What's the most petty thing a home owner has taken with them?

[MarvellousTimeRuiningEverything]

We completed on our house yesterday. Sellers have been a nightmare, very difficult and tried to increase price by £12k the day before exchange. So we knew they'd probably screw us over and we haven't been disappointed. Lightbulbs, toilet roll holders, some handles from cupboards etc... but the most petty thing has to be the clock. They had one of those god awful clocks where you stick the numbers to the wall then screw in/add the arms. They've left the numbers, but removed the arms and taken them with them!

when my sister bought her first flat the vendors asked her to pay an extra £500 for the fitted carpets. She declined because she thought they should be included as part of the fixtures and fittings. The day she moved in she found the remains of the carpets smouldering in a bonfire at the back of the garden. The vendors had gone to the trouble of pulling them up and burning them rather than leaving them in situ.

We turned up to our new house minus no door number or outside rubbish bins 🙄

Our first home, a two bed terrace, the vendors took both bedroom doors, the Victorian tiled fire place in the lounge and half of the kitchen units.
They were stalling completion, what we didn’t know was they’d bought the house they were moving into as cash buyers and were still living at the house we were buying from them while they were renovating the new one. Had to get solicitors involved to get them out and the stuff back.

We bought a flat from a friend and he took the toilet seat “as he’d bought it recently”

I am astonished at all the people who would take curtain poles, I mean how nice and special is a curtain pole?

I don't tend to give ours any thought one year to the next! They were cut to fit the windows (we have massive 1930s windows in the living room and master bedroom) so I doubt they would be much use in any new place.

In terms of mad vendors, our vendor took the bedroom skirting boards. We were having carpet fitted the next day so I had to cancel the fitters and run aroubd like a mad thing trying to find a carpenter who could make and fit new skirtings.

Light bulbs, coat hooks, door knobs, carpets and kitchen cupboards. Oh and one of the downstairs doors.

I was only surprised that they hadn't scraped the paint off the wall and taken that, too.

We did bring it to the attention of our solicitor though, who is a family friend, he was fuming and made it his mission to get some financial compensation.

Their solicitor must have been equally appalled with their client, as £2500 was received rather quickly. Didn't cover the damage they'd done in removing what they had but it definitely helped me feel better!

Take the gas boiler? Illegal surely?

Previous owner had wall-mounted tellys with concealed wiring.
Offered to leave them for a sum way above what they were worth so we declined.

Didn't mind them taking them. Did mind them leaving all the cabling hanging out of walls with chunks of paint and plaster missing.

I don't think I would be either.

Lightbulbs, carpets, hooks for curtain tie backs. (We last moved over30 years ago)

Many moons ago I heard (maybe on here!!) a story about a seller who offered their green house at an extra cost to the buyers during the purchase price haggling. The buyers declined to buy the green house because they had no use for it.

On the day of completion the buyers got the keys to their new house to discover the greenhouse smashed to pieces in the garden 😮

HubbabubbaT · Yesterday 19:44

The radiators!!

Not as bad, but when we moved in, the boiler and heating had been taped "Unsafe." I got a gas fitter to come and repair and service the boiler and when he fired it up, he screamed down to turn the stopcock off - they'd undone every joint on every radiator. He asked if we'd evicted problem tenants and told us that there was no legitimate reason for it to have been done.

My first house was absolutely spotless and they left a pair of toilet rolls, a loaf of bread, some cheese, a jar of pickle and a packet of teabags. I was really touched.

Wall mounted televisions are a nightmare. They leave such a mess to cover up afterwards.

Looking forward to hearing their version ... "we wanted the washing machine, we paid for the washing machine in the purchase price but the owners ruined it out of spite cause we held our ground over keeping it" 😂

Not me, but my friend moved in to their new house after a stressful move to find that they'd taken as others have had - light bulbs and toilet roll holders. The thing that stood out to me as most petty though, was they'd screwed in those net curtain type hooks in to the end of the kitchen cabinet to hang tea towels on and they'd even taken those!

We're still finding weird shit that the people before us left. I got a new radiator cleaning brush a little while back and pushed a small doll out of one of them!

My seller also took some of the curtain poles despite saying they were included on the F&F form. They were very bog-standard cheap ones and I would have replaced them anyway, but it was the inconvenience more than anything. I moved in in the middle of summer, when it gets light at 4am and the bedroom looks onto a road, so I needed curtains up, both to sleep and for privacy. I’d been up for two days single handedly packing up my house (leaving it immaculate for my buyers!) and then had a long tiring day moving - the last thing I needed was to be duct-taping sheets over the windows just so I could get a bit of sleep on the first night!

I can be very petty. If I'd bought the smashed greenhouse house, I'd have packed up the remains and had them delivered to their new front garden. You forgot to take this with you. Pointless but satisfying.

That is truly appalling. The rest are very petty but that is downright dangerous.

Ours said they were leaving the living room curtains and wrote that in the inventory - but what we got was not what we saw. They’d swapped them for some awful old ones. This was pre-websites and the brochure didn’t include a photo of that part of the room so we had no evidence.

We bought a repossession. The owners took the kitchen! Can’t say I blamed them tbh.
A tenant of ours left all their children’s toys behind , lots of furniture , a parachute ( who even owns their own parachute ) but took every single light bulb. Fecking nutters owed us rent too.

I've no intention of leaving a "crappy cheap plastic" toilet or sink.

I have a very strong suspicion that whomever bought my house would remove my sink and toilet anyway and I can't bear to think of them chucked in a skip. They're vintage and it took me forever to find exactly what I wanted.

The replacement sink and toilet are plain white, ceramic, brand new and match the bath in the room. In fact, I'll probably put them in and take mine out before I even market the house. They're perfectly lovely, but they're not my retro toilet and sink.

In fact, my toilet and sink I'm taking with me cost £19, the brand new toilet and sink I'll replace them with cost far more! Any future buyer will be getting the better end of the deal.

When we moved in the old home owner took all door handles but left us an old, open bottle of baby oil (wtaf!) 😂 they were an odd couple though, he still drives past every so often and has a good look through the window!

@ShowOfHands I would probably buy your house just because of the vintage loo & sink alone 😃 we love them and the beautiful ones in amazing condition do cost a lot of ££££. If it’s not outing please post a photo 🙏🏼

All the fire alarms and all the ceiling fittings for the bulbs, they left bare wires that would have killed someone if touched.

The toilet seat!! All the plants from the garden(every one) and the lightbulbs