Moving house - what do you leave behind or negotiate to sell?

[Janus]

Probably a bit ahead of ourselves here, but have a tentative offer on our flat, it is quite a bit under the asking offer but still more than one estate agent quoted us for them trying to sell our flat. I managed to up their price a little but it still falls quite short.
Anyway, when we moved in this flat the previous owner was a bit of a pain, she took everything really, all lightshade, bathroom cabinet, even the loo roll holder! We then had to pay them for their blinds and curtains although it is a period flat so unlikely they would have fitted in her new place. We had to pay quite generously but still less than what it would have cost to get them all new (and being for 6-8 weeks without any curtains). In her defence (kills me!!) she is an actress and I think everything came from Conran Shop, etc, so might have been £100 for the loo roll holder! Still, she left quite a bad taste in my mouth, especially as we had paid over the asking price to secure the house (another story!) and am keen not to do the same to someone else.
HOWEVER, if anyone else has moved recently, have you sold on things like curtains and blinds? As we paid quite a bit for them I'd like to try and get a bit of money back, say half what we paid this woman 2 years ago. I'm happy to leave lampshades for her, coat racks, carpets, anything really. Is it tight to try and sell her the curtains? Also, we paid quite a bit for our bathroom cabinet as I wanted one with a built in light and couldn't seem to find one. Am tempted to take it with us but, again, don't want to take it if that's not reasonable. Anyone had any recent experiences? BTW, we live in London, I'm sure it's a different world here!!!

Janus, we move on Friday so this has all been very much on my mind recently! We are taking our curtains and lampshades, because we will need them in our new house. We are leaving loo roll holders, but taking our bathroom cabinet because we had it built specially and love it. We don't have any carpets, so that hasn't been an issue. We have sold our cooker to the new owner because it is too small for our new house, and our buyer's current cooker is too big for our current house.

At the new house we have paid something extra for the carpets - they are plain unobtrusive colours, quite new, and the people we are buying from were thinking of taking them and having them cut down to fit in their new (smaller) house - so it only seemed fair that we pay something for them. We have also paid a small amount for the cooker, fridge and freezer.

We had very open discussions with both our buyer and the people we are buying from about what would be left and what would be extra - all very amicable. Also, as part of the paperwork we had to go round each room and fill in a form saying what was included in the sale price and what was not, and we received a copy of the same form from the people we're buying from, so it is totally clear what is to be left and what isn't.

Hope this helps a bit.

BTW, my step brother and his wife bought a house in London that had been reposessed, and the previous occupants took everything they could, including all the internal doors!

I think it's reasonable to take the bathroom cabinet if you particularly like it, but there's a form where you specify what you're taking and what's staying, so there shouldn't be any misunderstandings.
I think I'm right in saying though, that the price of the curtains counts as fixtures and fittings, so you don't pay stamp duty on it. So maybe your previous owner was actually SAVING you money...

goodness me i think we seemed quite generous to our buyers... but then again i find it's all a lot of give and take... depends what's going to be in your new house etc!

we just moved about a week and a half ago and we took some curtains - as i had only just finished making them and was very fond of them so was quite loathe to leave them, i took dd's curtains as they had sentimental value (i made them for her whilst i was pregnant!) BUT! i did leave some curtains which i had amde previously to replace the ones i took! all the curtains were left in our new house... and looking back it was a bit foolish to bring them here as the windows here are much wider yet shorter... but i have decided to make cushion covers etc with material that i have left behind... i'm sorry i seem to be waffling here!!!

we did leave the fridge as it was pretty old and very small... and i must say we left my lovely cooker behiind as it would have been too big to fit in our kitchen here... we're getting a new kitchen built... thus want to get a new cooker anwyway and i felt that my old cooker belonged on that house so we just left it! - we could have negotiated etc but we were so hassled and busy towards the end of the move we thought lets just leave it!... a bit foolish i know but feeling a bit silly... i really didn't want anything from the house as it would make me too sad to take it with us! and it would be a reminder of what we left behind and i couldn't bear the thought of leaving my lovely kitchen at the old house... with a gaping hole where the cooker fitted in so perfectly! am i a mug! probably!

the house we're in is lovely but the most important room - the kitchen is a bit icky... but as we're getting an extension built with new kitchen... it just seems too silly to fiddle around with the present kitchen so i just have to put up with an icky kitchen until the new one's biuilt!
does this make sense?

good luck with the move!

all stuff that you're going to leave and take is all noted down in the itinary list anyway so it becomes a lot clearer with what you want to leave and take... and anythings up for negotiation... if there is something that you would like to take and they want it then negotiate... but basically take what you want to keep... within reason of course... i know of some people who took all they light switches when they moved.... :0

I thought that there were some things that you were not actually allowed to take (by law) e.g. light switches, bulbs, doors, or that if you intended to take anything that was actually 'fitted' to the house that you had to replace it with something else, say you took chrome light switches - you would have to replace them with plastic ones - not just leave bare wires!

The people we are buying from very hesitantly told us that they were very sorry, but they would be taking the outside lights from the covered porch because they were a gift and had sentimental value. Dh and I looked at one another and fell over ourselves to reassure them that this was fine - the lights were absolutely hideous .

bea, I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds moving sad as well as stressful. We're moving because our house is now too small, not because we really want to. I'm know I'm going to be really sad on moving day - we've been in our house 10 years, we've done so much to it, and I've so many lovely memories. I'm sure I won't get through the day without tears -isn't that daft? It's only a house, after all. Dh mowed the lawn for the last time last night, and the garden looks so lovely it will be a real wrench to leave it. We've made that garden virtually from scratch, and now we have to start all over again in the new house - kind of exciting but also very daunting.

Janus, decent curtains cost a fortune and we were happy to buy our sellers' lined, thick curtains. If yours come into that category, I don't think it's at all tight to offer them for cash. You could be saving your buyer over £1000...and sell the bathroom cabinet too - if you have the receipt, use that as justification. The London property market is a total rat-race and I think it is vital to have these things spelt out.
I think you are right not to ask for money for the carpets, somehow that does seem tight.
I laughed at Azzie's post - our sellers had an astonishingly horrible chandelier that they told us they couldn't possibly leave, at any price...we kept our own counsel on that one.
Good luck with your move. We left the flat we were married from and brought ds home to, in a smart suburb, and moved to a house with garden in a much less smart suburb. I surprised myself by how much I cried the day of the move, even though everything went OK. I think it is an immensely emotional time.

Things are dependent on whether the lady can sell her house so we are just waiting really. The estate agent is also still showing people around as the offer is lower (by quite a bit) than the asking price. We have had no formal offer so assume this OK.
I already feel emotional about leaving this place, the first place we ever bought, where our daughter was brought home to, etc, and we haven't even sold it!!!
The curtains cost £4,000 new (can you believe someone would buy a pair of curtains for £4,000??!!) and we paid £750 as they were less than a year old so I was thinking £400, does that sound reasonable? There are 3 wooden blinds, £200 the lot?? We put up new roman blinds about a year ago, 3 in total, another £200?? The windows are huge by the way, some almost down to the floor. I can't charge for carpets and thought I couldn't for lamshades but they are nice glass ones (albeit cheap) from Habitat so may think about taking them too.
Sml, I didn't understand your posting on stamp duty, can you explain so we will know for when we buy again?? Thanks.
And, thanks to everyone else, shall be reading the tips on moving soon!