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!

Get your solicitor to contact theirs and say they accidentally forgot to empty shed and it needs doing asap

This. Your solicitor will need to act on this. Get a quote for removing the rubbish.

We moved in 8 years ago to a house with clothes still in the wardrobes (and no, they weren’t supposed to leave the wardrobes!)
We’d agreed they’d leave the sofas (which were disgusting with crumbs and kids toys down the back) but then we discovered a loft full of junk. The house wasn’t even clean. I sat and cried! We love it now. But I’ve learnt alot for the next house!

I didn’t think to tell agents / solicitors about all the junk left. Good advice on here.

We were left with a garage full of furniture and junk. We got straight onto or Solicitors who contacted the vendors Solicitor and gave them 2 days to clear the garage or we would be charging them. They came the next day, no apologies.

I would contact EA and your Solicitor as you don't have anything to lose. We had a similar experience when we bought our house 10 years ago. Two outbuildings stuffed full of a lifetime's junk and lots of big items of furniture left behind (warbrobes, beds) which weren't in the agreed inventory. The vendor even knocked on the door minutes after we first went in and tried to offload even more furniture on us! We're still getting rid of bits and pieces left by the previous owner nearly a decade later, as we don't live particularly close to the tip.

The way I see it, the offer you make is based on having vacant possession on completion, so that's what should happen. In hindsight, I would have factored in the time and expense of emptying the property into our offer.

When my friend sold her house with fitted wardrobes left as agreed the buyers changed their minds. Friend had to pay for a skip to remove it all!

When we were selling a deceased relative's house (not local to us), we discovered that 'somebody' (perfect idea which neighbour it was but no evidence) had been dumping his own rubbish in the garden in the meantime - big manky old doors and the like.

I doubt it's the case here, but if the shed was unlocked or easy to break into, it would be an ideal opportunity for an unscrupulous neighbour to clear out their own shed/loft and not have to take a load of dirty or hazardous stuff to the tip themselves - then they can leave the arguing to the vendor and buyer and nobody will be any the wiser.

Everywhere I’ve ever bought the vendors have merrily ignored their own fixtures and fittings forms and taken what they weren’t supposed to, and left what they’d said they wouldn’t.

Current house has a shed full of crap and garden full of a million ugly statuettes and ornaments, though I was pleased the hideous curtains got left as it meant we could sleep in the summer when we moved. Previous house the witch left mess everywhere, including piled up on the outside drains. And bed bugs! Cow. We wanted to make her pay but though our solicitor contacted hers, her solicitor said she wasn’t paying them to deal with it so they couldn’t, and we didn’t have contact details for her, so couldn’t do a thing. The system sucks!

Brought a rental property back in 2010 and the vendor had left furniture and a shed and loft full of ‘crap’ - it was a probate property but still no excuses not to clear it. I contacted the solicitor and the response from the vendor was that ‘it might come in handy for the tenants’ - bearing in mind the property needed completely gutting back to brick…. What use?!
Didn’t end up pursuing a small claims court just got a skip and chucked it all on that with all the fittings from rip out!

I once bought a house where some furniture had been left upstairs that wasn't in the sale. I told the estate agent and they apologised, sent someone round to remove it, and presumably billed the vendor.