldn’t afford to rent a house in between etc like some folks do). I was still mopping my way out of the kitchen at 4.45pm after we’d had a LEAK on move out day 😭 😭 😭

I’d sent the removal men down to the garage (en bloc so not attached to our house) to get the pile of stuff in the middle of it. For some reason they only took some of it, and didn’t say anything to me. I just don’t know what went wrong but it was categorically the most stressful day of my life.

A week or so later, I was looking for something specific that I know had been in that pile of boxes in the garage and I couldn’t find it. Then another thing. Then another thing. Eventually we realised what had happened.

The worst bit was, the pile of stuff was mostly personal stuff we’d packed away before putting the house on the market. You know, when you strip the place back to make it look like a show home. There were all my favourite framed photos of the kids in there.

I tried contacting the buyers but they didn’t respond, which I totally respect and understand. I was just so upset. The pile of boxes also contained lots of very high value items (crystal glassware, expensive power tools) so I think it was probably swings and roundabouts for the new people. Had to get rid of a load of old shit and pictures of kids they don’t know… but, inherited a 1988 Waterford decanter, so…

Humiliated, devastated, annoyed (at movers) in equal measure. But it was my responsibility and I accept that. Urgh.

Depends on your agreement.
When I was selling we made it clear it's being sold with stuff (but not like rubbish rubbish). When I was buying I was left with rubbish. Lots🙄

That is harsh @DailyMailHater ! No good deed goes unpunished