To think taking light fitting might put buyer off

[legaleagle21]

We are selling our house and have an offer from a very nice young coupe who are first time buyers.

When they first viewd they asked what fittings we would be living - I said i'd have to check with dh.

Anyway they are coming for a second viewing tomorrow so I am thinking they'll ask agin about fitting and fixtures.

Basically I am happy to leave for free anything that I will be of no use to me in the new house. So i'll leave the shed, cooker, most carpets, light fitting etc.

However, is it reasonable to charge market rate for the things I could use?:
*a carpet in one of the bedrooms (£200)

*2 free standing chest of drawers that matche a fitted bedroom suite I(which in all honesty veiwers may have thought we're part of the fitted units) (£400)

*light fittings in the lounge (£100)

Do you think me saying these things are not included would put off the buyers? I really do not want to loose the sale though.

when you come to do the fixtures and fittings list a bit further down the line (assuming they put in an offer) you could make it clear that the drawers aren't automatically included and give them a price then. They'll be more committed to the sale then, and if it's only the drawers it shouldn't be too big (ie sale-killing) a deal to them. £400 sounds a lot for second hand drawers though.

I wouldn't pull out if I were your buyers but I would be much more inclined to play hardball on anything the survey threw up, be less inclined to move to your timetable etc.

I think a little bit of good grace goes far in property transactions.

If they ask you again what you plan to leave, why not turn the question round on them & ask them if there is anything they would particularly like you to leave. Then you can go from there.

To be honest, I would expect carpets/flooring to be left, even if it was a case of a new expensive carpet being removed but something else in it's place, but I wouldn't expect curtains, free standing furniture or any other light fittings except the standard white dangly ones to be included in the sale.

Personally, I think if the buyer wants you to leave things like that, you are quite within your rights to put a price on them, although I do feel your prices may be a bit excessive.

"BUT I sort of feel they should have them as they match the wardrobes"

You've answered your own question there . I appreciate you'd have to buy something new but, as far as I'm concerned, house moving does have these costs. Agree that a bit of goodwill goes a long way.

The prices were just based on what we paid so what what they would cost to replace. As my view was I would not ask for money for things that I would not take anyway. For example when I bought this house the seller asked for £50 for the cooker - i said no as I intended to replace the kitchen anyway - but then he left the cooker anyway. Now I think that is bad karma when you just ask to try and get money out of people not beacuse you actually want the item.

YABVU. Our sellers tried to charge us extra for carpets we told them to sod right off and our estimation of them plummeted. Surely you are dealing in thousands when it comes to selling a house and you are quibbling over this

I've never heard of people taking fitted carpets with them , but when we moved in here, the vendors, who just moved somewhere else in the village, stopped me on the street a few weeks after we'd moved in, and said that now we'd settled in, could they please have their loft ladder back? I was flabberghasted! It was fixed in, clearly part of the house. She might just as well have asked for the kitchen sink back.

I'd leave all carpets and wired-in light fittings - just doesn't seem fair or reasonable.

If you will be taking it, say so in the fitting and fixtures list. Ditto if its remaining. Its annoying as a buyer to move into a supposedly empty house and have to shift a bunch of the previous owners cast off before you can get your own furniture in .

No guarantee new buyer will want to buy any of your stuff, they will have stuff of their own. I wouldn't pay 400 for chest of drawers. I hate fitted bedroom suites. I've immediately changed fancy light fittings I disliked in every house I've owned.

Bit odd to take a fitted carpet, but so long as you list that fact you can. If you take light fittings you do have to leave a functional safe fitting in place.

I think taking fitted carpet is v. old fashioned. My parents did it in the 70s. I haven't heard of it happening to any of my friends recently.

Complicated light fittings are contentious - as others have said you would have to make good the removal, and will you really fit them to your new property (do you know have one yet that will accomdate them?).

Curtains are not fixtures or fittings. I was lucky in my current property in that the owner left the lovely John Lewis custom made ones. I however removed my Laura Ashley ones from the old house as the buyers didn't want them. I then sold them on eBay.

The chest of drawers are furniture IMHO but I would offer them to the purchasers if they match the suite. You won't get 400 quid though. An IKEA chest of drawers is only 100. Are they really 2x as nice?

You need to be careful about just leaving stuff because you can be charged for the disposal of unwanted goods (ie I left my purchasers an old sofa but made sure first they wanted it).

They also wanted my kitchen appliances (dishwasher/ fridge/ washing machine). I decided that I wasn't going to lose my sale (and this was at market peak) over 5 year old cheap appliances. Karma then dictated that my new property (which I bought after 3 months in temp. accomodation) has a beautiful kitchen with fully integrated (posh) appliances so I haven't missed them at all.

Here OP, have a ....

... that'll be 49p please...

Don't be bloody daft, if the offer is a good one, then leave the stuff you don't need. Otherwise, take the non fixed items. If the offer is low, go back with a counter offer, don't start unscrewing the lightbulbs....

Just say you haven't decided yet which things you are taking and that you will let them know on the fixtures and fittings list that you will do for them later.

