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!

1996 and our sellers wanted us to pay £250 for quite possibly the ugliest curtains known to mankind and £100 for a copper effect fireplace thing that hung on the wall.
we refused, it held everything up for a fortnight. She left them anyway. I took great pleasure in using the pink, chintz, hideous curtains as dust sheets for the next few years and the scrap man was thrilled with the fireplace thing.

I did however put my foot in it when relaying this tale to the next door neighbour by adding ‘and unfortunately they left the god awful 1970s mirror wall tiles’. In the lounge I realised my error some weeks later when she invited me in and I was greeted by a wall full of identical tiles 😂

current house was fine, though we do pull some random crap out of the pond in the garden when the water levels drop. This summer we’ve had what looks like turn of the century farm machinery, endless old bottles, an ancient bed frame and the exhaust from a vintage motorbike.

The toilet seat. Admittedly they left a replacement, but it was the cheapest one imaginable, made out of the same plastic as a washing up bowl, and so obviously new that it wouldn't stay down unless you sat on it!

I have brought ceiling lamps, left everything in working order with bulbs.
I've also brought my 500 quids worth of curtain poles, I don't want to buy again at higher prices!

I wouldn't dream of leaving a place shitty or dirty. I once moved in, opened a cupboard, pulled out what looked like a large pot and covered myself in someone's rotten cooking oil.
Some people are filthy.

a shelf out of the airing cupboard!! Not a standard size.. Just bizarre.
They are minted as well.

Surely it's very unlikely someone would be moving to a house with the same sized windows? It just seems like spite to take curtain poles.

@Maddy70 Not in Spain. Never heard of it or seen it. Lightbulbs always left.
I’m Spanish btw

Screws out of the kitchen wall units and the extractor fan, which he hadn’t tiled beneath. Vendors father came back and stole a light fitting and sink when I was replacing the kitchen, he also demanded the double glazed knackered patio doors from the new window fitters!

Keys. The agent handed us just one set of keys. Couple with two adult sons - we reckoned that there were others they hadn't passed on. As we weren't moving straight in we needed to secure the house so our first job was changing locks.

It's happened to me in every home I've moved into in Spain and all my friends the same. It's so weird. Not even a ceiling rose left

Not me but a friend bought a house and the previous owner took a radiator and didn't replace it. Just left the two pipes sticking out of the floor.

Not with a house we bought, but went to view. The Husband was showing us round and was obviously going through a nasty separation/divorce. Neither were living there and the wife had taken all but 1 lightbulb. He didn't know till we got there and the bloke had to move the bulb around the house to show us (went in the evening not really dark but def needed a light on.!)

weather striping

Unless they never had batteries in it themselves?

(D’oh -was trying to reply to another post but apparently completely failed)

1996 and our sellers wanted us to pay £250 for quite possibly the ugliest curtains known to mankind and £100 for a copper effect fireplace thing that hung on the wall.
we refused, it held everything up for a fortnight. She left them anyway. I took great pleasure in using the pink, chintz, hideous curtains as dust sheets for the next few years

I heard of a couple who did the same with the ghastly curtains their vendor left behind. Unfortunately, while they were decorating she turned up to give them the matching duvet cover & got a bit tight-lipped about seeing her beloved curtains being disrespected.

A friend moved into a large house to find the vendor had taken all the curtains so she had to buy new ones for every room. Just after she'd finished replacing them, the vendor came round & wanted her to buy the old curtains which she'd used until she got herself sorted out at her new house & now no longer needed. She was bizarrely certain that my friend would want them. My friend refused to buy them. "But they were made for this house!" the vendor said. Should've left them behind, then.

@Maddy70
Maybe depends on the area but I have never heard of such thing. The system is very simple, nothing to do with the exchange madness happening here, and you usually get what you see in the viewings. I worked for an estate agent in the late 90s and all second hand properties sold had lightbulbs and kitchens and bathroom fittings. Some vendors take white goods with them but it is all clearly stated in the contract.

Window handles! They flooded the kitchen as well after removing their washing machine.

I am never going to move house after reading all this.

It makes me think that with the amount you have to pay the estate agent, it would work much better if the estate agent turned up to collect the keys off the seller and check that it's clean and no rubbish has been left.

What is being described here is surely illegal.

Ordinarily I'd agree but they lived in this house very briefly (less than three months) so it's unlikely they were particularly attached to either the sign or the house. I know they had the sign made so I suspect they took it with them because they paid for it. Who knows though, maybe it's on the wall at their new house and they gaze at it in fond remembrance of the brief period they lived here.

Well, I planned to take the washing machine because it wasnt working/ drum was buggered. Buyer insisted we leave it for free. Clearly didn't belive it was broken and threatened to cancel purchase.

Gave up in the end. Left it. And yes, it was broken. No doubt they moaned.

When my mum's neighbours moved in, they found the loft full of hard-core porn. It was so bad they set to & burnt the lot.

I had the opposite. My seller was kind enough to leave us a brand new dishwasher, as she felt guilty as the old one wasn't working very well! She also left us an amazing firepit and loads of cacti, and sold us a huge American-style fridge for $500 (our fridge didn't fit). She also left a huge gas bbq which we still use, and a bottle of champagne. Best seller ever!

Okay, I haven't read all of the pages but for those who were left with kitchens, bathrooms, doors and floors removed. Did you have any recourse? Luckily, we will probably never move but if I did buy a house, I would make the sellers write out what they planned to take before I even bought the house. Then I would take pictures of every single thing and make sure the contract says no substitutions. Title/mortgage/realty companies need to keep an amount in escrow to pay for damages and stolen items that is not released until after an inspection was done (after they surrender the keys).

These stories are horrible. If people had done that to us when we bought this house, we would have lost the house as we didn't have money to replace stuff. They did destroy a lot of stuff but at least it was still there. They also left an antique baker's cabinet/bread cabinet or something. We were able to trade it for an antique glass-front cabinet that went into my DD's room and is now our pantry.

I am shocked that some of those thieves didn't take the garage doors, windows and roof. smdh I am sorry so many have gone through this crap.

Not really unlikely, the large double curtain rails from old house will cover large double windows in new house.
Anyway, as someone else said everything we left was stated in sales contract, white goods, blinds and such.

We bought a probate house - so much stuff left both in the house and in the garden. It took 8 skips to clear, which the vendors paid for (I had a great solicitor). There was still some stuff left that we got rid of over time

When my neighbours moved the new owners told me that they had taken the gas boiler with them!