We are moving in a few weeks. We have agreed to leave behind the thinks we don't need in our new house. The oven, the blinds, a huge freestanding wardrobe for free BUT we have taken down some expensive light fittings and replaced with basic bulb and shade and we will be taking curtains and wooden poles with us. We have also dug up some miniature apple trees from the garden we were given as wedding presents. We made this clear to our buyers and they were ok with it.
We did put some prices on things that we were planning on taking that they wanted to keep (eg we have a new wireless alarm system that us about £800 so we priced it at £400 if they wanted to keep it. Also a newish dishwasher etc

I think as long as you are honest to your buyers you can pretty much take/ leave what you like.

Thanks Everyone - you have really helped us clarify what is reasonable.

Yes we will definately leave all the light fittings and the carpets!

We will take the chest of drawers (yes they are definately twice as nice as ikea ones!) unless they specifically ask about them. In which case I'll offer them for sale. We intend to have the same wardrobes fitted in our new house so they we will need them.

I will take a couple of the curtain poles (and fixed tie backs) but the windows have roller blinds on as well which i'll leave.

I think you are petty. Sorry.

You leave fittings and carpets.

You have advertised a full bedroom suite, and as the drawers are part of that, your advertisement will be misleading if you take the drawers with you.

i think you need to talk to them about the drawers if they look fitted, as they will be expecting them to be included.

I think it is odd to assume the buyers will want any of it .When we moved to this house the buyer asked me if I wanted to buy her two sofas because they went with the room! I thought it was strange that she thought we would like her taste enough to leave the room as it was and need a sofa to match it! One of the rooms here also had fitted wardrobes, I kept them until we could afford to replace them, but would not have wanted them long term and certainly wouldn't have spent money buying anything that matched them.

Odd to assume that buyers want carpets and light fittings

If I moved into a house and they had ripped all the carpets out and left hanging wires where the light fittings had been I would conclude that they were tight selfish bastards, frankly.

It is not actually unheard of for house sellers to charge for carpets just remember that IF you choose to want to charge for it they are within their rights to say no and then you have to leave the room safe (that means you have to remove the carpet any underlie and any of the lists that holds down the carpet as you can get injured walking on one of those) So weigh up first if you really want to go through that much for a carpet.

the fittings are part of the house if you have particularly fancy fittings you like you can buy some standard ones and change them (just make sure you point out that will happen)

I think the drawers are too expensive I wouldn't pay that amount for them why dont you say they are freestanding but we would consider a resonable offer if you would like them and see what happens that way you leave the ball in their court

Personally I would leave the carpet (easier to get a new one laid in your new place) fittings has to be left but you can change them to less fancy ones first if you want and then the drawers see what they think thye may hate the bathroom and be intending to change it

so YABU and YANBU depending on what part we are talking about

I'm glad you're not taking the carpets, I'd be severely peed off if I'd bought a house and they'd taken teh carpets!
You can take light fittings if you want but I think yo uhave to replace them with at least a ceiling rose, you can't leave bare wires.
When we put our house on the market we recarpetted everywhere just to get a sale and we left them.

Though when we bought our new house we had an argument about blinds with the seller. She put them down on the form that she was leaving them then tried to charge us £200 for them.

The drawers you could take as they are not fitted, they match the fitted units that's all. But please don't charge full price for them especially if they can buy them new themselves.

Good luck with your move.

You could ask for money for light fittings, but if they don't want them and you've asked for money, you'll have to take them and leave a light bulb fitting instead.

When we moved in our sellers had stripped the house of everything. All curtain poles, toilet rolls holders, towel rails, literally everything they could take, they did. And left huge gaping holes in all the walls as well. To be fair they didn't specifically list toilet roll holders as being left but it didn't honestly occur to us that they wouldn't. We certainly left all that stuff in the house we left.

It was a lesson learned anyway!

Yes, I agree with most posters about not taking the fittings. See what they want, but I would certainly expect that fittings and fixtures would be in place.

Not relevant to anything, but my parents recently sold their house to move into a retirement place. They were so proud of their garden and they left behind for the new owners all their (HUGE) terracotta pots filled with ornamental pear trees/geraniums plus hanging baskets etc etc etc so that the new owners would be able to enjoy the garden as much as they did. Afetr they had driven away (and before the new people were coming in) they decided to turn back just for one last look at the place..... just in time to see their old neighbours carrying out the hanging baskets, and pots, all clearly destined for their OWN home.

sorry, as you were.

God, I hope they turned round and took them off their 'neighbours', along with giving them a damn good talking to. If they'd agreed that the garden pots were to be left as part of the sale, their neighbours could have caused them a lot of trouble with the buyers.

(can't believe I feel worked up about this )

If you take the light fittings then I believe you are obliged to replace them with a ceiling rose and fitting.

Suggesting that you are going to take fitted carpets would mark you out in my book as a monstrous rip of merchant and I would not be doing you any favours in return.
I would actually probably refuse to pay, insist that you take it and any fittings etc connected with the carpets and that it is all removed from the property.
And good luck with any mail you want forwarded.

[hates petty sellers]

When my SIL moved into her house, the seller tried to charge her a fortune for some fitted bedroom furniture. SIL decided in that case she didn't want the furniture and the seller then had to pay for someone to clear it all out and 'make good' all the holes in the wall etc. So be sure you actually do want to take something with you if you are asking for money for it.